Ex Libris C. K. OGDEN NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. TV /T ESSRS. CLARK have pleasure in publishing,, as the ** first issue of the FOREIGN THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY for 1873- WINER'S COLLECTION OF THE CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM; AND KEIL ON EZRA, NEHEMIAH, AND ESTHER. The second issue for 1873 w ^ De KEIL'S COMMENTARY ON JEREMIAH, Vol. I., and probably BISHOP MARTENSEN'S CHRISTIAN ETHICS. They thank their Subscribers for the long-continued support with which they have been favoured. An early remittance of the Subscription for 1873 ( 2i s.) will oblige. MESSRS. CLARK are enabled to offer to Subscribers to FOREIGN THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY the well-known Work of Dr. ALEXANDER of Princeton COMMENTARY ON THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH, Edited by Professor EADIE, in two vols. 8vo, at the Subscription price of IDS. 6d. They beg to draw attention to the prospectus of their pro- posed translation of Dr. MEYER'S COMMENTARY ON THE NEW TESTAMENT. 38 GEORGE STREET, EDINBURGH, May 1873. CLARK'S FOKEIGN THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY. FOURTH SERIES. VOL. XXXY. on ti)t SJoftrtnes! aniJ Confessions of EDINBUEGH: T. & T. CLAEK, 38, GEOEGE STEEET. MDCCCLXXIII. PRINTED BY MURRAY AND G1BB, FOR T. & T. CLARK, EDINBURGH. LONDON, .... HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO. DUBLIN JOHN ROBERTSON AND CO. NEW YORK, . . . SCRIBNER, WELFORD, AND CO. A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THE DOCTRINES AND CONFESSIONS OF THE VARIOUS COMMUNITIES OF CHRISTENDOM, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THEIR ORIGINAL STANDARDS. BY DR. GEORGE BENEDICT WINER, FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LE1PSIG. EDITED FROM THE LAST EDITION, WITH AN INTRODUCTION, BY REV. WILLIAM B. POPE, PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY, DIDSBURY COLLEGE, MANCHESTER. EDINBURGH: T.. AND T. CLARK, 38, GEORGE STREET. MDCCCLXXIII. CONTENTS. PACK INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR, . . . . . ' . xi INTRODUCTION, ...... 1 1. ON THE DOCTRINE OF THE SEVERAL COMMUNIONS, AS EXHI- BITED IN THEIR STANDARDS, . . . ". i II. THE SYMBOLICAL DOCUMENTS, . . . . .8 1. Romish Church, 8 ; 2. Greek Church, 12 ; 3. Evangelical (Lutheran) Church, 15 ; 4. Reformed Church, 20 ; Arminians, 28 ; 5. Baptists (Anabaptists, Mennonites), 29 ; 6. Socin- ians, 31 ; 7. Quakers, 34. I. THE SOURCE OF CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, AND FOUNDATION OF CHRIS- TIAN DOCTRINE, . . . . . . .37 I. First Point of Divergence : Symbolical Testimonies : 1. Greek, 37 ; 2. Roman, 38 ; 3. Protestant, 41 ; 4. Socinian, 45 ; 5. Quaker, 46. II. Second Point of Divergence, 49. 1. Roman, 50 ; 2. Greek, 51 ; 3. Protestant, 53 ; 4. Socinian, 55 ; 5. Quaker, 55. III. Divergences of less import in relation to Scripture, . .57 II. THE TRINITY, ........ 6:3 Symbolical Testimonies : 1. Romish and Protestant, 63 ; 2. Socinian, 64 ; 3. Arminian, 66. Differences of less moment, 67. III. CULTUS OF THE VIRGIN ; INVOCATION OF SAINTS ; VENERATION OF PICTURES AND RELICS, . . . . . .68 I. Invocation of Saints. 1. Roman, 69 ; 2. Greek, 70 ; 3. Protes- tant, 73. II. Veneration of Pictures and Relics. 1. Roman, 75; 2. Greek, 76; 3. Protestant, 77. IV.. ORIGINAL STATE OF MAN ; THE IMAGE OF GOD, . . .73 1. Roman, 79 ; 2. Greek, 80 ; 3. Lutheran, 81 ; 4. Reformed, 81 ; 5. Mennonites, 82 ; 6. Arminian, 83 ; 7. Socinian, 84 ; 8. Quaker, 85. V. RESULTS OF THE FALL ; PRESENT STATE OF MAN, . . .86 I. First Point of Divergence : 1. Roman, 87 ; 2. Greek, 89 ; 3. Luthe- ran, 89 ; 4. Reformed, 92 ; 5. Arminian, 94 ; 6. Socinian, 95 ; 7. Quaker, 96 ; 8. Mennonites, 97. **y * Q * ^.tiJ viii CONTENTS. FACE II. Second Point of Divergence, 98. 1. Socinian, 100 ; 2. Arminian, 100 ; 8. Roman, 102 ; 4. Greek, 104 ; 5. Lutheran, 104 ; 6. Reformed, 105. Original Sin and Baptism : 1. Roman, 108 ; 2. Greek, 108 ; 3. Protestant, 109 ; 4. Arminian, 109 ; 5. Quaker and Mennonite, 110. III. Third Point of Divergence, 110. 1. Roman, Greek, etc., Ill ; 2. Lutheran, 112 ; 3. Reformed, 113 ; 4. Quaker, 114. VI. PERSON OF CHRIST, AND His DIVINITY, . .116 Socinian Symbols : the Human Nature of Christ, . . .116 Relation of the two Natures : 1. Lutheran, 118 ; 2. Reformed, 121 ; 3. Quaker, 124 ; 4. Anabaptist, 125. VII. REDEMPTION : THE MERITS OF CHRIST, . . .127 First Point of Divergence, 127. Symbolical Testimonies : 1. Roman, 128 ; 2. Greek, 129 ; 3. Protestant, 129. Sinlessness and Obedience of Christ, 130. Symbols, 131 : 1. Protestant, 132; 2. Socinian, 132 ; 3. Quaker, 136. Second Point of Divergence, 138. Symbolical Testimonies : 1. Roman Catholic Decrees, 139 ; 2. Protestant Antitheses from the Symbols, 140; 3. Arminian Doctrine, 142. Indulgences, 143. VIII. CONVERSION AND GRACE, ...... 145 I. .That the Divine Grace is indispensable to Conversion : 1. Ro- man, 146; 2. Greek, 146; 3. Lutheran and Reformed, 146; 4. Arminian, etc., 147. II. Relation of Divine Grace to Human Ability : 1. Protestant Symbols, 148; 2. Roman, 152; 3. Greek, 153; 4. Socinian, 154 ; 5. Arminian, 155 ; 6. Mennonites, 157 ; 7. Quaker, 158. IX. UNIVERSALITY OF GRACE : PREDESTINATION, . . .161 I. Reformed Symbols, . . . . . .162 II. Anti-Predestinarian Symbols : 1. Arminian, 169 ; 2. Lutheran, 172 ; 3. Socinian and Mennonite, 173 ; 4. Roman and Greek, 174 ; 5. Quaker, 175. X. JUSTIFICATION : FAITH, WORKS, . . . . .178 First Point of Divergence, 178. Symbolical Testimonies : 1. Roman, Mennonite, and Quaker, 179 ; 2. Protestant, 180. Second Point of Divergence, 183. 1. Roman, 183, 189 ; 2. Pro- testant, 185, 191 ; 3. Socinian, 191 ; 4. Arminian and Mennon- ite, 192 ; 5. Greek, 195 ; 6. Quaker, 195. Third Point of Divergence, 196. 1. Roman, 196; 2. Greek, 198 ; 3. Protestant, 199 ; 4. Reformed, 200 ; 5. Arminian, 201 ; 6. Socinian, 202 ; 7. Quaker, 202. CONTENTS. ix PAGE XL THE HOLINESS OF THE REGENERATE, AND "WORKS OF SUPEREROGA- TION, . ' . . . > -V . 205 Point of Divergence, 205. Symbolical Testimonies : a. As to whether the Justified may perfectly fulfil the Law of God 1. Roman and Quaker, 205 ; 2. Protestant, 206. b. Whether the Justified can do more than keep the Commandments 1. Roman and Greek, 207 ; 2. Protestant, 209. c. Monasticism and Vows, 210 ; Protestant Symbols, 211. XII. Loss OF GRACE : MORTAL AND VENIAL SINS, . . . 214 Point of Divergence, 214. Symbolical Testimonies : a. The De- fectibility of Justification 1. Roman, Lutheran, and Arminian, 214 ; 2. Reformed, 215 ; 3. Quaker, 217. 6. Relation of Mortal Sins to Faith 1. Roman Catholic, 218 ; 2. Protestant, 218. c. Venial Sins, and their proper Nature 1. Roman and Greek, 219 ; 2. Protestant, 220 ; 3. Arminian, 220. XIII. THE MEANS OF GRACE : THE WORD OF GOD, . . . 222 1. Roman, 222 ; 2. Protestant, 223 ; 3. Socinian, 225 ; 4. Armi- nian, 226. Law and Gospel : 1. Protestant, 227 ; 2. Socinian, 231. XIV. SACRAMENTS GENERALLY, ...... 232 First Point of Divergence : 1. Quaker, 232 ; 2. Roman, Greek, and Lutheran, 234 ; 3. Reformed, 234 ; 4. Socinian, 237 ; 5. Arminian, 238. Second Point of Divergence, 239. 1. Roman and Greek, 240 ; 2. Protestant, 241 ; 3. Arminian, 242. Third Point of Divergence, 243. 1. Roman, 244 ; 2. Protestant, 246. XV. BAPTISM, . . . . . . . .249 First Point of Divergence : Socinian Symbols, 249. Second Point of Divergence : 1. Socinian Symbols, 251 ; 2. Armi- nian and Mennonite, 252 ; 3. Roman, Greek, and Protestant, 253. Third Point of Divergence, 255. 1. Roman, 256, 258 ; 2. Pro- testant, 256, 259 ; 3. Socinian, 260 ;.4. Arminian, 261 ; 5. Ana- baptist, 261 ; 6. Quaker, 262. XVI. THE LORD'S SUPPER, .... .264 First Point of Divergence : 1. Socinian, 264 ; 2. Anninian, 265 ; 3. Greek and Roman, 266 ; 4. Protestant, 267. Second Point of Divergence : 1. The Eucharistic Doctrine of Zwingli and Calvin, 269 ; 2. Symbolical Testimonies, 271. Third Point of Divergence : 1. Roman, 280, 285 ; 2. Greek, 281 ; 3. Lutheran and Reformed, 283, 286. Fourth Point of Divergence, 287. 1. Roman, 288, 291 ; 2. Greek and Protestant, 289, 290. CONTEXTS. Fifth Point of Divergence, 292. 1. Roman and Greek, 293 ; 2. Protestant, 296. XVII. PENANCE, . . 297 Divergence, 297. a. Repentance, and the Sacrament of Penance generally, and Satisfactions in particular 1. Roman and Greek, 298 ; 2. Protestant, 301. b. Confession and Absolution 1. Roman and Greek, 303 ; 2. Protestant, 304. Penances, 307. 1. Roman and Greek, 308 ; 2. Protestant, 309. Purgatory, 310. 1. Roman, 311 ; 2. Greek, 312 ; 3. Protestant, 813. Indulgence : Romish Symbols, 314. Prayers for the Dead, 316. Evangelical Protests, 317. XVIII. CONFIRMATION; MARRIAGE; SUPREME UNCTION ; ORDERS, . 318 a. Confirmation 1. Greek and Latin, 318 ; 2. Protestant, 320. b. Marriage, Divorce 1. Roman, 321, 323 ; 2. Greek, 322 ; 3. Protestant, 324. c. Extreme Unction Roman and Greek, 325. d. Orders 1. Roman and Greek, 327 ; 2. Protestant, 329. XIX. THE CHURCH: ITS IDEA AND AUTHORITY, . . . 330 First Point of Divergence : 1. Roman, 331 ; 2. Greek, 332 ; 3. Protestant, 332 ; 4. Arminian, 335 ; 5. Quaker, 335 ; 6. Soci- nian, 336. Second Point of Divergence : 1. Roman, 336, 338 ; 2. Protestant, 337, 338. Third Point of Divergence : 1. Roman, 339 ; 2. Greek and Pro- testant, 340. XX. THE MINISTRY, . . . . . . .344 First Point of Divergence : 1. Quaker, 344 ; 2. Roman and Pro- testant, 346. Second Point of Divergence, 347. 1. Roman and Greek, 348 ; 2. Protestant, 349. Third Point of Divergence : 1. Roman, 351 ; 2. Protestant, 352 ; 3. Socinian, 353. Fourth Point of Divergence, 353. Fifth Point of Divergence : 1. Roman, 354 ; 2. Protestant, 355 ; 3. Greek, 356. Sixth Point of Divergence : 1. Roman and Greek, 357 ; 2. Pro- testant, 359. The Power of the Keys : 1. Protestant, 361 ; 2. Roman, 362. XXI. DIVINE WORSHIP : LITURGY, ..... 363 1. Quaker, 364 ; 2. Roman and Greek, 365 ; 3. Protestant, 367. The Vernacular : 1. Roman, 369 ; 2. Protestant, 370. Images and Pictures : 1. Reformed, 371 ; 2. Lutheran, 371. COMPARATIVE TABLES, . ' . . .374 INDEX, ... . 391 INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR. ON many accounts it is necessary that this work of Winer's should not go before the English public without some kind of formal Introduction. The grounds of that necessity may be stated in very few words. Comparative dogmatics, or symbolism, as a branch of historical theology, has not had much attention paid to it by English theologians : a few re- marks, therefore, on this subject will be expedient. Winer's treatment of the Confessions is distinguished from that of most other authors by being absolutely free from polemics ; the statements of the standard being simply placed in juxta- position, and without much,. if any, doctrinal decision of his own : the reproduction of such a neutral exhibition of rival beliefs will demand a certain amount of justification or apology. Finally, the book was written by a German, and dated, as it were, from an earlier period in the century ; whence it results that certain Continental systems have a disproportionate place, and certain other systems more familiar to us are either left in obscurity or omitted altogether : it will therefore be neces- sary at least to indicate how this obliquity may be corrected by the student. Whilst disposing of these preliminaries, opportunity will be afforded to point out the value of the work and the importance of the kind of theological study of which it is one of the best auxiliaries. I. Symbolism, in the conventional theological meaning of the word, embraces the science of the various Confessions into xii INTRODUCTION. which the Church has from the beginning condensed the sub- stance of Christian doctrine. In its widest comprehension, therefore, it includes every formula of faith from the Apostles' Creed downwards ; and constructs what may be called a con- fessional theology, based on the historical development of these documents. In its more restricted application, it deals only with the characteristic differences of these Confessions ; and, inasmuch as the era of Confessions began, strictly speaking, with the Eeformation, symbolism, or comparative symbolism, resolves itself into an exhibition of the doctrinal points that have divided, since the sixteenth century, the various com- munities that bear the Christian name. In fact, at that time the ancient oecumenical Creeds gave place to the modern Confessions, as the universal badges or standards of professing Christendom. Hence the present volume, like all others of its kind, begins its statistical survey with the modern estate of the Christian Church. It has little or nothing to do with the ancient developments of truth and error, of which the earlier symbols are the record. It virtually makes symbolism a comparative view, not of the creeds, but of the confessions of Christianity. Conventions rule the terminology of all the sciences, the theological science included; and this term is now fixed to signify the science of the modern differences of Christian doctrine. It ought to be remembered, however, by the student that there is another and much older convention which vindicates for three, and for three only, of the Confessions of Christian faith, the name of symbols. The term carries us back to the earliest ages of theological phraseology, when ecclesiastical Greeks adopted the word from classical usage to signify generally every outward sign or token of an inward mystery ? and, more particularly, those compendiums of the faith which were held as pledges of fidelity by the soldiers of Christ, and signs or marks distinguishing the orthodox from all others. The former use, that made the sacraments and other rites- INTRODUCTION. Xlll symbols, pointed to the Tessera or pledge divided as the remembrancer of a covenant : so baptism was a symbol be- tween God and man in the Christian covenant. The latter use, that made the Confessions of Faith symbols, pointed to the watchw'ord, or sign, by which the soldiers might distinguish friends from enemies. The first of these symbols was the Apostles' Creed, gradually compacted to its present form, as note after note was added for the contradiction of heresy. The second was the Nicene Creed, which, with its subsequent appendages, established the divinity of the second and the third persons in the Trinity. The third was the Athanasian Creed, of later date and unknown origin, which was accepted, however, by the entire Christian w^orld, as its symbol of belief as touching the Trinity and the Person of Christ in particular, and the cardinal truths of Christianity in general. These three oecumenical or universal Creeds occupy the same place in the ancient and comparatively uncorrupt church which the confessions occupy in the modern church as in the process of reform from its corruptions. The long interval pro- duced all the corruptions of Christian doctrine, but no creeds or confessions to formulate and sustain them. In arming itself against the perversions of the faith, the Reformation fell back upon the ancient creeds in their integrity. For the most part, those symbols were laid as the foundation of the new super- structure, and were assumed into its formularies ; thus estab- lishing at the very outset a broad basis of connection and unity with the faith as delivered by the apostles to the church, and by the learning, zeal, and fidelity of the church expressed in these primitive standards. Apart from contro- versy, and viewed only as an historical fact, this is of great importance, and must always be remembered in the study of Winer's impartial exhibition, which takes this fact indeed for granted, but does not of necessity make it prominent. Its bearing upon the fair estimate of the relative Confessions of xiv INTRODUCTION. Christendom is manifold. Some few aspects of it may bQ stated here with advantage. First, as it respects the Greek Church. This vast com- munity, which, almost as literally now as at the beginning, occupies the eastern portion of the old-world Christendom, makes its boast that it is the Orthodox Church, never having had any complicity with either heresy or schism. It knows nothing of any doctrinal development in its faith since the time when the three creeds were sent forth from its own bosom to control the belief of the world. Whatever it holds in common with Eomanism or Protestantism, it holds as the heritage of the earliest ages. It disavows any ecumenical council of Christendom, from the sixth downwards. It pro- tests, not loudly indeed, but with a stern and most obdurate tenacity, against the later additions that Rome has introduced ; and does not side with Protestantism simply because it holds Eomanism and Protestantism to be alike systems that are con- tending on the basis of private judgment against the fixed faith of the time and only Catholic Church. The addition of Filioque, " proceeding from the Father and the Son" was an offence against the one Christian creed that has never been forgiven. In the high and serene theology of the Eastern Church, most of the destructive doctrines of Romanism are denounced with a vigour that Protestantism cannot surpass. The supremacy of the Pope is a gigantic absurdity. Romanism itself is the archetypal Protestantism; and has begotten the sects of the Protestant world in its own image and likeness. Hence the Oriental Church disdains to enter the arena of controversy. It would not consent to have a table in the comparative survey of the present volume. Indeed, it could not have a place here were it not for the accident that a few a very few Confessions have been sanctioned by isolated synods, and have come to be regarded as authorized exponents of Eastern doctrine. The student must carry this suggestion with him in his INTRODUCTION. XV estimate of the relative place of the Greek Church among these standards. It will help to clear his ideas on many points. It will explain, for instance, the scanty place which that old community for, with all its diversities, it is but one holds in the volume. The Orientals decline the entire theory of " development," and reject it with all its consequences. It declares every theory new : its cry is " the old is better." It holds that the whole faith, in its integrity, was once de- livered to the saints ; and that the earliest creeds were simply the scriptural doctrine set in a frame of new words only new words according to the necessities of controversy. Its never- failing watchword, which it has always had in readiness to meet every advance and every protest from Western Christen- dom, is that " the faith was given to the charge of Christian love, and only by love can be defended." It regards the Church from age to age as the living interpreter as well as guardian of the mysteries of faith. It denies that the Church has ever spoken in a collective and universal character, or with an, oecumenical voice, since the earliest times. Hence it has no confessions .with which to meet the counter-confessions of modern times. Those which are collated in this volume, for instance, bear the signature after all only of individual men, " profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness :" nothing more. This will explain, further, the attitude of the East towards the Pontifical system : it is that of the " Catholic, Orthodox Church," or rather " the Church," towards " Komanism," the mother of Protestantism and of error. Eastern Christendom knows no date later than Pentecost : it has a date for the beginning of the carnal and human system of Koine ; and, a fortiori, for every system of Protestantism. Its proud boast is that it has never changed ; that it is un- changeable ; and that both Eomanism and Protestantism are seas the waves of which are spent when they reach its territory, and can never overflow its borders. It is obvious that Koine stands in a different relation to xvi INTRODUCTION. these ancient oecumenical symbols, and to the general scope of our modern tabulation of the standards. A few remarks, purely historical and by no means controversial, may be useful in reference to two points : first, as to the fact of the faithful transmission of the ancient faith to modern times ; and, secondly, as to the equally certain fact that modern Eomanism is only one of the many parties in the general controversy of Christendom. What is involved in these affirmations will appear in the sequel. The three ancient symbols were preserved faithfully during the ages of corruption. Not one of their positive state- ments was formally contradicted. However near the errors of the middle ages might approach to some of their positions, and affect them indirectly and by implication, the old com- munities never formally violated the articles of their creeds. These always occupied their central or fundamental place, monuments of a purer age, and silent protests against in- numerable heresies that were clustering around their state- ments, though not actually contradicting them. One word alone separated East and West in relation to those symbols. But that one word does not separate between Eomanism and Protestantism ; and it is with the Eoman doctrine that we have now to do. Those ancient Confessions of Faith were common property at the Eeformation, and have always continued to be such. This is a fact of great significance, of much more signifi- cance than is conceded to it by many superficial controver- sialists. It is of great moment in relation to the continuity of the kingdom of Christ upon earth: the heavenly treasure of truth has existed always, though in earthen vessels ; or, to make a large application of St. Paul's words, in vessels not of " gold and of silver," but " of wood and of earth," and some of them entirely to " dishonour." This is a plain historical fact. It cannot be denied, either by the sceptical critic of Christianity on the one hand, or by the severest Christian polemic on the other. It explains the vigorous life of the older systems : a INTRODUCTION. XV11 phenomenon not otherwise to be accounted for. But it is not referred to now in anything like an apologetic interest. The fact does not soften down or palliate the enormous differences between the Eoman system and that modern theology which is a return to the ancient. It does not suggest a basis of union: the fabric and constitution of Papal doctrine renders that of all impossible compromises the most impossible. The additions to the simple faith ranging from the supreme doctrine of mediation, through the whole economy of the work of Christ, objective and subjective, down to the authority of the Church and the last things, or at least the penultimate things, of Eschatology can never be tolerated by the Protestant mind. But still the fact remains ; and it suggests the abstract possi- bility at least that interior fires, more searching even than those of the Eeformation, may burn up the wood and the hay and the stubble, leaving the pure and unadulterated gold of truth. A merely historical consideration of the question can, of course, go no further in this direction. The other point in reference to the relation of Eome to the subject of this Treatise is this, that, whatever may be said of the Oriental community, Eoman Christendom has since the Council of Trent descended to the arena of a common com- petition, and its faith is to be numbered among the rival confessions. This, of course, is flatly contradicted by those whom it concerns. They acknowledge but one organized Church, which has been the kingdom of Christ from the begin- ning, and in the sixteenth century broke a long silence to con- tradict heresy and declare its faith to the world. As to the theory of the Church involved in this, nothing need now be said. In controversy between Eome and the Eeform, that, of course, would be the all-deciding question. But, apart from controversy, the broad historical facts give their evidence; and, in relation to our present work, they must be allowed their full significance. Comparative dogmatics, or symbolism, must take the standards of the Council of Trent, not as the doctrine of b INTRODUCTION. the catholic and universal Church, but as the fixed expression of the Eoman dogma, as distinguished from the Oriental and from the formularies of the Protestant communions. Those standards are framed in accordance with that idea. They keep rival standards always in view : offensive or defensive, they contend step by step for their theory and interpretation as against others. The fathers of Trent were just like other fathers ; their sessions were marked by just the same charac- teristics which marked those from which proceeded the con- fessions of the Lutherans and the Eeformed. It is an open conflict There is not on the one hand a catholic, universal, and divine Church, laying down its tranquil and everlasting doc- trines ; and on the other a combination of heresies formulating their deviations from ancient truth. While we hold fast this, that the modern Eoman decrees and canons and catechisms have only one column among many in the tabulation of rivalry, we can also give them the benefit of the fact In theology, historical theology, Eoman doctrine must be regarded as a systematized confession of faith. This is not a question of charity, or of toleration. The authorities quoted in the follow- ing work, public and private, are documents put in the court theological, to be examined and tested like all others. The canons of the Council, setting aside their anathemas, are theo- logical determinations which demand to be carefully weighed on their merits ; and the apologies and defences of Bellarmine and others, though admitted only on sufferance in such a court as this, must be allowed the same fair hearing that is accorded to Luther, Calvin, and Melanchthon. In short, and to sum up: the original symbols are in this branch of historical theology somewhat like standards of appeal ; and nothing is lost, but everything is gained, by frankly admitting the elaborate system of Eomanist dogmatics into the court, to give account of its additions to the oscumenical creeds which all accept, the final appeal being the Word of God. As to the relations of the Protestant Confessions themselves INTRODUCTION. ' to the original formulas of Christianity, the same principle of historical justice demands that fair account should be taken of the absolute fidelity of the bulk of Protestant Christendom to the ancient faith, and of the difference which this establishes among the several parties in this work placed on the same level. The propriety of a juxtaposition so impartial will be considered hereafter. Meanwhile, the fact of this distinction ought to be made prominent. The great bodies into which the fermenting elements of the Reformation resolved themselves, were one in the maintenance of the ancient creeds. Many differences separated the Evan- gelical or Lutheran Churches from the Eeformed or Calvinistic; and the Anglican Confession differed from both, by combining the leading characteristics in its composite system of articles and ritual. But all were as one in the acceptance of the doctrinal formulas with which the early Church had been content to declare its faith. Luther and Calvin widely se- parated as to the sacraments and the doctrines of grace; and their two theologies diverged widely as to many of the subordinate questions affecting the Person of Christ, the nature of the Atonement, and the means of grace. These differences are reflected in the Anglican system, and have always been evident enough in English divinity. Arminianism also, as a subsequent development, brought into Eeformation theology what it regarded as the doctrine of grace taught in the Scrip- ture and in the Church before the days of Augustine ; and it has, partly as a separate Eemonstrant community, but chiefly as an element pervading some other systems, exerted a deep and always increasing influence. But these great communities, forming together the Protestant Christian world of the Eefor- mation and post -Eeformation age, held firmly to the three creeds, and to the fundamentals of the doctrine concerning the person and mediation of Christ, the reality and perfection of His atonement for human sin, the work of the Holy Spirit, the constitution of the Christian Church, the office of the XX INTRODUCTION. ministry, and the means of grace, of which those creeds are the foundation. All this is undeniable truth. It is not denied by any reasonable theologian. It is once plainly stated by Winer, and everywhere assumed. But it should be constantly kept in mind by those who study his survey of the innumerable variations of the Protestant Confessions. Polemics apart, it must also be remembered in the estimate formed of these bodies which, on the one hand, have introduced opposing Confessions, or, on the other, have been content to decline altogether the formation or avowal of any specific creed. As it respects the former, the Socinians, who have no inconsiderable place in these tables, avowedly introduced a new formula, taught as new, and supported as such by a copious literature of catechisms and apologies. Whatever they might plead as to the teaching of Scripture, and the latent, misunderstood faith of antiquity, and the deep-rooted corrup- tions of the Trinitarian Christendom, they never pretended to join in any ancient Confessions of Christian Faith. In a symbolical and confessional point of view and that alone is ours here they came into the court with a new testimony. Their creed was written afresh. Doctrine after doctrine Trinity, Person of Christ, Sin, Atonement, Grace, Piighteous- ness, Sacraments was remodelled. Their Confessions and Catechisms are admitted, simply because all communities pro- fessedly Christian are admitted. They claim to be heard, and they are heard. As it respects the latter, those who decline altogether to come into this court, and deny its jurisdiction, they also must take the consequences of their silence or con- tempt. Their faith, however vague and unformulated, has a substance, and cannot be hid ; its documents must be found somewhere, whether authoritative or not The further question must not be discussed, whether a Christian Church or a Christian community ought to exist without its specific and definite testimony to the Christian truth. All that need now be asserted is, that so it was not from the beginning, and that INTRODUCTION. Xxi tlie representatives of comparative dogmatics, collating the for- mularies of Christendom, have some show of reason in their complaint of this deviation from the usage of Christendom as a whole. There are indeed some chaotic comhinations of Christian men from whose confessions it is a great comfort to be relieved. No skill in the synoptist could locate or adjust them. But there are some orthodox bodies, and many isolated orthodox churches, the absence of whose standards is much to be deplored. The current of these remarks has been determined by the relation of the ancient symbols to the present work. A few additional observations must be made upon the nature of the modern Confessions themselves; obviously only a few, because Winer's work will here speak for itself. It gives a clear, historical account of the standards, their origination, their growth, their secret history, their literature, and, in fact, all that pertains to them as a distinct theological literature. This is done so completely as to render any addition super- fluous, and so systematically as to make a closer analysis of them impossible. But it may not be inexpedient to point out some of the prominent notes that mark the distinction between the modern Confessions and the ancient Creeds ; especially as the tendency of the preceding observations has been to regard them as co-ordinate and on the same footing as declarations of Christian Faith. The first and most obvious distinction is to be found in the fact, that the early symbols were the personal profession of faith, representing the characteristic of the man as he was a Christian man. This was the case especially with the Apostles' Creed, the parent and fountain of all innumerable subsequent Confessions, unless, indeed, we carry their parentage higher and up to the baptismal formula in St. Matthew. Be that as it may, the earliest use of the earliest creed, in its simplest form as the expansion of the baptismal formula, was the in- dividual avowal of faith in the leading verities of Christian X xii INTRODUCTION. faith. As such it was expounded to the catechumen, and as such it was engraven on the mind of the baptized child. As time rolled on, article after article was added for the contra- diction of heresy ; but its original use was not lost. It was the genuine " milk " for the babes of the Church, which was not withdrawn, even after the " strong meat " of the two later creeds was prepared for a more adult Christendom. As a personal confession it has never entirely lost its place, at least in the West. The Nicene symbol may have superseded it in the East ; but has been only combined with it throughout a large portion of the West. A mass of superstitious legends has been connected with its origin, especially by the Eomanists ; and various opinions have been entertained as to its authority and value ; but it cannot be denied that it lingers still among the majority of modern Christian communities as an individual testimony of Christian belief. The same may be said of its ampler representative and successor : that also has been from age to age in some of its forms, over the greater part of Chris- tendom, both a private and public avowal of faith. In a much more limited degree, the stern Athanasian has served the same purpose : rightly or wrongly, a great multitude of Christian people on the most solemn occasions use it as the formula of their general belief. This does not hold good of any modern Confessions. They represent the convictions, not of Christian men as Christian men, but of Churches as Churches. What the symbols were to the individual, the Confessions are to the community. The former were binding on the members of the Church, the latter only on its ministers as the expounders of its doctrine. There is no modern formulary that has ever been imposed upon the individual as necessary to his com- munion with his brethren ; but there are few which have not been more or less obligatory on those who have been entrusted with ministerial functions and responsibilities. The ancient symbols were, broadly speaking, notes of the unity of the Church ; the modern Confessions are, broadly INTRODUCTION. Xxiii speaking again, notes of its necessary diversity. The question need not be discussed, where the responsibility of Christian differences lies. That must be referred to a higher tribunal. Suffice that the internal unfaithfulness of the witnessing Church has been the cause of them ; and that the great and all-important separation on which modern Confessions mainly rest, was an absolute necessity to the life and health of Chris- tianity. As to the lesser divisions among the evangelical communities themselves, all that need be said is, that they have been overruled for good. It would be presumptuous to add that they have been ordained of God ; or that, in the Holy Ghost's catholic administration of the many Churches by means of which His one Kingdom is maintained, these divisions have been provided for and subordinated to His purpose. But it is the very wisdom of charity to maintain that they have never been disowned by Him. His spiritual kingdom ruleth over all the several manifestations of its earthly and transitory form. Unless this is believed, there can be no satisfaction in the study of a book like that which now lies before us. He who entertains the rigid conviction that the varia- tions in evangelical Confessions are no other than the record of heresies that never should have existed, or of differences that are fatal to the unity of the Church, or of perversions of the simplicity of the faith that obstruct its diffusion, is with- out the first requisite for an intelligent study of symbolical theology. He may enter thoroughly into comparative dog- matics, as a controversialist ; but the true and profound secret of historical theology is closed against him. Indeed, to such a student the history of the Christian Church must be from the beginning downwards a bewildering chaos. But, studying on other and better principles, he will see that manifold corrup- tions of doctrine have never suppressed the glorious unity or the fundamental truth as it is in Jesus. He will see that the general history of the three centuries past has been on the whole a mighty vindication of original, catholic Christianity. INTRODUCTION. He will learn to be tolerant of the differences among the evangelical Confessions ; recognising their essential oneness amidst their accidental divergences, and deeply convinced, that whatever clothing wrought by human hands may be thrown around the Protestant doctrine, its " body is of Christ." Nor will he value his own Confession less, or hold to it less tenaciously, because he is constrained to admit, that com- munities adopting other standards are carrying on the cause of the universal kingdom in a different style, as it respects subordinate matters, but with equal zeal, and an equal blessing. Another important difference is suggested by the fact, that the ancient symbols were mainly designed to be incorporated in the worship of the Church, while the modern Confessions are exclusively theological documents, deposited in the ark of every community as its standard of truth and protest against error. The profession of Christian faith in the public congre- gation, as part of the liturgical service of the worshipping assembly, may be traced to times beyond which the memory of the Church cannot go, and is continued to the present day throughout a large portion of Christendom, both reformed and unreformed. Indeed, there are very few Christian communi- ties which do not, in some form or other, if not by creeds, yet by hymns which embody their substance, lift up to the Supreme their devout profession of faith. As to the ancient symbols, it cannot be denied that this service was bound up with their original design, and has been from the beginning their charac- teristic function. The modem Church has not constructed its formulas on the same principle ; no new creed has been con- structed to supersede in public worship the old ones ; none have been devised to accompany them. The formularies, articles, and Confessions of the later evangelical communities are theo- logical documents, belonging rather to the teaching than to the worshipping service of the Church. They are not symbols of belief, which give pledges to God of fidelity to His truth, so INTRODUCTION. XXV much as symbols that give pledges of fidelity to that truth in the presence of the world. It is necessary to remember this clear line of distinction. It explains the marked difference in tone and phraseology between the older and the more modern formularies. The former, as uttered to God, make mention of His name and His truth only, keeping human names and human errors out of view ; the latter, as uttered to man, deal largely in the enumeration of heresies, and in their elaborate confutation, and in their earnest rebuke and rejection. Lastly, it must not be omitted that the modern Confessions stand in relation to the early Creeds as their necessary supple- ments, filling up their deficiencies, and so rounding them into the perfect fulness of Christian doctrine. It is not' meant that this was their design ; only that this makes the difference which the comparison suggests. Where the older documents are scanty, the later are full ; and what the earlier omit, the latter amply supply. Some such difference, indeed, may be observed to exist between those original Creeds themselves : the exterior relations of the Trinity are not hinted at in the Apostles' ; they are sharply defined in the Nicene ; they are exhibited with all the exquisite refinement possible to human language in the Athanasian. But with the doc- trines of the Trinity and the Person of Christ, or the In- carnation, the process of expansion ends. The mediatorial office and ministry of Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit, in the application of redemption to the individual, are scarcely indicated in any of them. There lies their deep deficiency, the effect of which on the history of theology and the Christian Church can hardly be estimated. Now where the ancient creeds are silent, the modern Confessions are most copious and explicit. The nature, and penalty, and universality of sin, the expiatory sacrifice of Christ, and all that its operation and its defence demand, the righteousness of faith, with all its defi- nitions and safeguards, the inspiration and authority of the XXvi INTRODUCTION. Holy Scriptures, the true characteristics and notes of the Church, the relation of the sacraments to the means, are loci communes of theology, which the ancient creeds touch lightly where they touch them at all. It might seem as if the assaults of heresy had never been directed against these vital doctrines when they were constructed. A mere censorious criticism would go further, and say that the " doctrine of the cross," and the connected truths with which man's acceptance and final salvation are essentially bound up, are not made as pro- minent as they should be. Upon these the modern Con- fessions throw a flood of light. That is, they exhaustively bring out the scriptural doctrine, and reproduce its harmonies : under various aspects, indeed, according to their several theories, but all uniting in certain most important elements, and, by their differences on subordinate points, only furnishing a more thorough view of the one subject. It may fairly be said of the leading formularies of the Lutheran and Reformed types of doctrine, which in some sort have regulated the rest, that they none of them fail to instruct sinful men aright in the nature of the common ground of hope, and in the methods and conditions of the attainment of the common sal- vation. Thus they collectively and individually may lay claim to the earliest honour put upon the creeds : they are emphati- cally each the Rule of Faith to its own communion ; always understanding by that expression, a common directory of faith and practice subordinate to the supreme standard of Holy Scripture. This is true, notwithstanding that in many points they offend all. By the very fact of their differences on many comparatively subordinate topics, their imperfection and in- completeness is proved. They cannot all be in all things right. But they conspire to indicate the way in which the perfect faith is to be sought ; and predict a time when they will, if it seem good to the Holy Ghost, be merged in one general Confession, as true to the Scriptures as the Scriptures are to the truth of God. INTRODUCTION. Xxvii II. It was mentioned at the outset, and the reader will soon discover for himself, that this work is simply an historical exhibition of the differences of the Confessions, without any infusion of the controversial element. It adheres stedfastly to its one and ruling principle, that of letting the standards speak for themselves. There is no polemic on the one hand, no harmonizing irenicum on the other. This is a characteristic of Winer's book, which makes it almost unique in this branch of theological literature. But a glance at that literature will better locate the work than any general description. When the several Confessions of the Lutheran and Eeformed Churches were produced, they speedily gave birth to a vigorous series of works devoted to their explanation. First came the polemical writers, of whom Chemnitz on the Lutheran and Bellarmine on the Romanist side were the most eminent as between Rome and the Reformation, while the contest between the Lutheran and the Reformed themselves was conducted by Hospinian in his Concordia discors, and Hutter in his Concordia concors. After nearly a century had passed, the symbolical books, as they had by this time been termed, required historical introductions. This service was rendered by Carpzov, and Walch, and Semler : the two latter especially have left little to be desired as to the literature of the question. The com- parative treatment of the Confessions was begun by Planck, who, however, made Protestantism his starting point ; and in a theological interest, as the titles of his works show, including as they do, " the fundamental ideas, the specific differences and the practical consequences." Then followed, in the early part of the present century, Marheineke's work, which, though the title hardly betrays it, is coloured by a Lutheran dogmatic influence, and in a masterly manner exhibits the internal development and harmony of each system apart. Winer then followed, in 1824, with a comparative view of the several doctrinal systems arranged in a tabular form, and supported by copious quotations from the standards in the original This XXviii INTRODUCTION. work was a novelty in its strictly historical character. It was the first and the last that appeared on this purely undogmatic principle ; and as such it has held its ground, having appeared in successive editions, the last of which, now translated, ap- peared as lately as 18G6, substantially unchanged. After the publication of Winer's treatise, the tide of symbolical literature set in with great strength. Mohler, one of the ablest and most conscientious of modern Eomanist divines, led the way in his Symbolism, which brought all the doctrinal standards of Protestantism to the bar of Roman Catholic orthodoxy. His work is a subtle though clear apology for Tridentine doctrine ; and is exceedingly valuable to the theologian, even in the English translation of Robertson, as giving all that can be said on that side of the question. What Bossuet attempts in an oratorical and unsatisfactory, because unreal manner, in his Variations of Protestantism, Mohler essays to establish in a calm and scientific manner: the deviation of Protestantism from the consensus of Catholic doctrine in regard to every cardinal article of the Christian faith. His work was held in unbounded esteem by his own community ; and it was highly regarded even by his opponents. The challenge he threw down was immediately taken up by some of the foremost divines of the Evangelical Church ; and, indeed, by some who would scarcely be acknowledged as evangelical The leader of the Tubingen School, Baur, was the first who replied ; and the final form of his answer, The Antithesis of Catholicism and Protestantism, remains a very valuable work, as it were an atonement for much that is destructive in his writings. Mar- heineke, attacked in his own province, roused himself to expose many of Mohler's fallacies. Nitzsch also, the most consistent Protestant of all these advocates, came forward with an exhaus- tive reply, which is full of symbolical learning, and exhibits a fine appreciation of the points in which a profound study will find elements of agreement where a superficial glance will find only variance. Sack, Tafel, and others joined in the theolo- INTEODUCTION. XXIX gical tournament; it may, indeed, be said that each of the systems of Continental Protestantism, from Luther to Sweden- borg, which Mohler had attacked, furnished its own champion. Since Holder's time a great variety of treatises have appeared, most of which need no allusion here, as they are referred to in the notes of the following work. Suffice that through the whole range of them there is not found one which occupies the position that Winer's took. Either they present the several Confessions of each particular communion ; or they survey the several standards from their own individual point of view, and for controversial purposes; or, if they furnish a general sketch, it is in their own words, and in the way of synopsis. Winer still stands alone, in his three characteristics : first, that of exhibiting all the standards of the Christian world (with the exceptions hereafter to be mentioned) ; secondly, that of giving the very words of the standards themselves in apt juxtaposi- tion ; and, thirdly, that of abstinence from polemical disserta- tion or harmonizing. It must be observed, however, that this last observation holds good only of Winer's original. The edition presented to the English reader was edited by Dr. Preuss, a Protestant controversialist, who will be found to have here and there added some incisive notes, retained in this edition for the sake of completeness, and indeed for their own value. Their value is not a whit lessened by the fact that Dr. Preuss has yielded in America to influence that need not be here further referred to, and become reconciled to Eome, his former deadly enemy. It is only right to mention this. For the rest, these notes are so few that they by no means affect the purely historical and uncontroversial character of Winer's work, as here given to the English reader. But before another word is said on this subject, it must be admitted that this is a great achievement. To set forth in order, and with absolute impartiality, the endless variations of Christian thought, through the entire process of the loci communes of theology, in all their dogmatic comprehensive- XXX INTRODUCTION. ness and subtlety, is a task for which very few men could be found competent. Many have taken it in hand ; but, before proceeding far, have been overpowered by their honest prepossessions, and surrendered themselves to the genius loci of their own Confession. But Winer has held the scales with an even and untremulous hand. He has done justice to every side of every question: the copious extracts from the standards are left to speak for themselves ; while innumerable points of less importance, both in dogma and its history, are thrown into the notes and observations. Now, there is no question here as to the character of a theology that is capable of dealing thus impartially with all sides. Opinions will differ widely on this subject. Some would regard it as a brand upon the theologian, that he should be capable of sustaining his neu- trality equally and everywhere in the sacred domain of truth ; others would count that his highest recommendation, and regard him as the type of what all teachers of theology should be. This question need not be touched here. Suffice, that a man was found competent to the task, and who has accomplished it in such a manner that his work might be taken as a text- book in almost all the schools of modern theology. Sus- picion might be aroused here and there; but no more than suspicion. This leads at once to the question of the practical benefit of such an impartial survey. Assuming that the present work is what it professes to be, a clear and undistorted reflection of the forms into which the Christian formularies have been shaped, to what use can the student apply it ? This ques- tion is best answered by considering briefly the relation such a comparative view bears to the several branches of theological study. To begin with the most important, there is a pure Biblical theology which is the standard and test of every other ; that is, the exhibition of truth as it is found in the Scriptures, in its variety of definition and statement, in its gradual develop- INTEODUCTION. XXxi ment from dispensation to dispensation, in its different types as presented by the several schools of inspired teachers, and in its organic unity as the result of the superintending in- spiration of the Divine Spirit. This must needs be the norm and criterion of all that is called theology in the Christian Church. That it is so, is the theory, it may boldly be said, of every community under heaven known by the name of Christ. What may seem to be exceptions are not really ex- ceptions. The old and corrupt Churches, that live and move and have their being in tradition, profess, these standards being judges, the same allegiance to Scripture which the purer Churches that protest against them profess. What in act they may deny, in word they maintain. The Romanist apology, for instance, for the existence of the Roman Catholic system of church doctrine and discipline is, in the last resort, an 'appeal to Scripture. It is true that there is an enormous qualification of this fact. The Tridentine dogma of inspiration, in other respects as true as that of the Protestants, is, as it were, nullified by a series of figments : it extends that inspiration to more than the Bible contains ; it tacitly transfers its virtue to an " authentic " Vulgate ; and, above all, it establishes a co-ordinate inspiration directing the ecclesiastical traditions which interpret, by development or otherwise, the unwritten Scripture handed down by the apostles, and the truths that the Bible contains only in germ. This concurrent endowment of the visible Church with inspiration, as having its organ and living voice in the infallible Pontiff, is the fundamental error that vitiates all. But there stands the original theory still. Tradition and development, with their living interpreter, alike are driven by an absolute necessity into the supreme court for a last decision. In every controversy with Rome this is a tacit, if not expressed, assumption of both parties : the one cannot, the other dares not, deny that there is a law, and a testimony concerning that law, surrounding and higher than all the decisions of men. To that supreme court all evan- INTRODUCTION. gelical communities, without reserve, carry their appeal. Here, again, the seeming exceptions are not real exceptions. Some of them may betray mystical tendencies which would bring the ' soul of men into more immediate relations with God, and make the Church a recipient of revelation without tfo Word. The Quakers, for instance, who hold a large place in this volume, may seem to waver between two theories for mysticism, like every other tendency, must have its theories as to the supremacy of Scripture. One side may hold that the internal light in every redeemed man is to be the test of Scripture, another that Scripture is to be the test of the internal light ; but both practically agree to solve these dif- ficulties by a more or less consistent or inconsistent appeal to the words of the written oracles. It is needless to dilate further upon this fact. Its application to the theological use of this comparative survey is obvious. Here we have no Biblical theology ; that is entirely excluded. The table? are constructed without any reference to Scripture ; the sayings of God's "Word being, as it were, the only thing omitted. But he who uses the volume must not fail to do for himself what the book does not do. He has the sum of all the creeds before him, his own included ; and must conscientiously examine all in the light of the infallible Word. Doing this, he will un- derstand better both the systems he has to study and the standard to which they are all brought. There is no more effectual method of studying the variations of rival systems than that of hearing their pleas before this bar; and cer- tainly, on the other hand, one of the best commentaries upon the New Testament is to be found in the comparison of the interpretations put upon it by the rival theologies. No one who has studied the controversies concerning the Person of Christ, or Justification by Faith, as registered in this volume, will hesitate to acknowledge that they have shed a clear light upon the terminology of the New Testament epistles. In fact, however paradoxical the assertion may seem, it is one that all INTRODUCTION. XXxiii thorough students of these controversies will verify : that the subtle discussions of the polemics on the one person and two natures of the Redeemer, the bearings of active and passive righteousness, the nature of imputation in all its aspects, shed much more light upon the Scriptures to which they appeal than they shed upon the subject they deal with. A yet bolder word may be spoken. There are many topics in Biblical theology which cannot be thoroughly understood but by those who study them in the light of the polemics of the sixteenth century. It would be an offence against the funda- mental hermeneutical canon of the self-interpreting sufficiency and perspicuity of Scripture to say generally that its interpre- tation as Scripture is in any sense dependent on controversy. But it may safely be affirmed, that few subordinate helps can be mentioned which are more effectual than the careful com- parison of the various constructions that have been put upon the same words and sentences by the framers of the several Confessions of Christendom. The Bible that settles all differ- ences often has a reflex light thrown upon it by the differences that it settles. Again, the catholic exhibition of the Confessions of Christen- dom, without polemics or harmony, is of great value in the study of historical theology, or the development of Christian doctrine. Perhaps it would be better to correct the usual phrase, and say Christian dogma. The doctrine of Christi- anity was not left for development; its development rail through the ages of gradual revelation, but was ended with the faith once for all delivered through the apostles to the saints. As Moses began, so St. John ended, the slow process by which the truth as it is in Jesus was unfolded to the Church. Development in the history of theology, as such, has been only the more and perfect definition and systematiza- tion of the doctrines already given in their full sufficiency : a development governed mainly by the operation of two laws. On the one hand, the necessity of formal instruction in a c XXxiv INTRODUCTION. Church which gradually pervaded all ranks of society, incor- porated all grades of culture, and adapted itself to all ranges of human civilisation, would lead to a scientific arrangement of truth, and deduction of consequences from each truth in particular, and application of the whole to the unvarying pro- blems of human life. Hence a sure development of dogma, throwing the Divine doctrine into moulds fashioned by men. On the other hand, the necessity of encountering false doctrine and condemning it, whether the errors of unbelief without or the errors of heresy within, would lead to the same result The history of the development of Christian theology in its Creeds and Confessions, is mainly occupied with the decisions of con- tested questions ; in fact, had there been no such contests, there would have been but a scanty development of dogma. It is needless to say that the student of theology must needs study it historically ; unless he does so, his views will be narrow and superficial This being assumed, he cannot do better than make Winer's one of his text-books. Not by any means the only one ; for its service in this department, though ex- tremely important, is limited. For instance, it touches only in an indirect manner the grand development of dogma which formed its final expression in the three Creeds. It is true that most of the early questions of contention were brought again into the arena after the Eeformation, and have the record of their settlement in the modern Confessions. But that is not the case with all of them ; and our present volume, a good adjunct of other books, will not supersede the elaborate works that make the universal development of Christian doc- trine their subject Finally, it follows as matter of course, that this work is a useful aid to the student of dogmatic theology as such ; that is to say, of every minister of the gospel, whatever may be the Confession to which he owes allegiance. Of course, it is not here that he will learn his theology, or find the system that represents his creed. The book is too general and INTRODUCTION. XXXV scanty for that. Sketches and outlines of theological doctrine ought not to satisfy the teacher of divinity, whose business is to make his own dogmatic system as familiar to his mind in all its details as it is precious to his heart in its funda- mental principles. But it is of inestimable service to mark the doctrinal definitions of systems other than our own ; to use them as interpreters, as correctives, and as supplements. No sound theologian inherits a dogmatic system so complete as to defy improvement in his own hands, and no theologian is bound by any dictate of humility or modesty to abstain from amending the best definitions of his predecessors and masters. Let the student, even the young student, make the experiment upon any doctrine : say the doctrine of the Eucha- rist, which, beyond every doctrine, has taxed and exhausted the energies of the confessional divines. Let him attempt an analytical reconstruction of the dogma, noting some points among the erroneous theories of Confessions other than his own which are perhaps by his own too much neglected, and observing refinements of phraseology to which his line of thought may not have accustomed his mind, and especially paying attention to aspects of the question which in the heat of controversy have by his own confession had slight justice done them. The result will be useful to him, while the process will have been stimulating. In general, and to dismiss this subject, it may be averred that he will have the best dogmatic system at his command who, faithful to his particular Confession, has care- fully collated every other with it. The transition is easy to the polemical theology which has occupied so large a space in theological literature during the last three hundred years, indeed, more or less, from the beginning. The impartial survey of the entire field of results which this volume contains, is of essential service in this branch of study : perhaps its service is more marked here than anywhere else. Controversies there must be among the churches visible on earth; in this sense also the estate of XXXviii INTRODUCTION. point, or mastered its exact terminology. The student who would avoid this evil must not be content with current and traditional notions of the dogmas of rival communities. He must examine for himself, and make his own the ipsissima verba of the canon, decree, article, or catechetical definition. They are given fairly and fully in this volume; and the selec- tion is not the less valuable because it is confined always to the question in hand. The passages are in every case the proof passages of the Creed or Confession ; and given in the original, even to the retention of the modern Greek phraseology. Moreover, as a handbook or guide in Christian Polemics proper, Winer's book has the additional recommendation of including excerpts from some of the leading controversialists all round, from Bellarmine to Barclay. Fortified by this compendium of fixed and sure authorities, the student may safely explore his way. He will see what men have said and what they have not said. He will see some errors to be worse than he has been in the habit of thinking them to be; others will be robbed of some of their conventional evil characteristics. He will often perceive, what otherwise would not be perceived, the reason why one opinion has been held as the necessary result of another, and why a certain truth has been renounced because a previous error had made it inconvenient. He will learn that there is an analogy of untruth as well as of truth, an analogy of infidelity as well as an analogy of faith. Above* all, he will not fail, if working on sound principles, to see more and more clearly the longer he studies, that the innumerable variety of contradictory opinions only tends to bring out into more luminous distinctness the glorious outline of the one system of truth on which Christianity rests. A word must be said, before passing, on the Comparative Tables at the end of the volume. They deserve attention as the product of no little thought and skill: in fact, no part of the work made a heavier demand upon the ability of the author, certainly no part has occasioned the editor more trouble INTRODUCTION. in the reproduction ; and, in this case, what required much care in the preparation will require equal care in the use. The student and by the student is meant especially the young student, for whom this work is mainly designed will do well to make himself master of the technical principle on which the Table it is only one in reality is constructed ; and reward his author by noting the tact with which a multi- tude of harmonious and discordant elements are articulated into one homogeneous structure. He should then, and will if he is thoroughly in earnest, commit to memory the entire table, first as a whole, and then in its divergent lines. If memory is made only the minister of the judgment, he will have acquired a good general view of the entire body of Christian theology in its leading outlines, and have lodged safely in his mind a sort of nucleus around which may crystallize a miscellaneous mass of knowledge otherwise acquired. But here lies a danger, to the consideration of which a separate paragraph may be allotted, as it concerns not these tables only, but the subject and treatment of this work gene- rally. It would be a fatal mistake to think that an intimate familiarity with tables like these makes a theologian. It is the very principle and theory of the volume to preclude that supposition. It gives only the materials, which the intelligent reader must use according to his own discretion and the exercise of f his own rightly directed and rightly guarded private judgment. The present section of this Introduction has been occupied with the fact that Winer gives only a comparative view of the doctrinal systems as they are, and as they are supported by authorized documents and standard expositors. This law of the work must be again made prominent. The function and glory of theology is, after all, not the know- ledge of these confessional statements, but the fine perception of their broader or more refined distinctions, and the thoughtful, not to say philosophical, appreciation of the underlying spirit of these distinctions, and the education of the theological eye xl INTRODUCTION. to perceive the process by which they shade into each other. What kind of labour this involves, and how richly that labour is rewarded,, this is not the place to say. But it is the place to say that it is indispensable : unless the student will under- take it, he must be content to remain a sciolist in a science which, equally with all others, if not more than all others, demands profoundness and exactitude. He will be " ever learning, never coming to a knowledge of the truth," to quote the apostle's words in a sense somewhat different from their first intention. He will acquire, perhaps, a certain expertness in words, but the things that are the soul of these words will remain hidden from him. He will be in great danger of sinking into the number, only too large, of conventional theo- logians, confident enough until their neighbour comes and searches them. He is exposed, moreover, to a worse peril than even this : to the peril of joining the herd of those babblers who in the present day seem to have made Christian dogma, as they delight to call it, the arena or rather the victim of their superficial exercitations, and use the scanty knowledge which they have acquired in pastime to point their ridicule at mysteries as far beyond their capacity as are the interior secrets of the familiar sun. Unless that spirit, in all its forms and manifestations and works, is as abhorrent to him as anything that he can possibly abhor, he may call himself indeed a theologian, but theology has no part in him. Therefore the student should make these tables only the basis of other tables of his own. In constructing them he is not cramped as the printer has been cramped in the endeavour to present them. He has an unlimited scope, and an un- limited margin. Then he must go to work on certain prin- ciples of his own. As to the more formal and mechanical part of his work, he may fill in the vacant places of the table of which more hereafter and give their location and general character to some systems of faith that ought to be included : this will enlarge his classification to some extent, though not INTRODUCTION, t xli so nmcli as might be expected. Then, as to what is rather material than formal, he should give a separate table to each of the loci of theology, from the Scriptures downwards : taking, that is, the order of them as given in this volume, which is not necessarily the best Supposing him to begin with the sources or documents of theology, he must dedicate to this subject a table in which the relative place of every Confession is assigned, studying his definitions well, and showing the influence of every divergency upon the community that represents it, and upon the system of doctrine held by that community. If he has a quick eye and sure hand, this sketch will itself expand into a very com- plete digest of Christian theology : for, which of the religious communions does not bear in almost every article of its creed the stamp and influence of its peculiar view of the inspiration and authority of the Word of God ? It is patent enough that this differentiates Eomish doctrine from every other. It is not so patent that here lies a marked distinction between Rome and the East, to the advantage of the latter ; and that the difference between the Lutheran and the Reformed theologies is not slightly affected by their relative view of the Word of God; and that each of the subordinate systems shows to a quick perception the effect of aberrations, sometimes almost imperceptible, on this subject. Having thus practised his hand, the student may easily and surely go on. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity will be the superscription of one of his most important tables : one of his most important ; in some respects one of the easiest, but in others one of the most difficult. Here he will have, though it is a bold word to say, more unanimity than on any other subject. But there are shades of difference between East and West between Lutheran, Reformed, and Arminian which will task his subtlety ; especially when he goes beyond his guide in this volume, and traces the influence of the Subordination and Arian theories on those Confessions which hold fast their xlii INTRODUCTION. integrity in general, but show the particular effect of theory on their doctrine of mediation and atonement, and the Person of Christ. Moreover, he must learn to trace the delicate influence of Sabellianism on modern Confessions, venial in some forms of mysticism, but fatal in the grotesque theology of Swedenborg. And he will not have thoroughly accom- plished this part of his task, unless he indicates, or tries to indicate his very failure here will be profitable the effect on modern theology of a careful distinction between the abso- lute or immanent, and the relative or economical, Trinity. But this will require that he should descend from the general doctrine to the intricacies of the minor presentations of it, as represented by the federal theology of a past age, which, how- ever eternally true in some of its broad principles, has never been formulated in any Confession. A more obvious effect of the distinction may be traced in the variations of statement, if not of doctrine, as to the final subjection of the Son, and the nature of the kingdom that has " no end." And, lastly, it may be observed to have its effect upon the entire system of mediatorial worship, which in some Confessions is more anxious to emphasize the coequal dignity and interchangeable homage of the Three Persons, and in others lays great stress on the unity of the object of worship through the mediation of the Son, and under the influence of the Holy Spirit, while a third ckss, in harmony with ancient catholic usage, thinks to follow the Scripture precedent by uniting the two. It may be said, generally, of most of the other great topics made prominent in this work, that each might with advantage be made the basis of a separate classification. Every system and every Confession has its estimate, for instance, of Sin : it would be more than a mere paradox to say that the dogma of original sin stamps a character for good or evil upon every type of Christian doctrine. The same may be said, with equal but not with more propriety, of the redeeming work of Christ, objective between heaven and earth, and subjective in the INTKODUCTION. xliii human soul. So also Righteousness or justification, the doctrine that presides in the Mediatorial Court of Christ, brings into its own court every individual standard of faith that has ever been set up. In this case, however, the table must needs, be a long and elaborate one. For, whatever may be the variety of opinion entertained as to the propriety of Luther's articulus stantis vcl cadentis ecchsice, none will deny that it is a topic literally all-pervading in theology. Every exhibition of the truth of the gospel must have its clear deliverance on this subject. But those deliverances, however clear in the general, are sufficiently vague and indeterminate when the interior dis- tinctions of the communities are introduced. Imputation, faith, works, faith and works, active and passive obedience imputed, formal and efficient cause, condition and instrument, are terms that have a volume of meaning linked with each, and all of them in turn cry from their respective Confessions for adjust- ment. The task of arranging them is one that it is far easier to recommend than to accomplish. But even here nothing is impossible to the energy that loves its work. The dogma of the Church also presents a fine nucleus for classification : in the nature of things the dogma, like that which it defines, is catholic, and all the tribes of theology must flow into it. None is exempt ; for, though there are some systems that glory in their emancipation from the word and the very idea, with all its appendages, and profess to wish that it were exterminated from the theological vocabulary, it will be found on close scrutiny, if indeed any scrutiny is needed, that the great reality is their very life. No communities are more churchly than those which think they have unchurched themselves : witness the close, compact, and orderly Body that calls Christian brethren " Friends." There is one topic that may be singled out for special remark. It is that of the Person of Christ : a dogma, or doctrine, that does not generally stand at the head of a theo- logical department. Winer makes it one of his loci, and gives xliv INTRODUCTION. it ample prominence ; but then he is careful to connect with it the term " Divinity," as if the Person of Christ and His Godhead were convertible terms. To do him justice, however, the observations which he appends to the exhibition of the authorities, shows that he included the true doctrine of Christ's Person, as a subordinate branch of a subject over which it should have presided as supreme. The Godhead of Christ is a doctrine that belongs to the Trinity ; it belongs to His Person only as pertaining to one of His two natures, which in their indissoluble unity constitute His Person. In making this doctrine the superscription of a distinct branch, the student will have before him one of the finest subjects in theology. He must not make haste ; but contemplate it long, reverently, and loyally, before he begins. When he begins, he may take Winer's comparative view to a certain extent ; but he will soon have to desert his guide, or rather his guide will desert him. He must go to the ancient symbols, and even higher than that. They will show him what was the Catholic doc- trine, as formulated by the first four Councils, against sundry heresies that denied the verity of the human nature of Christ, the absoluteness of His divine nature, the unity of His one Person, and the distinction of His two natures. And, as his table is not exactly a classification of heresies, but rather of the doctrine of the Confessions on all sides, his task will be a simple one down to the Eeformation. He will have to show the unity of Christendom on this great subject, no solitary, surviving symbol or Confession of Faith, bearing witness to any doctrine on Christ's Person but one. He may tabulate if he will, and as much as he pleases, the sporadic and speedily obsolete opinions of men and of schools, from the Docetics downwards ; but that is at his own discretion. After the Pie- fonnatiou, the Socini and the Polonian Brethren will demand to be heard. Their places must be found for them, and a place also for their descendants, of every degree, who have greatly varied their doctrine but never in the ascending scale, always INTRODUCTION. xlv rather in the line of a sure descent. So far, however, all has been general, and comparatively easy. The plain answer to the plain question, " What think ye of Christ ? whose son is He ? " or that other, " Whom say ye that I am ? " is frankly given by the several Confessions, and cannot easily be mis- taken. But the subject does not end there. Now conies its difficulties, which are, if such a term may be admitted, its fascinations. They search into all the nooks and corners of this confessional temple, and try sharply the spirits of theo- logical science. It will be sufficient here to indicate in what direction those crucial tests and minor amenities of the doctrine lie : as these remarks are not intended to do the work, but to indicate how it is to be done. And, first, it must be shown what specific dogmas of the old communions have tended to mar or obscure a doctrine otherwise correctly held. It is not doing justice to the subject to say that Christendom was united upon the confession of the Person of' Christ at the time of the Reformation. Protestant theologians would demur to this statement as such, and unqualified : Romanist delin- quencies, running over so wide a range of vital topics, would scarcely leave this, the most vital of all, untouched. It will be necessary, then, to show how what may be called the application of the doctrine has suffered in the hand of Greek and Eomish theology : the latter especially, but noting the difference in this respect between the two. What effect upon the humanity of our Lord in His one Person has the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, which makes Him in His human nature no longer the solitary sinless representative of mankind ? What influence is exerted upon it by the dogma of the Mediatorship confined to the Man- hood, always supposing that, in the indivisible as well as undivided Person, there could be no merely human agent ? What cross-lights, or rather shadows, are thrown upon it by the dogma of Transubstantiation : not only as impairing its dignity, but as seeming to transfer the office of the Holy xM INTRODUCTION. Spirit, the mediator between the Person of Christ and our persons, to a Sacrament which gives the whole Christ to man, directly, and in another form, and through a priestly mediator ? These are questions to be profoundly studied, and their answer will greatly enrich the tabular view. But the doctrine carries its inquisition into the Protestant as well as the Romanist standards, and becomes the watch- word of some strange varieties of discussion. It will be necessary to show how Lutheran theology stands in relation to it. That relation is in some respects peculiar; unshared by any other Confession in Christendom.- Consubstantiation, however widely different from Transubstantiation in some most fundamental respects, is akin in its influence upon the doctrine of the Person in relation to the Holy Ghost. But the specialty of this theory of the Eucharist is that it limits the impartation of Christ in the Sacrament to His human nature, or His glorified corporeity, which is communicated to the recipient in and with and under the elements. This is, in a certain sense, a division of the one Person of the Piedeemer. But the doctrine is perhaps saved from such an imputation by another kindred dogma, that of the communicatio idiomatv.m, or the communication of" the properties of the Divine nature to the human. Thus the manhood of the Saviour has all the virtue of His divinity, and can be imparted from a thousand altars. To show the bearing of this upon the Lutheran sacra- mental theology, and indeed upon the entire economy of union with Christ in its system, will be a necessary task, as well as to indicate the marked difference between it and the Reformed theology in general, with the mediation scheme of Calvin. The doctrine must also be traced in another and widely different range : that, namely, which opens to our view the theories of our Lord's exinanition, or the measure and laws of His humiliation in the assumption of human nature. Though the questions arising out of this subject are not precisely confes- sional questions, belonging rather to the minor controversies, INTRODUCTION. xlvii they are more and more active in their influence on Lutheran theology, and must have a place in its department of the tabular view. Nor must it be omitted that the doctrine of Christ's Person is closely connected with the nature of that obedience which He wrought out as one agent, not man only, though representing man, not God only, though the manifesta- tion of God, but the Incarnate Son, the unity of whose Person raises Him absolutely above the law to which He voluntarily submitted. But there lies the question in discussion; and fairly to discuss it requires a careful study of the doctrine now before us. In fact, it is scarcely possible to limit the application of this subject. No topics in theology more aptly represent the central truth. For, from the absolute and the economical Trinity down to the judgment and the final con- summation, the true idea of Christ's Person has in all things the pie-eminence. The student who shall achieve well, or fairly well, this individual table, will have learnt more by the process than many a goodly volume on the divinity of Christ could teach him. Once more, the Holy Spirit, as the centre of a dogmatic system, might advantageously command another line in such tables as these. The place assigned to the Third Person in the economical Trinity in the several Confessions, defines their character with almost as much precision as that of Christ's Person. Here would recur, of course, the question of the Filioque, which divides East from West, and has already been viewed under the doctrine of the immanent Trinity. But now it would introduce the bearing of the double procession upon the theology of redemption. For, if Father and Son are names belonging to the God of the mediatorial economy, and the Holy Ghost proceeds from both, then we gain an important basis for a double doctrine of the Spirit's relation to the Mediator. In the one He is sent from the Father through the Son's intercession to discharge a distinct function, to be the administrator of redemption generally, to fill up as it were xlviii INTRODUCTION. the measure of Christ's Work, and act upon earth in the place of Him whom the heavens have received. In the other, He is the Spirit proceeding from Christ Himself, whose presence is the presence of our very Lord. " The Lord is that Spirit," whose indwelling fulfils all that the Scripture says in its profoundest passages concerning the mystical union of Christ's Person with believers. The former view, unqualified by the latter, lays the foundation of a superstructure in which the Saviour and the Holy Ghost are often too much separated : the actual miraculous presence of Christ being the result of a perpetual miracle, the continuation of His work in the Church; and the office of the Comforter being limited to the particular functions of enlightenment and sanctification. The latter view allows of no Christ in the mediatorial economy who is to be regarded as apart from the Spirit, who proceedeth from the Son as well as from the Father, and is therefore what the Lord has termed Him, His other Self within the Christian Church. It is the union of these two counterpart ideas that gives the perfect doctrine of the Holy Ghost as a centre in theology. But the doctrine does not end there. That is only its beginning. The Spirit's work in the world is as -all-pervasive as that of the Son. Every theological system has its distinct relation to it ; and no two assign precisely the same function to Him whose ministration the gospel is. It will be a difficult but valuable exercise to determine the posture of all the Confessions to the Holy Ghost as in- spirer and witness of the Scriptures, as bearing testimony to believers and working within them. It is under this head that some of the distinguishing characteristics both of Koman- ism and of Arminianism would best be exhibited. In the former system the Holy Ghost was in the original constitution of man a kind of mediator before the Mediator: being the bond of perfection in man's first estate, the superadded gift of original righteousness, whose departure was the fatal fall, and His restoration in baptism the free gift that restores mankind. INTRODUCTION. xlix Arminianism has no more imposing doctrine than that which it teaches concerning the Spirit's universal influence as the representative of Christ's redemption, pervading the outer court with that preliminary grace which leads to the Holy and the Holiest. These are but specimens, serving to show in what way the Third Person might occupy a place as central as Christ Himself in the exhibition of Christian doctrine. Before leaving the topic, the observation may be allowed, in the way of marginal note only, that there is no one subject in Christian theology more neglected than this. Let our imaginary student take care not to neglect it. Yet one more subject shall detain us for a while. It is at first sight somewhat remarkable that Winer has not in- cluded Eschatology, or the Doctrines of the Last Things, in his tabulation. But, when we consider attentively, we find that the symbolical interest of these subjects is exhausted by the section on the doctrine or sacrament of Penance. This is one of many instances in which the place occupied by a subject in the old Confessions is far from being the measure of its absolute importance. The Comparative Tables now recommended must have a department for the Last Things, and give it plenty of space. Tor it is a vast as well as an awful branch of theology, and, though scarcely mentioned at any length in our volume, occupies in some form or other the anxious thought of every Church in Christendom. In filling up the table, our student will have to introduce a great number of theories, more or less fanciful and speculative, which glimmer in some of the Confessions, for instance, on the subject of the Resurrection, and the circumstantials of the consummation of all things. There is one branch the Inter- mediate State in which the Eomanist and Greek, the Lutheran and the Reformed, will all be found in their Confessions more or less to differ. The differences are easily stated, but they are enormous in their bearing upon theology. The Advent of Christ is another subject which enters little into the Creeds d 1 INTRODUCTION. and Confessions, save in connection with the Judgment ; but there is a world of unwritten Creeds on the subject of the Millennium which must be epitomized, if justice is to be done to the table. And finally the Judgment, with its eternal issues, must enter. Here again it is remarkable that the Creeds and Confessions of Christendom, whether ancient or modern, have little to say, simply because they were generally constructed more or less with reference to the suppression of error, and there has been a most solemn unanimity among the Christian communities on this subject from the beginning. It will strike the reader's mind, and possibly take the form of an objection, that this enlarged series of comparative tables must needs involve a constant repetition of the leading topics of theology. That, indeed, is the characteristic difference between such a synoptical view as is here proposed and that which is given in this volume. But the very repetition, that might on a first glance seem wearisome or distracting, will on deeper consideration approve itself to be a peculiar and great advantage. It would be hard to exaggerate the importance of that kind of theological study which makes every cardinal topic in its turn a centre, and brings all other themes to revolve around it. Thus, and thus only, we see the various bearings and relations of every subject, and come to understand it thoroughly. Indeed, it is not possible in any other way to do justice to some of the leading doctrines. The Person of Christ cannot be studied under the dogma of the Trinity, though it must necessarily enter there so far as concerns the Divine nature. On the other hand, the doctrine of the Trinity, both as immanent and as economical, must recur under the dogma of the Person of Christ, but in such a way as to avoid the semblance of repetition. It is impossible to do justice to the doctrine of the Holy Ghost as an isolated subject ; it must run more or less through all theology. So is it with the Atone- ment, which, however clear it may be made in itself, is made much more clear when it returns in the doctrine of justifi- INTRODUCTION. li cation. In fact there is nothing that the student of a book like this should have more diligently impressed upon his mind, than the necessity of not studying the several sub- jects of theological science in an isolated manner. This is the manifest evil connected with most of the systems that are commonly adopted. Topic after topic from Eevelation to Judgment is introduced, discussed, and despatched, often with a special care that it shall return no more. It was not after this manner that the Christian Church was taught the rudi- ments of its theology in the New Testament ; and on such a principle the truth can never be adequately unfolded in the scientific theology of the Christian Church. What is to be desired and recommended as the perfection of divinity, is that in which the freedom of Biblical theology is preserved and harmonized with the results of systematizing art. The bearings of every doctrine on every other doctrine should be indicated at least : that being briefly and subordinately touched upon under one head, which takes the leading place under another. Now the same observation will apply to the task now recommended. Our Table is not an exhibition of systematic theology, but of the relation of every Creed to its leading doctrines. But the result, if it is skilfully done, will be as good as any system of theology. It remains only that the student make the experiment : commencing on a small scale, enlarging it as he goes on. Let him insert at first the judg- ments of every Confession on the fundamental subjects, much after the manner of Winer, but in his own words. If his tables are in a worthy volume, well articulated, and with ample room for fuller detail of minor differences, for dates and names and all the other accessories of his subject, the accumu- lation of a few years will be more valuable to him than any book an his library. III. Hitherto these introductory observations have gone on the supposition that Winer's work is a calm, impartial, com- lii INTRODUCTION. prehensive, and universal view of the Confessions of Christen- dom ; and that as such it may be made a text-book by the theologian of every doctrinal type. It is time now to specify certain necessary qualifications of this tribute : qualifications, however, which point only to the kind of supplement which his work requires for the English reader, and for the English reader of the present day. This has no reference to the mere literature of the question. The last German editor of the work has supplied all that could be desired in this depart- ment ; and the student who desires to possess the amplest materials for the prosecution of his researches in Symbolical Theology, will find the latest and best collections of the several Creeds of the Churches indicated for his benefit. A judicious selection of these would be a valuable addition to his library, and give him a firm foundation on which to build. In fact, so complete and well digested are these summaries and collec- tions, that no man need quote at second hand the statements of either the ancient or the modern Confessions of Christian Faith ; and, as truth should reign in every department of theology, so accuracy in literary quotation should be its faithful minister. But neither truth in the thing expressed, nor accuracy in the expression of it, can long be maintained in this branch of study unless the habit is formed of examin- ing, wherever that is possible, the original standards as they speak for themselves. Whatever supplement the work may require has reference rather to its presentation for English readers. And this in two directions. First, the Continental systems of theology are by the necessity of the case looked at from a German point of view, and, when the point of view is transferred to this side of the Channel, though the geographical change is not great, the theological parallax is considerable, bearing no precise propor- tion to the distance in space. Secondly, to the English eye of the present day there are many and most important varieties of Confession which, whether formulated or not, ought to be INTRODUCTION. lili admitted into the survey, but have no place in Winer's tabu- lation. It may be suggested that this was a fair reason for an editorial reconstruction of the work itself; or for running dis- sertations adapting the foreign element to the English standard of comparison, and such insertions of our more modern repre- sentatives of belief as would have made the book complete. As to the first suggestion, he who would offer it has never made the experiment of recasting the work of a great man, and yet preserving its identity ; and he must have failed to notice how miserably such processes have generally issued. There is no extant illustration of its success ; at least of such complete or even partial success as would encourage any sound-minded editor to the attempt. As to the third suggestion, that of adding the later Confessions, the question must first be answered, Where are they to be found ? Most of our modern communities have declined to formulate their peculiarities by express articles, at any rate by any such precise form of sound words as might be appealed to as declaring their common sen- timent. It is far easier to understand the general type of Congregationalist or Baptist or Methodist doctrine than to quote the terms in which they have agreed to define it. So also it is much easier to summarize in the mind than to exhibit on paper the congeries of beliefs, positive and negative, that make up the religion of Millenarians, Unitarians, Friends, Swedenborgians, Irvingites, and others, too many to be enu- merated. Some of these bodies fall back upon old standards, such as the Thirty-nine Articles and the Westminster Confes- sion. So far as that holds good, their case is met. The defi- nitions of the Anglican Church have been given by Winer himself, and he has done mpre than justice to the question ; the testimonies of the Westminster Confession have been care- fully given in this English edition, in justice to that very large portion of the Christian world which owes it allegiance more or less absolute. The third suggestion remains, the running dissertations ; and that is provided for in what liv INTRODUCTION. remains of this Introduction, so far as such fleeting notices as the following may deserve the name of dissertation. First, as to the two great types of Protestant doctrine, the Lutheran and the Reformed, it may not be a superfluous task to make a few remarks that shall round them off to the English student in their united and several significance. It would be a work of supererogation to indicate their doctrinal distinction, from Home on the one hand, and, on the other hand, as sharply defined between themselves. That is done effectually in the volume, and need not be twice done. But a German author would take some things for granted which an English reader would need to have explained to him. These two systems of Christian doctrine in the German theory rule the Protestant world. As such they are not Lutheranism and Calvinism, but, dropping the names of men, they are the Evangelical and the Reformed Confessions. Lutheranism is the Evangelical Church : having adopted that term for its theology, not as against its Swiss coadjutor in the Reformation, but as against Rome, and as the symbol of its protest for the pure gospel The Swiss or Calvinistic move- ment, as nearly as possible simultaneous, produced the Reformed Confession : having adopted that term Reformed for its theo- logy, not as against its German coadjutor, of course, but still as against Rome, and as the symbol of its protest against the Papal Church. It would perhaps be hypercriticism to say that the two terms obscurely indicate a certain difference between the two systems, as the former was more concerned with Christian doctrine, the latter more concerned with the Christian State, while they in some sense alike contended for both. There is a truth in this which might be pleaded for, were it worth while. But let it pass : the distinction is one that has not so much significance among us as it has in German theology, but it is one that requires to be understood : we must be familiar with many things in our neighbours' nomenclature which we do not ourselves adopt. Returning to the starting- INTEODUCTION. ly point, the German survey of the Christian world makes the Evangelical and Keformed types govern all Protestant theology. To change the figure, the river that went out of the new Eden to water the garden was parted and became two streams to fertilize the entire theological earth. To drop figures alto- gether, Lutheranism as a form of Christianity is held by the German heart of Europe, by the Scandinavian nations, by part of Britain and America, reckoning itself the standard and director of an immense body of science theological that bears not its name ; whilst the Eeformed form of Christianity is held by Switzerland and France, its ancient seats, by the Nether- lands, by much of Great Britain Scotland particularly, but not exclusively, and by the greater part of North America. Whatever Christian symbols bear not the signature of the Augsburg Confession have that of the Helvetic ; in other words, those have written broadly upon them the name of Luther, these the name of Calvin. Hence the arrangement of the Con- fessions in the present volume. The English Articles and the Westminster Confession drop quietly into the ranks of the Eeformed. Evangelical and Eeformed are the two central superscriptions made one in the unity of Protestant doctrine. To the left lie the corrupt Confessions of East and West ; and to the right, in a confraternity forced upon them rather by science than truth, the Arminian, Anabaptist, and Socinian forms of faith. This style of German unification has not been interfered with in our edition. It has at the first glance some measure of justification in the facts of the case, especially as regards the Eeformed type of Confession. This has been stamped, with some modifications, on a larger number of Christian formularies. The die was new cut, and its edges keenly sharpened at the Synod of Dort; it took a completer form and was engraved afresh in good English letters in the Westminster Confession, and that Con- fession is an elect symbol of Calvinistic Presbyterianism all over the world, as well as of most congregational communities Ivi INTRODUCTION. in England and America. Moreover, the Anglican formularies were constructed very much under the influence of the Augs- burg and the Swiss Confessions: being in many respects a composite of the two, deriving, when the articles, canons, and rites of the English Church are viewed as a whole, a peculiar and unshared character from the combination. He who reads the doctrinal standards is constantly reminded of Calvin; he who follows its liturgical service feels that he is much more under the influence of a sacramental religion than Calvin ever was. But, on the other hand, there is much to be set against all this. It is not true that Luther and Calvin moulded the Eeformation so absolutely. In our own land, Christian theo- logy had been before their time undergoing its silent but sure transformation. There lived brave men before Agamemnon : there were true interpreters of God's Word in England and Scotland who did more for subsequent Christian truth than any of the Confessions of Germany and Switzerland. Moreover, the doctrinal system of the English Churches varies in many things from the Continental type ; and varies in a way which absolutely proves it independent of both the forms of that type. The dogma of Transubstantiation has never had a formula that expresses it in the English language ; the Anglican Real Presence is more nearly allied to Calvin's doctrine, though essentially diverging from that. The theo- logy of the Puritans, however much like that of Calvin, held very different theories as to the relation of Christianity to the State, and the authority of man in things divine. And, if we come down to our own times, it cannot be said that the great bulk of English theology is under the influence of either Luther or Calvin. In all its branches it is independent of Continental Confessions, however much in all its branches in- debted to Continental learning and criticism. Passing from that subject which, however, will presently be resumed the internal relations of Lutheranism and the Re- formed demand a moment's attention. A careful study of their INTRODUCTION. Ivii documents will show how widely they diverge on many funda- mental points: so widely, that the experiment of their union in Germany, now nearly half a century made, can never hope to be a complete success. It may be wrong to say fundamental points, for the two Confessions are perfectly at one as to the deepest basis of human hope. But as to the universality of the grace of the gospel, and the means of grace by which it is applied, and the sacramental participation of Christ, they are very widely separated. The absolute sovereignty of God over man's will and destiny, declared in the doctrine of Election, sways with a dread supremacy the Reformed Con- fessions; the Lutheran allow free play for human responsibility and a predestination based upon the foresight of faith and obedience. In the Reformed Confessions the means of grace are reduced finally to the Word of God ; in the Lutheran they really become the sacraments alone: for, in the former, the emphasis is laid upon the living word, which makes all other means what they are; while, in the latter, grace is in its strict- est meaning the justification, quickening, and sanctification of the soul, which are imparted in the order of the gospel only through the two sacraments. It is, however, in the nature of eucharistical communion with Christ that the two Confessions betray the widest difference. In the Reformed the Lord's Supper is the sign and pledge of a union with Christ which is produced independently by the Spirit through faith. In the Lutheran, the glorified corporeity of Christ, His real body and blood, are in verity and deed received by all who partake : to their salvation by the worthy, to their condemnation by the unworthy. It is only right to add on this subject, that, while the Lutheran doctrine has remained almost unvaried from the beginning taking its stand with desperate tenacity on the words, This is my Body! the Reformed has known many varieties of statement. Calvin, for instance, who denied the ubiquity of the Saviour's body, and therefore rejected the idea of its impartation in and under and with the elements to all Iviii INTRODUCTION. who received them, nevertheless held firmly that the very body of Christ is the spiritual sustenance of the soul, which ascends to touch it as it were in heaven hy faith. Zwingli fixed his eye solely on the symbol and sign in the sacrament : at least that is the prevalent tendency of his teaching, the language of which varies considerably. The representatives of the Eeformed Confessions in England have, as has been already affirmed, maintained their independence. The Presbyterian type of doctrine in the Westminster Confession gives much prominence to the sealing efficacy of the Lord's Supper, as an instrument that not only pledges but conveys over the blessings of which it is the sign, the benefits, that is, of the Christian covenant. From this the Congregationalist standards recede, and go beyond Zwiugli in the opposite direction. But we are trespassing into a region where our volume itself is the best guide. Before leaving these venerable Confessions, or rather families of Confessions, a word may be said as to their influence upon the theologies which they severally regulated. At the outset they each gave birth to as noble a series of dog- matic writers as Christian literature has ever known: as subtle as the schoolmen, whose methods they inherited, but baptized richly with the spirit of the new evangelical doctrine. The enumeration of their names in both communions would literally fill more than one of these pages : of divines, that is, who wrote on Systematic Theology, whose works were not practical or controversial treatises so much as bodies of divinity, constructed on the most comprehensive system, arranged with consummate analytical art, and still held in repute as the standard of Orthodoxy. These are the treasures of Lutheran and Eeformed Theology, bequeathed to it by the first century after the Eeformation. But here we are en- countered by the objection, that this immense phalanx of divines failed to defend Germany and Switzerland and Holland from the irruption of Eationalism, and Transcen- INTRODUCTION. lix dental Philosophy, and Confessional indifference and lawless- ness. It is hard to meet that objection. The fact must be left among those mysteries of Divine Providence which are the common burden, and which happily we are not required to solve. But we may demur to the inference drawn from the fact in disparagement of these Confessions themselves, and of Confessions generally. Granted that neither of the two great Reformation Standards has preserved its community from error that Germany and Holland, their headquarters in the present day, have a large number of destructionist critics in their midst that is no argument against the value of the formularies against which these critics have revolted. The vital essential truth that is common to them all has preserved them to this day : the errors they contain for, being in some things contradictory, errors they must hold, each or both may be to a great extent chargeable with the recoil into Eationalism. An intelligent, not to say charitable, estimate of the present influence of the two great families of Confessions on Conti- nental Theology will discover much to plead in their favour. First, it cannot be denied that they have never failed from the beginning to keep their place as the two centres of a Christian literature generally sound. This holds good of both. A stream of rich, fresh, edifying German theology may be traced flowing steadily within its more or less definite banks from Melanch- thon to the present day. A censorious observer may point to periods when those banks were effaced, and the healthy and impure waters flowed indistinguishably through one turbid mass : the more catholic-minded observer will see it far other- wise. The same may be said of the Eeformed Theology, especially if its tributaries in Holland and England and America are taken into account. Again, it is no slight evidence of the inherent vigour of these Confessions that they are rallying around them many of the ablest thinkers and writers of the age. These are so earnest in their allegiance that they are beginning to receive a common name from their Ix INTRODUCTION*. confessional ardour. Some of them are rigorous and almost bigoted in their adherence to their respective formularies, emulating the old dogmatic divines in the systematic presen- tation of Lutheran and Reformed Theology, as reconstructed in the presence of Rationalism and with a constant reference to its attacks. Some of them base their labours on the theory of a union of the Confessions. These Union theologians are rapidly increasing. They labour, of course, under great dis- advantages. It cannot be denied that the original framers of the Confessions finished their work in such a manner that the types can never coalesce, the two theologies can never run into the same mould. This does not, however, preclude the possibility that the resulting system may be one better on the whole than any which either Confession could produce alone : a question, however, which this is not the place to enter upon. The union of the two Churches, begun at the Tercentenary of the Reformation, and gradually spreading through Germany down to the present time, is, after half a century, only an experiment. In our own day Protestant Europe is witnessing a new and strange kind of controversy, waged furiously on the Continent, but more or less involving Great Britain. There is, to use a bold word, a contest between the modern Confessions and the ancient symbols, or rather the one ancient symbol from which the others sprang the Apostles' Creed. The German Protestant Alliance for by such a term we must translate its paradoxical name in the original is waging a steady and relentless war against the Reformation symbols, and uses for convenience the earliest Christian rule of faith as its standard and battery. As the campaign goes on, and its tactics and evolutions become more evident, it begins to appear that the old symbol has been, after all, deceitfully used. The contest is really the old one between a human and a divine Christianity under another form. The question soon arose, What is the symbolum apos- tolicum ? One by one it lost its articles, until it was disin- INTRODUCTION. Ixi tegrated into a meaningless symbol of an original legendary faith. But the gradual accumulation of the articles of that Creed was step by step a series of victories over the heresies of early times ; and now it remains that, article by article, it must be defended in these later ages. Lutheranism has to fight resolutely now for the veriest foundation facts of the Christian faith ; and it is no small evidence of the value of its old Confessions that the ablest defenders of the early faith are also the most strenuous adherents of their own modern form of it. But Protestant Christendom was not long divided between the two Confessions in their integrity. Other systems of faith have arisen, and exerted vast influence. A few words will be necessary in explanation of the place assigned in this work to Arminian doctrine, as the first and most important of these. The idea suggested to the English mind by the term Armi- nianism is not precisely the same as that which it suggests to the German divine. To us it is simply the antithesis of Cal- vinism, and stands rather for a tendency of thought than for a definite Confession. To the German, and to the Continental student of historical theology generally, it stands for a Dutch religious community with a dogmatic standard and a developed history not yet ended. The Arminian or Eemonstrant divinity has always had a sore ordeal to pass through. To the Lutherans it has been a degenerate branch of the Eeformed, and to the Keformed an unworthy offshoot which it would fain disavow. It is not necessary here to trace its history, nor to characterize its leading theologians, for both these have justice done them in the volume. Suffice that the names of Arminius, Episcopius, Curcellseus, Hugo Grotius, Limborch, Le Clerc, and Wetstein are a septemvirate not easily to be paralleled. But the taint of latitudinarianism is upon the later Eemonstrant theology, to the susceptibilities at least of the more orthodox Lutherans and Eeformed. It is almost universally thought that the Ixii INTRODUCTION. older quinquarticular Arminianism betrayed a tendency towards laxity in doctrine almost as soon as the Remonstrant stage of its history was entered upon. Episcopius had to defend his party against the charge of Socinianism : an easier task than to defend it against the imputation of carrying too far the subordination in the Trinity. It has been an offence to the Confessional divines that the Arminians have been lax as it regards symbols. The Calvinistic controversialists, in particular, have never forgiven them their consistently -held dogma concerning the human will, and have freely given them the name of semi-Pelagians. Thus, on all hands, the Arminian theology has been, and still is, where it lingers in the Nether- lands, condemned : where it escapes one enemy, it falls under the censure of another. To the strict adherent of the symbols, it is Eationalism ; to the hyper-orthodox, it is semi-Socinianism; to the rest, it is semi-popish Pelagianism. All this is here stated as matter of fact. It is a necessary explanation of the circumstance that the Arminian and the Socinian standards are in such suspicious juxtaposition. The student must bear in mind that Winer only falls in with the conven- tional manner of speaking and principle of classification. A careful examination of the authorities cited will suffice to exhibit the truth as it respects an important body of theolo- gical teachers and ' doctrines which have exerted no slight influence on the Christianity of the world. But there is an Arminianism in this country which is a very different matter, and must be regarded under other lights. It is its peculiarity that it has one history on the Continent and another in England or among the English-speaking races. Whereas in most Continental reviews of historical theology Arminianism is regarded as a suspicious transitional stage between Orthodoxy and nationalism, and its evil communi- cations with Socinianism are supposed to have corrupted its good morals, in the English estimate Arminianism is mainly regarded as the diffused corrective of Calvinism. It represents INTRODUCTION. Ixiii a doctrine of the Atonement, whether objective in the finished work of Christ or subjective in the personal application of that work, which opposes the doctrine held by the Calvinistic Reformed communities everywhere. The satisfaction of Christ is viewed rather as offered to the righteous Governor of the universe, and counted by Him sufficient for the relief of the world from the sentence of the law, than as a strict equivalent for the guilt of the elect, and imputed to them as such. And the application of Christ's merit is regarded as an appropriation on the part of man through the Spirit's grace, leaving it as the issue of his probation to hold it fast for ever or lose it, rather than as the absolute and irreversible interest in salvation secured by Christ for His own. This is English Arminianism, as it reigns in a very large section of the Anglican divinity, more ancient and more modern, and as it has been accepted throughout the wide-spread Methodist denomina- 'tions. It may be said, indeed, that Arminianism in England further represents a doctrine of the Trinity and the Person of Christ which has its peculiarities. But an accurate theological criticism will not allow this. The subordination in the interior relations of the triune nature, which, as a subordination that does not impair the essential equality and consubstantiality of the Divine Persons, was taught by Pearson, for instance, the re- presentative of a large body of divines, was not derived from Arminianism. It descended to these writers from the earliest theology of the Church, and is supported by them by Scripture and the fathers. It is true that the doctrine luminously reigns in the writings of the second generation of Dutch Arminianism, but Anglican divinity was no borrower from the Continent in this department. Nor was it, strictly speaking, in the other ; that is, in the doctrines of Grace. Neither the older divines of the English Church, nor the modern Method- ists, thought themselves to have received what they taught on these questions, either "from man or by man." But un- doubtedly the reflex and indirect influence of the Synod of Ixiv INTRODUCTION. Dort was very great in this country. For a long time Arminianism was a watchword as against Calvinism. This, however, gradually ceased to be an acknowledged watchword ; it was suppressed in the Methodist literature, and is not used save by the Calvinistic opponents of the doctrines referred to. For the rest, and to sum up these merely historical remarks, it must be remembered by the English student of this work, that while Arminians, or rather Eemonstrants, have never ceased to be a corporate body in the Eeformed Netherlands, Arminianism in England has never been more than a tendency and an influence, a theory and norm of doc- trine, and consequently without a Confession of its own. Strictly speaking, Arminianism has not, either on the Continent or in England, had a Confession. One of the characteristic principles of the party was a comparative in- difference to formal symbols and creeds. But this fact must be rightly understood ; the Remonstrant divines were never lax either in the systematization or the definition of their faith. Their dogmatic writers were quite worthy to take rank with their rivals in these respects, and that is no small praise. Nothing can be more luminous than the exposition of doctrine by Episcopius and Limborch. And it cannot be denied that their entire theory of Christianity from end to end is articu- lated, uniform and consistent ; it would not otherwise have lodged so firmly in the Anglo-Saxon mind. But the leaders of this movement were not ambitious to form a distinct community ; they were content to protest against what they thought exaggerations in the Confessions which they in the main agreed with and adopted. Arminians they never called themselves ; and their name Eemonstrants was derived from their honourable but firm remonstrance presented to the States- General of Holland in 1611. Arminius was originally a disciple of Beza, and through him of Calvin. He never ceased to respect the Eeformed Confessions; and never, any more than his successors, set up a rival formulary. He was con- INTRODUCTION. Ixv tent, so far as concerned that, with establishing negations of some of what he thought the too severe statements of the doctrines of Grace. It must be added to this, that the com- munity carried to an excess their estimate of the greater im- portance of a sound life in comparison with a sound Creed ; forgetting, in later times especially, that, if doctrine is accord- ing to godliness, godliness is also according to doctrine. Hence, on the whole, it may be said that the Eemonstrant community abjured the thought of any such separation from the Eeformed communion as would have been involved in the construction of a distinct Creed. On the other hand, there are certain Arminian documents which have all the force and authority of a Confession. For the character and history of these the reader is referred to Winer. They have reference to the five points in particular that defined the differences between the old and the new types of doctrine. The other standards are appealed to as containing the more general exposition of doctrine. And the whole may be said to be the most remarkable instance Christianity has known of an eclectic faith. This term is a branded one ; and as such will be very welcome to those who are the over- zealous enemies of Arminianism. But it is used here in an historical and conventional sense of our own, to meet the facts of the case. It absorbs the greater part of the doctrines of the Lutheran and Eeformed standards, using honestly the terms satisfaction, original sin, effectual grace, but throwing over them the influence of a doctrine concerning the universal effect of the redeeming work of Christ which gives each of them a distinct and qualified character : to reconcile them with vain reasoning, their enemies say ; to reconcile them with Scripture and the facts of human consciousness, they say them- selves. In this they are eclectic enough to borrow from later Lutheranism, the early Greek Churches, and in some sense the later doctrine of Eome. Semi-Pelagianism, both Eoman and Greek, might seem to have lent them some of its few unex- 6 Ixvi INTRODUCTION. ceptionable principles as to the freedom of the human will. But they contracted no further debt to that system, as the Eemonstrants have never denied that the first as well as all sub- sequent movements of the soul towards God are of the operation of the Holy Ghost. To go a step further back: there may appear to be a strain of the Eomanist doctrine in the Arminian view of the effects of the fall. But in the latter, the restora- tion of the Spirit to man through Christ's mediation is made a general gift to the race; in the former, the Sacrament of Baptism removes every trace of original sin as such. This line of observation might easily be pursued ; but enough has been said for our merely historical object. Justice would not have been done to the Arminian section of our comparative view without so much: more would carry us beyond our present design. Let it suffice, that the eclecticism of the Eemonstrant divinity must indicate its character in the following work, which will show that the importation of the older theology into the new, for which it is responsible, will hardly justify Mohler's patronizing terms concerning it, and still less the calm verdict of Dr. Hodge, in an essay on the " History of Creeds " : " The theology taught in all these Papal standards is Armin- ianism." From a German point of view the Anabaptists and Mennon- ites are necessary factors in a comparison of the Confessions. But to an English eye they seem like fossils even in a German work, and in every sense are obsolete in a symbolical survey. They pertain to one family, the badge of which was the rejection of infant baptism, a badge less honourable in its history on the Continent than in its history in England and America. The Anabaptists proper belong rather to ecclesias- tical than to dogmatic history. By their frightful excesses they disturbed the progress of the Eeformation more than any other among the elements of Luther's difficulty. Melanchthon did them too much honour in his elaborate refutation of their Montanistic and other extravagances. Their name, if not their INTRODUCTION. Ixvii memory, has perished: one of their principles, however, having survived in a purer form. Towards the middle of the seven- teenth century Menno Simonis formed a Baptist community in Holland, which mingled with its own creed many of the fanatical notions of the Anabaptists, and some of those which Quakerism has made familiar to us, adding to the whole a rite peculiar to itself, the feet- washing. They have since mul- tiplied into smaller sects with which our subject is not con- cerned. As to the original body, nothing need be added to the information of our work, save that the limitation of the Sacrament of Baptism to adult believers is the only point in common between them and the Baptists known to ourselves. Finally, on this branch of the subject, it must be remem- bered that the elaborate Socinian Confessions and catechisms which figure so largely in our volume are, strictly speaking, as much extinct as those of the Anabaptists. This is a plain fact, but it is one the significance of which is some- times lost sight of. What the Socinian doctrine was, and what its links were with the primitive heresies of the second century lineal descent it had none, Winer's work will show. What it does not indicate, the affinity with Arianism on the one hand and the doctrine of Praxeas and the rest on the other, must be gathered from the history of Christian doctrine. What is here necessary is to indicate that our English Socinianism, so called, is a very different thing from that which figures in these columns. It is as far removed from its prototype in Poland as the Baptist doctrine in England is from its Anabaptist representative in the Eeformation age. But in an opposite direction ; for, whereas among our Baptists the stream has run clear of its defecations, Unitarianism in Eng- land and America has thrown off much, if not all, of the dogmatic precision and doctrinal consistency and supernatural dignity of its Continental ancestry. The term supernatural will point the way to what we mean. The old Socinianism adopted Rationalist principles at the outset, rejected the Ixviii INTRODUCTION. traditional Christianity of past ages, and constructed its theory of Christ's Person and work by the light of its own rational interpretation of the Scriptures. But it held fast the doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture, or of its quasi- inspiration; though it had no inspiring Person, it had an inspiring influence, to elevate the Bible above other literature. It also perceived clearly the supernatural element that per- vades the Bible, and its Christ therefore was not in the world under the ordinary conditions of mankind. Hence the modern historians of theology in Germany, generalizing after their fashion, represent Socinianism as the beginning of Rationalism with the supernatural added. The effect of this is apparent in the Socinian formularies, especially as they refer to the Person of Christ. Not divine, He is nevertheless preter- naturally conceived and endowed ; He is capable of receiving communications from God denied to all others, and of im- parting those communications as no others could impart them ; and the honour put upon Him is such as no mere mortal could bear and live. At three points in the Saviour's history, Socinianism set upon Him a remarkable seal of dignity. In His birth, when God created Him not after the manner of men; at His rapture into heaven, where, lifted nearer to God than Paul was, He received such know- ledge of divine things as neither man nor angels had ever received; and at His ascension, when He was raised to a supreme dignity over the universe. This strain of comment might be pursued, but here also we must forbear from going out of our prescribed sphere. Enough is said to indicate why the Sociuian is placed among the Christians, and his Creed as carefully examined and collated as any other. Now that old Socinianism is extinct saving in annals, it marks a stage in a great development no more. It did not rise high enough to admit of recovery to the truth ; it did not sink low enough to satisfy the proclivities of rationalistic error. Its Confessions re- main simply to show that in that sifting age it had its probation. INTRODUCTION. Ixix The consideration of modern Unitarianism leads to the second branch of this topic, and the last of our general obser- vations : the supplement that the English reader must bring to Winer's Collection of Creeds. It may be as well to say at once that there are no Confessions which have to be added. The old Confessions are still used, though with certain modi- fications, by those communities which hang upon Creeds and Articles. The majority, however, dispense with them, and content themselves with a more or less defined tradition of faith. In fact, the ancient symbols which at the Reformation became Confessions, have in these last days become Platforms, to use the American word, Standards, as the English call them. A few general observations on these will close our preparatory labours. The modern Unitarians are not included in Winer's sym- bolical survey. In fact they were not known to him. The representatives in Germany of their type of doctrine were not reckoned among Christian communities ; not indeed that they existed in numbers too small to form congregations, they formed many congregations that did not bear their name, or betray outwardly their departure from the old faith, but the far greater part of them were content with a practical indif- ference and literary infidelity ; they were the Illuminati who retired from the communion of the Church, and calmly sat over against the cross, pondering and criticising. Among the churches of Germany and Switzerland there have been many ruled by Socinian opinions, but there have been none that avowed any obligation to the Socini. They have reserved their allegiance for a mightier potentate, the human reason. In other words, they do not give themselves the name of any man ; because no one man in any one age can represent the flux of opinions that change with the progression of the race. Nor do they set up any Confession of Faith ; and for the same reason : the next generation ought not to be bound by the opinions or prejudices of its predecessor. Nor do they con- Ixx INTRODUCTION. descend to adopt an appellation that might simply negative some current opinion, such, for instance, as Unitarianism ; for their opinions negative not one current opinion only, but the entire code of Christian beliefs. On the Continent, Soci- nianism is as extinct as it is with us ; but there it has not our substitute. Unitarianism is an English and American system of doctrine, comprising an infinite variety of opinions on all religious subjects, which are kept in a sort of cohesion by the central affirmation that Christ was and is only man. That is their Creed, Confession, and Standard reduced to unity. If that be maintained, every dogma of the old Creed may be held, or renounced, or modified, according to the measure of the illumination of every man or every church. Confessions, or Articles of Faith, or terms of concord, are out of the question. They are at once needless and impossible : needless, because the simplicity of the one article needs no formula ; and impossible, because there are and always have been among them as many opinions as there are teachers, in regard to the variety of topics that enter into the construction of a Confession of Faith. When, therefore, in an adaptation of Winer to the English point of view, we substitute Unitarianism for ancient Soci- nianism, or rather make the former an appendage of the latter, it must be with a considerable reservation. In fact, all that is necessary is to insert among the observations the note, that the modern representatives of Socinus have no Confession or Standard from which an authoritative statement may be ex- tracted on any one point in Christian theology. In leaving the subject thus, we abstain from entering upon any historical review of the variety of phases through which the Unita- rian theory has passed in reaching its present stage of creedless development That would be an interesting, how- ever painful, task ; there is abundance of materials for it at hand, but it does not belong to our province. A compara- tive survey of the Confessions cannot include a community whose Confession is limited to one negation, and beyond INTRODUCTION. Ixxi that has no standard of appeal and no force of general obligation. Before leaving the Unitarians, we may observe that there seems to be a tendency among the writers of some communi- ties to put such an interpretation upon the doctrine of the Trinity as would issue in a dogma never yet found in any Confession or heresy. Many a theologian in Germany, loyal in general to the Augsburg Confession, nevertheless indulges in speculations, and shapes them into definitions, which are neither Trinitarian, nor Tritheistic, nor Arian, nor Sabellian, but simply their own. The fashion set abroad has been copied at home. How many writers are there owning a professed allegiance to the Thirty-nine Articles, whose teaching on this subject bears the same character ! Stripped of their refine- ments, their definitions would be reduced to naked Unitarianism. "Were such Trinitarians in profession, but Unitarians in heart, to define honestly their Creed to themselves, they must needs join this community. There are not wanting indications that this method of refining upon the doctrine of the Trinity finds favour in some other communities not so rigidly bound to their articles as the Church of England. Of course, the Uni- tarian Creed using that term in a conventional sense may claim these teachers ; and, taking them into account, its influ- ence may be said to be extending in England. Apart from that, however, and viewed as a distinct type of Christian belief, it holds but a slight and waning position in English Christendom. The doctrinal Confession of the Presbyterians and Congre- gationalists of Great Britain and America may be said to be shaped generally by the Westminster Confession, with its accompanying Catechism. The history of this celebrated formulary is given in our work : any one who desires to enlarge its scanty notices has abundant materials for doing so. Not excepting the Canons of Dort, no Confession so fully expresses the doctrine of the Reformed branch of the Eefor- Ixxii INTRODUCTION. mation, and none has exerted so much influence in Christendom. It is the common formulary of the Presbyterian Churches in the old and new world. The Congregational Convention, which met at the Savoy in 1658, declared their acceptance of the doctrinal part of the Confession and Catechisms of the Westminster Assembly ; and, in fact, formed their Savoy Con- fession on its basis. For a long time the Assembly's Catechisms were generally used by all these communities ; and to some extent even now that is the case. They were adopted in America by the Puritan founders of American Christendom. Since the seventeenth century, platform after platform has reconstructed or modified the original form to harmonize it with American institutions, but the essential body of the old Confession has remained intact. It remains to this day the avowed or unavowed directory of the religious faith of all who, throughout the English-speaking world, hold to the traditions of Puritan theology. Broadly speaking, then, the citations from the Westminster Confession in this volume may be taken as representing the faith of Presbyterians and Con- gregationalists, whether Independent or Baptist. This, however, is speaking very broadly. Both the latter branches have again and again published documents which have the character of Confessions. A large number of Baptist congregations adopted, in 16*77, a modification of the Westminster Confession, which contains the following articles :" Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament. . . . Those who do actually profess repentance towards God, faith in and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ-, are the only proper objects of this ordinance. . . . Immersion, or dipping of the body in water, is necessary to the due ad- ministration of that ordinance. . . . All ignorant and ungodly persons, as they are unfit to enjoy communion with Christ, so are they unworthy of the Lord's table." An earlier Confession, in 1646, dilates more fully upon one point: " The way and manner of dispensing this ordinance is dipping or plunging the INTRODUCTION. Ixxiii body under water. It, being a sign, must answer the things signified ; which is, that interest the saints have in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ ; and that, as certainly as the body is buried under water, and risen again, so certainly shall the bodies of the saints be raised by the power of Christ in the day of the resurrection, to reign with Christ." In our own day, the formulary from which this last extract is taken has been republished with general acceptance. It may be said that the Baptist Confession of Faith, though not binding as such, and free in lesser details, is consistently and firmly held as a general tradition in England. With its Westminster type of the doctrines of Grace, its congregational principles of church government, its own peculiar theory of one of the Sacraments, and in some respects of both, it is a clear and definite system. Placed, however, among the Confessions of Christendom, whether of ancient or modern times, it is an isolated, exceptional, and very fragmentary representation of Christian doctrine. The modern Independents have found it necessary to add some kind of standards to their original Confession, though in the adoption of these standards they do not forget the idea that lurks in their general designation. A few extracts from a " Declaration of Faith, Church Order, and Discipline " will explain very clearly their position. Among the preliminary notes are these : " 1. It is not designed in the following summary to do more than to state the leading doctrines of faith and order maintained by Congregational Churches in general. 4. It is not intended that the following statement should be put forth with any authority, or as a standard to which assent should be required. 5. Disallowing the utility of creeds and articles of religion as a bond of union, and pro- testing against subscription to any human formularies as a term of communion, Congregationalists are yet willing to declare, for general information, what is commonly believed among them, reserving to every one the most perfect liberty of conscience. 7. They wish it to be observed that, not with- Ixxiv INTRODUCTION. standing their jealousy of subscription to creeds and articles, and their disapproval of the imposition of any human standard, whether of faith or discipline, they are far more agreed in their doctrines and practices than any Church which enjoins subscription and enforces a human standard of orthodoxy ; and they believe that there is no minister and no Church among them that would deny the substance of any one of the follow- ing doctrines of religion, though each might prefer to state his sentiments in his own way." These assertions might seem sufficient to vindicate the propriety of passing on, since a place among the Confessions must needs be denied to those who protest against symbols in every form. But a few more extracts may be useful as showing where the Congregationalist? would be found were they to accept a place : " 9. They believe that, in the fulness of the time, the Son of God was manifested in the flesh, being born of the Virgin Mary, but conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit ; and that our Lord Jesus Christ was both the Son of man and the Son of God, partaking fully and truly of human nature, though without sin; equal with the Father, and 'the express image of His Person.' 14. They believe that all who will be saved were the objects of God's eternal and electing love, and were given by act of divine sovereignty to the Son of God ; which in no way interferes with the system of means, nor with the ground of human responsibility, being wholly unrevealed as to its objects, and not a rule of human duty. 15. They believe in the perpetual obligation of Baptism and the Lord's Supper: the former to be administered to all converts to Christ and their children, by the application of water to the subject ' in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ;' and the latter to be celebrated by Christian Churches as a token of faith on the Saviour, and of brotherly love." If carefully examined, these declarations will be found to allow a wide latitude as to the Calvinistic peculiarities of the West- minster Confession, as also upon the Sacraments, while strictly INTEODUCTION. 1XXV faithful, in articles not quoted, to the doctrines of the Trinity and the Person of Christ, and the authority of the Scriptures. As to the specific principles of the church government of the Congregationalists, the following is the final statement : " 7. The power of admission into any Christian Church, and rejection from it, they believe to be vested in the Church itself, and to be exercised only through the medium of its own officers. 9. They believe that the power of a Christian Church is purely spiritual, and should in no way be corrupted by union with temporal or civil power. 12. They believe that it is the duty of Christian Churches to hold communion with each other . . . but that no Church, nor union of Churches, has any right or power to interfere with the faith or discipline of any other Church, further than to separate from such as, in faith and practice, depart from the gospel of Christ. 13. They believe that church officers, whether bishops or deacons, should be chosen by the free voice of the Church ; but that their dedication to the duties of their office should take place with special prayer and by solemn designa- tion, to which most of the Churches add the imposition of hands by those already in office." If such clauses as these are added to the several Reformed testimonies in Winer's list, English Congregationalism, and American also, would be fairly represented. But it is only historical justice to add that Independent Churches claim their prerogative of independence. Their trust-deeds may be orthodox' in most cases, and there may reign throughout their denomination a noble tradition of evangelical orthodoxy : but there is no universal safeguard by the very terms of their Declaration. There is no Confession, Standard, or Declaration that would in any sense represent the teaching of many of its ministers, both in America and in England. But we are interdicted from pursuing this topic any further. Suffice that the Congregationalist Confession of Faith is one that cannot be made a supplement to our volume, inasmuch as it does not exist in any available form. The Ixxvi INTRODUCTION. doctrine of these Churches is represented, so far as it is repre- sented, by the testimonies of the Westminster Confession. Among the communities of English origin to which Winer gives no place, must be reckoned those which fall under the general denomination of Methodist. Methodism in its original form, as it first assumed the character of a Society within the Church of England, and afterwards by force of circumstances took rank among the Connexional Churches of Presbyterian Christendom, was not forgotten by Mohler, who has traced its doctrinal characteristics with a fair degree of precision. But it escaped the notice of Winer, partly because to his view it was an adherent of the Thirty-nine Articles, so far as the Christian Faith was concerned ; and partly because whatever doctrinal peculiarities it held were never formulated in any Confession. Hence a few general observations are necessary to show the relation of the Methodist community to the general question of the Symbols. It may be said that English Methodism has no distinct Articles of faith. At the same time it is undoubtedly true that no community in Christendom is more effectually hedged about by confessional obligations and restraints. Eeference has been made to the distinction of Creeds, Confessions, and Standards. Methodism combines the three in its doctrinal constitution after a manner on the whole peculiar to itself. Materially if not formally, virtually if not actually, implicitly if not avowedly, its theology is bound by the ancient (Ecumenical Creeds, by the Articles of the English Church, and by comprehen- sive standards of its own the peculiarity of its maintenance of these respectively having been determined by the specific cir- cumstances of its origin and consolidation, circumstances into which it is not our business here to enter. In common with most Christian Churches it holds fast the Catholic Symbols : the Apostolical and Nicene are extensively used in its Liturgy, and the Athanasian, not so used, is accepted so far as concerns its doctrinal type. The doctrine of the Articles of the Church INTRODUCTION. Ixxvii of England is the doctrine of Methodism. This assertion must be, of course, taken broadly, as subject to many qualifications. For instance : the Connexion has never avowed the Articles as its Confession of Faith ; some of those Articles have no meaning for it in its present constitution ; others of them are tolerated in their vague and doubtful bearing rather than accepted as definitions ; and, finally, many Methodists would prefer to dis- own any relation to them of any kind. Still, the verdict of the his- torical theologian, who takes a comprehensive view of the estate of Christendom in regard to the history and development of Christian truth, would locate the Methodist community under the Thirty-nine Articles. He would draw his inference from the posture towards them of the early founders of the system ; and he would not fail to mark that the American branch of the family, which has spread simultaneously with its European branch, has retained the Articles of the English Church, with some necessary modifications, as the basis of its Confession of Faith. Setting aside the articles that have to do with discipline rather than doctrine, the Methodists universally hold the re- mainder as tenaciously as any of those who sign them, and with as much consistency as the great mass of English divines who have given them an Arminian interpretation. That is to say, where they diverge in doctrine from the Westminster Confession, Methodism holds to them ; while this Confession rather expresses their views on Presbyterian Church govern- ment. It may suffice to say generally on this subject, that so far as concerns the present volume, every quotation from the English Articles may stand, if justly interpreted, as a represen- tative of the Methodist Confession. Finally, we have the Methodist Standards, belonging to it as a society within a church, which entirely regulate the faith of the com- munity, but are binding only upon its ministers. Those Standards are to be found in certain rather extensive theologi- cal writings which have none of the features of a Confession of Faith, and are never subscribed or accepted as such. More Ixxviii INTRODUCTION. particularly, they are some Sermons and Expository Notes of John Wesley ; more generally, these and other writings, cate- chisms, and early precedents of doctrinal definition ; taken as a whole, they indicate a standard of experimental and practi- cal theology to which the teaching and preaching of its mini- sters are universally conformed. What that standard prescribes in detail it would be impossible to define here. It is not our task to furnish the supplement to our volume, but to point out what it includes, and how it may be made. Suffice that the Methodist doctrine is what is generally termed Anninian as it regards the relation of the human race to redemption ; that it lays great stress upon, the personal assurance which seals the personal religion of the believer ; and that it includes a strong testimony to the office of the Holy Spirit in the entire renewal of the soul in holiness as one of the provisions of the covenant of grace upon earth. It may be added, though only as an historical fact, that a rigorous maintenance of this common standard of evangelical doctrine has been attended by the pre- servation of a remarkable unity of doctrine throughout this large communion. Omitting Swedenborgianism, a system not indigenous in England, which we are not bound to regard as one of the Confessions of Christendom, the " Catholic and Apostolic Church" represents a certain aggregate of tendencies, doctrines, and ritual that is in process of forming a confession, though it has none as yet to furnish. This community sprang, in the person of its founder, from what would be called, in the lan- guage of historical theology, a modern Montanistic spirit. Its tenets include the renewal of the apostolate, the restoration of the miraculous signs of the early Church, and a consequent re- construction of the estate of Christ's Body upon earth. Its early doctrine as to the identity between the Lord's human nature and that of man as fallen, has fallen into the category of unformulated beliefs. Its importations from Catholic anti- quity, as interpreted by Rome, are not clearly defined : for, INTRODUCTION. Ixxix though transubstantiation is denied, and the repetition on human altars of the one oblation, what its sacramental doctrine is can be determined by no adequate authority. Its high millenarian theories are left in the same indefinite state. And, as a whole, this modern phenomenon cannot as yet be classed among the Confessions of Christendom. It is a com- posite of all the Confessions, as its ritual is a composite of all the Eites of Christendom. The reader who would add this community to his supplement must take the pains to read many a treatise, and to explore a very miscellaneous service- book. He will find much to reward his curiosity as a student of the developments of the Christian Church ; but he will find it difficult to construct the appropriate confessional column. After all that has been said, there remains another supple- mentary question which the student of Symbolism must add in his own way. It does not refer to any particular class of doctrinal judgment that might be added to the tabulation, nor is it confined to English Christianity. It is more or less common to all forms of the Christian religion, and includes many very important elements of belief and teaching which defy systematization, but nevertheless enter largely into many systems and exert a mighty influence in the Church's develop- ment. These tendencies represent the body of unformulated opinions which belong to all Confessions : undertones of Chris- tian doctrine which characterize men rather than communities, and act upon them rather as modes of thinking than as defi- nite beliefs. Tendencies to Millenarianism, which Judaizes the second coming of Christ as St. Paul's enemies Judaized the first coming; tendencies to a ritualistic Christianity which would restore to it a symbolical character from which the New Testament declares it free ; tendencies to modify the traditional faith of Christendom as to the justice of God, the atonement for human sin, and the everlasting issues of the judgment ; tendencies generally to make the reason of man the standard l.KXX INTRODUCTION. instead of the Scripture : these, and many others which are subordinate expressions of these, are obvious enough to the intelligent survey of the Christian theologian. But, generally speaking, they make no sign : they take no form, they construct no creed, and they have only to be watched and guarded against as passing phenomena. One tendency there is which steadily aims to dissipate the Dogma of Christianity altogether, and to set free the mind of man from any restraint whatever upon its religious sentiments. Against this tendency, which would issue, if unchecked but that is a thing impossible in the subversion of the Christian Faith, the study of the pre- sent work is one the most effectual safeguards. CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. INTRODUCTION. I. ON THE DOCTRINE OF THE SEVERAL COMMUNIONS, AS EXHIBITED IN THEIR STANDARDS. 1. [TiiE scientific exhibition of the doctrinal systems of the several Christian communions has occupied the earnest atten- tion of evangelical theologians from the times of the Reforma- tion. As these theologians, however, mostly wrote under the conviction that they had to maintain a pure confession of the truth of God's word, their treatment of the opposite doctrine naturally assumed the form of a warfare conducted in God's name against error. From, this spirit sprang the Examen Concilii Tridentini of Martin Chemnitz, itself not the least signi- ficant production of the sixteenth century. The devastation which Rationalism wrought in the Church set a limit to this kind of work. What interest had the question concerning a sinner's justification before God through the blood of Christ, for men who believed neither in the divinity of the Son nor in the existence of God the Father ? Planck, indeed, recalled attention to the half-forgotten doctrinal antitheses, but only as an historical writer ; and it was reserved for this last age to summon back the science of Polemics, even to its very name. Among the older polemic works of our Chxirch may be mentioned, as the most important : Schliisselburg, Hcereticorum Cataloyus. Frankfurt, 1597-1599. A 2 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. Calovius, Synopsis Controversiarum. Wittemberg, 1653. Fr. Bechmann, Theologia Polcmica. Jena, 1710. Olearius, Synopsis Controversiarum Selectiorum. Leipzig, 1710. . Schubert, Institutiones Theologies Polemicce. Jena, 1756.J To which may be added the works of Planck, Abriss der dogmat. Systeme; Marheinecke, Christ. Symbolik, and Institutiones Sym- bolicce ; and the English Bishop Marsh. [Of late years, the controversy with Rome has stimulated this literature. In 1832 appeared Mohler's Symbolik, a book from which we can learn neither the Evangelical nor the Romish doctrine. The author created for himself a fantastic system, and seeks to set forth its advantages in the most favourable light. F. C. Baur answered him by the Gcgensatz des Katholicismus und Protestantismus, Nitzsch by the Protestan- tische Beantwortung der Symbolik Mohlcrs, and E. Sartorius by the Soli Deo Gloria. After Mohler arose on the Romish side Perrone, an Italian Jesuit, superior to his German predecessor in keenness and in power of systematization : he wrote the Prcelcctioncs Theologicoe, and, in its German form, Der Protes- tantismus und die Glaubensregel. Hase replied in his Hand- buch der protestantiscJien Polemik. Works of more general interest are : Guerike, Allgemeine christl. Symbolik ; Kollner, Symbolik ; Karsten, Populcere Symlolik ; and Graul, Die Uhter- scheidungslehrenJ] . 2. It is obvious that Symbolical Theology must regard as the exclusive source of its scientific material the written ex- hibitions of doctrine which every ecclesiastical communion has put forth as the authentic confession of its faith. It is true that those individual divines who bear an orthodox character in their own party, may be supposed to have this advantage in their favour, that even their private writings will be in conformity with their standards. But then this report of orthodoxy, which proceeds not from the Church itself, but from the theologians of a particular age, does not exclude the possibility of deviations from the strict confession ; and it is the object of Symbolic Theology to exhibit the dog- matic convictions of any community down to the finer details. Moreover, in the learned treatises of systematic divinity, there INTRODUCTION. 3 Is always more or less concomitant of scientific apparatus; and this makes it .difficult to distinguish between what is symbolical and what is merely the deduction of the author, or his particular manner of clothing the truth, that is, between the confession of faith and dogmatic theology. Consequently, it is equally safe and becoming to fall back upon the con- fessions, and to make them the sole basis of Symbolics as a science. Now every Christian communion has such confes- sions, since each was once under the obligation of proclaiming publicly its distinctive faith. These documents are some- times in the form of specific articles of faith, sometimes in the form of catechisms. 1 Generally, however, every commu- nity has both kinds of authentic symbolic writings at once. In this case the confessions have the precedence; yet the catechisms must not be overlooked, since in them there often reigns more perspicuity than in the confessions, which are sometimes drawn up in ambiguous phraseology. Against Symbolic Theology, as limiting itself to the authentic symbolical documents, two objections may be urged. First, it may be said that it presents, at least in regard to such communities as have anything like a continuous growth of doctrine, an obsolete system, in a certain sense long ago petrified ; hence, indeed, Planck thought it needful to append to his sketch a glance at the more recent dogmatic teachings (of Rationalism). But since Symbolics must, in order not to lose its independent character, proceed from the idea of what has been ecclesiastically sanctioned, and since a symbolical system must needs be valid as such until the Church itself has remodelled, improved, or retracted it, that fixed standard must always be kept in view. The exhibition of the devia- tions in dogmatical teaching, even when they have become predominant among the doctors of the community in question, must be handed over to the history of Christian Doctrine. 2 1 The liturgical books of a Christian community have inferior value in Symbolics, although they also are really public (indirect) confessions of doctrine. They are seldom needed in this branch of theology. 2 It is well known that the Reformed theologians do not acknowledge to the same extent as the Lutherans the obligatory character of their (in themselves almost only provincial) symbols, and that in the lapse of time even catechetical instruction has receded from its ancient symbolical rigour. But even in this 4 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. The second objection has been urged against Symbolical Theology mainly by Romish theologians. They maintain that he who holds fast to the symbols exhibits only a school theology, to which their Church attaches little value ; more- over, that he deals only with the forms, which are only symbols of higher religious ideas, and should serve only as involucra to them. But inasmuch as the Church has never openly declared that it was willing to let one part of its teaching fall away as mere school theology, and be struck out of the series of its articles of faith, and has never even distantly hinted that its dogmatic sanctions were to be regarded as only the symbols of a spiritual religion, the Protestant must, following the older and orthodox dogmatic divines, who apprehended them all literally, disapprove of every endeavour on the part of Romish theologians to idealize the doctrines of their Church, even as they resist the unregulated essays of Protestant divines to adapt the symbolical standards to a new philosophy, and exhibit them as the wisdom of reason. Symbolics must needs go on in the historical way, avoiding all references to more recent Romanist dogmatists, and all idealizing remon- strances ; taking extracts from the Romish symbols with the same literal fidelity as those of the Formula Concordice ; convinced that the original framers of both gave a genuine account of their belief, and did not aim to delude the world by secret symbolism. And, in fact, the most recent Romish symbolical divines and polemics have renounced those idealiz- ing tactics. 3. Another question may arise, as to the compass of what may be called Symbolics, and as to the principles which should be laid down for this science and its internal organiza- tion. Planck embraced only the three leading Christian Con- fessions and the Socinians within the circle of his plan; Marheinecke does not in his greater work go beyond this, though in his Institutes he has devoted some attention to the case Symbolics must go back to the confessions, since the Church, at the time when they appeared, recognised the doctrinal system they contain as its own, and never publicly sanctioned any transformation of it. The same holds good of the Arminians, who are less favourable to all symbolical forms of doctrine. INTRODUCTION. 5 Mennonites, the Moravians, and the Quakers. Now it can scarcely be doubted that the doctrine of the Greek Orthodox Church, 1 which contains much that deviates from the Eomish, and is exhibited iii symbols expressed in clear though not always scientifically rigorous terms, as much merits a specific presentation as the Eeformed doctrine does by the side of the Lutheran. The Arminians might perhaps urge a fainter plea for such a distinction, since they sprang from the bosom of the Eeformed Church, and agree with it still in all but a few leading points, which are themselves not always of a dogmatic character. Yet, inasmuch as the differences do involve lead- ing points, and the community is externally a firmly conso- lidated one, it is impossible to deny to the Arminian system of doctrine a place in our Symbolics. The Quakers and the Mennonites have little that is peculiar in the detail of doctrine ; and where a precise definition of faith according to the funda- mental ideas of theology is in question, they might be omitted, because they do little more than repeat the words of Scripture, and keep clear of the theology of the schools : therefore we do not devote a special column to them in our tables, but refer to them only in the explanatory notes. All these various religious communities, however, may fitly be ranked by Symbolical Theology under two heads, according to their several principles. The one class acknowledge as the source of Christian revelation the Holy Scriptures alone, limit- ing the acting of direct inspiration to these, though distin- guished among themselves by different explanations of that inspiration. Here we have the principle of Protestantism. The other class place by the side of Scripture, or above it, a second source of knowledge, believing in a continuous inspi- ration within the Christian Church. They either (1) assign to the Church, led by the Spirit, the right of constructing Christian saving truth out of a supposed oral tradition of the apostles, which is Catholicism ; or (2) they assume an im- mediate illumination of every individual through the Holy Ghost, which is Quakerism. These two principles, for the 1 The schismatical sects of the'East cannot well be introduced into Compara- tive Symbolics, inasmuch as their dogmatic testimony is not expressed in autho- rized writings, or their present faith is only imperfectly known. 6 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. designation of which the historically known names are not definitive enough, are precise antitheses. [The Mennonites are, as a rule, and not without reason, classed with the Pro- testants. So are the Socinians, but only by abuse of terms.] 4. If we take a comparative view of the dogmatic deviations of the individual communities, we find at once the following results : First, the greatest number and the most important revolve around three centres : the relation of human power to the work of sanctification proposed to it ; the extent and the influence of the merit of Christ ; the manner in which, and the means by which, man appropriates the merit of Christ, and attains to justification before God. All start from the uni- versal principle of Christianity, that man is in a religious and ethical point of view fallen from God, but that in Christ there is a possibility of a return, and that he must accomplish that return in the use of the means provided for him in the economy of the Christian salvation. Secondly, those indivi- dual deviations of the individual communions do indeed always stand in evident and clear connection, and are formed into a system ; but yet they do not flow from one material principle (principium constitutivum) by an internal necessity, a fact which gave the older polemical divines occasion to distinguish between errores systematici and errores extra systematici. Ac- cordingly we have thought fit here and there to make a differ- ence between main dogmas and subordinate dogmas. 5. The business of the symbolical theologian, to extract from the documentary Confessions of the various communities their doctrinal systems, is not without difficulty. On the one hand, these Confessions do not always embrace the entire dogmatic beliefs of the Communion ; and, on the other, they are not all drawn up with the precision which science loves and demands. To illustrate both these points : 1. In the Council of Trent, the dogmas of the Image of God, and of Justification, and of Works of Supererogation, and of Indul- gences, are only imperfectly exhibited. In the Eeformed Con- fessions nothing is said about Infant Communion; in the Lutheran, the intention of the priest at the administration of INTRODUCTION. 7 tlie sacraments is not expressly contested. 2. As it respects dogmatic precision, the Tridentine Council and the Lutheran formularies (especially the Formula ConcordicB) are far above the Eeformed Confessions, which (particularly in the Eucharist doctrine) use many figurative expressions ; while they still more surpass the Greek, which indeed sometimes contradict each other. Symbolics, therefore, cannot accomplish its task by drawing simply from the symbols, but must sometimes apply critical combinations in order to arrive at a full and clear understanding of the doctrine of any community. If a dogma is merely indicated, our science does not err when it exhibits it in that form which, when the Confession was drawn up, was the current one. (For instance : the Eomish doctrine de merito congrui et condiyni, that of Indulgences, and that of the effect of the sacraments ex opere operato.) If a doctrinal point has been entirely passed over, because it was held unimportant or already sufficiently treated, or because at the time when the Confession appeared it was not contested, in that case the historically demonstrated doctrine or observance of the Church must represent the symbol : for instance, as to the communion of children in the Eeformed Church. If a dogma is indistinctly expressed, the symbolist must seek to define it, either by comparison with such dogmas as are in close connection with the one in question, and must be regarded as the grounds of it, or deductions from it ; or, where such combination is impossible, he must faithfully pre- serve the indistinct expressions of the symbol itself, and ad- duce, apart from the doctrinal standard, explanations from the writings of theologians counted orthodox by the community. When, finally, a difference occurs between the several Con- fessions of. one Communion, it is to be expressly stated if this was founded in a gradual change in the doctrinal standard ; or only indicated, if a merely wavering point 8 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. II. THE SYMBOLICAL DOCUMENTS ; OR, LITERARY ANALYSIS OF THE PUBLIC CONFESSIONS AND STANDARDS OF THE SEVERAL COMMUNIONS. I. THE EOMISH CHURCH. 1. Primary Sources of the Roman Catiwlic Doctrine. Canoncs et Dccreta Concilii Tridentini. The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, which was opened at Trent, in the Tyrol, on the 13th Dec. 1545; removed, after eight sessions, to Bologna on 28th April 1552 ; re-opened May 1551 in Trent, and closed there on 28th April 1552 ; once more renewed on the 18th Jan. 1562 ; and finally closed, with the twenty-fifth session, on the 3d and 4th Dec. 1563. 1 This was reckoned, till lately, the eighteenth and last (Ecumenical Council, acknowledged as such throughout the Roman Catholic Church, and even in France, so far as dogma is concerned. Its Decrees were, after Pope Pius iv. had confirmed them by a Bull (Benedictus Deus], 26th Jan. 1564, published authorita- tively through the press of Paulus Manutius at Eome in 1564. 2 Other editions followed in the same year at Koine, Venice, Antwerp, Lyons, Cologne ; in 1580 an edition was sent out at Lyons, with observations, and the Index libror. prohibit. The most trustworthy, for correctness and completeness, of the later editions are those of Gallemart, Chiflet, and Le Plat. These Decrees have been translated into several living tongues : 1 The history of this Council, which of itself explains much in the Decrees, must be sought in two older works, written in a very different spirit : 1. That of Fra Paolo (Paul Sarpi), originally in Italian ; 2. That of Sforza Pallavicini, also originally in Italian. A. Saliq wrote a complete history of the Council, Halle 1741. Bungener's is less trustworthy. A general view is given by Preuss, das Condi von Trident. (Berlin, 1862.) But he who would gain a thoroughly complete insight into the history of the Council, must go to Le Plat's collection of its Acts in Monumentorum ad hist. Cone. Trid. illustrandam spectantium amplissima Cottectio (Lovanii, 1781). G. J. Planck's Anecdota ad hist. Cone. Trid. (Gb'ttingen, 1791) may be added with advantage. 8 Certain errors that crept in (De Euchar. Sess. 13, where the words Spirilus sancti were omitted after non absque peculiari ductu et gubernatione) were cancelled in the octavo edition, Rome 1564. INTRODUCTION. 9 see Walch, Bill. TJicol. i. 407. For the purpose of Symbolics only Sess. 4-7, 13, 14, 21-25 are to be taken into account. The Decreta, moreover, are distributed, where they are more diffuse, into chapters, which must be carefully distinguished from the appended Canones, that is, brief propositions, which always end with ' anathema sit.' 2. Symbolical Writings of the Second Rank. 1. Professio Fidei Tridentince. After the Synod at Trent had declared a confession of faith to be obligatory (Sess. 24, reform, capp. 1-12 ; Sess. 25, reform, cap. 2), this was drawn up at the command of Pope Pius iv., 1564, and established as a formulary binding on all who assumed any spiritual office or any academical function or dignity, in a Bull dated 13th Nov. 1564. It is found in the Magn. Bullarium Rom. t. 11, p. 127, under the title Forma professionis fidei catli., and has been often reproduced in modern languages. This Formula expresses itself on some points more precisely than the Triden- tine Council 2. Catechismus Romanus. This Catechism was, after a decree of the Council of Trent (Sess. 25, p. 627), drawn up by Archbishop Leon Marino, Bishop Egid. Foscarari, and the Portuguese Fr. Fureiro, under the supervision of three Cardi- nals. It was fairly latinized by P. Manutius and some others ; published, under the authority of Pius v., 1566, in Latin and Italian by Manutius ; and approved by many Provincial Synods, including even French. It was reproduced often in Latin, with observations by Fabricius in 1602, and translated into several modern languages. The older editions give the text without break or division; in that of Cologne, 1572, books and chapters appeared; and in that of Antwerp, 1574, questions and answers. This Catechism is divided into four parts : de Symbolo apostolico, de Sacramcntis, de Dccalogo, de Oratione dominicd. The form of a catechetical book of in- struction, adapted to the use of beginners, is not enough dis- tinguished from that of a directory for ministerial catechization : in fact, through the constant recurrence of exhortations to the 10 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. pastors, it rather assumes the character of a pastoral guide. Reference is made to the Council of Trent on many points ; but the Catechism further developes many doctrines, and touches some which had been passed over by the Tridentine Fathers : e.g., on the Limbus patrum, and on the dignity of the Pontiff. On the other hand, other ecclesiastical institutes are omitted : e.g., Indulgences, the Rosary, etc. The estimation of this Catechism was much lowered by the Jesuits at the end of the sixteenth century, on occasion of the controversies about the auxilia gratia and Predestination ; and the Roman Curia did nothing to counteract this. Meanwhile, in Symbolics, the Catechism is safe. For, since it coincides with the Decrees of the Tridentine Council, and has been accepted by Popes and Bishops, it cannot possibly contain any doctrine essentially opposed to Catholicism: hence even Bossuet adduces it as one of the witnesses of genuine Catholicism (Monit. in expos, doct. cath). Other Catechisms have attained a high consideration in the Romish Church, but no proper pontifical approbation. The most celebrated among these are the two Catechisms of the Jesuit P. Canisius : the Larger was published first in 1554, the Smaller in 1559; and both have often appeared in modern languages. As to other Romish Catechisms, see the works of Walch, Steudlin, and Kocher. [3. The Bullarium Eomanum. For we are not here dealing with an imaginary Catholic Church, which believes nothing but what has been taught by the Tridentine Synod : we deal with a palpable Romish Church, the Church which regards the Pontiff at Rome as its head ; with a Church which believes and confesses the immaculate conception of the Virgin on no other authority than that of a single Papal Bull. And has the Bull Ineffdbilis any pre-eminence over the other Bulls in the Romish Bullarium ? The chief editions are : Bullarium magnum Eomanum, Romae 1739-1849, 32 torn, f oL ; Bul- larium magnum Eomanum a Leone magno usque ad Benedictum xiv., Luxemburg 1727-1753, 19 torn. foL, with three con- tinuations.] 4. The Confutatio Aug. Confess. prepared by a college of INTRODUCTION. 1 1 Bomish theologians, to whom the Emperor Charles v. gave his confidence may be included here; for it undoubtedly exhibits the then current faith of the Church, though wanting * o o in ecclesiastical authorization. (See below, iii 1.) Two collective editions of the Symbolical sources of Eomanism have lately been published : Libri Symbolici eccl. Romano-cathol., ed. cur. J. T. L. Danz, Weimar 1835 ; Libri Symb. ecc. cathol. conjuncti atque notis prolegomenis indie, instruct^ op. et stud. F. G. Streitwolf et R. E. Klener, Gottingen, 1846. [Still more available is Denziger, Enchiridion Symbolorum et deftnitionum quce de rebus fidei et morum a conciliis oecumenicis et summis pontificibus emanarunt, Wirceburgi 1856-1865. It contains over 130 documents: among them the Symbolum apostolicum in thirteen forms, the Symbolum Nic&num, the Conslantinopolitanum, the Ephesium, the Epist. Flav. of Leo, the Chalcedonense ; the Dogmatic Decrees of the so-called 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th General Councils ; some of the most important ordinances of Popes Innocent in., Gregory ix., Clement v., and John xxii. ; the most important decrees of the Councils of Constance and Florence ; Bulls of Pius n. and Leo x. ; the Tridentine Decrees in full; the Constitutions of Alexander vn., Innocent xi., Alexander vni., Innocent xn., Clement xr., Benedict xiv., Pius vi., Pius vir. and vni., Gregory xvi., and Pius ix.] As witnesses of the Romish authoritative doctrine, may be cited also : 1. The Liturgical Books, which have been sanctioned by the Roman Curia, and have obtained in all countries and provinces public ecclesiastical approval, especially the Missals. Among these last, none is more celebrated and generally used than the Missale Romanum, first printed under Sixtus IV. in 1475, and improved in 1570 under Pius v., in 1604 under Clement vni., and in 1634 under Urban vni. [The most recent change in it is due to Pius ix., who removed the old liturgy of the Feast of the Conception of the Virgin, and substituted a new one.] 2. The Confessions of Faith which were imposed upon those who joined the Romish Church. Originally the Prof, fidei Trident, was used for this purpose. There are, indeed, private writings of un- known authors, and on the Roman side all dogmatic authority has been denied them of late. But in a Church the doctrine of which is fixed and unchangeable, the bishops must be supposed to know what that doctrine is; and they must be assumed conscientiously to deliver, when they speak in the name of the Church, only acknow- ledged and accepted dogmatic statements. See, for many such con- vert-professions, Wald, De hceresi abjuranda quid statuat ecclesia rom. cathol., Regiom. 1821. 12 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. The most important Roman Catholic apologies for their doctrine are: Rob. Bellarmini (Jesuit and Cardinal, f 1621), Disputationes de Controversiis christ. fidei adv. Intj. temp. Itcereticos. Of this work the edition of Lyons, 1610, is used, which was the last aucta et recognita by the author. Mart. Becani (Jesuit and Confessor of the Emperor Ferdinand n., f 1624), Manuale controvers. hvj. temporis, Heidelberg 1759 [best edition, Cologne 1696]. F. Coster (Jesuit, f 1619 ) Enchiridion controvers. prcecip. nostri temporis de relig., Colon. 1585. J. B. Bossuet (Bishop of Meaux, f 1704), Exposition de la doctrine de leglise catholique sur les matieres de controverse: the edition here used is that of Paris, 1761. Seb. a S. Christophoro, Theologia histor. polem., Bamb. 1751. [Melchior Canus, De locis theologicis (Sala- manca, 1563), departs from the Romish doctrine now accepted. On the other hand, Bossuet, Costerus, and Becanus are far surpassed by Perrone, Prcelectiones theologicce quas in collegia Romano societatis Jesu habebat (best edition, Rome, 1840-1842, but often reprinted).] 1 II. THE GREEK CHURCH. 2 f 1. Confessions. The Confession presented to the Sultan Mahmoud n., after the fall of Constantinople, 1453 that of the Patriarch Gen- nadius or Georg. Scholarius extends only over the common Christian dogmas, and does not touch the points of difference between the Greek and the Roman doctrine. It is printed in Greek and Turkish, in M. Crusii Turcogrcccia (Basil. 1584), and in Chytrai Orat. de ecd. gr. statu (Frcf. 1583). [Recently Greek and Latin, in Kimmel, Libri symbolici ccdesice orientalis (Jense 1843).] The Calvinistic tendencies and efforts of Cyril Lucar gave 1 Eck's dry Loci Communes, to which Klee thinks every unprejudiced reader must give the palm over Melanchthon's for learning, method, and dialectical tact, I have not thought it necessary to quote. Klee's judgment must have been written in the hope that no reader would compare the two books. s Augusti, 2 Progrr. de nonnullis eccles. gr., quce nuper jactatce sunt, virtut., Bonn 1821, with reference to Stourdza, Considerations sur la doctrine et I'esprit de I'tglise orthodoxe, Stutt. 1816. The system of Greek doctrine is fully exhibited in Heineccius, Abbild. der alien und neuern gr. K. As to the too highly esti- mated coincidence between the East and West, see Leo Allatius, De ecc. occ. atq. orient, perp. consens., Coin 1648. The harmony of Greek and Lutheran dogmas is seen in Kohl, Ecdesia gr. lutheranizans, Lubec. 1723. INTRODUCTION. 1 3 occasion for a public Confession of the proper orthodox Greek faith (a Confession fy e'8earo KOI Se^erai a7raa7r\, pepo? diro rrjv aryiav 87 38 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. v, /ie/305 OTTO rrjv KK\r)<7iaaTiKr)v TrapdSo&iv. . . . "Hyovv Bvo XoytW elvat, TO, Soy/xara. "A\\a (Soypara) irapaSiBei, TJ ypaij, ra OTrota Tre/Dte^oimu et9 ra 6eo\oytKa J3tj3\ia TJ}? dyias 7pa' /cat a\Xa elvai Boypara TrapaSeSo/Aera e/c o-ro- /LWITO? aTTO TOU? aTTOCTToXou?, real rovra epfirfvevdrjcrav airo ra? /cai TOU? aytou? Trarepa?" /cat et9 Ti' fjbvcrrijpicav /cat Trept aXXa pijcrifia /cat T^V KK\rj(riav KOff/jiovvra, cet. (P. 123, the most important traditions of the Church are enumerated, as the veneration of saints and relics, the forty days' fast, the institution of monachism, prayers for the dead, etc.) Comp. Theodos. Zygomalas, in Crusii Turcogrcec. p. 97, and Plato's Katcch. S. 112, 115, 135 f. IL KOMAN CATHOLIC. Cone. Trid. sess. 4, Deer, de canonic, scripturis : Synodus . . . hoc sibi perpetuo ante oculos proponens, ut sublatis erro- ribus puritas ipsa evangelii in ecclesia conservetur, . . . per- spiciensque hanc veritatem et disciplinam contineri in libris scriptis et sine scripto traditionibus, quae ex ipsius Christi ore ab apostolis acceptse, aut ab ipsis apostolis, Spiritu sancto dic- tante, quasi per manus traditae, ad nos usque pervenerunt : orthodoxorum patrum exempla secuta, omnes libros tarn V. quam N. T., cum utriusque unus deus sit auctor, nee non tra- ditiones ipsas, turn ad fidem tuna ad mores pertinentes, tanquam vel ore tenus a Christo, vel a Spiritu sancto dictatas et continua successione in ecclesia catholica conservatas, pari pietatis effectu ac revereuti^ suscipit et veneratur. ... Si quis autem . . . traditiones praedictas sciens et prudens contemserit, anathema sit. Omnes itaque intelligant, quo ordine et via ipsa synodus post iactum fidei confessionis fundamentum sit progressura et quibus potissimum testimonies ac praesidiis in confirmandis dogmatibus et instaurandis in ecclesia moribus sit usura. Cat. Eom. prsef. 12 : Omnis doctrinse ratio, quae fidelibus THE SOURCE OF CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 39 tradenda sit, verbo del continetur, quod in scripturam tradi- tionesque distributum est. The Cat. Eom. contains no more on this subject. For appeals to apostolical tradition concerning individual dogmas, and religious ceremonials connected with them, see e.g. Trid. sess. 14, Extreme Unction, cap. 1 ; sess. 22, cap. 4 and 9 ; Cat. Eom. i. 6. 3, ii. 7, 29. [The Council of Trent begins to indicate a third source of knowledge by the side of Scripture and tradition, when it says, in the introduction to the decrees of the fifth session : S. S. Tridentina synodus sacrarum scripturarum et sanctorum patrum ac probatissimorum conciliorum testimonia et ipsius ecclesice judicium et consensum secuta haec de ipso peccato original! statuft fatetur et declarat. Le Plat, Canones 24. But that this judgment of the Church is no other than the judgment of the Pope, is shown by the Bull Ineffabilis of 8th December 1854. For, after Gregory xv. had declared that Eternal Wisdom had not yet revealed to their Church the inmost secret of the mystery of the immaculate conception of Mary, and that therefore he could not define it (Wadding, Legatio, Lovaniae 1624, S. 452), Pius ix., on December 8, 1854, declared that the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was revealed of God, and therefore to be firmly and stedfastly believed, esse a Deo revelatam atqiie idcirco db omnibus fidelibus firmiter constanterque credendam. And in Lect. vi. of the Officium of 25th September 1863, the Pope commands as follows : Deiparse virginis in sua conceptione victoriam Pius nonus pontifex maximus totius ecclesise votis annuens statuit supremo suo atque infallibili oraculo solemniter proclamare. Accordingly there must be, for all who are subject to the Eoman bishop, three sources of knowledge, Holy Scripture, Tradition, and the Pope.] For the elucidation of what in the symbol is merely hinted, we extract a few passages from Bellarmine and others : 1 1 Comp. Cani Loc. Theol. iii. ; Becani Manuale Controv. i. 2 ; Bossii Inslitt. Theol. i. 66 ; B. Galura, Diss. de Tradit., alterd revel, fonte, Friburg 1790 ; Klee, Tcath. Dog. i. 232 ; Schlier, Die gottl. Trad. n. Gesch. u. Idee, in Pletz, Tli. Zeitsch. 1833, iii. On the Protestant side, Chemnicius, Exam. i. loc. 2 ; Weinmann, Darst. u. Kritik der Streltf. iib. die Tradition, Hildburgh 1825. 40 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. Bellarmini De Verbo Dei, iv. 3 : Nos asserimus, in scripturis non contineri expresse totam doctrinam necessarian! sive de fide sive de moribus, et proinde prseter verbum Dei scriptum requiri etiam verbum Dei non scriptum, ie. divinas et apos- tolicas traditiones. iv. 2 : Vocatur doctrina non scripta non ea, quae nusquam scripta est, sed quae non est scripta a primo auctore. E. c. parvulos baptizandos vocatur traditio apostolica non scripta, quia non invenitur hoc scriptum in ullo apostolico libro, tam- etsi scriptum est in libris fere omnium veterum patrum. . . . Est partitio traditionum in traditiones divinas, apostolicas, ecclesiasticas. Divinae dicuntur, quae accepts sunt ab ipso Christo apostolos docente, et nusquam in divinis literis inve- niuntur. . . . Apostolicas traditiones proprie dicuntur illaa, quae ab apostolis institute sunt, non tamen sine assistentia Spiritus sancti et nihilominus non exstant in eorum epistolis. . . . Eccle- siasticae traditiones proprie dicuntur consuetudines quaedam antiquae vel a praelatis vel a populis inchoatae, quae paulatim tacito consensu populorum vim legis obtinuerunt. Et quidem traditiones divinae eandem vim habent, quam divina praecepta sive divina doctrina scripta in Evangeliis. Et similiter apos- tolicae traditiones non scriptae eandem vim habent, quam apos- tolicas traditiones scriptaa. . . . Ecclesiasticae autem traditiones eandem vim habent, quam decreta et constitutiones ecclesitB scriptae. [On the third source of knowledge, co-ordinate with Scrip- ture and tradition, compare the fourth commission of the seven Consultores of Pius ix. : Caterini, Audisio, Perrone, Passaglia, Schrader, Spada, and Trullet, for the year 1853 : " It is not necessary, in order to establish tradition, that we produce an uninterrupted series of testimonies of the Fathers, a series which should go up to the apostles, in order to come down to ourselves. It must be confessed that Catholic tradition is proved, when we can establish the general consent of the Church at any particular epoch, or produce a certain number of testi- monies that presuppose it." Malou, L'immaculee conception de la 6. -y. M. consideree comme dogme de foi, Bruxelles 1857. And Malou himself in this work, which was undertaken in the cause of the episcopate assembled in Borne, dedicated to Pius THE SOURCE OF CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 41 IX., says : " The promises of infallibility which our Lord Jesus Christ made to His Church are of such a kind, that neither the body of the pastors in proposing a doctrine of faith, nor the faithful in adhering to it, can be deceived. It is impossible that the entire body of the Church should adopt and believe a doctrine contrary to divine revelation. From the moment that the pastors and the flock profess with unanimous accord a doc- trine dogmatic in its nature, or are certain that this doctrine is true, and that it has been revealed, from that time it bears the seal by which the Divine Master has willed that His teach- ing should be recognised. ... If this accord should appear only in our days, it is no less decisive than it would have been in the era of the martyrs, because it has the same guarantee as it would have had at that epoch. The Catholic Ghurch enjoys to-day the same authority and the same divine assistance as in the days of the apostles ; it therefore possesses the same infalli- bility" The infallible organ of this infallible Church is, how- ever, the Pope. So the Eomish synod of 1854; so Pope Pius ix. Syllabus errorum d. d. 8th December 1864, No. xxiii.] III. PBOTESTANT. The older Lutheran symbols reject, it is true, the humanas traditions, valid in the Eoman Catholic Church (Confess. Aug. pp. 13, 28 seq. ; Apol. p. 205 seq. ; Art. Smal. p. 337) ; they do not, however, mean thereby the apostolical doctrinal tradition generally, as a source of Christian truth and knowledge, but those meritorious works of justification which obscured the doctrine of (justifying) faith (trad, ad placandum Deum, ad promerendam gratiam et satisfaciendum pro peccatis, Conf. Aug. p. 28 ; Apol. 15 1). 1 Compare, however, Aug. Conf. prsefat. 1 Since these symbols understand by traditiones observances and usages, and of that kind much was retained from the old Church, they might rightly maintain (Aug. Conf. p. 31) : servantur apud nos plerteque traditiones, quae conducunt ad hoc, ut res ordine geratur in ccclesia, ut ordo lectionum in missa et praecipuse feriae. Apol. pp. 209, 212. But every notion of meritoriousness was to be excluded from them. Calvin also, in conformity with the position polemics then assumed, contended against these traditions primarily (traditiones humanas) : v. Instit. iv. 10. 42 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. p. 6 : offerimus . . . nostram confessionem, ejusmodi dociri- nam ex S. S. et puro verbo Dei hactenus illi (concionatores) . . . tractaverint. It is the Form. Cone. p. 5*70, which first speaks out more definitely : Credimus . . . unicam regulam et normam, secundum quam omnia dogmata omnesque doctores aestimari-et judicari oporteat, nullam omnino aliam esse, quam prophetica et apostolica scripta cum V. turn N. T. . . . Reliqua vero sive patrum sive neotericorum scripta, quocunque veniant nomine, sacris literis nequaquam sunt aequiparanda. [Cf. Sol. Dec. p. 6 3 2. In explanation, L. Hutter, Comp. loc. Th. No. 1 seq. : Scriptura sacra est verbum Dei, impulsu Spiritus s. a prophetis et apostolis literarum monumentis consignaturn, de essentia et voluntate Dei nos instruens. Est (autem) plena ct sufficicns quoad informationem turn Jidei turn morum.'] Conf. Helv. ii. 1 : In Scriptura sancta habet universalis Ch. ecclesia plenissime exposita, quaecunque pertinent cum ad sal- vificam fidem turn ad vitam deo placentem recte informandam. . . . Sentimus ergo ex hisce scripturis petendam esse veram sapientiam et pietatem, ecclesiarum quoque reformationeni et gubernationem, omniumque ofnciorum pietatis institutionem, probationem denique dogmatuni reprobationemque aut erromm confutationem omnium, sed admonitiones omnes. Cap. 2 : Non alium sustinemus in causa fidei judicem, quam ipsum deum per script, s. pronunciantem, quid verurn sit, q"uid falsum, quid sequendum sit quidve fugienduni. . . . Eepudiamus tradi- tiones humanas, quae tametsi insigniantur speciosis titulis, quasi divinse apostolicaeque sint, viva voce apostolorum et ceu per manus viroram apostolicorum, succedentibus episcopis ecclesiae traditae, compositae tamen cum scripturis ab his discrepant, dis- crepantiaque ilia sua ostendunt, se minime esse apostolicas. Sicut enim apostoli inter se diversa non docuerunt, ita et apos- tolici non contraria apostolis ediderunt. Quin imo impium esset asseverare, apostolos viva voce contraria scriptis suis tra- didisse. Conf. Gall. art. 5 : Quum hsec (s. s.) sit omnis veritatis summa, complectens quidquid ad cultum dei et salutem nos- tram requiritur, neque hominibus neque ipsis etiam angelis fas esse dicimus, quidquam ei verbo adjicere vel detrahere vel quidquam prorsus in eo immutare. THE SOUKCE OF CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 43 Conf. Belg. 7 : Oedimus sacram scripturam del voluntatem perfects complecti, et quodcunque ab hominibus, ut salutem consequantur, credi necesse est, in ilia sufficienter edoceri. Nam quum illic omnis divini cultus ratio, quern deus a nobis exigit, fusissime descripta sit, nulli hominum ... fas est, aliter docere. . . . Quum enim vetitum sit, ne quis dei verbo quidquam addat aut detrahat, satis eo ipso demonstratur, doctrinam illius perfectissimam omnibusque modis consum- matam esse. Sed nee cum divinis iisdem seripturis ulla ho- minum, quantavis sanctitate prseditorum scripta, neque ulla consuetude cum divina veritate (veritas enim rebus omnibus antecellit), neque multitude, neque antiquitas, neque temporum personarumque successio, neque concilia, decreta aut statuta comparari possunt. Thirty-nine Articles. Art. vi. : Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation ; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or to be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. Comp. Art. xix. and xxi. : Wherefore things ordained by them as necessary . to salvation have neither strength nor authority, unless it may be declared that they are taken out of Holy Scripture. Confess. Scot. 18 : Doctrina, quse ab ecclesiis nostris docetur, verbo dei scripto continetur, videl. in libris V. et N. T. cano- nicis, in quibus omnia credenda ad hominum salutem suffi- cienter expressa affirmamus. 1 9 : Sicut confitemur scripturas dei sufficienter instruere et hominem dei perfectum reddere, ita ejus'auctoritatem a deo esse . . . affirmamus. Asserimus itaque, quod qui dicunt scripturas non aliam habere auctorita- tem sed earn, quam ab ecclesia accipit, sunt in deum blasphemi cet. Compare the Negative, p. 159. [West. Conf. ch. i. sec. 6 : The whole counsel of God, con- cerning all things necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scrip- ture ; unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by hew revelations of the Spirit or traditions of men. Never- theless we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such 44 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. things as are revealed in the word ; and that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, and government of the Church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the word, which are always to be observed. Declar. Thorun. p. 47 : Nullum hodie verbum del exstat aut certo ostendi potest de dogmatibus fidei aut pmeceptis vitre ad Salutem necessariis, quod non sit scriptum aut in scripturis fundatum, sed sola" traditione non scripta ecclesise commissum. Conf. Remonstr. i. 13 : Libris sacris perfecte continetur plena et plus quam sufficiens revelatio omnium fidei mysteriorum inprimis eorum, quae universis et singulis hominibus simpli- citer ad asternam salutem consequendam scitu, creditu, speratu, factu necessaria sunt. Ib. i. 1 sqq. : Quia solis libris sacris divina auctoritas corn- petit, necessarium etiam est, ut ad eos solos tanquam ad Lydios lapides controversiae et lites omnes ad religionem pertinentes exigantur et ex iis solis disceptentur ; . . . dirimi enim eas jure judicial! aut potestativo per judicem aliquem visibilem ac ordinarie loquentem in ecclesia deum minime voluisse cen- sendum est, cum normam tantum dirigentem sive directive duntaxat, non etiam coactive judicantem nobis in verbo suo relinquere voluerit, judicem vero infallibilem semper in ecclesia loquentem esse debere nusquam significaverit. Ib. i. 1 : Etsi vero primitiva ecclesia certissime rescire potuit et indubie etiam rescivit, libros istos ab apost. scriptos esse vel saltern approbates nobisque istius rei scientiam quasi per manus tra- didit, non tamen idcirco sacri hi libri a nobis pro veris ac divinis habentur, quod eos veros esse sive divinos continere sensus ecclesia prim, judicio suo irrefragabili censuerit cet. Observations. It is easily inferred that the Protestant symbols did not so much reject apostolical tradition in itself (in the ideal sense), as rather those traditions which by the Romanists were counted apostolical, but could not be reconciled with Scripture, or sustain by demonstration their apostolical origin (Chemnitz, Exam. i. 2). The utterances of the Councils and of the Fathers have obviously, on these principles, no co-ordinate consideration, nor, as against Scripture, decisive authority ; THE SOURCE OF CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 45 but, found true in accordance with Scripture, they are venerable tes- timonies of the Christian truth never altogether extinguished in the Church. Art. Sm. 308 ; Form. Cone. 570 ; Conf. Helv. i. 3, ii. 2 ; Gall. 5 ; Scot. 20 ; Belg. 7 ; Conf. Remonst. i. 12, 18. The same may be said of the three (Ecumenical Creeds, by adopting which the Pro- testant Church gave documentary evidence of its union in sentiment with the ancient Church. Form. Cone. 571. Comp. Helv. ii. 17 ; Conf. Gall. 5 ; Eng. Artt. 8 ; Belg. 9 ; Bohem. 2 ; March. 2 ; Dec. Thorun. p. 45. Comp. also Chemnitz, Examen 1, Prcef. 10 ; Calvin, Institt. iv. 9. 1. It needs only to be lightly indicated, that the construction or adoption of the symbolical books furnishes no analogy with Roman Catholic tradition. Comp. Form. Cone. p. 572. Among the Re- formed Confessions, that of Basel thus concludes : Finally, we would submit this our Confession to the judgment of the divine written Scriptures ; . . . and we in this and all will be thankfully obedient to the direction of God and His holy word. Similarly, Conf. Helv. ii., and Conf. Scot., at the end of the preface. However, in the Conclusio of the Canons of Dort, and in the Form. Cons. Helv. 26, the symbols are named in conjunction with the Scripture. In the latter passage the term Libri SyntboUti is used of the public confessions. IV. SOCINIAN. The Socinians regard the New Testament books as the only source of the knowledge of the Christian Church, so far as this is doctrine, that is, a new divine legislation. They attach to the Old Testament, which is supposed to have been rendered obsolete by the New, only an historical, and not a dogmatic value. Cat. Eac. p. 1 (final Eevision) : Unde discere possumus religionem christ. ? Ex sacris literis prsesertim N. T. Ex- stant igitur alise sacrse literae prseter literas N. T. ? Exstant, nempe scripta V. T. Ib. p. 6 : Quoe (religionis Christiana? veritas) cum iis (scriptis Novi Testamenti) tantum, nee ullis aliis libris comprehensa sit, apparet, iis libris necessario prop- terea habendam esse fidem. Socin. de auctorit. S. S. cap. 1, p. 271 b : Considerandum est, si recipiatur Novum Testamentum, non posse ad ipsam religionis summam quidquam fere momenti habere quam- cumque Veteris Testamenti depravationem, cum nihil non levis momenti potuerit esse in Vetere Testamento, quod Novo non 46 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. contineatur, nee quidquam illius recipiendum sit, quod non conveniat cum iis, quae in hoc sunt scripta. Adeo ut utilis quidem plures ob causas sit lectio Veteris Testamenti iis, qui Novum recipiunt, id est hominibus christianse religionis, sed non tamen necessaria. Cat. Sac. qu. 31 : (Scripta divinarum literarum) prorsus sufficientia sunt ad earn rem (ut in rebus ad salutem neces- sariis iis soils acquiescendum sit) : eo quod fides in Jesum Christum et obedientia mandatorum ejus sit in iis scriptis N". Foederis sufficientissime tradita et explicata, quam ex del pro- missione vita seterna consequitur. Ib. qu. 33 : (De traditionibus rom. eccles. sentiendum est) eas non solum sine causa" et just& necessitate confictas et in- ventas esse, verum etiam summo cum discrimine fidei chris- tianse. The Protestant symbols designate the Old and New Testa- ments in common, and without distinction, as Scriptura sacra. Comp. Conf. Helv. ii. 1 ; Conf. Gall. 3 ; Thirty-nine Artt. vi ; Conf. Belg. 4. How far the Old Testament still retains its authority as Law, see below, under XIIL V. QUAKER. Barclay, Apol. Prop, il : Seeing no man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son revealeth Him ; and seeing the revelation of the Son is in and by the Spirit ; therefore the testimony of the Spirit is that alone by which the true knowledge of God hath been, is, and can be only revealed. ... By the revelation of the same Spirit He hath manifested Himself all along unto the sons of men, both patriarchs, prophets, and apostles : which revelations of God by the Spirit, whether by outward voices and appearances, dreams, or inward objective manifestations in the heart, were of old the formal object of their faith, and remain yet so to be. Moreover, these divine inward revelations, which we make absolutely necessary for the building up of true faith, neither do, nor can ever, contradict the outward testimony of the Scrip- tures, or right and sound reason ; yet from hence it will not follow that these divine revelations are to be subjected to- the THE SOUKCE OF CIIIIISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 47 test either of the outward testimony of the Scriptures or of the natural reason of man, as to a more noble or certain rule and touchstone : for this divine revelation and inward illumi- nation is that which is evident and clear of itself, forcing, by its own evidence and clearness, the well-disposed understanding to assent irresistibly the same thereunto, even as the common principles of natural truths do move and incline the mind to a natural assent : as, that the whole is greater than its part ; that two contradictories can neither be both true nor both false. . . . Comment, on Prop. ii. 1 5 : He, then, that acknow- ledges himself ignorant, and a stranger to the inward inbeing of the Spirit of Christ in his heart, doth thereby acknowledge himself to be yet in the carnal mind, which is enmity to God, whatever he may otherwise know or believe of Christ, or how- ever much skilled or acquainted with the letter of the. Holy Scripture ; not yet to be, notwithstanding all that, attained to the least degree of a Christian ; yea, not once to have embraced the Christian religion. For take but away the Spirit, and Christianity remains no more Christianity than the dead car- case of a man, when the soul and spirit is departed, remains a man, which the living can no more abide, but do bury out of the sight, as a noisome and useless thing, however acceptable it hath been when actuated and moved by the soul. 15 : Yet those that have their spiritual senses, and can savour the things of the Spirit, as it were in primd instantid, i.e. at the first blush, can discern them without, or before they apply them either to Scripture or reason. But to make an end, I shall add one argument to prove that this inward, immediate objective revelation, winch we have pleaded for all along, is the only sure, certain, and unmoveable foundation of all Chris- tian faith ; which argument, when well considered, I hope will have weight with all sorts of Christians ; and it is this : That which all professors of Christianity, of what kind soever, are forced ultimately to recur unto, when pressed to the last, that for and because of which all other foundations are recom- mended, and accounted worthy to be believed, and without which they are granted to be of no weight at all, must needs be the only most true, certain, and unmoveable foundation oi all Christian faith. S 11 : But there are some that will con- 48 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. fess that the Spirit doth now lead and influence the saints, but that He doth it only subjectively, or in a blind manner, by enlightening their understandings to understand and believe the truth delivered in the Scriptures, but not at all by pre- senting those truths to the mind by way of object ; and this they call medium incognitum asscntiendi, as that of whose working a man is not sensible. This opinion, though some- what more tolerable than the former, is nevertheless not alto- gether according to truth, neither doth it reach the fulness of it. Because there be many truths which, as they are appli- cable to particulars and individuals, and most needful to be known by them, are in nowise to be found in the Scripture, as in the following proposition shall be shown. Besides, the arguments already adduced do prove that the Spirit doth not only subjectively help us to discern truths elsewhere delivered, but also objectively present those truths to our minds. For that which teacheth me all things, and is given me for that end, without doubt presents those things to my mind which it teacheth me. It is not said, It shall teach you to understand those things that are written ; but, It shall teach you all things. Again, that which brings all things to my remembrance, must needs present them by way of object ; else it were improper to say it brought them to my remembrance, but only that it helpeth to remember the objects brought from elsewhere. Prop. iii. : From these revelations of the Spirit of God to the saints have proceeded the Scriptures of truth, which, be- cause they are only a declaration of the fountain, and not the fountain itself, therefore they are not to be esteemed the prin- cipal ground of all truth and knowledge, nor yet the adequate primary rule of faith and manners ; yet, because they give a true and faithful testimony of the first foundation, they are and may be esteemed a secondary rule, subordinate to the Spirit, from which they have all their excellency and cer- tainty. For as by the inward testimony of the Spirit we do alone truly know Ihem, so they testify that the Spirit is that guide by which the saints are led into all truth ; therefore, according to the Scriptures, the Spirit is the first and principal leader. . . . Commentary on Prop. iii. 2 : Though, then, we do acknowledge the Scriptures to be very heavenly and divine THE SOURCE OF CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 49 writings, the use of them to be very comfortable and necessary to the Church of Christ, and that we also admire and give praise to the Lord for His wonderful providence in preserving these writings so pure and uncorrupted as we have them, through so long a night of apostasy, to be a testimony of His truth against the wickedness and abominations even of those whom He made instruments in preserving them, so that they have kept them to be a witness against themselves ; yet we may not call them the principal fountain of all truth and knowledge, nor yet the first adequate rule of faith and manners : because the principal fountain of truth must be the truth itself, that is, that whose certainty and authority depends not upon another. . . . That which is given to Christians for a rule and guide must needs be so full, that it may clearly and distinctly guide and order them in all things and occurrences that may fall out. But in that there are numberless things, with regard to their circumstances, which particular Christians may be con- cerned in, for which there can be no particular rule had in the Scriptures, therefore the Scriptures cannot be a rule to them. S 6 : Moreover, because they are commonly acknowledged by all to have been written by the dictates of the Holy Spirit, and that the errors which may be supposed by the injuries of times to have slipt in, are not such but that there is a sufficient clear testimony left to all the essentials of the Christian faith, we do look upon them as the only fit outward judge of con- troversies among Christians, and that whatsoever doctrine is contrary unto their testimony may therefore justly be rejected as false ; and for our parts, we are very willing that all our doctrines and practices be tried by them. II. SECOND POINT OF DIVEEGENCE. [The decision as to the true meaning and interpretation of Holy Scripture rests, according to the Eoman Catholic doctrine, with the Church, that is, in the last appeal, with the Pope. Every one must submit to it, or rather to him. The Council of Trent limited this absolute right of determination by a D 50 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. clause which referred to the clear and consentient voice of the Fathers ; but in later times this limitation has been allowed by the Papal Church to drop out. Protestants, on the other hand, maintain that the true meaning of Holy Writ, so far as its contents are the sum of what constitutes the faith necessary for salvation, may be plainly extracted from Holy Writ itself. The Quakers separate the Holy Spirit from the written word, and teach that the internal light suffices for the understanding of the nature and of the will of God. The question as to the interpretation of the written word is for them a very subordinate one. They deal with it, however, thus : He whom the Holy Spirit has previously inwardly en- lightened, will also understand and be able to expound the Bible.] SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. I. EOMAN. Cone. Trid. sess. 4, Deer, de edit, et usu S. S. : Ad coercenda petulantia ingenia decernit (synodus), ut nemo suae prudentise innixus, in rebus fidei et morum ad sedifi cationem doctrinoa christianae pertinentium, sacram scripturam ad suos sensus con- torquens contra eum sensum, quern tenuit et tenet sancta mater ecclesia, cujus est judicare de vero sensu et interpretation scrip- turarum sanctarum, aut etiam contra unanimem consensum patrum ipsam scripturam sacrain interpretari audeat, etiamsi hujusmodi interpretations nullo unquam tempore in lucem edendae forent. Qui contravenerint, per ordinaries declarentur et pcenis a jure statutis puniantur. [The Pope has recently explained Holy Scripture in a man- ner contra unanimem consensum patrum ; for in his Bull Ineffdbilis he has, contrary to that consensus, interpreted many passages (Gen. iii. 15, Jer. i. 28, Luke i. 42, etc.) of the Im- maculate Conception. And nevertheless he condemns in his Bull, delivered from the chair, every one who shall think in his heart otherwise than the Pope thinks.] (Bellarmini de verbo dei, iii 3 : Convenit inter nos et adver- saries, scripturas intelligi debere eo spiritu, quo factse sunt i. e. spir. sancto. . . . Tota igitur qusestio in eo posita est, ubi sit THE SOURCE OF CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 51 iste spiritus. Nos enim existimamus, hunc spiritum, etsi multis privatis hominibus ssepe conceditur, tamen certo inve- niri in ecclesia" i. e. in concilio episcoporum confirmato a summo ecclesiae totius pastore sive in summo pastore cum concilio ali- orum pastorum. II. cap. 9 : Non ignorabat deus multas in ecclesia exorituras disputationes circa fidem, debuit igitur judi- cem aliquem ecclesiae providere. At iste judex non potest esse scriptura, neque spiritus revelans privatus, neque princeps secu- laris, igitur princeps ecclesiasticus vel solus vel certe cum con- silio et consensu coepiscoporum. Ac primum non esse judicem scripturam, planum est, quia varies sensus recipit nee potest ipsa dicere, quis sit verus. Prseterea in omni republ. bene instituta et ordinata lex et judex distinctse res sunt. Lex enim docet quid agendum, et judex legem interpretatur et secundum earn homines dirigit. Denique de scripturse inter- pretatione qusestio est, non autem se ipsa interpretari potest. Ib. cap. 1 : Verbum ecclesise i. e. concilii vel pontincis docentis ex cathedra^ non est verbum hominis i. e. verbum errori ob- noxium, sed aliquo modo verbum dei i. e. prolatum assistente et gubernante Sp. sancto. Cf. Cani Loci, lib. iv. ; Becani ma- nuale, i. 5 ; Klee, Tcatlwl. Dogmat. i. 243 ff.) II. GREEK. The Conf. orthod. plainly lays down the position, that the Church alone has the power to expound Scripture ; for what occurs on p. 140, 97 KK\Tja-ia e^a rrjv ej-ovcrlav rovryv, ware . . . SoKiftdfy) rdd<;, must be understood of human writings. To the oecumenical synods, which were no other than the Church itself deciding on this authoritative dogma, this confession expressly ascribes a judicial power in regard to the orthodox faith. Other Confessions laid down the prin- ciple, that none must deviate from the traditional interpreta- tions of the holy Fathers which have been approved by the synods (Jerem. in actis Wirtemb. p. 260). Moreover, that principle follows from the dogma as to the inspiration of the Church, which the Greeks 'hold in common with the Jlo- manists. Cf. Conf. orthod. p. 152. The Confession of Dosi- theus speaks on this subject plainly. 52 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. Conf. orihod. p. 1 7 : IIpeTrei va Kparfj Sia fiefBaiov Kal d v0r)? SOKCCV rrjv KK\r)criav Kal oBrjybv elvai TT)? Beorrvevcrrov ypatpfjs . . . oSrjyov, on ravrrjv ij/tia? o&rpyei, ra dcra(f)rj SoKovvra cracfrrjvl^ova-a Kal ra KKa\v/Apeva rrdvv op^oSofw? Kal 6ea- Jerem. in act. Wirtcnib. p. 142 : Ov% -fj^lv e^ecrt, ry KaraOappovaiv e^rjyijcrei, rt rwv 77)? Oeorrvevarov e ypa(}>rj<; p crvvievai, Kal Karavoelv r) Siepfj-rjveveiv el ftr) Kara rwv rcapa rwv dyiwv (TvvoBcav ev dyia) Trvevftart, Trpo? rov evGfftr) O-KOTTOV BOKL- Id. p. 260 : Aio Kal avdis d^Lovfj,v VJJLO,^, ovrw voelv ra pijra 60? ol oiKOVfjievLKol Si$dcrKa\oi, rrjs eKK.\T]O'ia^ e^rjy^a-avro, wv ra? e^7?7cret5 atre oiKovfj.eviKal % avvoSot Kal al \oi7ral roiTLKai eKeKVpaxrav. '/2? yap rrpoeiiro^ev, ov %prj opia al(i)via a edevro ol Trarepes, I'va firj rov opov ev d prjQevra rfjs r' rrapaftaivovres, TO!? eKiriftiois vrroxeicrwiieda. Cf. pp. 114, 116, 139, 250, and in Crusii Turco-Grcccia, p. 440. Dosithei Conf. c. 2 : Uia-revofiev rrjv Oeiav ypatyrjv etvat 6eo- Kal Sia rovro ravrp aSiao-ra/cTW? ma-reveiv o^e/Xo- OVK aXX&>9 pevroi aXX' fj o><; r) Ka0o\. KK\r)rj, elvat, ma-revo- fiev evos yap Kal rov avrov dyiov rrvfvfjiaros 0^x09 d/ji9 Xa- \ovcrav K rov rrvev/Aaros rov 6eov dBvvarov rrdvrrj dfjiaprfja-ai, f) oX&>9 uTrarrjcrat Kal dTrarrjBfjvai. Cf. C. 12. THE SOURCE OF CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 53 III. PROTESTANT. The Lutheran symbols, as a whole, do not speak expressly on interpretation of Scripture independent/ of ecclesiastical authority. But their meaning is plain from their fundamental principles, as to the nullity of all tradition, and of any infalli- bility in the visible Church ; as also from the fact that the Eeformation sprang from that very freedom, and that the sym- bolical books argue exegetically against the Eoman Catholic Church. Only the Conf. Wirt. p. 130, expressly rejects the jus interpretandce s. scripturce in potestate summorum pontificum situm. The Lutheran theologians, following the symbols, lay down, like the Eeformed, this antithesis to the Catholic posi- tion : S. S. est sui ipsius legitimus interpres (comp. under Helv. Conf. i.), and avow the perspicuitas S. S., which makes an exegetic-dogmatic tribunal superfluous. Conf. Helv. i. art. 2 : Scripturae sacrse interpretatio ex ipsii sola petenda est, ut ipsa interpres sit sui, caritatis fideique regula moderante. Conf. Helv. ii. c. 2 : Scripturas sanctas dixit apost. Petrus (2 Pet. i. 20) non esse interpretations privatse. Proinde non probamus interpretationes quaslibet : unde nee pro vera aut genuina scripturarum interpretatione agnoscimus eum, quern vocant sensum Eonianae ecclesise, quern scilicet simpliciter Eomanee ecclesise defensores omnibus obtrudere contendunt recipiendum. Sed ill am duntaxat scripturarum interpretationem pro orthodoxa et genuine agnoscimus, quae ex ipsis est petita scripturis (ex ingenio utique ejus linguse, in qua sunt scriptae, secundum circumstantias, item expenses et pro ratione locorum vel similium vel' dissimilium, plurium quoque et clariorum, expositse), cum regula fidei et caritatis congruit et ad gloriam dei hominumque salutem eximie facit. Conf. Scot. 18 : Scripturae sacrae interpretationem neque ad privatam aliquam aut publicam personam pertinere confitemur, neque ad ecclesiam aliquam, . . . sed jus et auctoritas haec est solius spiritus dei, per quern sacra? scripture literis sunt man- datoe. Cum ergo contingit, quod contravertitur pro recto sensu alicujus loci vel sententise scripturae, . . . non tarn videndum nobis est, quid homines ante nos vel dixerint vel fecerint, quam 54 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. quid Spiritus sanctus uniformiter in corpore sacrse scripture dicat. ... Si itaque interpretatio, determinatio vel sententia cujusvis doctoris ecclesiae vel concilii expresso dei verbo in quovis alio scriptures loco repugnet, certum est, illam interpre- tationem non esse mentem et sensum sancti Spiritus. Nullum enim interpretationem admittere audemus, quae alicui prin- cipali articulo fidei aut alicui piano textui scripturae aut cari- tatis regulae repugnat. Conf. Eemonslr. i 14 : Librorum sacrorum, licet alicubi prse- sertim indoctis et minus exercitatis satis obscuri sint, tanta est claritas ac perspicuitas in sensibus inprimis ad aeternam salu- tem intellectu necessariis, ut omnes lectores non docti tantum sed et idiotae, quantum satis est, mentem eorum assequi pos- sint ; modo praejudicio, vana confidentia aliisque pravis affecti- bus sese occaecari non sinant, etc. [Baier, Compendium theologies positives, ed. E. Preuss, Bero- lini 1864, viiL S. 95, 96 : Inter affectiones Scripturae locum habet perspicuitas, seu quod ea quae creditu et factu homini ad salutem tendenti sunt necessaria, verbis et phrasibus ita claris et usu loquendi reoeptis in Scriptura proponuntur, ut quilibet homo, linguae gnarus et vel mediocri judicio pollens, verbisque attendens, verum verborum sensum, quoad ea, quae sibi sunt scitu necessaria, assequi, et capita ipsa doctrinae simplici men- tis apprehensione amplecti possit : prout ad assensum fidei verbo apprehenso et rebus significatis praebendum intellectus hominis per scripturam ipsam ej usque lumen supernaturale seu virtutem divinam illi conjunctam perducitur. The analogy of faith was regarded by the older theologians as the guiding principle of exposition (Apol. A. C. 290 ; Luther's Werkc, Walch, iii. 2042). They never, indeed, denied that false in- terpretations of Scripture might be found, and have been found, by the side of the true and only right one. But the notion was to them unknown, that every passage may be expounded in three-and-twenty various ways, and that it was the business of every man to select from this fortuitous mass his own opinion.] Cf. Twesten, Vorlesung, i 450. THE SOUKCE OF CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 55 IV. SOCINIAN. Cat. racov. p. 1 5 (qu. 3 6) : Etsi difficultates qusedam in S. S. occurrunt, tamen multa alia turn ea, quee sunt ad salutem necessaria ita perspicue aliis in locis S. S. sunt tradita, ut ab unoquoque maxime vero pietatis ac veritatis studioso et divi- nam opem implorante possint intelligi (qu. 37). Qu& ratione id demonstrabis ? Primum, cum deus eo fine atque consilio S. Scripturam hominibus tradi voluerit, ut ex ea voluntatem ipsius cognoscerent, incredibile prorsus est, ejusmodi scripta tradi voluisse, e quibus voluntas ipsius perfici et cognosci ab omnibus non posset. Deinde, quod in ipsis religionis chr. principiis apostoli epistolas suas, in quibus prsecipua religionis chr. mysteria continentur, ad homines simplices scripserint. In qu. 39 it is then shown whence have sprung the many dissidia in eruendo scripturce sensu ; and among other reasons this is assigned, that men do not as much as they ought, and with as much desire, seek the divine help of the Holy Spirit, promised by God to those who daily and nightly invoke Him. Comp. also Socinus, Opp. i. 344 ; Ostorodt, Unterricht. S. 2, 426 ; and the references in Bengel, xv. 115. V. QUAKER. Barclay, Apol. x. 19 : For all that which man, by his own industry, learning, and knowledge in the languages, can inter- pret of the Scriptures, "or find out, is nothing without the Spirit ; we cannot be certain, but may still miss of the sense of it : whereas a poor man, that knoweth not a letter, when he heareth the Scriptures read, by the same Spirit he can say, This is true; and by the same Spirit he can understand, open, and interpret it, if need be. ... iii. 4 : And therefore He [Christ] gave them His Spirit as their principal guide, which neither moths nor time can wear out, nor transcribers nor translators corrupt ; while none are so young, none so illite- rate, none in so remote a place, but that they may come to be reached and rightly informed by it. Through and by the clear- ness which that Spirit gives us, it is that we are only best rid of those difficulties that occur to us concerning the Scriptures. 56 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. General EemarTcs. According to the early theologians, the Church uttered her infallible declarations through the collective episcopate, legitimately assembled in one oecumenical council (ecclesia reprcesentans). Bellarmin. Eccl. Mil. c. xiv., says : Our opinion is that the Church cannot possibly err, neither in things absolutely necessary, nor in others which she pro- poses to our faith and duty, whether they are expressly declared in Scripture or not ; and when we say that the Church cannot err, we understand that as well of the whole body of the faithful as of the whole body of the episcopate. But the latter are, as we say, the ecclesia reprcesentiva. Cf. Cani Loci, 5; Mb'hler, Symbolik, 37 ; Klee, kath. Dogm. i. 246. According to Bellarmine, Cone. i. 4, an recu- menical council is that " cui interesse possunt et debent episcopi totius orbis, nisi legitime impediantur, et cui nemo recte preesidet, nisi Summus pontifex aut alius ejus nomine." l In such a council the bishops decide as judges (judices), for they alone have ordinarily the jus suffragii ; while others are in the council only ex privilegio et con- suetudinp, or as learned co-assessors giving their aid. Bellarmine, I.e. i. 15. [Of late the Roman Catholic Church has receded from these principles of Bellarmine. Comp. the Encyclical of 8th December 1864, Atque silentio prceterire non possiimus.] Compare with this the fundamental principles of the Greek Church, Con/, orthod. pp. 18, 122, 153; Dosithei Conf. c. xii.; Jerem. in Act. Wirt. p. 139; Plato, Catech. S. 118. The orthodox Greek Church reckons such ecumeni- cal councils seven: the Council of Nicaea, 325 ; Constantinople, 381 ; Ephesus, 431 ; Chalcedon, 451 ; Constantinople, 553, and again 680 (Trullanum) ; Nicaea again, 787. The Roman Catholic, on the other hand, acknowledges eighteen general synods accepted by Popes, among which that of Trent was [till lately] the last ; Bellarm. Condi. i. 5. About some of these, however, the Romanists themselves are not agreed. The Protestant Church has given no symbolical decision as to the number of the oecumenical councils ; but comp. Decl. Thor. p. 45, and Baumgarten, Polem. iii. 395. The idea of universal synods, in which an utterance is made by good and learned men from Holy Scripture on points of difference that may have arisen as to faith and truth, is one that is not alien to the Protestant Church : it is well known that the Evangelicals long and earnestly appealed to a free universal council (Aug. Conf. p. 7; Artt. Sm. p. 300). The symbols which touch upon this point distinguish, however, between the ideal 1 See, however, for the relation, contested even among the Eomanists, be- tween the Pope and the (Ecumenical Council, Marheinecke, Katholicismus, ii. 206. "Walter, Kirchenrecht, S. 306 ; Klee, kath. Dogm. i. 248, have recently ascribed to the Pope as Primus the convoking, the precedence, and the approval of the decrees of the council. THE SOURCE OF CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 57 and the reality (Conf.Wirt. p. 134; Thirty -nine Artt. xxi. ; Conf. Scot. xx. ; Calvin, Institt. iv. 9. 13 ; Conf. Eemonst. 25), and reject every authority co-ordinate with that of Holy Scripture. It is certain that in practice the idea has never been carried out, and that it could not be carried out without many inconveniences. III. DIVERGENCES OF LESS IMPOET IN EELATION TO SCEIPTUEE. 1. If the Holy Scripture, and especially the New Testa- ment, be a written revelation, it follows that all which it contains as dogma, interpreted by a correct exposition, is an element of the Christian revelation. Eeason, therefore, has no prerogative of distinguishing in the material which, as constituting the Bible, lies before it ; of so dividing, namely, that what reason could not of itself discover, would therefore not be part of the Christian dogma. And in this matter all the Christian symbols agree ; the Socinians forming, in the estimate of many, the one exception (Baumgarten, Polemik, iii. 196; Mosheim, Institt. Just. ccc. 820; Schrockh, KG. n. d. E. v. 560). But that even they do not in thesi make reason the absolute judge in matters of the Christian faith, is evident from the distinction they draw between those mysteries in revelation which are against and those which are above reason. It also follows from their ancient view of the inability of the reason to discern God and His will. 1 They admit only a negative right in reason to test a revelation pre- sented as divine, and teach that nothing in Christendom or Christian truth may contradict reason. In exegetical practice, however, they apply this fundamental principle to all passages of Scripture which contain the supra-rational, or the so-called 1 Socinus, Opp. ii. 454. Man himself, of himself, cannot know either himself, or God or His will : it is necessary, on the other hand, that God should reveal these things to him by some reason. Ostorodt, Unterr. S. 10. That man knows anything of God or divinity is not from nature, nor from observation of the creation, but from the tradition of what God has from the beginning revealed to man. But those have not heard this voice who have entertained an indifferent thought about any divinity at all. Cf. especially Socinus, Prcelect. Theol. cap. 2. How the Socinians have fallen away from this higher view, see in Zerrenner. 58 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. mysteries of the symbolical Christian faith. For, according to their notions, mysteries of faith, once revealed, must be com- prehensible by reason ; * and thus, in fact, the Socinian exegesis of Scripture is governed by reason, and is constantly subject to violent distortions in interpretation. 2 Compare, generally, J. J. C. Zerrenner, Neuer Versuch, Jena 1820. 2. The precise relation of the Latin version known as the Vul- gate to the original, as established -by the Tridentine Synod, has been matter of controversy. The words of the decree (sess. iv. deer, de edit, et usu S. S.) run thus : Synodus, considerans non parum utilitatis accedere posse ecclesiae dei, si ex omnibus latinis editionibus, quse circumferuntur, sacrorum librorum, qusenam pro authentic^, habenda sit, innotescat, statuit et de- clarat, ut haec ipsa vetus et vulgata editio, quse longo tot ssecu- lorum usu in ipsa ecclesia probata est, in publicis lectionibus, disputationibus,praedicationibus et expositionibus pro authentica habeatur et ut nemo earn rejicere quovis praetextu audeat vel praesumat. At the first glance, it might appear as if the Council would merely say that, if a Latin version was to be used (as in the divine service), the Vulgate alone among all those extant was to be regarded as having sanction for the Church : at least in these words no definite antithesis is established between it and the original There is, however, undoubtedly in the permission to use the Latin translation in all theological controversies (disputationibus), a certain under- valuation of the original text which was not to be expected from the representatives of the Church. And, in fact, the transactions of the Council which preceded the decrees show that the Tridentine Fathers aimed to establish the authenticity of the Vulgate, the original being left in the background, in order to obtain an advantage in disputes with the Protestants, who appealed always to that original ; or, as it follows in the immediate sequel of the decree, to restrain petulantia in- genia, and to obviate such interpretations of Scripture as de- 1 Schlichting, Dlss. de Trinitate, p. 70 : Mysteria divina, divine mysteries, are so called, not because as revealed they transcend our intelligence and appre- hension, but because they cannot be known otherwise than by revelation. * Cf. e.g. Cat. Eac. qu. 89, 97, 111, 392. As to Socinus' exegetical maxims in reference to many biblical sentences, see De Chnsto servatore, iii. 7. Cf. Bengel in Siiskind'a Mag. xv. 132. THE SOUECE OF CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 59 % parted from the mind of the Church. 1 Finally, many even of the most orthodox Eomish theologians have so understood the decree as to make the Vulgate dogmatically as trustworthy as the original ; and even the Church (in general councils 2 ) might establish its decisions by appeal to the Vulgate. 3 Recently it has been attempted to explain away every allusion in the decree to the original ; or, since the plain words of it cannot be forced, to interpret the whole as a merely provisional dis- ciplinary enactment for a good purpose. 4 An antithesis of the Tridentine sanction of the Vulgate is found in the Declar. Thorun. ii. 1. 4. 3. On the reading of Scripture by the laity the Eoman symbols have nothing definitive. The Popes, however, have repeatedly interdicted it, especially Innocent in. (Concil. Tolos. 1229), and Clement xi. in the Bull Unigenitus (1713). Pius VII. disapproved of the use of Bible translations which had not the sanction of the Eoman chair ; and the Index lib. prohil. 1 [Jud. le Plat, Monumentorum ad liisloriam condlil Tridentini, Lovanii 1783.] Cf. Schrockh, KG. iv. 132 ; Marheinecke, System der Kalliol. i. 231. 2 The decree does not mention the acts of councils in which the Church herself sits in judgment. But Bellarmine, de verbo del, ii. 10, says with great simplicity: In the general councils of the Church there are but few, sometimes no, men skilled in Hehrew ; it would be a bad thing for the Church if on grave questions she could not confide in the Latin version, etc. ; and from what Canus says, ii. 15, de linguarum hebr. et grcecce utilitate, it may be gathered how orthodox Catholic theologians regard the use of the original as compared with that of the Vulgate. 3 According to this, the Vulgate was on a level of itself with the original, and only in and by the use made of it had the pre-eminence. The decree is not that the truths of faith may be more surely known from the Vulgate than from the original (the Church never asserted that), but that they may be known with equal assurance, and.therefore that the Church adhered to the Vulgate because it was in more general use and better understood. Accordingly the old Pro- testant polemics addressed themselves to the task of showing that the Vulgate, as compared with the original, was corrupt. Chemnitz, Exam. 1, i. 7, 13 ; Sixt. Amama, Censura Vulgates et a Tridentlnis canonizalw (!) versionis Pentat., Franeq. 1628. See also the same author's Antibarbarus Bibl., Amst. 1628, in answer to which Bellarmine, de verbo dei, ii. 12, sought to make out that the Vulgate is free from errors. Still more successfully the old polemics pointed to the discrepancy between the Clement, and Sixtine authentic editions. Cf. James, JBettum papale, London 1600. 4 Cf. L. van Ess. Pragm. doctor, cath. Trid. circa Vulgatam decreti sensum nee non licitum textus origin, usum testantium historia, Sulzbach 1816 ; Herber, de Vers. Lat. Vulg. ex cone. Trid. decreto authentic^, Vratis. 1815. 60 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. which Pius iv. issued makes the reading of (Catholic) transla- tions of Scripture dependent on the permission of the pastors and heads of monasteries. However, there have never been want- ing prelates and theologians of the Eomish Church who have desired to make the reading of the Bible as common as pos- sible, proceeding from the principle, Lectio S. S. cst pro omnibus. But in consequence of the other principle predominant in that Church, of the essential obscurity of Scripture, it is per- fectly consistent that but little stress is laid upon the indivi- dual and private reading of the Bible on the part of the laity, and that the common people are referred mainly to the oral instruction of the clergy : Bellarmine, de vcrbo dei, ii. 15. The Greek Church never made Scripture accessible to the laity. In their divine service it is still read in a language not understood by the people, and translations have till lately not been widely diffused. The Synod of Jerusalem, in 1672, was made to utter a condemnation of the reading of Scripture by the laity: Harduin, Condi, xi. 255. Even the Quakers attach little importance to the private reading of the Bible, since the people are always dependent upon the correctness of the translation, which they themselves are not able to decide upon : see Barclay, Prop. iii. The learned themselves derive, according to them, no real advantage from reading the word of God, if they are destitute of the true internal light. If the Protestant Church is zealous in putting the Scriptures into the hands of the laity, it is under the full conviction that the proper clearness of the original is unimpaired in those passages which make up the constituent elements of necessary faith. 4. The Eoman Catholics reckon as part of Holy Scripture, besides the canonical books, the so-called Apocrypha (that is, Tobit, Judith, Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom of Solomon, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Baruch, parts of Esther, the Hymn of the Three, Susannah, Bel and the Dragon), and ascribe to them divine authority, appointing portions of them to be read at certain festivals; cf. Cone. Trid. sess. iv. dec. 1. It is true that many Eomish theologians make an historical distinction be- tween the canonical and apocryphal books, terming the former proto-canonical, and the latter deutero-canonical (see Jahn, Einleitung, i. 140). But the Church takes no notice of any THE SOURCE OF CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 61 such distinction, which indeed is of itself without any signi- ficance for dogmatics. How it came to pass that the Triden- tine Synod denied the distinction already existing in the Jewish Church between the canonical and the apocryphal books, is matter of fruitless conjecture. It was the long prevalent custom in the Latin Church to use the canonical books and the non-canonical promiscuously ; and there was a desire (not without the influence of doctrinal bias) to be faithful to the old habit. In the Lutheran symbols there is found no decided negative, though they do in fact declare the canonical books alone to be dogmatically binding : Bret- schneider, Dogmatik, cap. 1 ; Gonf. Gall. iii. 4 ; Conf. Belg. 6 : libri apocryphi, quos quidem ecclesia legere et ex iis docu- menta de rebus cum libris canonicis consentientibus desumere potest : at nequaquam ea ipsorum vis et auctoritas est, ut ex ullo testimonio ipsorum aliquod dogma . . . certo constitui possit. Dec. Thorun. p. 46, Conf. Remon. i. 6, and the Conf. Gall., the English Article vi., the Conf. Remonst. i. 3, give ex- press lists of the canonical books of the Old Testament. The Socinians also (Ostorodt, Untcrr.}, and the Mennonites (Eis, Conf. c. 29), agree in this with the Protestant Churches. Barclay mentions the exclusion of the Apocrypha from the collection of the divinely-inspired books, but only in passing, and as an historical fact. Metrophanes Critop. Conf. c. 7, attests, for the Greek Church, that it assigned no canonical authority to the Old Testament Apocrypha. " As to the other books, which some would combine together with the Holy Scriptures, such as Tobit and the like, we do not hold that they are to be rejected, for they hold much that is moral and worthy of all praise. But as canonical and authentic they were not formerly re- ceived by the Church of Christ. . . . Wherefore we do not seek to establish our dogmas by them, but from the three-and- thirty canonical and authentic books, which we call the in- spired and holy Scripture." On the other hand, the Apocrypha are placed in co-ordination with the canonical books by the Synod at Jerusalem, 1672, [at least according to] Harduin, Condi, xi. 258. 5. As to the inspiration of Holy Writ, the Racovian Cate- 62 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. chism does not speak expressly ; it aims merely to demonstrate the certitudo S. S. Socinus, however, not only admits that the apostles, in the announcement of doctrines necessary to salvation, enjoyed a special guidance of the Divine Spirit 1 (which therefore would not fail them in writing), but says of them that they wrote certain things " vel ab ipso div. spiritu impulsi eoque dictante vel spiritu sancto pleni ; " and even in the Eacovian Catechism there occur traces here and there of a faith in inspiration. See Zerrenner, Newer Versuch, etc., S. 132-198. In the Conf. Bemonst. i. 3, the authors of the canonical books are said to be spiritu dei sancto afflati, instructi et dvrecti. In the Form. Cons. Helv. ii. 1, moreover, we have an assertion of the inspired character of the Hebrew vowels. 1 Socini Opp. i. 3746 : Apostolos in iis, quse ad seternam salutem omnino pertinent, errare non potuisse et ratio manifesto et Christi apertissima verba atque promissa plane demonstrant. It THE TEINITY. ALL Christian communities agree that God is in His nature one ; but the great majority acknowledge, according to the definitions of the ancient Church, in this one divine essence three persons or hypostases, inseparably united, co-equal in eternity and perfection. They separate to some extent from the Arminians, who, because the Son is generated, and the Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father, teach a subordination among the three Persons ; and they differ wholly from the anti-Trinita- rians or Socinians, who, denying the Trinity in the divine essence, hold the supreme and only God, who is one in essence, to be one in person also, and regard Christ as only a man exalted to divine majesty (a God who became such in time : Osterodt, S. 65), and that which the Scripture calls the Holy Ghost as merely the power of God efficient in the sanctification of men. In the symbols of the Quakers, the doctrine of the Trinity is not exhibited as such ; nor are the biblical passages which touch on the Trinity in the divine essence ever collected. All is reduced to the one declaration in Proposition ii. of Barclay : No man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son revealeth Him ; the revelation of the Son is in and by the Spirit. SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. I EOMISH AND PKOTESTANT. As the declarations of the Eoman Catholic and Protestant symbols alike and almost literally coincide with, or as com- 64 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. ments arise out of, the statements of the ancient O3cumenical symbols, which symbols themselves, moreover, have been ac- cepted generally by the Protestants, it is unnecessary to set those statements in order here. Comp. however, Gennadius, Conf. art. 3 ; Mctrop. Critop. 1 ; Conf. orth. i. qu. 8-10 ; Aug. Conf. 1 ; Appl. p. 50 ; Artt. Sm. p. 303 ; Conf. Helv. ii. cap. 3 ; Conf. Gall. art. 6 ; Eng. Artt. 1-3 ; Conf. Bdg. art. 8. As to the Mennonites, comp. Eis, Conf. artt 2 and 3. IT. SOCINIAX. 1. The Trinity generally. Cat. Eac. p. 31 : Qui fit, ut Christian! non solum patrem, verum etiam filium et spiritum sanctum personas esse in una deitate vulgo statuant ? Graviter in eo errant, argumenta ejus rei afferentes e scripturis male intellectis. 2. Deity of Christ. Ib. p. 32 : Vox dcus duobus potissimum modis in scripturis usurpatur : prior est, cum designat ilium, qui in coelis et in terra omnibus ita dominatur et prseest, ut neminem superiorem agnoscat . . . atque in hac significatione scriptura unum esse deum asserit. Posterior modus est, cum eum denotat, qui potestateni aliquam sublimem ab uno illo deo habet aut deitatis unius illius dei aliquS, ratione particeps est. Etenim in scrip- turis propterea deus ille unus deus deorum vocatur. Psalm. L 1. Et hac quidem posteriore ratione filius dei vocatur deus in quibusdam scripturse locis. Ib. p. 48 : An praeter humanam Ch. naturam s. substantiam non agnoscis etiam in eo divinam ? Siquidem hoc loco naturae divinae nomine ipsam dei essentiam intelligimus, non agnos- cimus hoc sensu divinam in Ch. naturam, cum id non solum ration! sacra verum etiam divinis literis repugnet. Ib. p. 58 : Si Chr. ex essentia patris genitus fuisset, aut partem essentise sumsisset aut totam. Essentias partem sumere non potuit eo quod sit impartibilis essentia divina, neque totam, nam hac ratione pater desiisset esse pater . . . adde quod cum ess. div. sit una numero ac proinde incommunicabilis, fieri istud nullo pacto potuit (after the latest revision). THE TRINITY. 65 Ib. p. 47 : Non solum est Ch. filius del unigenitus . . . sed etiam propter divin. turn potentiam ac virtutem turn ancfcori- tatem ac potestatem, quae in eo adhuc mortal! eluxit, jam turn dens fuit, multo magis nunc, postquam omnem in coelo et in terra potestatem accepit et omnia deo solo excepto ejus pedibus sunt subjecta (wanting in first edition). II}. p. 50: Quidqnid divinnm Chr. habet, scriptura eum patris dono habere aperte docet. Jo. p. 164: Primp praecepto Jes. addidit id, quod ipsum Jesum pro eo, qui in nos potestatem habeat divinam istoque sensu pro deo agnoscere . . . ac divinum ei honorem exhibere tenemur. Ib. qu. 237: (Honor divinns Christo debitus consistit) in eo, quod, quemadmodum adoratione divina eum prosequi tenemur, ita in omnibus necessitatibus nostris ejus opem im- plorare possumus. Adoramus vero eum propter ipsius sub- limem et divinam ejus potestatem. Ib. qu. 245 : (Is honor et cultus Christo tribuitur, ut inter Christum et deum discrimen) permagnum sit. Nam adoramus et colimns deum tanquam causam primam salutis nostrse, Christum tanquam secundam : aut, ut cum Paulo (1 Cor. viii. 6) loquamur, deum tanquam eum ex quo omnia, Christum nt eum per quern omnia. Thus the Socinian doctrine as to the deity of Christ is in its connection this : The man Jesus, who, born as the Son of God, accomplished the purposes of God on earth for the salva- tion of men, was by God exalted in the ascension to almighty dominion over His Church (the people of God), and therefore over the whole world. Consequently He was exalted to a participation in the divine glory, and in this state Christ may receive, as God, adoration or worship. Christ is not naturd Deus ; did not from eternity pre-exist with God ; never be- came participant ipsius essentice divings (which is absolutely indivisible and incommunicable) ; and all the divine that He possesses He received as the gift of God. (A contention arose between Socinus and others, especially the Siebenburg Unitarians, as to the divine honour to be paid to Christ. On this, consult the tractates of Socinus in the Bibl. Frat. Polon. ii 709 sqq. The Summa theol. Unit, agrees generally with the E 66 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. views of Socinus. But on what ground does Hase assert, K. G. S. 593, that the English Unitarians have renounced the worship of Christ ?) 3. Divine Personality of the Holy Ghost. Cat. Eacov. qu. 80 : Sp. s. nusquam in s. s. vocatur expresse deus. Quia vero quibusdam locis ea attribuit ipsi scriptura, quae dei sunt, non eo facit ac si ipse vel deus sit vel persona divinitatis. IT), qn. 371 : Sp. s. non esse in deitate personam, hinc dicere potes, primum, quod ea, quse Spiritui s. in scripturis attribuuntur, nulla prorsus ratione personse conveniant, ut sunt : quod detur, quod ex eo detur idque aut secundum mensuram aut absque omni mensur&, quod effundatur ipse et ex ipso effundatur et quod eo potentur homines, quod augeatur, in duplo detur, in partes distribuatur, tollatur ipse et ex ipso tollatur, quod interdum sit, interdum non sit, denique quod exstinguatur, et similia in scripturis exstant (Act. v. 32, cet.). Deinde idem ex eo patet, quod non sit extra deum natura, sed in ipso deo. . . . Quoniam vero Sp. s. in deo est, nee tamen in Spiritu s. reciproce dici potest esse deum, hinc apparet, Sp. s. non esse personam. F. Soc. breviss. inst. p. 652 b : Quid de Spiritu sancto dicis ? Nempe ilium non esse personam aliquam a deo, cujus est spiritus, distinctam, sed tantummodo (ut nomen ipsum spiritus, quod flatum et afflationem, ut sic loquar, significat, docere potest) ipsius dei vim et efficaciam quandam, i e. earn, quse secum sanctitatem aliquam afferat cet. 1 III. ARMENIAN. The Conf. Remonst. c. 3 says nothing of a subordination , expresses itself on this subject with very great prudence ; and expressly ascribes to the Holy Spirit also a communicatio deitatis db cetemo. Episcopius, Inst. Theol. iv. 2. 32, p. 333 : Sed addo, certum esse ex scripturis, personis his tribus divmitatem divinasque 1 Cf. Soc. Bibl. Fr. Pol. ii. 455 ; Tr. de Deo, Christo et Sp. ; Ostorodt, Untenicht, c. iv. 6 ; Crell, de uno Deo patre. THE TRINITY. 67 pevfectiones tribui non collateraliter aut co-ordinate, sed sub- ordinate, ita ut pater solus naturam istam divinam et perfec- tiones istas divinas a se habeat sive a nullo alio, filius auteni et Spiritus sanctus a patre : ac proinde pater divinitatis omnis, quae in filio et Spiritu sancto est, fons ac principium sit. . . . Dignius autem est, esse a nullo, quam esse ab alio, et generare, quam generari, spirare quam spirari cet. Limborch, Theol. Christ, ii. 17, sec. 25 : Colligimus, essen- tiam divinam et filio et Spiritui sancto esse communem. Sed et non minus constat, inter tres hasce personas subordinationem esse quandam, quatenus pater naturam divinam a se habet, filius et Spiritus sanctus a patre, qui proinde divinitatis in filio et Spiritu sancto fons est et principium. Communis christianorum consensus ordinis ratione prserogativani hanc agnoscit, patri semper tribuens primum locum, secundum filio, tertium Spiritui sancto. Sed est et qusedam supereminentia patris respectu filii, et patris ac filii respectu Spiritus sancti, ratione dignitatis ac potestatis. Dignius siquidem est gene- rare quam generari, spirare quam spirari cet. DIFFERENCES OF LESS MOMENT. The Greek Church teaches, following John xv. 26, that the Holy Ghost proceeds only from the Father. But the Eoman Catholic and Protestant Churches, including the Mennonites and Arminians, teach, with the Nicene and Athanasian sym- bols, in harmony with the orthodox view of the essential rela- tion of the Father and the Son in the holy Trinity, that He proceeds from the Father and the Son together. See Cat. Eom. i. 9. 6 (cf. Klee, Dogm. ii. 182); Form. Cone. p. 781; Conf. Hdv. ii 3 ; Conf. Gall. art. 6 ; Eng. Artt. ii ; Conf. Belg. art. xi. ; Conf. Eem. iii. 2 ; Eis, Conf. Menn. art. 3. The passage in the Greek formulary is as follows : Si8aoveet [eV/cX^crta] TraJ? TO Trvevpa TO ayiov eKTropeverat, eic povov rov Trarpos, co? ^77777? KOI a/o^? TT)? 0eoV7T09. More explicit statements are found in Metrop. Critop. c. i. 11 ; Jerem. in Actis Wirt. pp. 57, 200. Cf. Zernicav. Tract, de Process. Sp. s. a solo patre, Eegiom. 1774 ; Th. Procopowitz, de Process. Sp., Goth. 1772. III. CULTUS OF THE VIRGIN; INVOCATION OF SAINTS; VENERATION OF PICTURES AND RELICS. POINT OF DIVERGENCE. ALL Christian Churches agree that to God alone belongs adoration. But the Papists and Greeks connect with this an invocation and reverence of angels and saints that is, of the dead who for their sanctity have already attained to their felicity in God l as intercessors with God ; and they believe that even the pictures and the relics of these saints should be reverenced. The more this part of the Roman dogmatics has been contested, 2 the more necessary does it become to let the symbols themselves speak which declare the Church's doctrine ; so that we may separate what is merely the super- stition of the crowd from the dogma which the Church itself holds and decrees. 1 Bellarmini de JBeatitud. sanct. cap. 1 : The spirits of pious men, who are released from the body and need no purgation, but are already admitted to the fruition of blessedness which consists in the clear vision of God. The Tridentine expression says the same thing : una cum Christo regnantes. 2 The Romanists are themselves partly responsible for this : for, to intercedere precibus is added by the canon missce and Bellarmin (i. 17) the word mentis, which, however easily explicable on the principles of the Romish doctrine, must needs suggest to Protestants the idea that independent merits are meant which are co-ordinate with the merits of Christ. See Apol. Aug. Conf. p. 227 ; Chemnitz, Exam. Cone. Trid. iii. 4. 2. The remarks of Bellarmine, de Imay* Sanct. ii. 21, are very objectionable to the Protestant mind. 68 CULTUS OF THE VIRGIN, ETC. 69 I. INVOCATION OF SAINTS. SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. I. KOMAN. Cone. Trid. sess. 25, Deer. d. invocat. sanctor: (Doceant episcopi), sanctos una cum Christo regnantes orationes suas pro hominibus deo offerre (cf. Trid. sess. 22, cap. 3), bonum atque utile esse, suppliciter eos invocare et ob beneficia impe- tranda a deo per filium ejus Jesum Christum, qui solus noster redemtor et salvator est, ad eorum orationes, opem, auxiliumque confugere ; illos vero, qui negant, sanctos aeterna felicitate in ccelo fruentes invocandos esse, aut qui asserunt, vel illos pro hominibus non orare, vel eorum, ut pro nobis etiam singulis orent, invocationem esse idololatriam, vel pugnare cum verbo dei adversarique honori unius mediatoris dei et hominum Jesti Christi, vel stultum esse, in coelo regnantibus voce vel mente supplicare, impie sentire. Cat Rom. iii. 2.10: Invocandi sunt (angeli), quod et per- petuo deum intuentur et patrocinium salutis nostrse sibi delatum libentissime suscipiunt. Exstant divinse scripturse testimonia hujus invocationis. Ib. iv. 5. 8 : Jure ecclesia gratiarum actioni preces etiam et implorationem sanctissimse dei matris adjunxit ; qua pie atque suppliciter ad earn confugeremus, ut nobis peccatoribus sua" intercessione conciliaret deum, bonaque turn ad hanc turn ad seternam vitam necessaria impetraret. Ergo nos . . . assidue misericordise matrem ac fidelis populi advocatam invocare de- bemus, ut oret pro nobis peccatoribus, ab eaque hac prece opem et auxilium implorare, cujus et preestantissima merita apud deum esse et summam voluntatem juvandi humanum genus, nemo nisi impie et nefarie dubitare potest. Tb. iii. 2. 8 : Docendum est, venerationem et invocationem sanctorum angelorum ac beatarum animarum, quse crelesti gloria perfruuntur, . . . huic legi (de uno deo colendo) non repugnare. Quis enim adeo deniens est, qui edicente rege, ne se pro rege quisquam gerat aut regio cultu atque honore affici patiatur, continuo putet nolle regem, suis ut magistratibus 70 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. honos deferatur ? Etsi enim angelos christiani adorare dicnntur exemplo sanctorum veteris testament!, non earn tamen illis venerationem adhibent, quam deo tribuunt. Quodsi legimus interdum angelos recusasse, ne se homines venerarentur, eo fecisse intelligendum est, quod sibi eum honorem haberi nole- bant, qui soli deo deberetur. Cf. Conf. A. C. p. 89 seq. ; Eck, Loci, cap. 14 ; Bellarm. de Ecc. triumph, lib. i. ; Becan. Man. controv. i 7 ; Bossuet, Ex. Doct. Cath. c. 4 ; Sailer, Ecc. Cath. de cult. sand. [Pius IX., in his Encyclical of 2d February 1849 : Optime enim nostis, venerabiles fratres, omnem fiducice nostrce rationcm in sanctissima virgine esse collocatam; quandoquidem Deus totius boni plenitudinem posuit in Maria, ut proinde, si quid spei in nobis est, si quid gratise, si quid salutis, ab ea noverimus redundare, quia sic est voluntas ejus, qui totum nos habere voluit per Mariam.] II. GREEK. Conf. orthod. p. 7 7 : "E^owi %pe'o9 oXot ol opdoSogoi, va rr/z/ (Mapiav) So^d^ovffi TrpeTrov/jLeva /col va rrjv ev\a{3ovvrai, 5 6eov<; rivas, aXV &>? av vd /MI? ef3or)0ova-av eiceivoi diro rrjv eSiKrjV TOU? Svvapiv fia Start fyjrovffiv t9 ^/xa? rrjv ")(dpiv rov 6eov /Lie rat9 TrpecvSewus rou9. Ib. p. 3 2 1 : 'Aicofju, TOUS dyy&ow eVt/caXoy/Ae^a va ftemfnvovfft fie rat? Trpoaracriais roy? irrrep TUJLWV rcpos rov Beov Siarl etcelvot, 7rpo(Tepov9 CULTUS OF THE VIRGIN, ETC. 71 BovXoi irapecrrwres et9 rrjv rov deov aeya'hoTrpeTreiav, fteo-irevovo-i oy povov d\tj0ivbv deov ad\io-ra ay Kara- rrjv fjieo-iretav rwv dylwv irapo^vvofiev ra aeyio-ra rrjv Oeiav fjieyaXeiortjra^ Sev rifjiwvres TOU9 etXt/cpty9 &ov\ev- avrois rpo7ro9 ovd' iGToplat, our' 7Ti(7ToXat, aXA,' r) airoK.a- Xin|ri? TOU Travaylov 7rz/eu/iaT09 TOW . . . Trdwra etSoTO9 teal TOVTWV ocra /SouXeTat T0t9 TTLO-TOL^ TWV Sov\wv a7roaXu7TTOVT09, tcaKelvovs et9 evTev^iv vjrep TWV Seoftevcov fyeipovros, KOL Ta9 TotauTfl9 evTev^eis Kal a7ro8e^o/iei>ou at T\r)povvros. Tovro ovv elSovaa rj rov Xpiarov e/c/cX^cr/a /cat TraXat TOUTOU9 (a) e7reaXetTo /cat /w,e%pt crrj^epov TOVTO Troiet. OvSev erepov irapa TOVTCOV alrovcra, r) TO TTpecr/Sevetv rov irdvra Swdftevov Oeov inrep , 7roXXai9 Q\tyeai /cat dvcu//.aXiat9 TOJ) /Stbu Trept/cu/cXou/iewaz/ tV vrro^jiovriv iv Tat9 OXfyeai Bu> o OiKripjJiwv 0eos teal aTTo rovrwv d7ra\\a. (ravra ra> Oe> Svvara, /cal ovftevl aXXw.) dXXa Xeyof^ev ayie O. A. rrpicrfteve inrep "Eri ov \eyofj,ev rovs dyiovs p&rbra/? et9 yap ecrri f^eairri fcal dvOpa>ira>v, dvOpwjros 'Irjo-ovs Xpicrrbs, 09 [iovo<$ Svvarai ra>re irarpl Kal rjfuv pecnreveiv. P. 133: Ov rolvvv TOU9 77877 /j,eraardvra<; dyiovs /caXoO/xez/, dXXa T /cat //ceTa9 TT/jo? Toy 0ebv virep rj^wv dSeX^wv etcelvcov ovrow. Ol 7rpecr/3evoyT69 ou T0t9 auTot9 pr^ao-iv ol<$ Kal o vto9 fJieo-irevtov dXX' aXXot9 TroXu Sia(pepovo~t, T0t5 e/cetVou, /cat rrjv avrtov 7rpo9 Toy #eoz> raTreivorijra Kal Bov\eiav eu TrXet'oya exelvav rrapprjaiav 7T/309 Toy vlbv Trpwrrjv Tv. 72 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. However, the character of /xecrmu is assigned to the saints, Ada Wirt. p. 128. Plato, in his Catech. S. 15 9, warns against the abuse of the veneration offered to saints. Observations. The foregoing testimonies establish the following propositions: 1. The Roman and Greek Churches make a clear distinction between the worship of God (and Christ) and that of the saints. God is prayed to as the independent Author and Giver of all good ; the saints are invoked as the mediators of the divine benevolences, that is, by means of their prayer, addressed to God in the name of Christ: 1 cf. the passage cited above, Cat. Rom. iv. 6. 3. The merit of Christ is declared not to be hereby invaded, 2 inasmuch as the impartation of benefits is not connected with any specific merit of the saints, which before and independently of Christ availed with God, but merely with their intercession, which itself is based on Christ's merit, and is offered in His name. It is not, indeed, of much moment here that the word invocare is used, and not adorare ; for in the Romish ecclesiastical language the adorare is, like preces, just as seldom used as concerning God : cf. Cat. Rom. Hi. 2. 4, Sancti viri . . . reges adorabant; and Bellarm. de Ecc. triumph, ii. 21. 2. The Tridentine Council commands the invocatio sanctorum, not as a reli- gious duty, but as good and wholesome. The Protestant, however, cannot anywhere find the biblical ground of such invocatio ; and, when any intercession with God is in question, will be content with that of Christ, lamenting meanwhile that the Roman Catholic Church, or the Roman Catholic clergy, have not more earnestly sought to obviate the easily possible and actual superstition and abuse of this doctrine. The canonized saints receive from the Romish Church public vene- ration : festivals are held in their honour, masses are read, churches are built. The non-canonized it is permitted only in secret to honour : cf. Bellarm. I.e. cap. 10. Canonization is, according to Bellarmine, cap. 7, " nothing more than the public testimony of the Church concerning the true sanctity and glory of any man now dead ; at the same time it is the judgment and opinion by which are decreed the honours due to those who reign in blessedness with God, which are generally held to be seven." The right of canonization the Pope alone now holds. As to this canonization in the Eastern Church, see Heineccius, iii. S. 50. 1 The distinction is well known between XT/>/ and JawX$/a. Eck. Loc. c. 14 : licet sancti non sint adorandi latria, quia soli deo debetur, tamen venerandi sunt dulia. Cf. Bellarmin. I.e. cap. 12. 1 According to Mohler, the invocation of saints is itself an honour to Christ CULTUS OF THE VIRGIN, ETC. 73 III. PROTESTANT (INCLUDING ARMINIAN AND SOCINIAN). ' C. A. art. 21 : De cultu sanctorum decent, quod memoria sanctorum proponi potest, ut imitemur fidem eorum et bona opera juxta vocationem. Sed scriptura non docet invocare sanctos, seu petere auxilium a sanctis, quia unum Christum nobis proponit mediatorem, propitiatorium, pontificem et inter- cessorem. Hie invocandus est et promisit se exauditurum esse preces nostras, et hunc cultum maxime probat. Apol. C. A. -p. 223 : Confessio nostra probat honores sanc- torum. . . . Prseterea et hoc largimur, quod angeli orent pro nobis. Exstat enim testimonium Zacharite (i 12), ubi ange- lus orat : Domine exercituum, usque quo tu non miserebaris Jerusalem cet. De sanctis etsi concedimus, quod sicut vivi orant pro ecclesia universa in genere, ita in ccelis orent pro ecclesia in genere, tametsi testimonium nullum de mortuis orantibus exstat in scripturis, praeter illud somnium sumtum ex libro Machabeorum posteriore. Porro ut maxime pro ecclesia orent sancti, tamen non sequitur, quod sint invocandi. Quan- quam confessio nostra hoc tantum affirmat, quod scriptura non doceat sanctorum invocationem, seu petere a sanctis auxilium. Cuni autem neque praeceptum, neque promissio, neque exem- plum ex scripturis de invocandis sanctis afferri possit, sequitur, conscientiam nihil posse certi de ilia invocatione habere. Cf. Conf. Wirtemberg, p. 122 sq. ; and Conf. Bohem. art. 17. A. Sm. p. 3 1 : Invocatio sanctorum est etiam pars abusuum et errorum antichristi, pugnans cum primo principali articulo et delens agnitionem Christi. Non etiam est mandata, nee consilio, nee exemplo, nee testimonio scripturae nititur. Omnia in Christo melius et certius nobis sunt proposita, ut non egea- mus invocatione sanctorum, etiamsi res pretiosa esset, cum tamen sit res maxime perniciosa. Cat. Racov. p. 173 : An quisquam prseter Chr. colendus sit, doce. Nullo prorsus modo. Nee enim ullum exstat divinum testimonium, ex quo cuiquam . . . hunc honorem a deo datum esse appareat. Quod vero hodie in rom. ecclesia virgini Marias et sanctis defertur, id totum in ipsorum opinione fundatum est. Cf. Ostorodt, Unterriclit. c. 42, S. 424. Conf. Helv. ii. cap. 5 : Divos nee contemnimus, nee vulga- 74 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. riter de eis sentinms. Agnoscimus enim eos esse viva Christ! membra, amicos dei, qui carnem et mundum gloriose vicerunt. Diligimus ergo illos ut fratres, et honoramus etiam, non tamen cultu aliquo, sed honorabili de eis existimatione, denique laudi- bus justis. Imitamur item eos. Nam imitatores fidei virtutum- que ipsorum, consortes item seternse salutis esse, illis seternum apud deum cohabitare, et cum eis in Christo exsultare desideriis votisque ardentissimis exoptamus. . . . Honorandi ergo sunt propter imitationem, non adorandi propter religionem cet. Conf. Gall. art. 24 : (Credimus) quidquid homines de mor- tuorum sanctorum intercessione comment! sunt, nihil aliud esse, quam fraudem et fallacias satanae. Conf. Belg. art. 26 : Hie mediator, quern pater inter se et nos constituit, su& majestate haudquaquam nos terrere debet, ut ad alium, arbitrio nostro queerendum, ideo impellat. Nemo enim neque in coslo, neque in terra inter creaturas est, qui nos impensius amet, quam Christus. . . . Sola igitur diffidentia morem hunc induxit, ut sanctos ignominia honoris loco affi- ciant, dum id agunt, quod illi nunquam fecerunt, nee sibi defend postularunt, sed constanter et pro officio suo rejecerunt, sicut ex scriptis eorum patet. Neque hie nostra indignitas praetexenda est. . . . Sciebat enim probe deus, cum hunc nobis daret, peceatores nos esse. Against the cultus of Mary is specially decisive Dedar. Thorun. ii. 2, 3. Conf. Remonstr. xvi. 3 : Prater hunc unicum mediatorem (Christum) alios ullos vel angelos vel homines sive vivos sive mortuos religiose colere i e. plus quam civiliter adorare vel invocare, tanquam scilicet patronos et advocates nostros ap. deum, aut templa, altaria, festa iis consecrare . . . prorsus illicitum deoque ingratum esse statuimus. . . . Memoriam tamen (sanctorum) sancte colendam et virtutes cum praeconio digne celebrandas et ad imitationem . . . proponendas esse jure censemus. (Cf. limborch, Theol. christ. v. 19 ; Sim. Episcop. disput. 15, in a. Opp. ii. ii. 207 sqq.) CULTUS OF THE VIRGIN, ETC. 75 II. VENERATION OF PICTURES AND RELICS. SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. I. ROMAN. Cone. Trid. sess. 25, Deer, de invoc. sanctor. : (Doceant episcopi) sanctorum quoque martyrom et aliorum cum Christo viventium sancta corpora, quse viva membra fuerunt Christi et templum Spiritus sancti, ab ipso ad seternam vitam susci- tanda et glorificanda, a fidelibus veneranda esse, per quse multa beneficia a deo hominibus prsestantur ; ita ut affirmantes, sanc- torum reliquiis venerationem atque honorem non deberi vel eas aliaque sacra monumenta a fidelibus inutiliter honorari atque eorum opus impetrandae causa sanctorum memorias frustra frequentari, omnino damnandos esse, prout jam pridem eos damnavit et mine etiam damnat ecclesia. Imagines porro Christi, deiparse virginis et aliorum sanctorum in templis prse- sertim habendas et retinendas eisque debitum honorem et venerationem impertiendam, non quod credatur inesse aliqua in iis divinitas vel virtus, propter quam sint colendse, vel quod ab eis sit aliquid petendum, vel quod fiducia in irnaginibus sit figenda, veluti olim fiebat a gentibus, quse in idolis spem suam collocabant : sed quoniam honos, qui eis exhibetur, refertur ad prototypa, quse illse reprsesentant : ita ut per imagines, quas osculamur et coram quibus caput aperimus et procumbimus, Christum adoremus et sanctos, quorum illae similitudinem gerunt, veneremur. Id quod conciliorum, praesertim vero secundse Nicaenae synodi decretis contra imaginum oppugna- tores est sancitum. Cat. Rom. iii. 2. 23 : Cum Christus ejusque sanctissima et purissima mater ceterique omnes sancti humana prsediti natura 4 humanam speciem gesserint, eorum imagines pingi atque hono- rari non modo interdictum non fuit, sed etiam sanctum, et grati animi certissimum argumentum semper habitum est. 24 : Non solum in ecclesi& imagines habere et illis honorem et cultum adhibere ostendet parochus, cum honos, qui illis exhibetur, referatur ad prototypa, verum etiam maximo fidelium bono factum declarabit cet. 76 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. II. iii. 2. 8 : Docendum est (venerationem sanctorum angel- orum ac beatarum animarum, quae coelesti gloria perfruuntur) aut etiam corporiun ipsorum sanctorumque cinerum cultum, quem semper cath. ecclesia adhibuit, huic legi (de colendo uno deo) non repugnare. ... ill 2. 1 5 : Cui fidem non faciant et honoris, qui sanctis debetur, et patrocinii, quod nostri causa suscipiunt, mirabiles effectse res ad eorum sepulcra, et oculis et manibus membrisque omnibus captis in pristinum statum restitutis, mortuis ad vitam revocatis, ex corporibus hominum ejectis dsemoniis ? . . . Quid plura ? si vestes, sudaria, si umbra sanctorum, priusquam e vita migrarent, depulit morbos viresque restituit, quis tandem negare audeat, deum per sacros cineres, ossa ceterasque sanctorum reliquias eadem mirabiliter effi- cere ? Cf. Eck, loci, c. 1 5 ; Bossuet, expos, c. 5 ; Bellarmin. dc eccles. triumph, lib. ii. ; Klee, Dogmat. iii. 407 ff. II. GREEK. Conf. ortJiod. p. 328 : 'JET/iefc orav Ta? 7rpo(TKVvovfjiv, Sev 7rpoo-Kvvovfj.ev ra ^putfiara rj TO. % v\a' pa TOW dyiovs e/ee/ot>9, rwv oirolwv elvai, al et/coz/e?, So%d%o(j,ev fie Trpo JJLOVW irpocrrjKova'LV a\Xa a%eTiKT]V Kal i\iKijv dvaepov9 a~vfM- (Satveiv rov avrov ayiov, ov ra \etyava ovofid^ovcri, rpiKe<^a\ov Kal rrpaKe9 droTrov Kal KaTrrjXevriKov 7; ev/cXr/o-ia /itcret Kal dirorpe- irerai. Cf. Synod. Hierosol. in Harduin, Condi. XL p. 257 sqq. ; CULTUS OF THE VIRGIN, ETC. 77 Jerem. in Act. Wirtenib. p. 369; Plato, Catech. S. 164 f.; Heinecc. Ablild. ii. 82 ff. Observations. In respect to the pictures of the saints, the Eastern Church differs from the Western in this, that it tolerates no sculptured or hewn images, only painted ones. Metroph. Critop. cap. xv. p. 125 : rourwy \_ruv ftyiuv] tixova; fj lxxX>]ff/a Jro.s ou yXu-rraj ovde Xa^eyrdj a>.Xa III. PROTESTANT. ApoL C. A. p. 229 : Ab invocatione (sanctorum) ad ima- gines ventum est, hse quoque colebantur et putabatur eis inesse qusedam vis, sicut magi vim inesse fingunt imaginibus signorum ccelestium certo tempore sculptis. . . . Art. Sm. p. 310 : Reliquiae sanctorum refertte multis men- daciis, ineptiis et fatuitatibus. Canum et equorum ossa ibi ssepe reperta sunt. Et licet aliquid forte laudandum fuisset, tamen propter imposturas istas, quse diabolo risum excitarunt, jam dudum damnari debuissent, cum prsesertim careant verbo dei et non necessarian et inutiles sint. Estque hoc omnium teterrimum, quod . . . loco cultus dei et boni operis, sicut missam reliquias venerati sunt. Conf. Helv. ii. cap. 4 : Quando beati spiritus ac divi coelites, dum hie viverent, omnem cultum sui averterunt et statuas oppugnarunt, cui verisimile videatur divis ccelitibus et angelis suas placere imagines, ad quas genua flectunt homines, dete- gunt capita, aliisque prosequuntur honoribus ? Ibid. c. 5 : Multo minus credimus reliquias divorum ador- andas esse aut colendas. Veteres isti sancti satis honorasse videbantur mortuos suos, si honeste mandassent terrae reHquias, postquam astra petiisset spiritus: ac omnium nobilissimas reliquias majorum sestimabant esse virtutes, doctrinam et fidem, quas ut commendabant cum laude mortuorum, ita eas exprimere annitebantur, dum vivebant in terris. Cf. against veneration of pictures generally, Cat. JRac. qu. 252; and against the Romish cultus of pictures and relics, Curcellaai Institt. vii. 9. 14. IV. ORIGINAL STATE OF MAN: THE IMAGE OF GOD. POINT OF PIVEEGENCE. IT is admitted on all sides that primitive mankind, or the first pair, before the Fall and in a state of innocence, were both in body and soul more perfect than all men have been since the Fall. 1 Only in the definition of the compass of this primitive perfection, and its relation to human nature, the Christian stan- dards differ; although these differences are rather indicated than expanded in the symbols. Some attribute to the original man only unimpaired faculties of knowledge and will, sinlessness but not virtue, as also freedom from bodily death. Among these are Socinians and Arminians. Others ascribe to him an habitual wisdom and holiness, with immortality of the body : these are the Eomanists, Greeks, and Protestants. The latter section are divided : the Protestants regard these advantages as natural and increated in man ; the Eomanists regard them divine gifts of grace, which were superadded to the natural en- dowments of men, reason and free-will. The Socinians once more unite with the Arminians in regarding immunity from bodily death as something imputed by God to our first parents as their destiny, consequently not as resulting from the nature of man. 1 The Protoplasts had, that is, those qualities, not for themselves alone, but as heads and representatives of the race ; consequently that they might trans- mit them by generation to all men, which would indeed have been the case if the Fall had not intervened. Comp. among others, the Conf. Gall. 10. 78 ORIGINAL STATE OF MAN. 79 SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. I. BOMAN. Cone. Trid. sess. 5 : Si quis non confitetur, primum hominem . . . sanctitatem et justitiam, in qua constitutus fuerat, 1 amisisse incurrisseque . . . mortem, quam antea illi comminatus fuerat deus, . . . anath. sit. Cat. Rom. i. 2. 19 : Postremo deus ex limo terrae hominem sic corpore effectum et constitutum effinxit, ut non quidem naturae ipsius vi, sed divino beneficio immortalis esset et impas- sibilis. Quod autem ad animan pertinet, eum ad imaginem et similitudinem suam formavit liberumque ei arbitrium tri- buit, omnes pneterea motus animi atque appetitiones ita in eo temperavit, ut rationis imperio nunquam non parerent. Turn originalis justitise admirabile donum addidit, ac deinde caeteris animantibus praeesse voluit. (Bellarmini Gratia primi horn. 2 : Integritas ilia, cum qua primus homo conditus fuit et sine qua post ejus lapsum homines omnes nascuntur, non fuit naturalis ejus conditio, sed supernaturalis evectio. 11. 5 : Sciendum est primo, hominem naturaliter constare ex carne et spiritu, et ideo partirn cum bestiis partim cum angelis communicare naturam ; et quidem ratione carnis et communionis cum bestiis habere propensionem quandam ad bonum corporale et sensibile, in quod fertur per sensum et appetitum ; ratione spiritus et communionis cum angelis habere propensionem ad bonum spirituale et intelli- gibile, in quod fertur per intelligentiam et voluntatem. Ex his autem diversis vel contrariis propensionibus existere in uno eodemque homine pugnam quandam, et ex ea pugna ingentem bene agendi difncultatem, dum una propensio alteram impedit. Sciendum secundo, divinam providentiam initio creationis, ut remedium adhiberet huic morbo seu languori naturae humanae, qui ex conditione materiae oriebatur, addidisse 1 As to the choice of this word, see Nitzsch in the Stud. 1834, S. 31. Even rigorous theologians of the Eoman Church say positively : Primes homines creates esse cum or in justitia orig. (Bellarmini Grot. horn, primi, c. 5). The distinguishing point lies rather in the supernaturale ; for, as Bellarmine says, " gratiam gratum facientem (justit. orig.) in creatione accepit homo." 80 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. homini domim quoddam insigne, justitiam videlicet originalem, qua veluti aureo quodam frseno pars inferior parti superiori et pars superior deo facile subjecta contineretur ; sic autem sub- jectam fuisse carnem spiritui, ut non posset ipso invito moveri, neque ei rebellis fieri, nisi ipse fieret rebellis deo, in potestate tamen spiritus fuisse, rebellem deo fieri, et non fieri. Nos existimamus, rectitudinem illam etiam partis inferioris fuisse donum supernaturale, et quidem per se, non per accidens, ita ut neque ex nature principiis fluxerit, neque potuerit fluere. Et quia donum illud supernaturale erat, ut statim probaturi sumus, eo remoto, natura humana sibi relicta pugnam illam experiri ccepit partis inferioris cum superiore, quse naturalis futura erat, id est ex conditione materise secutura, nisi deus justitiae donum homini addidisset.) Cf. Mbhler, Symbol. 1, and Neue Untcrsuch. S. 60 ff. ; Klee, kathol. Dogmat. ii. 318 II. GREEK. Conf. orthod. p. 50 : 'H KaTaaTacns Tr)<; dtcatcia<; KOI ddwo- eivai 17 djvoia Kal rj airetpuz, TOV KO.KOV, rfyovv orav Bev ify) ovre eSoKifiatre ica66\ov TO KCLKOV, rj Bid TTJV rj\tKiav rov T} Si aXXat? airiais. Kal Kara rovrov TOV rpcnrov rfrov et? rbv TI adcooTT)? Kal f) atca/cia, irplv afjMprrj, Kara Tracrav /cat SiKaioa-vvrjv e^vrov, Toaov O.TTO TO ftepo*; T?}? oaov Kal OLTTO TO /te/ao? T^9 ^eX^o-ew?, et? rrjv Bidvoiav TrepiK\eirai TraVa eVio-T^'/i?;' ical ei? TT)I/ Oe\i)TTO<; TJTOV et? TTJV KaTaaTaatv T}? aOwo- TT}TOev a/SXa/S?;, et? TO va eiriOvpa TO KO\OV -rj TO KaKov, e, as it is in Eom. v., i.e. in which death all have sinned. For this seed of sin is frequently called death in the RESULTS OF THE FALL. 97 Scripture, and the lody of death, seeing, indeed, it is a death to the life of righteousness and holiness ; therefore its seed and its product is called the old man, the old Adam, in which all sin is, for which we use this name to express this sin, and not that of original sin, of which phrase the Scripture makes no mention, and under which invented and unscriptural barbarism this notion of imputed sin to infants took place among Chris- tians. Prop. v. 17: Human nature, which, though of itself wholly corrupted and defiled, and prone to evil, yet is capable to be wrought upon by the grace of God ; even as iron, though an hard and cold metal of itself, may be warmed and softened by the heat of the fire, and wax melted by the sun. VIII. MENNONITES. According to the Mennonites, Adam and his descendants lost through the first sin the divine image, holiness, and im- mortality. Schyn, Plen. deduct, p. 240 : An evil concupiscence is inherited by all ; but with this there is a permanent facultas occurrens et adeo oblatum bonum audiendi, admit- tendi aut rejiciendi the faculty of hearing, and receiving or rejecting good (Pas, Conf. art. 5). Observations. 1. How it was possible to Adam to transgress the divine com- mandment, the symbols nowhere attempt to investigate. They allude to seduction through the serpent, and teach that Adam fell sud culpd (Conf. Helv. p. 54 ; Helv. ii. 8 ; Gall. 9 ; Belg. 14 ; Syn. Dord. iii. 1), or through abuse of his freedom (Conf . Sax. p. 54; Helv. ii. 9). As to the relation of this sin to the sanctitas concreata, or increated holiness, the Protestant symbols maintain silence. So also they say nothing as to the relation which God may be supposed to bear to this sin, save that the Form. Cons. Helv. 4 speaks of a permittere lapsum, while the other symbols are content to specify that God was not the causa and auctor malt (A. C. p. 15 ; F. C. 799 ; Dec. Thor. ii. 3. 1). But the Arminian Conf. Rem. is more full on this subject. 2. As original sin is propagated by natural generation (A. C. p. 9 ; F. C. 644 ; Eng. Art. ix. ; Conf. Belg. 15), it follows that Christ, as conceived supernaturally in the womb of the Virgin, was free from original sin (Cat. maj. 495 ; F. C. 574, 648 ; Eng. Art, xv. ; Conf. Bel(j. 18 ; Dec. Thor. 23). Withal, the Virgin herself in the Pro- G 98 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. testant symbols is not excepted from the general law of the race in relation to original sin (Dec. Thor.). 3. [The Roman Catholic Church, on the other hand, teaches that the Virgin Mary was protected from original sin at the first moment of her being conceived, by a special privilege. Pius ix. in his Bull Ineffabilis (Dec. 8, 1854) : Declaramus, pronuntiamus et definimus, doctrinam, quae tenet, beatissimam virginem Mariam in primo instanti suse conceptionis fuisse singulari omnipotentis Dei gratia et privilegio, intuitu meritorum Christi Jesu salvatoris humani generis, ab omni originalis culpae labe prseservatam immunem, esse a Deo revelatam, atque idcirco ab omnibus fidelibus firmiter constanterque credendam. Quapropter si qui secus ac a nobis definitum est, quod Deus avertat, praesumpserint corde sentire, ii noverint ac porro sciant, se proprio judicio condemnatos, naufragium circa fidem passes esse, et ab unitate ecclesiae defecisse. This Bull is printed fully in Chemnicii Exam. Cone. Trid. (ed. Preuss), Berlin 1862. Its explanation, however, is to be sought in the Constit. Sollicitudo of Pope Alexander VH., to which it expressly refers ; and this is found in the same edition of Chemnitz. The originator of this new Romish doctrine was Duns Scotus; its promoters have been the University of Paris and the Franciscans. The salient points in its development have been the Council of Basle, and the Popes Sixtus iv., Alexander vn., and Clement xi. The history of the dogma has been given in a work on the subject by Preuss, Berlin 1865.] IL SECOND POINT OF DIVEKGENCE. All the communities which assume a conniption of man- kind as it now is, inherited or transmitted from Adam, with the solitary exception of the Quakers, regard that corruption under the aspect of sin properly so called, or of an inherited condemnation, on account of which men are regarded as sin- ners in the sight of God. The Eoman Catholic standards, in harmony with their views of the evil resulting from the Fall, make original sin consist only in the habitualis aversio a dco resulting from the carentia, just. orig. ; while they regard the prava concupiscentia, being something belonging to man's nature itself, that is, the vulnera or wound of that nature, not as sin properly so called. The Protestants, on the other hand, call original sin the total depravation of human RESULTS OF THE FALL. 99 nature (in spiritual things) ; consequently they regard it as the prava concupiscentia itself, and before it issues in actual sin. The Quakers would have the universal depravation of the natural man, the wicked semen in him, to be called sin only when it is developed into actual sin. Similarly the Mennonites. The Socinians and later Arminians reject the idea of original condemnation altogether, and regard even the death which has been transmitted from Adam to all his posterity as not being, touching the latter, the punishment of sin, but as something brought upon man by generation, and consequently natural evil alone. The inborn tendency to sin they cannot, according to their views of the Tall, reckon as something inherited from Adam. Since the Eomanists deem the concupiscentia carnis, concu- piscence, not to be an evil quality introduced into human nature, but something natural 1 springing from the sense-element in man, or his sensuousness, they therefore cannot regard this as having in it anything imputable, and consequently do not hold it to be sin properly so called: the mere pronitas ad malum is not sin of itself (Bellarmine, Amiss. Grat. v. 7). It is sin only metonymically, inasmuch as actual sin springs out of this concupiscence (Confut. A. C. 2) ; not so much peccatum as materiale peccati? The reatus, or guilt, of original sin extends therefore only to the carentia justitice originalis, which is an habitual departure from God. As to the mdnera natures, which are not the very original sin itself, see Bellarmine, Amiss. Ch^at. v. 4. 1 That is to say, if we suppose the supernatural gift of original righteousness withdrawn from man, the contest between the flesh and the spirit would arise naturally of itself (Mbhler). The lusts of the flesh, if they overpower the spirit, engender sin ; but they are not of themselves, and as such, sin (Baur, Gegensatz, S. 33). Thus is explained the origination of actual sin in human nature, without the necessity of assuming any evil quality or bias additionally infused into that nature. Hence Bellarmine, De gratid prim. horn. c. 5 : non deterior est humana natura, si culpam naturalem detrahat, nequemagis ignorantia et infirmi- tate laborat, quarn essel et Idboraret in puris naturalibus condita. 2 Duns Scotus says : Peccatum originale formaliter est carentia justitia orig. debitse, concupiscentia est materiale peccati originalis, quia per privationem justitise originalis ipsa non positive, sed per privationem fit prona ad concupis- cendum delectabilis. 100 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. I. SOCINIAN. Cat. Roc. qu. 423 : Peccatum originis nullum prorsus est. Nee enim e scripturS, id peccatum originis doceri potest, et lapsus Adas cum unus actus fuerit, vim earn, quse depravare ipsam naturam Adami, multo minus vero posterorum ejus posset, habere non potuit. Ipsi vero id (depravationem naturae) in pcenam irrogatum fuisse, nee scriptura docet, uti superius exposuimus, et deum ilium, qui aequitatis fons est, incredibile prorsus est id facere voluisse. F. Socin. Prcelectt. c. 4 : Concludimus ... ex peccato illo primi parentis nullam labem aut pravitatem universe generi hum. necessario ingenitam esse, nee aliud malum ex primo illo delicto ad posteros omnes necessario manasse, quam moriencli omnimodam necessitatem, non quidem ex ipsius delicti vi, sed quia, cum jam homo natura mortalis esset, ob delictum illud suse naturali mortalitati a deo relictus est. . . . Quare, qui ex ipso nascuntur, eadem conditione nasci omnes oportet. Only in one passage (dc CJiristo Servo, iv. 6) does Socinus call the necessity of dying a reatus delictorum nostrorum. But this does not indicate that the sin of Adam had been actually imputed to his descendants ; for this would be in direct oppo- sition to the whole Socinian system. Bcatus signifies to him only damnum, noxa, malum ex alterius culpd proficisccns. II. ARMINIAN. Apol. Conf. Eemonstr. p. 84 b : Peccatum originate nee habent (Remonstrantes) pro peccato proprie dicto, quod pos- teros Adami odio dei dignos faciat, nee pro malo, quod per modum proprie dictse pcense ab Adamo in posteros dimanet, sed pro malo, infirmitate, vitio aut quocunque tandem alio nomine vocetur, quod ab Adamo justitia" originali private in posteros ejus propagatur : unde fit, ut posteri omnes Adami eadem justitia destituti, prorsus inepti et inidonei sint ad vitam seternam consequendum, aut in gratiam cum deo redeant, nisi deus nova gratia sua eos prseveniat, et vires novas iis restituat ac sufficiat, quibus ad earn possint pervenire. Atque hoc sig- RESULTS OF THE FALL. 101 nificatum a deo credunt ejectione Adami ex paradise, typo caeli, et obsidione vise, qua ad ilium patebat aditus : Hrec enim cala- mitas non tantum evenit Adamo, sed posteris omnibus Adami fuit cum eo communis. Peccatum autem originis non esse malum culpae proprie dictse, quod vocant, ratio manifesta arguit : malum culpse non est, quia nasci plane involuntarium est, ergo et nasci cum hac aut ilia labe, infirmitate, vitio vel malo. Si malum culpse non est, nee potest esse malum pcense, quia culpa et poena sunt relata. Culpa autem in posteris Adami alia esse non poterat, quam hsec ; alia enim prior concipi non potest, quia alioquin non esset culpa seu peccatum originis. Multo minus itaque fieri potest, ut sit culpa siinul et pcena. Prseterquam enim quod nihil indignius deo tribui possit, quam quod pecca- torum peccato, quo de novo reus sit pcense, puniat ; adeo diversa sunt culpa et pcena, ut prorsus sint incompatibilia. Pcena enim est actus dei et actus justitise ; culpa actus homi- nis et aBiKta. Pcena est involuntaria : culpa, nisi sit voluntaria, culpa esse non potest. Et cum deus puniendo hominern in ordinem cogere intendat, ista punitione novain inordinationem voluntati hominis injiceret, et sua punitione sibi ipsi novae poense occasionem daret, atque ita rationem justitise et ordinem omnem pcense turbaret in infinitum usque. Malum itaque cum sit, necesse est, ut sit illud malum, quod Eemonstrantes statuunt. Limborch, Theol. christ. iii. 4. 4 : Nullam scriptura in in- fantibus corruptionem esse docet, quse vere ac proprie sit pec- catum. 4. 5 : Absurdum est statuere, deum homines punivisse corruptione tali, quse vere ac proprie dictum est peccatum, et ex qua omnia actualia peccata tanquam ex fonte necessario scaturiunt, et deinde propter illam corruptionem homines denuo punire pcena inferni. 4. 6 : Concipi non potest, quomodo peccatum hoc propagetur. Non enim inhseret animse, quse immediate, etiam juxta communem horum doctomm opinio- nem, a deo creatur, ac proinde, si peccato esset infecta, pecca- tum illud a deo esset. 4. 7 : Nullum peccatum pcena dignum est involuntarium, quia nihil magis debet esse voluntarium, quam quod hominein pcenae et quidem gravissimse, seternse nempe et summorum cruciatuum, reum facit. Atqui corruptio originaria est involuntaria. 102 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. Ib. iii. 4. 1 : Inclinatio ilia (ad peccandum) proprie dictum peccatum non est aut peccati habitus ab Adamo in ipsos pro- pagatus, sed naturalis tantum inclinatio habendi id, quod carni gratum est, quae proprie oritur a temperamento corporis, quod a proximis parentibus propagari scimus. Pro diversa enim temperamenti ratione animus hominis diversimode a variis objectis afficitur, quodque uni gratum alteri ingratum est ; inde diversae adeo in hominibus cupiditates, dum unusquisque appetit, quod pro temperamenti sui ratione ipsi gratum est, ac aversatur ingratum. Quia vero carni nostrae grata plerumque voluntati divinae adversantur, quoniam. deus in hisce abnegan- dis promtam auimi nostri obedientiam explorare vult, inde est, quod ilia inclinatio in objecta carni nostrse grata sit etiam inclinatio in peccatum (cf. iii. 3. 4). iii. 4. 24 : Ad ejusmodi generis mala, quae neutra sunt, corruptio ilia, quaecunque nobis a natura inest, referri debet ; nempe non est peccatum neque poena, nostri respectu : est tamen malum aliquod naturale, quod ex occasione pcenae Adamo inflictse ad nos promanavit, seu carentia boni cujusdam, quo alias gavisi fuissemus, quoniam Adamus bonum, quo ipse propter peccatum spoliatus est, ad nos propagare non potuit. Ib. iii 3. 19 : Dicimus, deum innoxios posteros non punire ob peccatum Adami; poena enim delictum non excedit, sed malis hujus vitae ac tandem morti subjicere, quia ex Adamo peccatore geniti sunt, non ut in ipsis Adami peccatum puniat cet. iii 3. 1 : Mors non habet rationem pcenae proprie dictae in posteris, fieri enim nequit, ut insontes propter alterius pec- catum puniantur, sed est naturalis tantum moriendi necessitas ab Adamo mortis pcena punito in ipsos derivata. III. ROMAN. Whether the relation of man, naturally engendered of the offspring of Adam, to God is that of a sinner, cannot be determined with any certainty from the Cat. Eom. i. 3. 2 : peccatum, et peccati po2nam in uno Adamo non constitisse, sed ex eo tanquam ex semine et caussa ad omnem posteritatem jure permanasse. For peccatum here may be the sin which springs from the inborn concupiscence. So also Cone. Trid. RESULTS OF THE FALL. 103 sess. v. 2 is ambiguous. But a proper inherited sin (or moral condemnation in the sight of God) is enforced on us by No. 3 of that session : hoc Adse peccatum, quod origine unum est et propagatione, non imitatione transfusum, omnibus inest uni- cuique proprium (cf. Trid. sess. vi. 3). The declaration that even the children of Christians, before they themselves can sin, originalis peccati nihil non traxisse ex Adam, and therefore need an expiatio through baptism, confirms the same argument. So also No. 5, where we read of a reatus ex Adami semine. Bellarmine, Amiss, gr. iv. 2 : " We confess that in man, born of seed propagated from Adam, there is reatus qiiidam, a cer- tain guilt and spot, which makes the man himself truly and properly a sinner, and marks him for eternal banishment from God." Cf. v. 1 7 : " Original sin is not less properly and truly sin than personal." But what is it that in the natural man has the character of (inherited) sin ? The symbols give this no direct answer. The Eomish theology, however, has always explained the carentia justitise originalis inesse debitae as being original sin, although with a variety of denning clauses ; or, as Bellarmine expresses it, the habitualis aversio et obliquitas voluntatis, quae et macula men tern deo invisam reddens appellari potest. Cf. De Amiss. gr. v. 19 : " Therefore the privation of the gift of original righteousness is called original sin, so far as this is connected with habitual aversion from God." Klee, Dogm. ii. 346. On this point some extended extracts from Bellarmine may be given : Bellarmini Amiss, grat. v. 1 V : Sciendum est, peccati nomen bifariam accipi solere. Uno modo pro transgressione prsecepti, alio modo pro eo, quod remanet in animS, peccatoris post ac- tionem illam transgressionis praecepti. . . . Quod autem post actionem peccati aliquid maneat, quod sit et dicatur proprie peccatum, ex eo potest intelligi, quod, qui peccatum commise- runt, dicuntur ab omnibus post actionem peccati proprie et formaliter peccatores ; item dicuntur esse in peccato, habere peccatum, mundati a peccato cet. . . . Quamvis autem id, quod remanet post actionem, sit aliquo modo effectus ejusdem ac- tionis, tamen est etiam aliquo modo idem cum ipsa actione, et ideo non per figuram metonymies, sed proprie dicitur peccatum ; 104 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. et duplex ilia significatio peccati non est significatio duarum rerum sive duorum peccatorum, sed unius et ejusdem alio atque alio modo se habentis. . . . Peccati perversio sive obliquitas, ut est in motu, dicitur peccatum in priore significatione, ut autem permanet in anima peccantis, die. peccatum in signifi- catione posteriore. Nam sicut, qui a sole avertitur, manet aversus in tenebris, donee ad solem iterum revertatur, et qui ab aliquo recedit, manet in ea distantia, donee iterum accedat : sic etiam qui per peccatum a deo avertitur et recedit, non solum dum peccat, sed etiam postquam peccavit, manet a deo aversus et longe dissitus, donee per pcenitentiam convertatur et revertatur ad deum. Itaque peccatum in priore significa- tione unum est duntaxat omnium hominum, sed in Adamo actuale et personale, in nobis originale dicitur. Solus enim ipse actuali voluntate illud commisit : nobis vero communi- catur per generationem eo modo, quo commumcari potest id quod transiit, nimirum per imputationeni. Omnibus enim imputatur, qui ex Adamo nascuntur, quoniam omnes in lumbis Adami existentes in eo et per euni peccavimus, cum ipse peccavit. IV. GREEK. The Greek symbols only assert firmly the reality of original sin, without more distinctly indicating wherein that sin con- sists. Conf. ortlwd. p. 53 : Ka#o>? oXot ot avdpanroi rjaav ei? TTJV KardcTrcunv TIJS a#6>OT77TO? et? rov 'ABdp, reVota? Xeyy?}? real aa\ev, oXot ecra\av et? avrov nai ep.eivav et? Karda-racriv T}? a/wtprta?' Sta TOVTO o%i fiovov et? rrjv Tiav vTTOKeivrai, fia /cat et? TIJV rij^wpiav Sia rrjv a/jiapTiav. From the Greeks' doctrine (see below) on the extinction of original sin by baptism, it may be seen that they cannot have held evil concupiscence as the properly sinful thing in the natural man. V. LUTHERAN. C. A. p. 10 : Decent, quod hie morbus seu vitium originis vere sit peccatum, damnans et afferens nunc quoque seternam RESULTS OF THE FALL. 105 mortem his, qui noil renascuntur per baptisnmm et Spiritum sanctum. A. Sm. p. 315 : Per Adami inobedientiam omnes homines facti sunt peccatores, morti et diabolo obnoxii. F. C. p. 639: (Lutherus significavit) etiamsi homo prorsus nihil mali cogitaret, loqueretur aut ageret, tamen nihilominus hominis naturam et personam esse peccatricem, h. e. peccato originali prorsus et totaliter . . . coram deo infectam, venenatam. . . . Et propter hanc corruptionem atque primorum nostrorum parentum lapsum natura aut persona hominis lege dei accusa- tur et condemnatur cet. Ibid, quod hoc hsereditarium malum sit culpa seu reatus, quo fit, ut omnes propter inobedientiam Adae et Hevse in odio apud deum et natura filii irse simus. Of. p. 642. Apol. A. C. p. 57: Disputant (adversarii), concupiscentiam poenam esse, non peccatum, Lutherus defendit peccatum esse. Supra dictum est (p. 54), Augustinum definire peccatum ori- ginis, quod sit concupiscentia. Expostulent cum Augustino, si quid habet incommodi haec sententia. Preeterea Paulus ait (Eom. vii. 7) : concupiscentiam nesciebam esse peccatum, nisi lex diceret : Non concupisces. Item (Eom. vii. 2 3) : Video aliam legem in membris meis repugnantem legi mentis meae et captivantem me legi peccati, quae est in membris meis. Hsec testimonia nulla cavillatione everti possunt. Clare enim ap- pellant concupiscentiam peccatum cet. F. C. p. 575: Eejicimus et damnamus dogma illud, quo asseritur, concupiscentias pravas non esse peccatum sed con- creatas naturae conditiones et proprietates quasdam essentiales. VI. REFORMED. Conf. Gall. art. 11 : Credimus hoc vitium (originis, as de- fined in Art. ix.) esse vere peccatum, quod omnes et singulos homines, ne parvulis quidem exceptis adhuc in utero matrum delitescentibus, seternae mortis reos coram deo peragat. Conf. Belg. art. 15 : Est peccatum originis . . . vitium haereditarium, quo et ipsi infantes in matris suae utero polluti sunt . . . estque ita foedum et exsecrabile coram deo, ut ad generis humani condemnationem sufficiat. 106 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. Declar. Thonin. ii. 3. 7 : . . . pravitatis reliquiae (in renatis) videl. pravse incliuationes et motus concupiscentiae, quae proinde vere et proprie peccatum dicitur, non tantum, quatenus est pcena et causa peccati, sed etiam quatenus ipsa cum legi dei turn spiritui gratias repugnat Thirty-nine Articles, art. ix. ut supra. Calvin, Institt. christ. i. 1. 8 : Haec duo distincte observanda : nempe, quod sic omnibus naturae nostrae partibus vitiati per- versique, jam ob talem duntaxat corruptionem damnati merito convictique coram deo tenemur, cui nihil est acceptum nisi justitia, innocentia. Neque ista est alieni delicti obligatio; quod enim dicitur, nos per Adami peccatum obnoxios esse factos dei judicio, non ita est accipiendum, ac si insontes ipsi et immerentes culpam delicti ejus sustineremus, sed quia per ejus transgressionem maledictione induti sumus omnes, dicitur ille nos obstrinxisse. Ab illo tamen non sola in nos poana grassata est, sed instillata ab ipso lues in nobis residet, cui jure pcena debetur. Quare Augustinus, utcunque alienum peccatum saepe vocet (quo clarius ostendat propagine in nos derivari), simul tamen et proprium unicuique asserit. Et apostolus ipse disertissime testatur, ideo mortem in omnes pervagatam, quod omnes peccarint, Le. involuti sint original! peccato et ejus maculis inquinatL Atque ideo infantes quo- que ipsi, dum suam secum damnationem a matris utero afferunt, non alieno, sed suo ipsorum vitio sunt obstricti. Nam tametsi suae iniquitatis fructus nondum protulerint, habent tamen in se inclusum semen: ideo non odiosa et abominabilis deo esse non potest. Observations. If original sin is supposed to be only a defect, or an evil that has come upon mankind, the inheriting of such an evil is sufficiently explained by pointing to the fact that Adam was the original pro- genitor of the race. But if an original guilt is imported into the doctrine, a guilt that, since the transgression of Adam, has clung to all human individuals, there arises a more important question, that is, how far anything inherited may involve guilt. The Komish symbols say nothing on this subject ; but the theologians (including in the notion of sin the free consent of the individual ; cf. Bellarm. De amiss, gr. i. 1) adopt the idea of an imputation, the foundation RESULTS OF THE FALL. 107 of which is laid by the derivation of all from Adam. Bellarm. Amiss. Gr. v. 1 7 ; Mbhler, Symb. 5 (cf. Conf. orihod. 53). This thought is not absent from the Protestant symbols, at least they do not ex- clude an imputatio peccati Adamitici (Apol. p. 51 ; F. C. 642), though rejecting this as the sole foundation for original sin. The Form. Cone. says : Propter nostram corruptionem et primorum parentum lapsum natura aut persona hominis lege dei accusatur et condemnatur. And again : Haereditarium malum est culpa seu reatus, quo fit, tit omnes propter inobedientiam Adae et Hevae in odio apud deum et natura filii irae simus, though this latter propter may be viewed as an imme- diate cause. But this view is found in the private writings of Luther and Melancthon. An imputation is plainly taught by the Form. Com. Helv. 10 : Censemus, peccatum Adami omnibus ejus posteris judicio dei arcano et justo imputari. . . . Duplici nomine post peccatum homo natura indeque ab ortu suo, antequam ilium actuale peccatum in se admittat, iraa et maledictioni divinae obnoxius est, primum quidem ob -7ra,pdxru/j,a et inobedientiam, quam in Adami lumbis commisit, deinde ob consequentem in ipso conceptu haeredi- tariam corruptionem insitam cet. In this passage, it is at the same time indicated that by the in quo peccarunt the theory of imputation receives its welcome support. But, in fact, the Reformers did not reduce the original guilt of the natural man to mere imputation : they saw in the inborn corruption itself something offensive to the all-holy God, and therefore condemnable in His sight ; whence it ap- pears that they held a definition of sin which does not necessarily require the free consent of the individual (cf. Apol. A. C. 581 ; Parei Corp. Doct. Chr. 38, 41) as lying at the foundation of their doctrine. See Melanc. Loci, i. 86 ; Calvin, Inslitt. ii. 1. 8. And this explains the propter alienam culpam of Apol. 51; cf. Heidegger, Corp. x. 48. The Socinians must naturally, as denying all original sin, reject the imputation of Adam's transgression. Cf. on Rom. v. 12: Socin. Prcelect. c. 4; De Chr. Serv. iv. 6; Cat. Rac. qu. 426. ARMINIAN SYMBOLS. Apol. Conf. Hem. p. 84 a : Fatentur Eem. 3 peccatum Adami a deo imputation dici posse posteris ejus, quatenus deus posteros Ad. eidem malo, cui Adamus per peccatum obnoxium se red- didit, obnoxios nasci voluit, sive quatenus deus malum, quod in poenam Adamo inflictum fuerat, in posteros ejus dimanare et transire permisit. At nihil cogit eos dicere, peccatum Ad. posteris ejus sic fuisse a deo imputatum, quasi deus posteros 108 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. Ad. revera censuisset ejusdem cum Adamo peccati et culpce, quam Ad. commiserat, reos. . . . Limborch, Tlieol. christ. iiL 3. 8 : Quod itaque imputatio- nem peccati Adami attinet, qua statuitur, deum primum Adami et Evas peccatum omnibus ipsorum posteris ita im- putasse, ut omnium peccatum sit omnesque in Adaino pecca- verint et propterea mortis ac condemnations seternae rei facti sint, earn impugnamus. Original Sin and Baptism. Original sin, as defined by the Protestants, is not effaced by bap- tism ; the imputation of it is removed. Its total abolition must, as it has seized human nature in its inmost recesses, be awaited in the resurrection alone. The Romish Church, on the other hand, hold original sin to be removed by baptism, which restores the righteous- ness acceptable to God ; for the prava concupiscentia, which remains even in the baptized as the fames peccati, or fuel of sin, is not in itself of the nature of sin. I. BOMAK. Concil. Trid. sess. v. 5 : Si quis per J. Ch. gratiam, quae in bapt. confertur, reatum originalis peccati remitti negat, aut etiam asserit non tolli totum id, quod veram et propriam peccati rationem habet, sed illud dicit tantum radi aut non imputari, anathema sit, in renatis enim nihil odit deus cet. Manere autem in baptizatis concupiscentiam vel fomitem, sancta syn. fatetur et sentit, quse cum ad agonem relicta sit, nocere non consentientibus, sed utiliter per Ch. gratiam repug- nantibus non valet. Hanc concupiscentiam, quam aliquando Apost. peccatum appellat, sancta syn. declarat, ecclesiam cath. nunquam intellexisse peccatum appellari, quod vere et proprie in renatis peccatum sit, sed quia ex peccato est et ad pecca- tum inclinat. Cf. Bellarmini Amiss, grat. v. 5. 7. II. GREEK. Confess. ortJiod. p. 282 : To irpo-TraropiKov ap-uprrj^ia fie ovSefj,iav fterdvoiav elvai Svvarov va e^a\ei7ro$ dyaObv d/J,aprlav elvcu' TO . p. 768 : Ex hoc fundamento, cujus jam facta est mentio, et quod unio personalis docet, quomodo videlicet divina et hu- mana natura in persona Christi sint unitae, ut non modo nomina communia, sed realiter etiam et re ipsa inter se, sine omni confusione et exsequatione essentiarum, communicent, proma- nat etiam doctrina ilia de communicatione idiomatum duarum in Christo naturarum. II. p. 773 : Quantum ad divinam in Christo naturam atti- net, cum in ipso nulla sit transmutatio, divinae Christi naturae per incarnationem nihil (quoad essentiam et proprietates ejus) vel accessit vel decessit, et per earn in se vel per se neque diminuta neque aucta est. . . . Quod ad humanam naturam in persona Christi attinet, non defuerunt quidam, qui contenderent, earn in personal! etiam cum divinitate unione nihil amplius habere, quam duntaxat suas naturales essentiales proprietates, quarum ratione fratribus suis per ornnia similis est. Unde affirmarunt, humanae in Christo naturae nihil eorurn tribui vel debere vel posse, quod sit supra vel contra naturales ipsius proprietates, etiamsi scripturae testimonia humanae Christi na- turae talia tribuant. Hanc vero ipsorum opinionem falsam esse, 120 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. verbo del adeo perspicue demonstrari potest, ut etiam ipsorum consortes eum ipsum errorem reprehendere et rejicere tandeni coeperint. Sacras enim literae et orthodox! patres scriptune verbis edocti preeclare testantur, quod humana natura in Christo earn ob causam et inde adeo, quod cum divina natura perso- naliter unita est, (deposito servili statu et humiliations, jam glorificata et ad dexteram majestatis et virtutis divinse exaltata) prseter et supra naturales, essentiales atque in ipsa permanentes humanas proprietates, etiam singulares, excellentissimas, maxi- mas, supernaturales, impervestigabiles, ineffabiles atque creles- tes prserogativas majestatis, glorias, virtutis ac potentiae super omne, quod nominatur, non solum in hoc seculo, sed etiam in futuro, acceperit, ut ita humana in Christo natura (suo modo et ratione) in exsequendo officio Christi simul adhibeatur, co-ope- retur et suam efficaciam, id est virtutem et operationem habeat, non tantum ex suis naturalibus proprietatibus aut secundum essentiales proprietates aut quousque earum virtus et efficacia progreditur, sed praecipue secundum majestatem, gloriam, vir- tutem atque potentiam, quam per unionem hypostaticam, glori- ficationem et exaltationem accepit. Ib. p. 778 : His vocabulis (realis communicatio, realiter communicari) nunquam ullam physicam communicationem vel essentialem trausfusionem (qua naturae in suis essentiis aut essentialibus proprietatibus confunderentur) docere voluimns, ut quidam vocabula et phrases illas astute et malitiose falsa interpretatione, contra conscientiam suam, pervertere non dubi- tarunt, tantum ut piam doctrinam suspicionibus iniquissimis gravarent : sed vocabula et phrases illas verbali communication! opposuimus, cum quidam fingerent, communicationem idioma- tum nihil aliud, nisi phrasin et modum quendam loquendi, hoc est mera tantum verba, nomina et titulos inanes esse ; et hanc verbalem communicationem adeo urserunt, ut de nulla alift communicatione audire quidquam vellent. Quapropter ad recte declarandam majestatem Christi vocabula (de reali communi- catione) usurpavimus, ut significaremus, communicationem illam vere et reipsS, (sine onmi tamen naturarum et proprie- tatum essentialium confusione) factam esse. Ib. 779 : Quare testimonia ilia sacrae scripturse, quse de eft majestate loquuntur, ad quam humana in Christo natura exaltata PEESON OF CHRIST, AND HIS DIVINITY. 121 est, non in earn sententiam accipimus, quod divina ilia ma- jestas (quae divinae naturae filii dei propria est) in persona filii hominis tantum secundum divinam naturam Christo sit adscribenda aut quod majestas ilia tantum ea ratione sit in humana" Christi natura nudum tantum titulum et nomen solum divinae illius majestatis, per phrasin et modum lo- quendi, revera autem nullam prorsus cum ea communicationem liabeat Ib. p. 780 : Credimus, docemus et confitemur, non fieri talem majestatis dei et omnium proprietatum ejus effusionein in humanam naturam Christi, qua divinae naturae aliquid dece- dat, aut ut de suo alii ita largiatur aliquid, quod hac ratione sibi ipsa non in se retineat aut quod humana natura in sub- stantia atque essentia sua parem majestatem acceperit, quae a natura et essentia divinae naturae sit separata et divisa, quasi cum vinum, aqua aut oleum de uno vase in aliud transfunditur. Neque enim vel humana in Christo natura vel ulla alia creatura in coelo aut in terra eo modo omnipotentiae divinae capax est, ut per se omnipotens essentia et natura fiat aut omnipotentes proprietates in se et per se habeat. Hac enim ratione humana natura in Christo abnegaretur et in divinitatem prorsus trans- mutaretur. II. EEFORMED. Wahr. Bek. der Diencr dcr Kirclie, zu Zurch. 1545 : The true human body of Christ has not been, since the ascension, with His rational human soul deified, that is, changed into God, but has only been glorified. By that glorification, however, the nature of the human body has not been abolished ; its in- firmities have been removed, and that body has been made glorious, illustrious, and immortal. Since the ascension Christ has been no longer corporeally upon earth ; for, according to the attributes of His real human body, He can be only in one place, and not everywhere present. Conf. Helv. ii. 1 1 : Non docemus, veritatem corporis Christi a clarificatione desiisse aut deificatam adeoque sic deificatarn esse, ut suas proprietates, quoad corpus et animam, deposuerit ac prorsus in naturam divinam abierit unaque duntaxat sub- stantia esse cceperit. 122 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. Conf. Gall. 15 : Credimus, in unll eademque persona, qute est Jesus Christus, vere et inseparabiliter duas illas naturas sic esse conjunctas, ut etiam sint unitae, manente tamen una- quaque illarum naturarum in sua distincta proprietate, ita ut, quemadmodum in ista conjunctione, divina verbi natura pro- prietates suas retinens mansit increata, infinita. et omnia re- plens, sic etiam natura humana manserit mansuraque sit in aeternum finita, suam illam naturalem formam, dimensionem atque adeo proprietatem habens, cui nimirum veritatem hu- manae naturae non ademerit resurrectio et glorificatio sive assumtio ad dexteram patris. Conf. Angl. p. 89 sq. ... (Credimus) quamvis majestas et divinitas Christi ubique diffusa sit, tamen corpus ejus . . . in uno loco esse oportere : Christum corpori suo majestatem dedisse, naturam tamen corporis non ademisse : neque ita asse- rendum esse Christum deum, ut etim negemus esse hominem. Conf. Belg. art. 19 : Sed duae naturae in unam personam unitae, quarum utraque proprietates suas distinctas retineat, adeo ut sicut natura divina semper increata permansit absque initio dierum et vitae fine, ccelum et terrain implens, sic humana natura proprietates suas non amiserit, sed creatura remanserit, initium dierum et naturam finitam habens, omniaque ilia, quae vero corpori conveniunt, retinens. Et quamvis eidem naturae immortalitatem resurrectione sua dederit, nihilominus veritatem ejus non commutavit, si quidem . . . resurrectio nostra etiarn a veritate ejus corporis dependet. The Admonitio de lib. Concordice, which was issued, 1581, from Neustadt, states the point of controversy thus : Naturis sin- gulis in persona Ch. realiter communicari proprietates essentiales alterius naturae, negamus et pernegamus cum scriptural et uni- versal orthodoxa ecclesia. Personae autem Ch. utriusque naturae nomina, proprietates et operationes omnes communicari realis- sime, cum iisdem asserimus . . . contra nostros adversarios, qui aliqua deo humana et homini aliqua divina tribuentes confun- dunt naturas, et aliqua adimentes personam Ch. dissolvunt. Etenim personae, quia realiter utramque naturam in sua sub- stantia complectitur, realiter et verissime competit, quidquid sive utriusque sive alterutrius est naturae, propter naturarum unionem. At naturae imi nequaquam est commune, quod alte- PERSON OF CHRIST, AND HIS DIVINITY. 123 rius est proprium propter naturarum essentiale et seternum discrimen. Hoc est illud, quod dicitur . . . permutari prsedi- cata s. attributa Ch. de subjectis concretis tantum, non autem de abstractis. . . . Non est igitur qusestio, an deo, sed an deitati realiter humana competant, neque an homini, sed an humanitati realiter divina competant. Illud enim confitemur, hoc negamus. Conf. Brand. 4 : They confess that they, in the article of the Person of Christ, heartily believe that in Christ there are two inseparable natures, the divine and the human, so person- ally united and conjoined, that they cannot be and never will be separated. Each nature we hold to retain its natural pro- perties even after this personal union, while at the same time there is a true communion and fellowship. We believe that Christ is with us, and abides with us to the end of the world, according to His infinite nature, that is, according to His divine majesty, but not according to that nature in which He ascended to heaven, and in which He will come again from heaven, which cannot, even in its highest glory, be everywhere present without the abolition of its own attributes. "We believe also that the Lord Christ has been in His assumed humanity enriched and crowned with high and supernatural gifts, as in Ps. viii. ; yet that the human nature has not been transformed into deity, nor made like unto God, which is the Eutychian error. (Zwinglii Exegesis eucharistice negotii (Opp. iii. p. 525) : Est aAXotWt?, quantum hue attinet, desultus vel transitus ille aut si mavis permutatio, qua de altera in Chr. natura loquentes alterius vocibus utimur. Ut cum Ch. ait : caro mea vere est cibus, caro proprie est humanse in illo naturae, attamen per commutationem h. 1. pro divina ponitur natura. Qua ratione enim filius dei est, e& ratione est animae cibus. . . . Eursus cum perhibet filium familias a colonis trucidandum, cum filius familias divinitatis ejus nomen sit, pro humana tamen natura accipit, secundum enim istam mori potuit, secundum divinam minime. Cum, inquam, de alter& natura praedicatur, quoad alteriiis, id tandem est allceosis aut idiomatum communicatio aut commutatio.) Cf. Conf. Czengcr. art. 8; Colloq. Lips. p. 33; Conf. 124 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. Anhalt. art. 8 ; and the appended Ass. CatJi. de mysterio incarnationis cet. ; also Calvin, Tnstitut. iv. 1 7. 3 ; Heideg- ger, Corp. theol. xvii. 46 sqq. ; Wyttenbach, Theol. dogrn. ii p. 708 sqq. [The passages by which the fathers of the Lutheran Church thought themselves bound to defend and teach the real im- partation of the properties of the divine nature to the human in the personal union, are especially Col. ii. 9, John VL 53 seq., John v. 27, Matt, xxviii 18, PhiL ii. 9, 10, John i. 14.] III. QUAKER. With respect to the Somatic or corporeity in Christ, there are two singular opinions of the Quakers and the Anabaptist Mennonites which must be adduced. The former ascribe to Christ a double body; that is, besides the earthly and visible body with which He was clothed in the womb of the Virgin, He had a heavenly and spiritual body, by means of which He has from the beginning communicated Himself to men, and effects continuously the union of the enlightened with God. The Anabaptists and older Men- nonites did not regard the human body of Christ as having been begotten in the womb of the Virgin, but as created by the Holy Ghost, thus removing every possibility of original sin in Christ. Barclay, Apol. Prop. xiii. 2 : The body, then, of Christ which believers partake of is spiritual, and not carnal ; and His blood which they drink of is pure and heavenly, and not human or elementary. . .. If it be asked, "What that body, what that flesh and blood is ? I answer, It is that heavenly seed, that divine, spiritual, celestial substance, that spiritual body of Christ, whereby and through which He communicatetli life to men, and salvation to as many as believe in Him and receive Him, and whereby also man comes to have fellowship and communion with God. This is proved' from the sixth chapter of John, from ver. 32 to the end, where Christ speaks more at large of this matter than in any other place. . '. . From this large description of the origin, nature, and effects of PERSON OF CHRIST, AND HIS DIVINITY. 125 this body, flesh and blood of Christ, it is apparent that it is spiritual, and to be understood of a spiritual body or temple of Jesus Christ, which was born of the Virgin Mary, and in which He walked, lived, and suffered in the laud of Judaea, because it is said that it came down from heaven, yea, that it is He that came down from heaven. Now all Christians at present generally acknowledge that the outward body of Christ came not down from heaven ; neither was it that part of Christ which came down from heaven ; and, to put the matter out of doubt, when the carnal Jews would have been so understanding it, He tells them plainly, ver. 6 3, It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. ... So, then, as there was the outward visible body and temple of Jesus Christ, which took its origin from the Virgin Mary, there is also the spiritual body of Christ, by and through which He that was the Word in the beginning luith God, and was and is God, did reveal Himself to the sons of men in all ages, and whereby men in all ages come to be made partakers of eternal life, and to have communion and fellowship with God and Christ. Now, as the outward body and temple was called Christ, so was also His spiritual body no less properly, and that long before that out- ward body was in being. Hence the apostle saith, 1 Cor. x. 3, 4, that the fathers did eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink : for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. This cannot be understood otherwise than of the spiritual body of Christ ; which spiritual body of Christ, though it was the saving food of the righteous both before the law and under the law, yet under the law it was veiled and shadowed, and covered under divers types, ceremonies, and observations ; yea, and not only so, but it was veiled and hid in some respect under the outward temple and body of Christ, or during the continuance of it ; so that the Jews could not understand Christ's preaching about it while on earth. IV. ANABAPTIST. For the Anabaptist dogma above referred to (to which the Conf. Bdg. art. 18 refers), see F. C. p. 828. Merino Sim. had 126 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. adopted it ; it was accepted in the Emden Colloquium, and in the Hoorns. Conff. But the other Mennonite Confessions contain nothing on the subject; and a Synod at Strasburg, 1555, decreed: Christum suam carnem et sanguinem a Maria" accepisse. Cf. Pr. Mennon. de origine hum. Ch. not. vera sententia, Jena 1753. VII. REDEMPTION: THE MERITS OF CHRIST. * FIKST POINT OF DIVEKGENCE. ALL Christians are agreed that Christ is the supreme Bene- factor of the world in a religious point of view, and that we all, in particular, owe to Him the possibility of return to God, and of obtaining the forgiveness of sins, with that eternal life which is dependent on forgiveness. But difference arises as to the medium through which Christ effected the reconcilia- tion between men and God. The greater number of Christian communities acknowledge this medium to be the substitu- tionary death of Christ, the passion and cross, and regard the reconciliation as a divine act of grace, based immediately upon this meritorious act of Christ. The Socinians deny altogether the procurement of forgiveness through the death of Christ, rejecting the satisfaction of the Eedeemer. They hold the death of Christ to have been merely the powerful seal and confirmation, as of the doctrine of Jesus, so also of the forgiv- ing grace of God, and at the same time as a mighty incite- ment to departure from sin. 1 Christ, on their principles, only mediately redeemed from sin ; His merit consisted mainly in His perfect and efficient announcement of the will and the promises of God. Thus He showed mankind the infallible way of blessedness; and every man who chooses this way, that is, fulfils the commandments of Christ, attains through Him to salvation. 1 In the Cat. Rac. the death of Christ is significantly included in the munus prophelicum, the prophetic office. 127 128 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. While, therefore, among all other Christian confessions, the death of Christ is the centre or consummation of all that Christ accomplished and provided for man, the Socinians re- pute that death only as a co-operant element in the merito- rious service of Christ. The former hold that the resurrection was the seal and consummation of the death of Christ as an expiatory death ; but the Socinians regard the death of Jesus mainly as the basis of His resurrection, because without the death there could have been no rising again, without the rising again there could have been no confirmation of the hope of eternal life, and no elevation of Christ to that place of heavenly dignity where He could act efficiently for the salva- tion of His people. The former Christian communions main- tain that the doctrine, and also the example of Christ, were only part of His work, standing in the closest and most neces- sary connection with His atoning death ; but the Socinians unite the two in one, and make this the essential matter in Christ's work, His death being subordinate and ministrant to it. Christianity is to them, in fact, essentially a revelation of the divine will, and Christ a new and more perfect divine lawgiver. 1 SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. , I. EOMISH. Cone. Trid. sess. vi. cap. 7 : Christus, qui, cum essemus inimici, propter nimiam caritatem, qua dilexit nos, nobis sua sanctissima passione ligno crucis justificationem meruit et pro nobis deo patri satisfecit. Cf. sess. v. 3. Cat. Rom. i. 5. 11: Hoc in passione et morte filius dei spectavit, ut omnium tetatum peccata redimeret ac deleret et pro eis patri abunde cumulateque satisfaceret. ii. 5. 63: Prima satisfactio et prsestantissima ilia est, qua pro scelerum 1 Hence the definition of the Christian religion in Socinus : Religio Christiana est doctrina ccelestis docens veram viam perveniendi ad vitam ajternam. Hsec autem via nihil est aliud quam obedire Deo juxta ea/juae ille nobis prsecepit per Dom. nostr. J. C. A celestial doctrine, that is, teaching the way of life, which way is obedience to the commandments given through Christ. REDEMPTION: THE MERITS OF CHRIST. 129 nostrorum ratione, etiamsi deus summo jure nobiscum velit agere, quidquid a nobis debeatur, cumulate persolutum est : hsec vero ejusmodi esse dicitur, quse nobis deum propitiuin et placa- tum reddidit, eamque uni Christo acceptam ferimus, qui in cruce pretio pro peccatis nostris soluto plenissime deo satisfecit. II. GREEK. Conf. orthod. p. 85 sq. : 'O Odvaros TOV XpiaTov, va r\Tov fie Bta^>opci)Tpov TpoTrov, irapa OTTOV rjrov TWV a\\wv o\wv avdp(t)7ra>v, Sia rat? a0op//,ai? Tourat?' rrpwTov &i,a TO (3dpo<$ rcov , Sevrepov Start et9 rbv aravpov airdvw eTr\rjpov ' eavrbv TrpocreveyKas TOJ 6eu> Kal vrarpl et9 a7ro\v- rpcoaiv TOV yevovs T&V dv6po!)7ra>v. '/cet a/co/u et9 TOV aTavpov eTeXeicave TTJV fjiecriTelav dvd^eaov Oeov Kal dvQpwTTwv. (Col. i. 20, ii. 14.) Cf. Plato, Catech. S. 95 f. III. PROTESTANT. C. A. p. 10 : (Decent, quod films dei sit) vere passus, cru- cifixus, mortuus et sepultus, ut reconciliaret nobis patrem et hostia esset non tantum pro culpa" originis, sed etiam pro omnibus actualibus hominum peccatis. Hid. art. 4 : Peccata remitti propter Christum, qui sua morte pro nostris peccatis satisfecit. Apol. A. C. p. 93 : Christus, quia sine peccato subiit poenam peccati et victima pro nobis factus est, sustulit illud jus legis, ne accuset, ne damnet hoc, qui credunt in ipsum, quia ipse est propitiatio pro eis, propter quam nunc justi re- putantnr. Catech. maj. p. 495 : Dominus ad haec passus, mortuus et sepultus, ut pro me satisfaceret meamque culpam, quse mihi luenda fuerat, persolveret, non auro neque argento, sed proprio et pretioso suo sanguine. Conf. Helv. ii. cap. 15 : Christus peccata mundi in se re- cepit et sustulit divinseque justitise satisfecit. Deus ergo propter solum Christum passum et resuscitatum propitius est peccatis nostris nee ilia nobis imputat. I 130 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. Conf. Gall art. 1 7 : Credimus, eo iinico sacrificio, quod J. C. in cruce obtulit, nos esse deo reconciliatos. . . . Testamur, Christum esse integram et perfectam nostram ablutionem, in cujus morte plenam satisfactionem nanciscimur cet. Conf. Bdg. art. 21 : Credimus, J. C. summum ilium sacer- dotem esse, . . . qui se nostro nomine coram patre stitit ad iram ipsius plena satisfactione SU& placandum, offerens se ipsum in ligno crucis pretiosumque sanguinem suum ad pur- gationem peccatorum nostrorum effundens. Cat. Heidelb. 3740 ; Calvin, Instit. ii. 14. 5 ; comp. Conf. Remonstr. viiL 7,9. West. Conf. ch. viii. sec. 5 : The Lord Jesus, by His perfect obedience and sacrifice of Himself, which He through the Eternal Spirit once offered up unto God, hath fully satisfied the justice of His Father, and purchased not only reconcilia- tion, but an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, for all those whom the Father hath given unto Him. Sec. 6 : Although the work of redemption was not actually wrought by Christ till after His incarnation, yet the virtue, efficacy, and benefits thereof were communicated unto the elect in all ages successively from the beginning of the world, in and by those promises, types, and sacrifices wherein He was revealed and signified to be the Seed of the woman which should bruise the serpent's head, and the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world, being yesterday and to-day the same, and for ever. The Sinlessness and Obedience of Christ. The life of Jesus, as preceding His death, is introduced by the older Protestant symbols, only so far as it involves the perfect sin- lessness of Christ: Apol. p. 93; Eng. Artt. 15; Conf. Gall. 14. The perfect goodness of Christ fitted Him, as man, to be the effectual atonement for all, since for Himself He had not to suffer death. The sinless obedience was the necessary antecedent of the atonement. On the other hand, the Form. Cone, describes the sinless life of Jesus, referred to the divine law, as the perfect fulfilment of that law by Christ in the stead of men; consequently as itself an act of satisfaction the oledientia activa. On the Reformed side this is given in the form of a hint, Helv. ii. 11, Cat. Heid. 36 ; and as an express and plain affinnatioa. in Form. Cons. Helv. c. xv. (against Piscator). REDEMPTION: THE MERITS OF CHRIST. 131 SYMBOLS. F. C. p. 684: Justitia ilia, quse coram deo fidei aut cre- dentibus ex merS, gratia imputatur, est obedientia, passio et resurrectio Ch., quibus ille legi nostr& caus& satisfecit et pec- cata nostra expiavit. Cum enim Ch. non tantmn homo, verum deus et homo sit, in una person^ indivisa, tam non fuit legi subjectus, quam non fuit passioni et morti (ratione suse personse) obnoxius, quia dominus legis fuit. Earn ob causam ipsius obedientia non ea tantum, qu& patri paruit in tota sua passione et morte, verum etiam, qu& nostra causa sponte sese legi subjecit eamque obedientia ilia su& implevit, nobis ad justitiam imputatur, ita ut deus propter totam obedi- entiam, quam Christus agendo et patiendo in vit& et morte su& nostra causa patri suo ccelesti prsestitit, peccata nobis remittat, pro bonis et justis nos reputet et salute seternEl donet. . . P. 697 : Fides nostra respicit in personam Christi, quatenus ilia pro nobis legi sese subjecit, peccata nostra pertulit et cum ad patrem suum iret, solidam, absolutam et perfectissimam obedientiam jam inde a nativitate sua sanctissima usque ad mortem patri suo ccelesti pro nobis miserrimis peccatoribus prsestitit. Form. Consens. Helv. c. 15: Ita Chr. vice electorum obe- dientia mortis suse deo patri satisfecit, ut in censum tamen vicarise justitise et obedientise illius universa ejus, quam per totius vitas suse curriculum legi . . . sive agendo sive patieudo prsestitit, obedientia vocari debeat. Rotundo asserit ore spiritus dei, Christum sanctissima vita legi et justitise div. pro nobis satisfecisse et pretium illud, quo emti sumus deo, non in passionibus duntaxat sed tota ejus vita legi conformata collocat. . . .16. Haec cum ita se omnino habeant, haud sane probare possumus oppositam doctrinam illorum, qui . . . jus- titiam Ch. activam et passivam ita partiuntur, ut asserant, activam eum sibi pro sua vindicare, passivam vero demum electis donare et imputare. (Cf. Wyttenbach, TheoL dogm. ii. p. 789 sqq.) Against the obedientia activa Christi protested Soc. Prcelect. c. 18; Limborch, Th. ch. iii 21; and many Eomanists. Barclay, Apol. vii. 8, mentions, in passing, the complete obedi- 132 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. ence of Christ as, together with His passion and death, be- longing to the atonement. Episcopius abolishes the obed. act. satisfactoria, by asserting that Christ must needs fulfil the divine law for Himsel I. PKOTESTANT. The older symbols did not touch the question whether Christ was Mediator in one or in both natures ; but the con- troversy between Osiander and Stancarus gave occasion for the decision of the Lutheran Church in the F. C. art. 3, in harmony with the oecumenical doctrine of the inseparable union of the two natures in Christ. Form. Cone. art. 3 : Quod Ch. vere sit nostra justitia sed tamen neque secundum solam div. naturam neque sec. solam hum. naturam, sed totus Chr. sec. utranique naturam in sola videlicet obedientil sua, quam patri ad mortem usque absolu- tissimam deus et homo prsestitit eaque nobis peccatoruni omnium remissionem et vitam set. promeruit. Cf. Conf. Belg. art. 19. Against the scholastic assertion that Christ was Mediator only in the human nature (si sermo sit de principio formali, non de ipso supposito), which Bellarmine defended, the symbols do not enter any special protest. II. SOCINIAN. The prophetic office of Christ consists, according to the Cat. Eac. p. 145, in this, that Christ perfectly manifested, confirmed, and surrounded by sanctions, the will of God otherwise hidden from us. But this will embraces, p. 14 8, the perfect precepts and promises of God; and among the latter life eternal is reputed the greatest, the remission of sins promised freely of the divine grace being included in this. The confirmation of the divine will was given through Christ, in harmony with the divine counsels, among other means by His death. But Christ suffered death for our sins : how and wherefore is declared as follows: Cat. Eac. p. 261 seq. : Ch. pro pecc. n. passus est, primo, ut omnibus peccatoribushacrationejuscertissimum fieret peccatoruni remissionis ipsiusque adeo vitse set., proinde REDEMPTION: THE MERITS OF CHRIST. 133 etiam non dubia fides. Secundo, ut omnes peccatores ad Ch. incitarentur et traherentur, in hoc et per hunc solum pecca- torum remissionem quserentes, qui pro iis esset mortuus. Tertio, ut suam hac ratione deus humane generi immensam testaretur caritatem illudque sibi penitus reconciliaret. P. 262 : At qua? ratio erat, quia iisdem afflictionibus et morti ejusmodi credentes sint obnoxii, easdem afflictiones et mortem Christo perferendi ? Duse ejus rei extitere causes, quemadmo- dum etiam duplici ratione Christus nos servat : primum enim, et certam nobis salutis spem facit, et, ut salutis viam turn in- grediamur, turn in ea persistamus, nos movet. Deinde nobis in omni tentationum, laborum, et periculorum certamine adest, opitulatur et tandem ab ipsa seterna morte liberat. P. 265 : (Mors Ch. nobis voluntatem dei confirmavit) duplici ratione, primum quod ab asserenda sua doctrina ne acerbissimS, quidem morte deterreri se passus est, nominatim vero, quod novum fcedus sanguine suo sanxerit; . . . deinde quod per mortem pervenerit ad resurrectionem, ex qua maxima oritur divinas voluntatis confirmatio deque nostra resurrec- tione et vitse seternse adeptione certissima persuasio. P. 266 : Expone earn rem fusius, qua ratione resurrectione Christi, atque ad eum modum ipsius morte de resurrectione nostra et vita seterna confirmati simus ? Primum morte et re- surrectione Christi certi sumus facti de nostra resurrectione ad eum modum, quod in exemplo Christi propositum esse nobis spectemus, quod in Christi doctrina promissum est : eos, qui deo obtemperent, e quovis mortis quanturnvis atrocis genere liberari. Deinde, cum Christus ita resurrexit, ut supremam in omnia potestatem fuerit adeptus, omnis de salute nostra dubitandi causa sublata est. 1 P. 267: Hinc igitur per- spicio, plus in resurrectione quam in Christi morte situm esse in nostrse salutis negotio ? Hactenus sane, quatenus mors Christi inutilis et inemcax futura fuisset, nisi earn consecuta fuisset Christi resurrectio (quod tamen decreti divini respectu haud fuit possibile), quse mortem quoque illius mirum in modum animavit et emcacissimam in salutis nostrse negotio effecit. P. 268 sqq. : Nonne etiam ideo Christus est mortuus, 1 This exaltation of Christ was a reward for obedience shown unto death (Soc. Pr. th. c. 23) ; that is, God had decreed thus to impart His sin-destroying grace. 134 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. ut salutem nostram proprie loquendo mereretur et peccatorum nostrorum debita proprie itidem loquendo dissolveret ? Etsi nunc vulgo ita Christian! sentiant, tamen ea sententia turn fallax est et erronea turn admodum perniciosa, siquidem id sibi volunt, Christum aequivalentes pro peccatis nostris poenas persolvisse et obedientiae suse pretio inobedientiam nostram exacte compensasse. ... Id scripturis repugnat ad eum modum, quod scripturae passim deum peccata hominibus gratuito remittere testentur. . . . Ration! repugnat, quod sequeretur, Ch. aeternam mortem subiisse, . . . ut taceamus unam per se mortem, etiamsi tandem seterna fuisset, nedum adeo brevem, innumeris aeternis mortibus aequalem non esse. P. 277 : Quo sensu Ch. pro peccatis nostris seu propter peccata dicitur esse mortuus ? Eodem sensu, quanquam longe pleniore ac perfectiore, quo victimse pro peccatis caedi dicebantur. Nempe . . . Ch., omnis peccati insonti, peccata nostra causa mortis fuerunt, quam ille subiit, ut nos ab eorum omnium reatu solveret et quae mortis illius vis est ; ut ea simul in nobis tolleret et aboleret. Ideo enim Christo pro peccatis nos- tris in mortem se tradidit, us nos sibi assereret ac manciparet, . . . suo livore nos sanavit ; nam tanta sua caritate errantes ad se convertit. P. 284: Quid de reconciliation sentis ? Christum J. nobis, qui propter peccata nostra dei inimici eramus et ab eo abalienati, viam ostendisse, quemadmodum nos ad deum converti atque ad eum modum ei reconciliari oporteat ; et ad id faciendum morte etiam sua, in qua tanta erga nos caritas dei apparuit, nos vehementer impulisse. The priestly office of Christ is referred by Socinianism only to His state of exaltation. Cat. Hoc. p. 476 : In eo situm est, quod quemadmodum pro regio munere potest nobis in omnibus nostris necessitatibus subvenire, ita pro mun. sacerdotali sub- venire vult ac porro subvenit atque haec illius subveniendi s. opis afferendae ratio sacrificium ejus appellatur. qu. 477 quod, quemadmodum in V. T. summus pontifex . . . ea, quae ad expianda peccata populi spectarent, perficiebat, ita Ch. nunc penetravit ccelos, ut illic deo appareat pro nobis et omnia ad expiationem peccatorum nostr. spectantia peragat. [Qu. 479 indicates How.] Qui expiationem peccatorum nostrorum Jesus in ccelis peragit ? Primum a peccatorum pcenis nos KEDEMPTION : THE MEKITS OF CHRIST. 135. liberat, dum virtute et potestate, quern a patre plenam et absolutam consecutus est, perpetuo nos tuetur et iram del inter- ventu suo quodammodo a nbbis arcet ; deinde ab ipsorum pec- catomm servitute nos liberat, dum eadem potestate ab omni flagitiorum genere nos retrahit et avocat, id vero in sua ipsius persona nobis ostendendo, quid consequatur is, qui a peccando desistit. P. 280 sq. : Apeccatorum poena nos liberavit, cum se ipsum pro nobis, deo sic volente, in mortem tradidit et per sanguinem proprium in coalesti sacrario obtulit, quam filii sui ad mortem, eamque crucis, obedienffiam deus pro omnium gratissima" sibi victima accepit. Neque tamen hoc earn vim habet, quasi deus debita nostra sibi proprie persoluta acceperit, cum Christus illius proprius victimaque ab ipsomet data fuerit, quod et in anniversario illo sacrificio (sacrificii Christi figura) fiebat, et omnia ipse per se suoque nomine deo debuerit, et quamvis omnium maxima ac perfectissima ejus fuerit obe- dientia, nihilominus incomparabiliter majora pro ilia prcemia acceperit; proinde hoc immensse dei gratiae et liberalitati adscribendum est, quod non solum nihil eorum, quae sibi a nobis debebantur, receperit, non solum omnia debita nobis condonaverit, sed etiam victimam de suo eamque filium suum proprium et unigenitum uniceque dilectum, agnum ilium imma- culatum pro nobis peccatisque nostris impendent, non ut sibi quidquam pro nobis persolveret, (ficta enim solutio haec foret, non vera solutio) sed ut nobis tanto majus certiusque jus venise et eeternse vitas faceret, seseque ad earn dandam tanto pignore obstringeret nosque ad se converteret, aliisque ingentibus bonis, de quibus egimus, per mortem filii sui bearet. Still more plainly is it declared by Socinus, Prod, theol. c. 24, that with this oblation of Christ in heaven the idea of satisfaction may easily be connected, and that this idea, and all belonging to it, has been taken up out of predilection for the Epistle to the Hebrews. For the explanation of some of the remarks on the Catechism, see c. 28 : A Chr. in ccelis manens non ideo expiat peccata nostra, quod vis atque efficacia expiationis ab ipso in cruce peractse perpetuo duret, sed quia is, ad dei dextram in ccelis collocatus, divinse liberalitatis nos perpetuo admonet ad eamque amplectendam jugiter movet, et summa potestate sibi a deo in ccelo et in terra concessa a 136 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. divina ira, quae de ccelo identidem adversus impios et peccatores exseritur et in die ilia extrema adversus omnes simul cumu- latissime exseretur, nos et servat et servaturus est. Socin. Prcelect. iheol. c. 16-29 ; de J. Oh. servatore in dcr liblioth. fratr. Polon. i. ; Ostorodt, Unterricht. c. 37, 40; Summa theol. Unitar. ii. 4. III. QUAKER. The Quakers, like the Eomanists and Protestants, speak of the atoning death of Christ, and in scriptural expressions. But they make a double atonement, distinguishing the actual and external, which was accomplished on the cross, and has brought to the sinner the possibility of obtaining salvation, from the internal atonement, through the' communication of the inner power of the light of life flowing from Christ into the soul. Both and together effect the deliverance of man from sin ; the one being as necessary as the other. Barclay, Apol. vii 2 : Forasmuch as all men who have come to man's estate (the man Jesus only excepted) have sinned, therefore all have need of this Saviour to remove the wrath of God from them due to their offences. In this respect He is truly said to have borne the iniquities of us all in His body on the tree, and therefore is the only Mediator, having qualified the wrath of God towards us, so that our former sins stand not in our way, being by virtue of His most satisfactory sacrifice removed and pardoned. Neither do we think that remission of sins is to be expected, sought, or obtained any other way, or by any works or sacrifice whatsoever ; though, as has been said formerly, they may come to partake that are ignorant of the history. So, then, Christ by His death and sufferings hath reconciled us to God, even while we are enemies ; that is, He offers reconciliation unto us, we are put into a capacity of being reconciled. . . . We consider then our redemption in a twofold respect or state, both which in their own nature are perfect, though in their application to us the one is not, nor cannot be, without respect to the other. . . . The first is the redemption performed and accomplished by Christ for us in His crucified body without us ; the other is the redemption REDEMPTION: THE MERITS OF CHRIST. 137 wrought by Christ in us, which no less properly is called and accounted a redemption than the former. The first, then, is that whereby a man, as he stands in the Fall, is put into a capacity of salvation, and hath conveyed unto him a measure of that power, virtue, spirit, life, and grace that was in Christ Jesus, which, as the free gift of God, is able to counterbalance, overcome, and root out the evil seed wherewith we are natu- rally, as in the Fall, leavened. The second is that whereby we witness and know this pure and perfect redemption in our- selves, purifying, cleansing, and redeeming us from the power of corruption, and bringing us into unity, favour, and friend- ship with God. By the first of these two, we that were lost in Adam, plunged into the bitter and corrupt seed, unable of ourselves to do any good thing, but naturally joined and united to evil, forward and propense to all iniquity, servants and slaves to the power and spirit of darkness, are, notwithstanding all this, so far reconciled to God by the death of His Son, while enemies, that we are put into a capacity of salvation, having the glad tidings of the gospel peace offered unto us ; and God is reconciled unto us in Christ, calls and invites us to Himself. . . . By the second, we witness this capacity brought into act, whereby, receiving and not resisting the purchase of His death, to wit, the light, spirit, and grace of Christ revealed in us, we witness and possess a real, true, and inward redemption from the power and prevalency of sin, and so come to be truly and really redeemed, justified, and made righteous, and to a sensible union and friendship with God. Thus He died for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity ; and thus we know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death. This last follows the first in order, and is a consequence of it, pro- ceeding from it as an effect from its cause, so as none could have enjoyed the last without the first had been, such being the will of God ; so also can none now partake of the first, but as he witnesseth the last. Wherefore, as to us, they are both causes of our justification ; the first the procuring efficient, the other the formal cause. ... 4. That the obedi- ence, sufferings, and death of Christ is that by which the soul obtains remission of sins, and is the procuring cause of that 138 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. grace, by whose inward workings Christ comes to be formed inwardly, and the soul to be made conformable unto Him, and so just and justified. And that, therefore, in respect of this capacity and offer of grace, God is said to be reconciled ; not as if He were actually reconciled, or did actually justify, or account any just, so long as they remain in their sins really impure and unjust SECOND POINT OF DIVEEGENCE. The Confessions which acknowledge a reconciliation of the world through the vicarious death of Christ differ again in this : some hold the atoning death of Christ as perfectly sufficient; others as sufficient in part; and others, again, as more than sufficient. The Lutherans take the first view, that of a perfectly sufficient value : the death of Christ was a ransom-price perfectly proportioned to the guilt and punish- ment of all those whom He should redeem a plenaria satis- factio. The second view, that of a partly sufficient value, is held by various classes : 1. As to its value (intensive), the Arminians so regard it, inasmuch as they assert that the vicarious death of Christ, as His alone, had not in itself the power of expiating the sins of all ; but that the compassion of God reckoned it as perfectly sufficient a disproportionate ransom-price, instead of one exactly proportioned to the de- merit of the sin. 1 2. As to its application, there is again a difference in the second class : a. The Roman Catholics belong to it in a certain sense, as they think that Christ's death has provided a full satisfaction only for the guilt contracted before baptism, while for mortal sins committed after baptism only the guilt and eternal penalty are abolished, the temporal or limited punishments requiring the expiation of Christians themselves ; . The Calvinists, according to whom God applies the merit of Christ only to the elect. In another sense, how- 1 Our theologians call this Acceptttaiio. Acceptatio, on the other hand, is the acceptance of or satisfaction with the sufficient ransom-price offered to God on the death of Jesus. REDEMPTION: THE MERITS OF CHRIST. 139 ever, the Romanists make the third class : they esteem the death of Christ to have a superfluity of merit ; as the suffer- ings of the God-man necessarily bear an infinite value, while the applications of His satisfaction to man must ever be finite. On the application of this superabundant merit, see xvii. 2. SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. I. EOMAN CATHOLIC DECREES. As to the satisfaction of Christ which is applied in baptism, see below, xv. 2. Compare Bellarmine, Posnit. iv. 14 : " We acknowledge this difference : In baptism the blood of Christ operates so fully, so perfectly, so abundantly, as- to destroy all sins, not only as to their guilt, but also as to all the penalty of another life, whether eternal or temporal. But in the sacrament of penance, the same blood of Christ destroys in- deed the guilt and the eternal pains, but does not expiate the whole temporal penalty, unless the sinner's own satisfaction co-operates." The necessity of our own expiation springs from the principle, that " it is false and contrary to the word of God to affirm that guilt is never remitted by our Lord without the forgiveness of its universal penalty." Cone. Trid. sess. 14. It is thus admitted, that the Christian who has committed mortal sins receives for Christ's sake forgiveness of his guilt, and remission of the eternal penalty, but that he must himself temporally make expiation for his sins here or in purgatory ; that is, he must either suffer certain temporal punishments inflicted on him by God, or make satisfaction by personal penal visitations on himself. Cone. Trid. sess. 14, can. 13. The satisfying operation, however, of these penances, it must be remembered, rests upon the merit of Christ, and is therefore, according to Eoman Catholic argument, far from dishonouring or obscuring those supreme merits. Trid. sess. 14 ; Pcenit. c. 8 ; Cat. Bom. ii. 5. 72 j Bellar. Pan. iv. 7. Cone. Trid. sess. 14, de Pan. cap. 8 : Sane et divinse justitiae ratio exigere videtur, ut aliter ab eo in gratiam recipiantur, qui ante baptismum per ignorantiam deliquerint, aliter vero, qui semel a peccati et dsemonis servitute liberati et accepto 140 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. Spiritus sancti dono scienter templum del violare non formi- daverint; et divinam clementiam decet, ne ita nobis absqne ulla satisfactione peccata dimittantur, ut occasione accepta peccata leviora putantes in graviora labamur. . . . Accedit, quod dum satisfaciendo patimur pro peccatis, Christo, qui pro peccatis nostris satisfecit, conformes efficimur. . . . Neque vero ita nostra est satisfactio hsec, quam pro peccatis nostris exsolvimus, ut non sit per Christum ; nam qui ex nobis tan- quam ex nobis nihil possumus, eo co-operante omnia possumus. Ita non habet homo unde glorietur, sed omnis gloriatio nostra in Christo est cet. Cat. Rom. ii. 5. 6 5 : Docendi sunt, duo esse, quse pecca- tum consequuntur, maculam et prenam. Ac quamvis semper culpa dimissa simul etiam aeternae mortis supplicium ap. in- feros constitution condonetur, tamen non semper contingit, ut dom. peccatorum reliquias et pcenam certo tempore definitam, quae peccatis debetur, remittat. As to penances imposed by the priest, or self-inflicted, see qu. 63, 73 ; as to temporal pains as satisfying, qu. 75. Cone. Trid. sess. 14, de pcen. can. 13 : Si quis dixerit, pro peccatis quoad poenam temporalem minime deo per Christi merita satisfied pcenis ab eo inflictis et patienter toleratis vel a sacerdote injunctis, sed neque sponte susceptis . . . , ana- thema sit. Can. 1 5 : Si quis dixerit, . . . fictionem esse, quod, virtute clavium sublata posna aeterna, pcena temporalis plerum- que exsolvenda remaneat, anath. sit. Cf. Confut. A. a p. 84 sq. II PROTESTANT ANTITHESES FROM THE SYMBOLS. ' Apol. A. C.p. 184 : Fatentur adversarii, quod satisfactiones non prosint ad remissionem culpae. Verum fingunt, satisfac- tiones prodesse ad redimendas posnas seu purgatorii seu alias. Sic enim decent, in remissione peccati deum remittere culpam, et tamen, quia convenit justitise divinae punire peccatum, mutare pcenam seternam in po3nam temporalem. Addunt amplius, partem illius temporalis pcenas remitti potestate clavium, reliquum autem redimi per satisfationes. P. 185: Et has satisfactiones dicunt valere, etiamsi fiant ab his, qui REDEMPTION: THE MERITS OF CHRIST. 141 relapsi sunt in peccatum mortale, quasi vero divina offensa placari queat ab his, qui sunt in peccato mortali. Haec tota res est commentitia, recens conficta, sine auctoritate scriptures et veterum scriptorum ecclesiasticorum. Ac ne Longobardus quidem de satisfactionibus hoc niodo loquitur. II. p. 189 : Cum scripturae citatse non dicant, quod operi- bus non debitis pcense seternse compensandae sint, temere affirmant adversarii, quod per satisfactiones canonicas pcense illse compensentur. II. p. 192: Cum mors Christi sit satisfactio pro morte seterna, et cum ipsi adversarii fatean- tur, ilia opera satisfactionum esse opera non debita, sed opera traditionum humanarum, de quibus Christus inquit, quod sint inutiles cultus: tuto possumus affirmare, quod satisfactiones canonicse non sint necessaries jure divino ad re- missionem culpae aut pcense aeternae aut pcenae purgatorii. Sed objiciunt adversarii, vindictam seu pcenam necessariam esse ad pcenitentiam, quia Augustinus ait, poenitentiam esse vin- dictam punientem cet. Concedimus vindictam seu poenam in pcenitentia necessariam esse, non tanquam meritum, sen pretium, sicut adversarii fingunt satisfactiones, sed vindicta formaliter est in pcenitentia, hoc est quia ipsa regeneratio fit perpetua mortificatione vetustatis. Ib. p. 193 : At, inquiunt, convenit justitiae dei, punire peccatum. Certe punit in con- tritione, cum in illis terroribus iram suam ostendit, sicut signi- ficat David, cum orat : (Ps. vi. 2) domine, ne in furore tuo arguas me. Et Jeremias cap. x. (24) : corripe me, domine ; veruntamen in judicio, non in furore, ne ad nihilum redigas me. Hie sane de acerbissimis pcenis loquitur. Et fatentur adversarii contritionem posse tantam esse, ut non requiratur satisfactio. Ib. p. 194: Objiciunt de Adam, de Davide, qui propter adulterium punitus est. Ex his exemplis faciunt universalem regulam, quod singulis peccatis respondeant pro- prise pcense temporales in remissione peccatorum. Prius dictum est, sanctos sustinere pcenas, quae sunt opera dei, sustinent con- tritionem seu terrores, sustinent et alias communes afflictiones, ita sustinent aliqui proprias pcenas a deo impositas, exempli causa. Ib. p. 195: Ubi docet hoc scriptura, non posse nos a morte aeterna liberari, nisi per illam compensationem cer- tarum pcenarum prseter communes afflictiones? At contra 142 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. saepissime docet, remissionem peccatorum gratis contingere propter Christum, Christum esse victorem peccati et mortis : quare non est assuendum meritum satisfactionis. Et quamvis afflictiones reliquae sint, tamen has interpretatur praesentis peccati mortificationes esse, non compensationes seternae mortis seu pretia pro seternEi morte. Conf. Helv. ii. cap. 14 : Improbamus illos, qui suis satis- factionibus existimant se pro eommissis satisfacere peccatis. Nam docemus, Christum unum morte vel passione sua esse omnium peccatorum satisfactionem, propitiationem vel expia- tionem. Cf. Conf. Gall. art. 17 u. 24; Conf. Eng. Artt. ; Conf. Belg. art. 23 ; Declar. Thorun. ii 6, pcenit. 3 ; Calvin, Institut. iii. 4. 25 sqq. (and Limborch, TJieol. christ. v. 77. 16). Especially, however, as to the mass in its limitation, of the power of the Eedeemer's cross, s. A. C. p. 25; Apol. p. 265 ; Art. Angl. 31 ; Conf. Angl. p. 97. III. ARMEHAN DOCTRINE. The Conf. Eem. contains no adequate statement as to the value of the satisfaction of Christ. The specific doctrine of the Arminians was formed after the Synod of Dort, and is found in the writings of the leading Arminians. Limborch, Apol. thes. iii. 22. 5 : Quaeri hie posset, quomodo unius hominis victima sufficere possit et revera suffecerit ad tot hominum myriades eorumque peccata innumera expiandum. Eesp. Sufficit ilia duplici respectu. Primo, respectu voluntatis divince, quae ad generis humani liberationem nihil ultra re- quisivit, sed in unicd hoc victima acquievit. . . . Secundo, re- spectu dignitatis personae Jesu Christi. Quamvis enim Jesus non sit passus nisi in humani sua natura, tamen quia ilia in personae unitatem assumta est a natura divina, recte ipse dei filius aeternus tulisse dicitur, quidquid homo Jesus Christus in carne pro peccatoribus sustinuit. Quin et, licet Christus solum- modo consideretur ut homo, excellentia personae ipsius tanta est, ut omnium hominum longissime superet 21. 6: Satis- factio Christi dicitur, qua" pro nobis poenas omnes luit peccatis nostris debitas, casque perferendo et exhauriendo divinae jus- titiae satisfecit. Verum ilia sententia nullum habet in scrip- EEDEMPTION: THE MERITS OF CHKIST. 143 tura fundamentum. Mors Ckristi vocatur sacrificium pro peccato ; atqui sacrificia non sunt solutiones debitorum, neque plenarice pro peccatis satisfactioncs ; sed illis peractis concedi- tur gratuita, peccati remissio. Il>. 21. 8 : In eo errant quam maxime, quod velint redemtionis pretium per omnia cequivalens esse debere miseries illi, e qua redemtio fit. Eedemtionis pretium enim constitui solet pro libera sestimatione illius, qui captivum detinet, non autem solvi pro captivi merito. Curcellsei Eel. christ. instit. v. 19. 15 sq. : Non ergo, ut vulgo putant, satisfecit Ch. patiendo omnes pcenas, quas pec- catis nostris merueramus ; nam primo istud ad sacrificii ratio- nem non pertinet, sacrificia enim non sunt solutiones debitorum; secundo Ch. non est passus mortem seternam, quse erat pcena peccato debita, nam paucis tantum horis in cruce pependit et tertia die resurrexit. Imo etiamsi mortem eeternam pertulisset, non videtur satisfacere potuisse pro omnibus totius mundi peccatis ; hsec enim fuisset tantum una mors, quse omnibus moribus, quas singuli pro suis peccatis meruerant, non sequi- valuisset. . . . Quarto ista sententia non potest consistere cum ilia remissione gratuita" omnium peccatorum, quam deum nobis in Ch. ex immensa sua misericordia concedere, sacra3 literse passim decent. Indulgences. As to the superabundant satisfaction of Christ, on which the institute of indulgences rests, the Eomish symbols contain no specific teaching. The Cat. Born, only hints at it, but Bellarmine gives it a full exposition. Cat. Bom. i. 5 : Pretium, quod Ch. pro nobis persolvit, debitis nostris non par solum et aequale fuit, verum ea longe superavit. Bell. De ind. i. 2 : Exstat in ecclesia* thesaurus satisfac- tionum ex Christi passionibus infinitus, qui nunquam exhauriri poterit. Nam Christi passio pretii fuit infiniti, cum esset passio personse infinites. Deus est, qui sanguinem fudit pro ecclesia. Dignitas autem satisfactionis mensuram accipit a dignitate personaa satisfacientis. Dejinde Christus pro homi- nibus omnibus mortuus est. Certum est autem, non omnibus hominibus, qui hactenus vixerunt, pretium mortis Christi re- 144 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. ipsa applicatum fuisse ad eorum expianda peccata, imo majo- rem partem hominum morti aeternoB addictam esse. Superest igitur multum illius pretii, quod semper applicari possit, prsesertim cum tota Christ! satisfactio nobis applicari possit, cum ipse per se nulla satisfactione indiguerit, qui peccatum non fecit, nee facere potuit. C. 4 : Verissime scripsit Clemens vi. in constitut. Unigenitus, unam sanguinis Ch. guttam propter unionem ad verbum toti mundo reconciliando satis esse potuisse. Et cum Ch. non unam sang, guttam, sed totum sanguinem pro nobis fuderit, . . . dubium esse non potest, quin semper supersit pretium, idque justissimum, quo debita nostra solvi possint. Cf. Klee, Dogmat. ii. S. 475, iii. S. 285. The Protestant symbols do not enter upon the question, save as they condemn the indulgences based upon the superabun- dant satisfaction. VIII. CONYEKSION AND GKACE. ALL Christians agree that the regeneration of man, wherein he is restored to righteousness in Christ and acceptableness to God, takes place under the influence of divine grace and of the Holy Spirit. But, in conformity with their several doc- trines as to the depravity of the natural man, they differ as to the degrees and steps of this influence, and as to the rela- tion it bears to human ability. Some deny to man, as in a state of nature, all ability to begin the work of regeneration : the Eoman Church, the Lutheran and Eeformed Churches, the Arminians, Mennonites, and Quakers. Others maintain the Socinians that man, by means of his natural ability, animated by the promises of God, may begin his own amend- ment ; but that when he has begun it, and become a believer, he receives the seal and special power of the Holy Spirit. The former are divided into two classes, with reference to the development of the renewal, which can be commenced only by the Holy Ghost. The Eomanists, like the Arminians and Mennonites, teach that the Holy Ghost awakens and strengthens the ability slumbering in the natural man, but that man must in free self-decision give himself up to this influence, which indeed he can never acquire by merit, in order that the work of regeneration may be effected through his own power united with the divine. Protestants generally, on the contrary, refer regeneration back entirely to the in- fluence of the Holy Ghost, who restores in the natural man the power of willing. After that restoration, and in the subsequent process of renewal, the regenerate uses this newly- bestowed power only in co-operation. The Quakers, deriving I 146 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. all renewal from the divine light kindled in the spirit, are far from speaking of any co-operation of human power with the divine grace. They ascribe to human nature, as spirit, only a capacity for the internal light, and regard it as the foundation for the gracious energy and influence of the Divine Spirit. SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. I. That the, Divine Grace is Indispensable to Conversion. I. ROMAN. Cone. Trid. sessio 6, can. 1 : Si quis dixerit, hominem suis operibus, quae vel per legis doctrinam fiant, absque divina per Christum gratia, posse justificari coram deo, anathema sit. Ib. can. 2 : Si quis dixerit, ad hoc solum divinarn gratiam per Christum dari, ut facilius homo juste vivere ac vitam aeternam promereri possit, quasi per liberum arbitrium sine gratia utrumque, sed segre tamen et difficulter, possit, anathema sit. Ib. can. 3 : Si quis dixerit, sine prseveniente Spiritus sancti inspiratione atque ejus adjutorio hominem credere, sperare, diligere aut prenitere posse, sicut oportet, ut ei justificationis gratia conferatur, anathema sit. Cf. also cap. 3. (Bellarmini De amiss, grot, vi 16 : Nos libenter admittimus, non posse homines solis viribus naturse corruptae quidquam boni praestare, quod ad pietatem et vitam seternam pertineat.) IL GREEK. Jerem. in Actis Wirtemb. p. 367 sq. : AeiKwra^ w? TO fj,ev avaa-TTjvai, Kal a,KO\ovdtjvat e(f> rj/uv Kal Svvafuv e%o/j,ev (0(TT e\e? e-^ovra TO avTe^ovaiov. . . . '.E/e Sij TOVTCOV SeiKWTai, a>? TO (tev dvaa-Trjvat, Kal dKoXovdrjcrai l(j>' l SvvafAiv e%pjjLV WCTTG k\o~6ai TO dyadcv ov% fjTTOv TI TO KaKov. 'Evb (frvaifcw &m ev Kara \6>yov %pa) pivots, TOVTOIS o TravdyaOos $609 eTTiXa/iTret KOI TO TTvevftaTiKov <6ev rfj Trapaftdcrei dvicmjcri, rfj avrov %dpiTi. Ou? Kal rrplv TOVTO iroiriaai irpo rov fiovo- yevovs ai^ari,, KOI So|aei rf) avrov %dpiTi. P. 68 : Ov Svvd- fteOa Se elTretv, Tovrtov rwv arjaQwv CUTIOV rrjv pera \6yov %prjcrtv TOV (frvcriKov ro v6/J,q> xpco/Aevots, o(f>ei\i o ^09 dyaOa Sovvcu, a\Xa (frpovi/jios wv ov /3ov\TO rots KaTaxpio/uevois TU> W reva-ai. P. 70 : ToO (j,ev ia } f) irdvra ta Kal dyaOoTrjTi eBo^ev elvai rt. Cf. Dosithei Confess, c. 3. V. QUAKER The Quakers maintain the universality of the enlightenment proceeding from Christ so thoroughly, that they suppose even those who without their fault never heard of the historical Christ are under the influence of that grace. 176 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. Barclay, Apol. Prop. 6 : Therefore Christ hath tasted death for every man not only for all kinds of men, as some vainly talk, but for every man of all kinds the benefit of whose offering is not only extended to such who have the distinct outward knowledge of His death and sufferings, as the same is declared in the Scriptures, but even unto those who are necessarily excluded from the benefit of this knowledge by some inevitable accident, which knowledge we willingly con- fess to be very profitable and comfortable, but not absolutely needful unto such from whom God Himself hath withheld it ; yet they may be made partakers of the mystery of His death, though ignorant of the history, if they suffer His seed and light, enlightening their hearts, to take place, in which light communion with the Father and the Son is enjoyed, so as of wicked men to become holy, and lovers of that power, by whose inward and secret touches they feel themselves turned from the evil to the good, and learn to do to others as they would be done by, in which Christ Himself affirms all to be included. As they have then falsely and erroneously taught, who have denied Christ to have died for all men, so neither have they sufficiently taught the truth, who, affirming Him to have died for all, have added the absolute necessity of the outward knowledge thereof in order to obtain its saving effect. ... As for that doctrine which these propositions chiefly strike at, to wit, absolute reprobation, according to which some are not afraid to assert " that God, by an eternal and immut- able decree, hath predestinated to eternal damnation the far greater part of mankind, not considered as made, much less as fallen, without any respect to their disobedience or sin, but only for the demonstrating of the glory of His justice ; and that, for the bringing this about, He hath appointed these miserable souls necessarily to walk in their wicked ways, that so His justice may lay hold on them; and that God doth therefore not only suffer them to be liable to this misery in many parts of the world, by withholding from them the preaching of the gospel and the knowledge of Christ, but even in those places where the gospel is preached, and salvation by Christ is offered, whom, though He publicly invite them, yet He justly condemns for disobedience, albeit He hath with- UNIVERSALITY OF GRACE : PREDESTINATION. held from them all grace, by which they could have laid hold of the gospel, viz. because He hath by a secret will, unknown to all men, ordained and decreed (without any respect had to their obedience or sin) that they shall not obey, and that the offer of the gospel shall never prove effectual for their salva- tion, but only serve to aggravate and occasion their greater condemnation ;" I say, as to this horrible and blasphemous doctrine, our cause is common with many others, who have both wisely and learnedly, according to Scripture, reason, and antiquity, refuted it. [Accordingly, the resistibility of divine grace, as offered to man, is repeatedly asserted.] As the grace and light in all is sufficient to save all, and of its own nature would save all, so it strives and wrestles with all, in order to save them. He that resists its striving is the cause of his own condemnation ; he that resists it not, it becomes his salvation. So that in him that is saved, the working is of the grace, and not of the man. M X. JUSTIFICATION: FAITH, WOKKS. FIRST POINT OF DIVERGENCE. THE result of return to God under the influence of the Holy Ghost is justification. This is admitted by all Confessions ; but they differ among themselves, partly in the definition of the very idea of justification, partly in the decision of the point in conversion at which justification follows as a consequence, and consequently of the strict condition under which it is imparted. As it respects the notion of justification, Pro- testants generally understand by it the absolution of a sinner in the sight of God, on the ground of the merit of Christ, and the imputation to faith of the righteousness of Christ. The Romanists, on the other hand, add to the forgiveness of sins sanctification also, that is, the internal change of the sinner into a righteous person, or a divine infusion of habitual right- eousness, which makes the man capable of securing his salva- tion by good works. To the former, justification is an actus forensis ; to the latter, an adits physicus, or hyper-physicus. With the Eomanists on this point are ranged the Mennonites and the Quakers ; whereas the Arminians and the Socinians, with Protestants generally, limit justification to the forgive- ness of sins. 1 1 The Greek symbols never define justification. Kirpinski, Comp. orth. theol. : consistit forma justif. in remiss, pecc. et in mutatione hominis ex peccatore in justum 178 JUSTIFICATION : FAITH, WOKKS. 179 SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. I. KOHAN, MENNONITE, AND QUAKEK. Cone. Trid. sess. vi cap. 7 : Justificatio non est sola pecca- torum remissio, sed et sanctificatio et renovatio interioris hominis per voluntariam susceptionem gratite et donorum, unde homo ex injusto fit Justus et ex inimico amicus, ut sit heres secundum spem vitse seternse . . . justitia del, qu& nos justos facit, qua videlicet ab eo donati renovamur spiritu mentis nostrse et non modo reputamur, sed vere justi nomi- namur et sumus, justitiam in nobis recipientes. . . . Quan- quam nemo possit esse Justus, nisi cui merita passionis J. C. communicantur, id tamen in hac impii justificatione fit, dum ejusdem sanct. passionis merito per Spiritum s. caritas dei diffunditur in cordibus eorum, qui justificantur, atque ipsis inhaeret, unde in ipsa justificatione cum remissione peccatorum hsec omnia simul infusa accipit homo per J. Ch., cui inseritur, fidem, spem et caritatem. Cf, cap. 4. Cf. can. 1 1 ; Bellarmin, De justific. ii. 2 sqq. ; Bossuet, Expos, c. 6 ; Becan. Man. Controv. i. 16, 17. On the relation of forgiveness to the Eoman idea of justification, thus Bellarmin : Non potest haec translatio (in statum adoptionis filiorum dei) fieri, nisi homo per remis- sionem peccati desinat esse impius et per infusionem justi- tise incipiat esse pius. Sed sicut aer cum illustratur a sole per idem lumen, quod recipit, desinit esse tenebrosus et incipit esse lucidus : sic etiam homo per eandem justitiam sibi a sole justitise donatam atque infusam desinit esse injustus, delente videlicet lumine gratiee tenebras peccatorum cet. Eis, Conf. art. 21 : Per vivam fidem acquirimus veram justitiam i. e. condonationem seu remissionem omnium tarn prseteritorum quam prsesentium peccatorum, ut et veram justitiam, quse per Jesum co-operante Spiritu sancto abun- danter in nos effunditur vel infunditur, adeo ut ex malis . - . fiamus boni atque ita ex injustis revera justi. Barclay, Apol. vii. 3 : We understand not by this justifica- tion by Christ, barely the good works even wrought by the Spirit of Christ, for they, as Protestants truly affirm, are rather 180 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. an effect of justification than the cause of it ; but we under- stand the formation of Christ in us, Christ born and brought forth in us, from which good works as naturally proceed as fruit from a fruitful tree. It is this inward birth in us, bringing forth righteousness and holiness in us, that doth justify us, which, having removed and done away the contrary nature and spirit that did bear rule and bring condemnation, now is in dominion over all in our hearts. Those, then, that come to know Christ thus formed in them, do enjoy Him wholly and undivided. [The whole section presses home the point that justification is a real internal renovation of mind ; and the declarative sense of justification is absolutely rejected. The connection with forgiveness of sins is thus given.] The obedience, sufferings, and death of Christ, is that by which the soul obtains remission of sins, and is the procuring cause of that grace, by whose inward workings Christ comes to be formed inwardly, and the soul to be made conformable unto Him, and so just and justified. Comp. Prop, vii. 8. II. PROTESTANT. . Apol. A. C. p. 73 : Quia justificari significat ex injustis justos efiici seu regenerari, significat et justos pronuntiari seu reputari; utroque em'm modo loquitur scriptura. Ideo pri- mum volumus hoc ostendere, quod sola fides ex injusto justum efficiat, hoc est accipiat remissionem peccatorum cet. Again : consequi remissionem peccatorum est justificari; and p. 109 : Justificari hie significat non, ex impio justum effici, sed usu forensi : justum pronuntiari Hid, p. 125 : Justificare L L (Bom. v. 1), forensi consue- tudine significat reum absolvere et pronuntiare justum, sed propter alienam justitiam, videlicet Christi, quse aliena justitia communicatur nobis per fidem. C Conf. Saxon, p. 58 sqq. F. G. p. 685 : Vocabulum justificationis in hoc negotio sig- nificat justum pronuntiare, a peccatis et seternis peccatoram suppliciis absolvere propter justitiam Christi, quse a deo fidei imputatur. Et sane hie vocabuli illius usus tarn in V., quam in N. T. admodum frequens est (Prov. xvii. 15 ; Isa. v. 23 ; Rom. viii 33). JUSTIFICATION: FAITH, WOKKS. 181 Helv. ii. cap. 1 5 : Justificare significat apostolo (Paulo) in disputatione de justificatione peccata remittere, a culpa et poena absolvere, in gratiam recipere et justum pronuntiare. Conf. Gall. art. 18 : In sola Ch. obedientia prorsus acquies- cimus, quse quidem nobis imputatur, turn ut tegantur omnia nostra peccata, turn etiam ut gratiam coram deo nanciscamur. Conf. Bern, xviii. 3 : Justificatio est : peccatoris vere resipi- scentis ac credentis per et propter Christum vera fide appre- hensum misericors et quidem plenaria coram deo ab omni reatu absolutio sive gratuita peccatorum omnium per veram fidem in Jes. Ch. obtenta remissio. Apol. Conf. Bern. p. 112 a : Justificatio est actio dei, quam deus pure pute in sua ipsius mente efficit, quia nihil aliud est, quam volitio aut decretum, quo peccata remittere et justitiam imputare aliquando vult iis, qui credunt i. e. quo vult poenas peccatis eorum promeritas iis non infligere eosque tanquam justos tractare et prasmio ameer e. Cat. Racov. qu. 453 : Justificatio est, cum nos deus pro jus- tis habet, quod ea ratione facit, cum nobis et peccata remittit et nos vita seterna donat. Cf. F. Socin. Prcelcct. theol. c. 15, and tract, de justific. (Opp. i p. 602.) Ostorodt, Unterricht. c. 36, S. 296. Observations. 1. [In evangelical doctrine justification is an act, an act of God; according to the Roman doctrine, it is a process. But the Evan- gelical Church does not teach that the act of justification occurs once only in the life of a man, as it were in baptism, or the so-called great conversion. It teaches that it is daily necessary. Form. Cone. p. 692. Further, justification, in the evangelical doctrine, is a judicial act; according to Rome, it is the communication or impartation of a substance.] The Romish Church teaches that there are degrees of justification (alter justior altero). Cone. Trid. sess, vi. 10. 2. The relation of justification, objectively, to the merits of Christ is defined by this, that justification is in some sense an imputation of the righteousness of Christ (F. C. p. 584). [Jo. Gerhard, Loci, ed. E. Preuss, iii. 501 A B : Quam vis enim meritum Christi nobis inhserere non possit, ut Bellarminus scribit, tamen nobis a Deo im- putari potest, sicut Christo mediator! imputata sunt peccata nostra ; 182 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. utrumque igitur justitiae Christi tribuimus, quod sit causa justificationis meritoria et quod sit causa ejusdem formalis, nimirum ratione appli- cationis, quatenus per fidem nobis imputatur.] The Romanists con- sistently reject this definition, Cone. Trid. sess. vi. can. 11 ; Bellar- min, De justiftc. ii. 7 sqq. and thus teach, in accordance with their doctrine of justificatio, Trid. sess. vi. cap. 7 : Chr. su& sanctissima" pas- sione nobis justificationem meruit (cf. Becani Manuale controv. i. 16. 9) ; and the communicatio meriti Ch. is thus explained : Dum per Sp. s. caritas dei diffunditur in cordibus eorum, qui justificantur cet. ; or as Bossuet, c. vi., says : Justitia Ch. non imputatur tan turn fideli- bus, sed actu ac reips& Sp. s. operatione communicatur, ut ejus gratia non justi tantum reputentur, sed fiant. Cf. Bellarmin, Justific. ii. 3, and Dosithei Confess, c. xiii. The antithesis to the Protestant imputa- tion theory is thus briefly expressed : In justificatione peccata non teguntur tantum, sed tolluntur vere s. Becani Manual, i. p. 225. In another sense Arminians deny the imputatio justitiae Christi. CurcelL Ed. chr. instit. via. 9. 6: Nullibi docet scriptura, justitiam Chr. nobis im- putari. Et id absurdum est. Nemo enim in se injustus aliena justitia potest esse fonnaliter Justus, non magis, quam aliena albedine _9 So/cet vjuv r/ Se KCL- 6o\iK.r) KK\. rrjv "TTLCTTIV fficrav aTrairel TTJV Sia roi)V ayaO&v epywv /j,aprvpov/jievr)v. And p. 288, he says: reXetoiWes &>? Svvarbv TOV Kara Trvevpa vopov, SiKaiwdtjaofjieda. More decided in relation to Calvinism is Dosithei Conf. c. 13 (s. also Par- thenii Decret. synod, p. 122): Tucnevopev ov Bia a?rXw? fiovi)? Sircaiovadai TOV avOpwrrov, aXXa Sia vepyov[Aevr)<; Sia T?}? ayaTTf]^, r' avrov elirelv, Sia T^? /cal TWV epy&v TO Se ryv irlaTiv %6i/3o? epi/Xa^a/ie- vov, ovrto TTpoaboKav Kara^LfoO^vai r^5 7rayy\La? avayKala, olov TO fj,rj (froveveiv, . . . ra Se eTrtra/y/i. fiev to? avcvyKala OVK av eirj^ Se a\Xa>5 KOI TroXXwy cy/ceo/iwoy a%ia, olov ra T^? TrapOevlas KaropOtofut, f) co-flari) uteri) fjLoa-vvi), 17 aicpa cu9 Kal Trjv erepav Trapeiav Trporelvetv rot rjBij Barepav teal reXevralov avrb 17 7ravre\r)<; aTra\\cvyr) rwv rov 0opv/3a>v. 'E%pf)V Se elvat Tivas ev ry KK\i]9 \ejT, /cat ravra (r^v fiova- 'Xf.KrjV TroXtretai/), ayada ovra, crTepryetv cxpetXere ; cf. also pp. 132, 136. The Protestant refutation rested mainly on the character of meritoriousness, which the monastic estate was supposed to possess. But this led to a consideration of the lawfulness of such vows generally. We shall only give a few condensed references from the symbols. PKOTESTANT SYMBOLS. Apol. G. A. p. 279 sq. : Primum hoc certissimum est, non esse licitum votum, quo sentit is, qui vovet, se mereri remis- sionem peccatorum coram deo aut satisfacere pro peccatis coram deo. Nam hsec opinio est manifesta contumelia evan- gelii, quod docet, nobis gratis donari remissionem peccatorum propter Christum. . . . Secundo obedientia, paupertas et coelibatus, si tamen non sit impurus, exercitia sunt adiaphora et sancti viri usi sunt (iis) propter utilitatem corporalem, ut expeditions essent ad docendum et ad alia pia officia, non quod opera ipsa per se sint cultus, qui justificent aut mere- antur vitam seternam. . . . Tertio in votis monasticis pro- mittitur castitas. Supra autem diximus de conjugio sacer- dotum, non posse votis aut legibus tolli jus naturae in hominibus, . . . quare hoc votum non est licitum in his, qui non habent donum continentise, sed propter imbecillitatem contaminantur. Art. Sm. p. 336 : Quia vota monastica e diametro pugnant cum primo principal! articulo, ideo plane abroganda sunt; . . . qui enim votum facit in monasterio vivendi, is credit, se vitse rationem sanctiorem initurum esse, quam alii Christiani ducunt et suis operibus non tantum sibi, sed etiam aliis ccelum mereri vult. Hoc vero quid aliud est, quam Christum negare ? Conf. Wirtemb. p. 126 sq. : Non est dubium, quin vota pia, justa et legitima sint servanda ac solvenda et vota impia sint rescindenda. Sed haud immerito disputatur, in quo votorum genere collocanda sint vota monachorum. Nam manifestum est, quod ccelibatiis non sit verbo dei prseceptus ; manifestum etiam est, . . . quod non est sentiendum, quod hoc genus vitse per se sit coram tribunali dei excellentius et sanctius, quam conjugium. . . . Qui vovet virginitatem vel ccelibatum 212 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. aut vovet eum, ut singularem cultum del : tune quia status coelibum non est verbo del mandatus, pertinet hoc votum ad mandata hominum cet. ; aut vovet eum, ut meritum reniis- sionis peccatorum et vitas aeternae, et tune est manifeste impium votum. . . . Aut possides facultates et voves te iis relictis acturum vitam pauperem, ut victum quaeras mendi- citate et consequaris hujus voti merito vitam aeternani : tune hoc votum primum quidem pugnat cum caritate proximi, quae exigit, ne cui sis praeter necessitatem mendicimonio molestus ; deinde pugnat cum fide in Christum, quod is solus sit meritum seternse vitse. . . . Facultates autem tuas sic deserere, ut eas in commune conferas, non est paupertatem sectari, sed de certiori et copiosiori victu tibi prospicere. . . . Obedientia aut refertur ad deum, tune non est arbitrarii voti, sed debitse necessitatis ; . . . aut refertur ad hominem, tune sua sunt obedientise officia, quae subditus magistratui, liberi parentibus cet. debent. Haec sive voveantur sive non voveantur, certe divinitus exiguntur. Vovere autem homini obedientiam sine certa vocatione dei, ut operibus talis obedientiae non solum prasstes deo singularem cultum, sed etiam expies coram deo peccata tuo, supervacaneum est et impium, quia solius Ch. obedientia expiavit peccata nostra cet. Conf. Helv. ii c. 18 : Cum sciamus certo, monachos et monachorum ordines vel sectas neque a Christo, neque ab apostolis esse institutas, docemus, nihil eas ecclesiae dei utiles esse, imo perniciosas. Conf. Tetrapol. c. 12 ; Conf. Helv. i art. 27 ; Conf. Gall. art. 24. Cf. Zwingli, Op. iii p. 276 sqq. ; Calvin, Instit. iv. 13. 8 sqq. ; Limborch, Theol. chr. v. 76. 15 sqq. Observations. The doctrine of vows generally is not to be sought so much in the Protestant symbols as in the private writings of Luther and Calvin. There are licita vota (cf. Declar. Thorun. p. 57) : these must, accord- ing to A. C. p. 34, be in re possibili, voluntarium, sjjonte et comulto conceptum, and of things especially not forbidden by the divine law. The use of such vows is only moral, and consequently subjective ; they must never be held for part of the divine service, or be under- taken to prepare for or merit grace. As cultus divinus must that vow only be reckoned which belongs to baptism. It is to this restric- THE HOLINESS OF THE REGENERATE. 213 tion that the negation of the Cone. Trid. sess. vi. de Baptism, refers : Si quis dixerit, ita revocandosesse homines ad baptismi suscepti memoriam, ut vota omnia, qua; post baptismum fiunt, vi promissionis in baptismo ipso jam facta8 irrita esse intelligant, quasi per ea et fidei, quam professi sunt, detrahatur et ipsi baptismo, anathema sit. Bellar- mine lays down the general principle of his Church thus : Omne, quod fit ex voto, etiamsi alioqui non sit a deo prasceptum, vere et proprie est cultus dei. XIL LOSS OF GBACE : MOKTAL AND VENIAL SINS, POINT OF DIVERGENCE. ALL Christian Confessions which reject the dogma of predes- tination agree in this, that the converted man, in whom the evil concupiscence is not perfectly extinguished, may sink again into the condition of the unconverted, and lose even for ever the grace obtained in justification. It has been usual, in theological language, to term those sins which are fatal to a state of grace mortal sins, peccata mortalia, or mortifera. But here there is a divergence : 1. As to whether mortal sins may co-exist with faith, or ipso facto exclude faith : the former is asserted by the Eomanists ; the latter by the Protestants, in harmony with their respective differences as to the nature of faith, 2. Whether venial sins, peccata venialia, are venial in themselves (ex iiaiurd sud, ex fundamento material^), which the Roman theologians maintain, or in themselves deserve eternal death, but are to Christians on account of their faith forgiven by God, which is the Protestant doctrine. SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. a. The Dcfeclibility of Justification. I. ROMAN, LUTHERAN, AND ARMINIAN. Cone. Trid. sess. vi. cap. 15 : Assercndum est, . . . quocun- que mortali peccato . . . acceptam justificationis gratiain amitti. Cf. can. 23 ; Bellarmin, Juslific. iii. 14 sq. 214 LOSS OF GKACE: MORTAL AND VENIAL SINS. 215 Conf. orth. p. 280 : 'H roiavTr) cTriOufiia (Oavdo-ipov djjidp- Trjfui) ^e^copl^ei, rbv avOpwrrov diro Tr\v %dpiv rov Oeov KOL ovevei rov, d(f>' ov 7r\rjpQ)0y /ie TO ep a?ro TOV XpicrTbv Kal TTjV TrapQivov Maplav fJia Sev /ia<> crrepevet 220 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. OTTO rrjv X^P IV T v @ e t> (M]T pas Ka6vTro/3d\\et, et? rov aiaviov Odvarov. II PROTESTANT. The Protestant counter-statements, which are to be found rather in the writings of the Reformers than in the symbols, 1 are as follows : In the unregenerate there are no venial sins ; and in the regenerate these sins are not in themselves or ex naturd sud venial. Every sin deserves from God eternal death, but for Christ's sake a portion of our sins are forgiven graciously ; that is, those which are consistent with the exist- ence of faith, inasmuch as by faith we are justified. But with faith can coexist only unpremeditated sins: these, therefore, are the pcccata venialia; and the difference between them and peccata mortalia 2 is not in the matter of the sin itself, but in the spirit and thought of the sinner in the formalis qualitas subfcctiva peccantium. Cf. Melanc. Loci, i. 271 ; Chemnic. Ex. i 10 ; Calvin, Institt. il 8, Decl. Tlwrun. 2,3. As to the objection urged against Protestants, that they made all sins equal, vid. Helv. ii 8 ; Calvin, Institt. ii. 8. 58. III. ARMINIAN. The Conf. Bern. vii. 6 gives no exact point of connection here. But the Arminian theologians, although opposed in a certain sense to the Calvinists on the question, by no means agree with the Romanists that venial sins are in themselves, and therefore in the unregenerate, venial. Curcell. Instil, iv. 4. 18 : Animadvertendum est, nullum fingi posse peccatum tarn exiguum, quod deus, si vellet cum hominibus summo jure agere, non posset exclusione e regno ccelorum punire. 20 : Dico, peccata venialia esse leviora ilia, ad quse deus in gratuito suo fcedcre connivere decrevit, etiamsi in ilia subinde per in- 1 Helv. ii. cap. 8 : The distribution into peccata mortalia and venialia occurs only in passing. 2 Luther, Gal. c. v. : Peccatum distinguitur in mortale et veniale, non ob substantiam facti sed personam, non juxta differentiam pcccatorum admissorum sed peccatorum ea committentium. LOSS OF GRACE : MOETAL AND VENIAL SIXS. 221 firmitatem aut incogitantiam labamur et eorum habitum non plane exuerimus ; . . . talibus enim peccatis fideles plerumque in hac vita obnoxios esse testatur scriptura. Cf. a. Limborch, Theol. christ. v. 4. 20 sqq. In entire harmony with this is the positive teaching of Apol. Conf. Eem. on this subject. XIII THE MEANS OF GKACE : THE WORD OF GOD, BOMAXISTS and Protestants agree in regarding as the ordinary means, appointed in the church, through which the grace of God in Christ flows to man, the word of God, as it is pro- claimed in the church or read in the Scriptures, and the sacraments. The Socinians and Mennonites include only the word. The Quakers, even the older Anabaptists, are of opinion that the Holy Ghost enlightens man without the word immediately by an internal light ; every man in this matter having his day of visitation, when this internal light, if rightly used, enables him to apprehend the word of God, which other- wise is only a dead letter. The mutual relations of word and sacrament are not de- finitely treated in the symbols of the Protestant Church. But we must not omit what is found in Conf. Helv. ii c. 19 : Verbum dei habetur instar tabularum vel literarum, sacramenta vero instar sigillorum, qua3 literis deus appendit solus. How far the Eomau Catholic Church exalts the sacraments above the word may be seen in Nitzsch, Stud. 1834, iv. SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. I. EOMAN. The Eoman Catholic symbols speak only by the way of the verbum Dei. The Cat. Bom. calls it cibus animi (iv. 13. 18), and places it by the side of the sacraments (ii. 1. 32). However, this is understood primarily of the preaching of the 222 THE MEANS OF GRACE : THE WOKD OF GOD. 223 word, which in the Cone. Trid. sess. vi. cap. 6 is mentioned only among the preparatory means of conversion ; and in sess. xxiv. cap. 4 is imposed on bishops as a duty adfidelium salutem. The reading of the written word of God is, as observed above, to say thejleast, not favoured by the Eoman Catholic Church. II. PKOTESTANT. A. C. p. 11: Per verbum et sacramenta, tanquam per in- strumenta donatur Spir. s., qui fidem efficit, ubi et quando visum est deo, in iis, qui audiunt evangelium cet. Damnant Anabaptistas et alios, qui sentiunt, Spiritum s. contingere sine verbo. externo hominibus per ipsorum prseparationes et opera. Cf. Apol. A. 0. p. 268. Cat. maj. p. 426 : Dei verbum thesaurus ille et gaza est pretiosissima, quae omnia sanctificat, cujus adminiculo etiam ipsi sancti omnes sanctimoniam consecuti sunt. Jam qua- cunque bora* verbum dei docetur, auditur, legitur, consideratur aut repetitur memoria, ea hujus tractatione audientis persona, dies et opus sanctificatur, non externi quidem operis gratia, sed propter verbum, quo omnes nos sancti reddimur et effi- cimur. /&. p. 502 : Qui (Spiritus s.) quotidie nos divini verbi prsedicatione attrahit et adsciscit fidemque impertit, auget atque corroborat, per verbum illud et remissionem pec- catorum, tit nos . . . prorsus per omnia sanctos faciat, id quod jam per verbum in fide exspectamus. A. Sm. p. 331 : Constanter tenendum est, deum nemini spiritum vel gratiam suam largiri nisi per verbum et cum verbo externo et praecedente, ut ita prsemuniamus nos adver- sum enthusiastas i. e. spiritus, qui jactitant se ante verbum et sine verbo spiritum habere. [P. 333 : Quare in hoc nobis est constanter perseverandum, quod Deus non velit nobiscum aliter agere, nisi per vocale verbum et sacramenta, et quod, quidquid sine verbo et sacramentis jactatur, ut spiritus, sit ipse diabolus. Nam Deus etiam Mosi voluit apparere per rubum ardendum et vocale verbum. Et nullus propheta, sive Elias sive Elisaeus, Spiritum sine Decalogo sive verbo vocali accepit.] F. C. p. 670 : Prsedicatio verbi dei et ejusdem auscultatio 224 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. sunt Sp. s. instrumenta, cum quibus et per quae efficaciter agere et homines ad deum convertere atque in ipsis et velle et perficere operari vult. Cf. p. 671: Per prsedicationem t auditionem verbi deus operatur, emollit corda nostra tra- hitque hominem cet. Etsi autem utrumque, turn conciona- toris plantare et rigare, turn auditoris currere et velle frustra omnino essent neque conversio sequeretur, nisi S. s. virtus et operatic accederet, qui per verbum prsedicatum et auditum corda illuminat et convertit, ut' homines verbo credere et as- sentiri possint: tamen neque concionator neque auditor de hac Sp. s. gratia et operatione dubitare debent. P. 818: Ad conciones itaque sacras miseri peccatores conveniant, ver- bum dei accurata diligentia audiant neque dubitent, quin pater eos ad filium suum sit pertracturus. Spiritus enim sanctus virtute sua ministerio adesse et per illud ad horn, salutem vult operari. Et hie est tractus ille patris, de quo sacras lit. loquuntur. Ib. p. 581 : Eejicimus enthusiastarum errorem, qui fin- gunt, deum immediate absque verbi dei auditu et sine sacra- mentorum usu homines ad se trahere, illuminare, justificare et salvare. Conf. Hdv. ii. cap. 1 : Cum hodie dei verbum per prsedica- tores legitime vocatos annuntiatur in ecclesia, credimus, ipsum dei verbum annuntiari et a fidelibus recipi, neque aliud dei verbum vel fingendum vel ccelitus esse exspectandum. Neque arbitramur, prsedicationern illam externam tanquam inutilem ideo videri, quoniam pendeat institutio verse religionis ab in- terna spiritus illuminatione. Quanquam enim nemo veniat ad Christum, nisi trahatur a patre ccelesti ac intus illuminetur per spiritum, scimus tamen, deum omnino velle prsedicari ver- bum dei, etiam foris. Equidem potuisset per spiritum suum sanctum aut per ministerium angeli absque ministerio sancti Petri instituisse Cornelium in Actis deus, ceterum rejicit hunc nihilominus ad Petrum. Agnoscimus interim, deum illumi- nare posse homines etiam sine externo ministerio, quos et quando velit, id quod ejus potentia3 est. Nos autem loquimur de usitata ratione instituendi homines, et prascepto et exemplo tradita nobis a deo. Cap. 1 8 : Credamus, deum verbo suo nos docere foris per ministros suos, intus autem et commovere electorum suonun corda ad fidem per Spir. s. THE MEANS OF GKACE : THE WORD OF GOD. 225 Conf. Belg. art. 24 : Credinras, veram fidem per auditum verbi del et Sp. sancti operationem homini insitam eum re- generare. Cat. Heid. FT. 65 (Germ.): Whence comes saving faith? It is wrought by the Holy Ghost in our hearts through the preaching of the holy gospel, and He confirms it by the use of the sacraments. Against the enthusiasts or mystics see Calv. Tnstitt. i. 9, on the Word as the means of the Divine Call. Conf. Eemonstr. xvii. 2 : Efficitur et perficitur vocatio per praedicationem evangelii eique adjunctam virtutem Spiritus sancti. 8 : Spiritus s. omnibus et singulis, quibus verbum fidei ordinarie prsedicatur, tantum gratiee confert, aut saltern conferre paratus est, quantum ad fidem ingenerandum et ad promovendum suis gradibus salutarem ipsorum conversionem sufficit. . . . Apol. Conf. p. 1 5 9 b : Verba : quibus verb. . . . prcedica- tur addita sunt a Remonstrantibus, . . . ut significarent, se ex- traordinarias dei vocationes in computum hunc recensere nolle, in quibus fieri potest, ut deus excellentiore et nobiliore aliqua virtute quosdam vocatos dignetur, inpr. eos, quorum opera ad aliorum hominum conversionem uti vult. Cf. Limborch, Thcol. Christ, iv. 13. 20. III. SOCINIAN. As to the Socinian theory, the Cat. Eacov. distinguishes in the conversion of men a duplex auxilium dei: an ext&rius, consisting in the promises and threatenings of the New Testa- ment ; and an interius, when God by His Spirit more and more writes and seals what He promised in the hearts of the faithful. This influence of the Holy Spirit has not only the substance of the divine word for its object and material, but is strictly connected with it. Then comes into view also what the Cat. Eacov., p. 251, says of the perpetual gift of the Spirit : " It is an afflatus of God, by which our minds are filled either with a richer knowledge of divine things, or with a more cer- tain hope of eternal life, and consequently with a joy and relish in the prospect of future blessedness. This hope of eternal life, indeed, we conceive through the preaching of the P 226 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. gospel ; "but it seems to be necessary, in order to implant in the mind a firmer and more certain hope, that the promise ex- ternally set forth in the Gospels should be internally sealed by the Holy Spirit in our hearts." Ostorodt, Unterricht. c. 34, expressly declares that this ordinary and regular influence of the Divine Spirit does not exclude one that is extraordinary on individual men. In the Confessions of the Mennonites there are no express clauses touching the word of God as the means of grace. But this Conf, 20, says of faith that it is "a most certain appre- hension and knowledge derived by the grace of God from the Holy Scriptures." IV. ARMINIAN. The symbolical books do not enter into particulars as to the connection between the word of God and the divine energy. Against the Predestinarians, who distinguish between the power of the Holy Ghost as only operative in the elect, and the word of God, in fact separating off that power as a specific element (see Calvin, Institt. iv. 14. 10), Arminianism maintains an inseparable union between the influence of the Spirit and the divine word. Limborch, Theol. clirist. iv. 12 : Externa vocatio dei fit per externum dei verbum vel ore prolatum vel scripto traditum. . . . Interna vocatio est, quse fit per spir. dei, qui in corda hominum influens ea movet, excitat et exstimulat, ut vocation! externae per verbum factae obtemperent. Hoec autem int. vocatio non est virtus sp. seorsim operans a verbo, sed per verbum et verbo semper inest, adeo ut revera una eadeinque sit vocatio, sed quse secundum diversos respectus vocatur ex- terna et interna. Quia enim spir. nunquam operatur absque verbo neque verbum unquam destitutum est spiritu, hinc qui verbo vocantur, etiam spiritu, quantum ad conversionem et fidem sufficit, donantur. . . . Non dicimus duas esse (verbi et spiritus) actiones specie distinctas, sed unam eandemque ac- tionem, quoniam verbum est spiritus, h. e. spiritus verbo inest verbumque propterea spiritualem nos convertendi vim habet. Et quaecunque hie sit spiritus actio, ea alia non esse videtur, quam sensus ex verbo percepti validior in mente hominis im- THE MEANS OF GRACE : THE WORD OF GOD. 227 pressio, quo et de officio suo et magnitudine ac certitudine divinorum promissorum plenius persuasus excitatur ad fidem et perpetuum sanctimonias studium. Similarly, the older Lutheran theologians, and with the same true instinct, main- tained Spiritum sanctum cum verbo dei indivulse conjunctum esse. Law and Gospel. The Protestant symbols, noting the manner and process of individual renewal as effected through the instrumentality of the word of God, not only distinguish between the two con- stituents of the divine word, commandments and promises, terming the former as a whole the Law, 1 and the latter the Gospel, 2 but they also define the influence which each exerts on conversion, and the value which the law as such has for the regenerate, a point to which the Lutheran divines were directed by the antinomistic controversies. I. PROTESTANT. Apol. A. C. p. 6 : Universa scriptura in hos duos locos prsecipuos distribui debet, in legem et promissiones. Alias enim legem tradit, alias tradit promissionem de Christo, vide- licet, cum aut promittit Christum venturum esse et pollicetur propter eum remissionem peccatorum, justificationem et vitam seternam, aut in evangelio Christus, postquam apparuit, pro- mittit remissionem peccatorum, justificationem et vitam seter- nam. Vocamus autem legem in hac disputatione decalogi 1 The foundation of the law, the substance and compend of the divine com- mandments, is the Decalogue : Apol. A. C. 60 ; Helv. ii. c. 12. As to the division of this into ten precepts, there was between the Lutherans and the Re- formed (Calvin, Inslltt. ii. 8) the same difference as that between the Roman and the Greek Churches. This has been expressed in the symbolical catechisms. Against the Roman and Lutheran distribution there is a circumstantial protest in Cat. Hac. p. 176. 2 This is the distinction which has been predominant, and has entered into the symbols. It is scarcely of any moment that Luther in the Greater Catechism says prcecepta et fides instead of lex et evangelium ; and the designation lex for the whole of the Old Testament is peculiar to the Artt. Smalc. p. 318. 228 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. praecepta, ubicunque ilia in scripturis leguntur ; de ceremoniis et judicialibus legibus Moisi in praesentia nihil loquimur. Ib. p. 170 : Haac sunt duo praacipua opera del in homini- bus, perterrefacere et justificare ac vivificare perterrefactos. In haac duo opera distributa est universa scriptura. Altera pars lex est, quaa ostendit, arguit et condemnat peccata. Altera pars evangelium, hoc est promissio gratiaa in Christo donataa, et haac promissio subinde repetitur in tota scriptura, primum tradita Adse postea patriarchis, deinde a prophetis illustrata, postremo prsedicata et exhibita a Christo inter Judaaos, et ab apostolis sparsa in totum mundum. Cf. pp. 68, 166. 1 A. Sm. p. 319 sq: Praacipuum officium et evepyeia legis est, ut peccatum originale et omnes fructus ejus revelet et homini ostendat, quam horrendum in modum natura ejus lapsa sit et funditus ac totaliter depravata, ita ut lex ei dicat, hoini- nem nee habere nee curare deum et adorare alienos deos, id quod antea et sine lege homo non credidisset. Hac ratione perterrefit, humiliatur, prosternitur, desperat de se ipso, et anxie desiderat auxiliuni nee scit, quod fugiat, incipit irasci deo et obmurmurare prae impatientia. Hoc officium legis retinetur in N. T., et in eo exercetur. Huic officio Novum Test, statim adjungit consolationem et promissionem gratiae evangelii, cui credendum est. F. C. p. 592 : Credimus, legem esse proprie doctrinam divinitus revelatam, quaa doceat, quid justum deoque gratum flit; quaa etiam quicquid peccatum est et voluntati divinaa adversatur, redarguat. . . . Quare, quicquid exstat in sacris literis, quod peccata arguit, id revera ad legis concionem per- tinet. Evangelion vero proprie doctrinam esse censemus, quaa doceat, quid homo credere debeat, qui legi dei non satisfecit et idcirco per eandem damnatur, videlicet, quod ilium credere oporteat, Jesum Christum omnia peccata expiasse atque pro iis satisfecisse et remissionem peccatorum, justitiam coram deo consistentem et vitam aaternam, nullo interveniente peccatoris illius merito, impetrasse. . . . Cum autem vocabulum (evan- gelii) non semper in una eademque significatione in sacra 1 It is no contradiction, only another phraseology, when, Apol. p. 71, the Evangelium is said arguere peccata. But this confession, which in the Conf. Aug. is repeated, gare occasion for suspicion as to the changed text of the Conf. THE MEANS OF GKACE : THE WOED OF GOD. 229 scriptura usurpetur, docemus et confitemur, si vocabulum (evangelii) de tota Christ! doctrina accipiatur, quam ipse in ministerio suo (quemadmodum et ejus apostoli) professus est (in qua significations Mrc. i. [15] et Act. xx. 24 vox ilia usurpatur) recte dici et doceri, evangelium esse concionem de poenitentia et remissione peccatorum. II). p. 593: Etsi concio ilia de passione et morte Christi, filii dei, severitatis et terroris plena est, quse iram dei adver- sus peccata ostendit, unde demum homines ad legem dei pro- pius adducuntur, postquam velum illud Moisis ablatum est, ut tandem exacte agnoscant, quanta videlicet dominus in lege sua a nobis exigat, quorum nihil nos praestare possumus, ita ut universam nostram justitiam in solo Christo quserere opor- teat : tamen, quam diu nobis Christi passio et mors iram dei ob oculos ponunt et hominem perterrefaciunt, tarn diu non sunt proprie concio evangelii, sed legis et Moisis doctrina, et sunt alienum opus Christi, per quod accedit ad proprium suum officium, quod est, prsedicare de gratia dei, consolari et vivifi- care. Hsec propria sunt pKedicationis evangelicae. IT), p. 595 : Credimus, etsi vere in Christum credentes et sincere ad deum conversi a maledictione et coactione legis per Christum liberati sunt, quod ii tamen propterea non sint absque lege, quippe quos films dei earn ob causam redemit, ut legem dei diu noctuque meditentur atque in ejus observations sese assidue exerceant. . . . Credimus, concionem legis non niodo apud eos, qui fidem in Christum non habent et pceniten- tiam nondum agunt, sed etiam apud eos, qui vere in Christum credunt, vere ad deum conversi et renati et per fidem justifi- cati sunt, sedulo urgendam esse. . . . Etsi enim renati et spiritu mentis suse renovati sunt, tamen regeneratio ilia et renovatio in hac vita non est omnibus numeris absoluta, sed duntaxat inchoata. Et credentes illi spiritu mentis suse per- petuo luctantur cum carne, hoc est cum corrupta" natura, quse in nobis ad mortem usque hseret. Et propter veterem Ada- mum, qui adhuc in hominis intellectu, voluntate et in omni- bus viribus ejus infixus residet, opus est, ut homini lex dei semper prseluceat, ne quid privates devotionis affectu in negotio religionis confingat et cultus divinos verbo dei non institutes eligat ; item, ne vetus Adam pro suo ingenio agat, sed potius 230 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. contra suam voluntatem, non modo admonitionibus et minis legis, vemm etiam pcenis et plagis coerceatur, ut spiritui obse- quatur seque ipsi captivnm tradat. Ib. p. 596 : Ad hunc modum una eademque lex est manet- que, immota videlicet del voluntas, sive pcenitentibus sive im- pcenitentibus, renatis aut non renatis proponatur. Discrimen autem, quoad obedientiam, duntaxat in hominibns est : quorum alii non renati legi obedientiam qualemcunque a lege requisitam prsestant, sed coacti et inviti id faciunt (sicut etiam renati faciunt, quatenus adhuc carnales sunt) ; credentes vero in Christum, quatenus renati sunt, absque coactione, libero et spontaneo spiritu talem obedientiam prsestant, qualem alias nullse quantumvis severissimse legis comminationes extorquere possent Conf. Helv. ii c. 13 : Evangelium opponitur legi. Nam lex iram operatur et maledictionem annuntiat, evangelium vero gratiam et benedictionem prsedicat. Quamvis patres nostri in scripturis prophetarum habuerint evangelium, per quod et salutem in Christo per fidem consecuti sunt, evan- gelium tamen proprie illud dicitur laetum et felix nuntium, quo nobis primum per Joannem baptistam, deinde per ipsum Christum dominum, postea per apostolos ejus apostolorumque successores prsedicatum est, mundo deum jam preestitisse, quod ab exordio mundi promisit, ac misisse, imo donavisse nobis filniTn unicum, et in hoc reconciliationem cum patre, remis- sionem peccatorum, omnem plenitudinem et vitam seternam. Historia ergo descripta a quatuor evangelistis, explicans quo- modo hsec sint facto vel adimpleta a Christo, quse docuerit et fecerit Christus, et quod in ipso credentes omnem habent pleni- tudinem, recte nuncupatur evangelium. Prsedicatio item et scriptura apostolica, qua nobis exponunt apostoli, quomodo nobis a patre datus sit films et in hoc vitae salutisque omnia, recte dicitur doctrina evangelica, sic ut ne hodie quidem, si sincera sit, appellationem tarn prseclaram amittat. /&. 12 : Docemus, legem non datam esse hominibus, ut ejus justificen- tur observatione, sed ut ejus judicio infirmitatem potius, pecca- tum atque condemnationem agnoscamus, et de viribus nostris desperantes, convertamur ad Christum in fide. Hactenus itaque abrogata est lex dei, quatenus nos amplius non damnat, THE MEANS OF GRACE : THE WOKD OF GOD. 231 nec iram in nobis operatur. Sumus enim sub grati&, et non sub lege. Attamen legem non ideo fastidientes rejicimus. Meminimus enim verborum domini discentis : non veni legem et prophetas solvere, sed implere (Mt. v. 17). Scimus, lege nobis tradi formulas virtutum atque vitiorum ; scimus, scrip- turam legis, si exponatur per evangelium, eeclesise esse utilem, et idcirco ejus lectionem non exterminandam esse ex ecclesia. Gonf. Gall. art. 23 : Credimus, omnes legis figuras adventu Jesu Christi sublatas esse, quamvis earum veritas et substantia nobis in eo constet, in quo sunt omnes impletae. Legis tamen doctrina et prophetis nobis utendum est, turn ad vitam nostram formandam, turn ut eo magis in promissionibus evangelicis confirmemur. Similarly Gonf. Belg. art. 25. Conf. Hungar. (Czenger.) p. 157: Lex ad peccata arguenda et evangelium propter annunciandam remissionem peccatorum prsedicandum est. Neque enim pcenitentia pnedicari potest neque peccata argui possunt sine lege. Compare, as to the use and obligation of the Mosaic law for Christians, Calvin, Institt. ii. 7. 14; Tliirty-nine Artt. vii Why the Predestinarians do not will- ingly term the gospel a law, is shown in the Apol. Conf. Rem. p. 143. II. SOCINIANS. The Socinians, who regard Judaism, like Christianity, as a legislation based on divine promises, might, like the Protes- tants generally, have distinguished their whole Bible into law and gospel ; but they would not have placed the promises on the same line with the commandments, and therefore used the terms law and gospel for the Old and New Testaments respec- tively. So also the Arminians: Curcell. Bel. ch. inst. v. 16 ; Limborch, Th. ch. iii. 17. Among the Eomanists, Bellarmine, Justif. iv. 2, in order to maintain the necessity of good works to salvation, declares himself against the Protestant distinction between law and gospel, and seeks (cap. 3 and 4) to give another definition of these ideas. On the other hand, Plato, Catech. S. 49, joins the Protestants here. XIV. SACKAMENTS GENEEALLY. FIRST POINT OF DIVERGENCE. WITH the sole exception of the Quakers, who are opposed to externality in religion, referring all to the life of the spirit, and its only source the internal light, Christian communities celebrate certain holy ordinances appointed by Christ Him- self. But they differ as to the design of these institutions : while the Romanists, Greeks, and the greater portion of Pro- testants, regard them as means of grace, 1 the Arminians, Mennonites, and some other Protestant communities, join the Socinians in giving up the notion that they are directly such. The older Socinians discerned in the sacraments, which they preferred to call cerimonice, only external acts (prcecepta ceri- monialia Christi), which primarily betoken a profession of the Christian faith: the Christian man not receiving aught in them, but rather doing something himself. The Arminians and others, on the contrary, regard the sacraments as sacred signs of Christian profession, and of grace promised by God ; which signs as such exert a moral influence on the mind. The Zwinglians teach in harmony with the Socinians. SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. I. QUAKER. The Quakers reject both the idea and the name of sacra- ments. Barclay, Apol. Prop, xii., declares that the Scripture 1 As signs of profession, they are by these still regarded ; but this end is sub- ordinate to their use as means of grace. 232 SACRAMENTS GENERALLY. 233 names nothing the signature and pledge of our gospel inherit- ance save the Spirit of God. Compare their Catechism, where the baptism of Christ is distinguished from the water- baptism of John as a baptism of the Holy Ghost ; and the Lord's Supper is said, with allusion to Eom. xiv. 17, Col. ii. 16-22, not to have been designed for perpetual observ- ance. Barclay, Apol. Prop, xii : As there is one Lord, and one Faith, so there is one Baptism ; which is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience before God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And this baptism is a pure and spiritual thing, to wit, the baptism of the Spirit and fire, by which we are buried with Him, that, being washed and purged from our sins, we may walk in new- ness of life. Comm. sec. 6 : But to make water-baptism a necessary institution of the Christian religion, which is pure and spiritual, and not carnal and ceremonial, is to derogate from the new covenant dispensation, and set up the legal rites and ceremonies, of which this of baptism, or washing with water, was one. Prop. xiii. on the Eucharist : The communion of the body and blood of Christ is inward and spiritual, which is the par- ticipation of His flesh and blood, by which the inward man is daily nourished in the hearts of those in whom Christ dwells. Of which things the breaking of bread by Christ with His disciples was a figure, which even they who had received the substance used in the church for a time, for the sake of the weak; even as abstaining from things strangled and from blood, the washing one another's feet, and the anointing of the sick with oil: all which are commanded with no less authority and solemnity than the former [Baptism and the Lord's Supper]; yet, seeing they are but shadows of better things, they cease in such as have obtained the inheritance. Comm. sec. 3 : So that the Supper of the Lord, and the supping with the Lord, and partaking of His flesh and blood, is no ways limited to the ceremony of breaking bread and drinking wine at particular times, but is truly and really enjoyed as often as the soul retires into the light of the Lord, and feels and partakes of that heavenly life by which the 234 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. inward man is nourished ; which may be and is often witnessed by the faithful at all times. II. ROMAN, GREEK, AND LUTHERAN. Cone. Trident, sess. 7 : Sacramenta per quae omnis vera justitia vel incipit vel ccepta augetur vel amissa reparatur. Cat. Bom. ii. 1. 11 : Ut explicatius quid sacramentum sit declaretur, docendum erit, rem esse sensibus subjectam, quae ex dei institutione sanctitatis et justitiae turn significandae turn efficiendse vim habet : ex quo sequitur, ut facile quivis possit intelligere, imagines sanctorum, cruces et alia id genus, quamvis sacrarum rerum signa sint, non ideo tamen sacramenta dicenda esse. Conf. orthod. p. 155: To (jLvo-rijpiov (Sacrament) elvai pLa re\err) 97 OTTOIO, dirofcdra) el$ KCLTTOLOV elSo? -oparbv eivat air la Kai epei et9 TTJV ^rv^rjv rov Triarov rrjv doparov %dpiv rov 0eov' Stara%6ev VTTO rov Kvptov vfjuav, Bi ov eooro5 rwv martav rrjv Beiav %apiv \ajif3dvet. A. C. [P. 11 : Per verbum et sacramenta, tanquam per instrumenta, donatur Spiritus sanctus, qui fidem efficit, ubi et quando visum est Deo, in iis, qui audiunt evangelium.] P. 13 : Sacramenta instituta sunt, non modo ut sint notae professions inter homines, sed magis ut sint signa et testimonia voluntatis dei erga nos ad excitandum et confirmandam fidem in his, qui utuntur, proposita. Apol. A. C. -p. 200 : Sacramenta vocamus ritus, qui habent mandatum dei et quibus addita est promissio gratiae. Ib. p. 253 : Sacramentum est cerimonia vel opus, in quo deus nobis exhibet hoc, quod offert annexa cerimoniae promissio. Cf. p. 267. > III. REFORMED. Conf. Hefo. i art. 20 : Asserimus, sacramenta non solum tesseras quasdam societatis chr., sed et gratiae div. symbola esse, quibus ministri domino ad eum finem, quern ipse pro- mittit, offert et efficit, co-operentur. Conf. Helv. ii c. 19: Sunt sacramenta symbola mystica vel SACKAMENTS GENEKALLY. 235 ritus sancti aut sacrse actiones a deo ipso institute, constantes verbo suo, signis et rebus significatis, quibus in ecclesia summa sua beneficia homini exhibita retinet in memoril et subinde renovat, quibus item promissiones suas obsignat et quse ipse nobis interius prsestat, exterius reprsesentat ac veluti oculis contemplanda subjicit, adeoque fidem nostram, spiritu dei in cordibus nostris operante, roborat et auget: quibus denique nos ab omnibus aliis populis et religionibus separat sibique soli consecrat et obligat, et quid a nobis requirat, significat. Sacr. sunt rerum sacrarum symbola mystica, et signa et res significatse inter se sacramentaliter conjunguntur, conjunguntur, inquam, vel uniuntur per significationem mysticam et volun- tatem vel consilium ejus, qui sacramenta instituit. Thirty-nine Artt. art. xxv. : Sacraments ordained of Christ be not only badges or tokens of Christian men's profession, but rather they be certain sure witnesses and effectual signs of grace, and God's goodwill towards us, by the which He doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm our faith in Him. Conf. Scot. art. 21 : (Confitemur) sacramenta . . . non tantum visibiliter inter populum dei et eos qui extra fcedus sunt, distinguere, sed etiam fidem suorum filiorum exercere ; et participationem eorundem sacramentorum in illorum cordi- bus certitudinem promissionis ejus et felicissimee illius con- junctionis, unionis et societatis, quam electi cum Ch. habent, obsignare. West. Conf. ch. xxvii. sec. 1 : Sacraments are holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace, immediately instituted by God, to represent Christ and His benefits, and to confirm our interest in Him ; as also to put a visible difference between those that belong unto the church and the rest of the world ; and solemnly to engage them to the service of God in Christ, according to His word. Sec. 2 : There is in every sacrament a spiritual relation, or sacramental union, between the sign and the thing signified; whence it comes to pass, that the names and effects of the one are attributed to the other. Conf. Gall. art. 34: Credimus, adjuncta esse verbo sacra- menta amplioris confirmationis causa, gratise dei nimirum pignora et tesseras, quibus infirmse et rudi fidei nostrse sub- 236 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. veniatur. Fatemur enim, talia esse signa hsec exteriora, ut deus per ilia sancti sui spiritus virtute operetur, ne quidquam ibi frustra nobis significetur. [Conf. Belgica, art. xxxiii.: Sunt sacramenta signa ac sym- bola visibilia rerum internamm et invisibilium, per quae ceu per media, Deus ipse virtute Spiritus sancti in nobis ope- ratur.] Heidelb. Cat. Fr. 66 : Sacraments are visible, sacred signs and seals appointed of God, that in their use we may have the promise of the gospel made clearer and sealed : to wit, that God for the sake of the one oblation of Christ bestows on us forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Catecli. Genev. p. 519 : Sacramentum est externa divinse erga nos benevolentise testificatio, quse visibili signo spirituales gratias figurat ad obsignandas cordibus nostris dei promissiones, quo earum virtus melius confirmetur. Vim et efficaciam sacramenti non in externo elemento inclusam esse existimas, sed totam a spiritu dei manare ? Sic sentio, nempe, ut vir- tutem suam exercere domino placuerit per sua organa, quern in finem ea destinavit. Observations. [The older Reformed Confessions, which were drawn up by Zwingli, teach in another strain. Zwingli, Fid. Ratio ad Car. Rom. imper. No. vii. : Credo, imo scio, omnia sacramenta tarn abesse, ut gratiam con- ferant, ut ne adferant quidem aut dispensent. See Niemeyer, Coll. S. 24. The doctrine afterwards taught, under the influence of Calvin, may be summed under the following heads :] 1. They are Symbola mystica. 2. They are signs of His grace, instituted of God: conse- quently more than mere moral remembrances of the heavenly, bring- ing it near, for these the church itself could have ordained. 3. They are signs of that which the Holy Ghost inwardly effects : sign and operation coincide, although in an incomprehensible manner (Conf. Belg. art. 35) ; indeed, according to Helv. ii., the symbola et res significatae are sacramentaliter united by God. The Decl. Thorun. ii. 6 speaks of their gratiam exhibere mediantibus illis signis, and of a vera et infallibilis rerum promissarum modo ipsis convenient! et pro- prio exhibitio. The Conf. Gall. art. 37, however, says : deum nobis reipsa i. e. vere et efficaciter donare, quidquid sacramentaliter figurat ac proinde cum signis conjungimus veram possessionem ac fruitionem ejus rei, quae ibi nobis offertur. Add to this what the Conf. Helv. ii. SACRAMENTS GENERALLY. 237 says : sacramenta verbo, signis et rebus significatis constantia manent vera et Integra sacramenta, non tantum significantia res sacras sed deo offerente etiam res significatas, tametsi increduli res oblatas noa percipiant. 1. Although the sacraments are to the Roman as to the Evangelical means of grace, there is much difference in their respective views of the special grace which they are the means of imparting. The Evan- gelical Church teaches that the grace of the forgiveness of sins is presented through the sacraments ; also that their effect is that of quickening and strengthening faith (Apol. C. A. p. 200 ; Helv. ii. c. 19). The Roman Catholic Church, on the other hand, regards sacra- ments generally as channels through which sanctifying and saving grace in its rich and manifold diversity flows: we have only to think of the altar, penance, marriage, orders ! The Council of Trent says, sess. vii. can. 5, de sacr. : Si quis dixerit, sacramenta propter solam fidem nutriendam instituta fuisse, anathema sit. For the posi- tive side, see Cat Rom. ii. 1. 11 and 14; Bellarmine, de sacr. ii. 2; Becani Manuale controv. i. 173. Thus it appears how much the Roman Church has misinterpreted the Protestant faith, in making it teach only that the sacraments were intended for the strengthening of faith. 2. The symbols do not dwell at length on the relation between the operation of grace in the sacraments and the sacramental elements themselves. But in the Reformed Confessions, the Holy Ghost, who makes that real in the heart which the elements figure, is not indis- tinctly described as an independent power, which however is strictly connected through the sacramental institution with the external rite ; and that which is laid down in Calv. Instil, iv. 14 is stated in them without controversy. Luther gives a closer internal connection between water in baptism and the word of God in Cat. maj. 538, 539 : By the word the baptismal water first becomes a sacrament and means of grace. And this doctrine, as the opposite of a virtus Sp. . extrin- secus accedens, as the Reformed view is characterized, is accepted heartily by Chemnitz, Gerhard, and others. IV. SOCINIAN. For the Socinian doctrines, see on Baptism and the Supper. We remark here only : 1. According to the fundamental prin- ciples of Socinus on "baptism, as laid down in his treatise de laptismo aqiice, the Cat. Racov. introduced in the first edition only one prseceptum Christi caerimoniale, that is, the Supper, and baptism was treated only as an appendage, and in a 238 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. negative way. But when the Socinians afterwards sought to conform more to the leading Confessions in respect to baptism, it was discussed as a second ceremonial commandment ; hence in the second edition (1644) we read: Actus extend religiosi sui ritus sacri in eccl. Ch. semper ususrpati sunt baptismus et fractio panis. And baptism takes the precedence. So also, in the Confess, p. 24, Baptism and the Supper are reckoned together among the res sanctae, quarum communionem habere quisque debet. 2. Socinus declares against the expression sacrament as unbiblical. 3. The Summa theol. Unit, iii 8 enlarges the sacramental idea in the Arminian way, defin- ing sacraments thus : Mutuae inter deum ac homines sacrse confoederationis tesserae; non enim sunt tantum testimonia obedientiae christ., sed etiam gratiae div. in nos collates et conferendae signa. V. AEMINIAN. Conf. Remonstr. xxiii. 1 : Sacramenta cum dicimus, ex- ternas ecclesiae caeremonias seu ritus illos sacros ac solennes intelligimus, quibus veluti fcederalibus signis ac sigillis visibi- lius deus gratiosa beneficia sua in foedere praesertim evangelico promissa non modo nobis repreesentat et adumbrat, sed et certo modo exhibet atque obsignat, nosque vicissim palam publice- que declaramus ac testamur, nos promissiones omnes divinas ver&, firma atque obsequiosa fide amplecti et beneficia ipsius jugi, et grata semper memoria celebrare velle. Cf. ApoL Con- fess, p. 245, b. limborch, Theol. chr. v. 66. 31 : Eestat, ut dicamus, deum gratiam suam per sacramenta nobis exhibere, non earn actu per ilia conferendo sed per ilia tanquam signa clara et evi- dentia earn reprsesentando et ob oculos ponendo . . . tanquam praesentem, ut ita in signis istis tanquam in speculo quodam exhibitionem illam gratiae, quam deus nobis concessit, quasi eonspiciamus. Estque haec efficacia nulla alia, quam objectiva, quae requirit facultatem cognitivam rite dispositam, ut appre- hendere possit illud, quod signum objective menti offert. Operantur in nobis tanquam signa repraesentantia menti nostrae rem, cujus signa sunt. Neque alia in illis quseri debet em- SACEAMENTS GENERALLY. 239 cacia. Sic sacramentum confirmat fidem, quia magis persuadet, veram esse promissionem, cui confirmandae comparatum est, quia sigilli instar eat, quo deus promissum suum verbo testa- turn visibili quodam signo confirmat nosque certos reddit, se nos fcedere suo comprehendisse, seque a sua parte promissis staturum, si nos officio nostro non desimus. Nam licet in. sacramento res, quse promittitur, futura spectetur, promissum tamen est prsesens, et res futura ita spectatur, ut sacramentum ferme earn repraesentet. (In 29 L. had refuted the dogma of a spirituals perceptio rerum ipsarum.) Eis, Conf. art. 3 : Sacramenta sunt externse visibilesque actiones et signa immensae benignitatis dei erga nos, nobis ex parte dei ob oculos ponentia internam spiritualemque actionem, quam deus per Christum exsequitur regenerando, justificando, spiritualiter nutriendo. Nos vero quod attinet, iisdem confitemur religionem, pcenitentiam, fidem et obedien- tiam nostram. The Feet-washing. The Mennonites placed by the side of the sacraments, as a holy usage prescribed by Christ, the washing of the feet. Vide Conf. der Friesen u. Deutscli. art. 13 and Cornelis, BeJcenntn. art. 11. In the former passage the feet- washing is .only in a distant manner indicated, as in refer- ence to the communion of believers. But it is well known that the Frisian or rigid Mennonites practised this mutual feet-washing. SECOND POINT OF DIVEEGENCE. The Eoman Church, like the Greek, reckons seven sacra- ments : that is, baptism, confirmation, eucharist, penance, ex- treme unction, orders, marriage. The Protestant Church, including all parties, admit only two : baptism and the holy supper. But the Eoman Church does not attribute an equal dignity to all the seven. 240 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. SYMBOLICAL REFERENCES. I. ROMAN AND GREEK. Cone. Trid. sess. 7. sacram. can. 1 : Si quis dixerit, sacra- menta novse legis . . . esse plura vel pauciora quam septem (videlicet baptismum, confirmationem, eucharistiam, pceniten- tiam, extreman unctionem, ordinem et matrimonium), aut etiam aliquod homm septem non esse vere et proprie sacramentum : anathema sit. Cat. Rom. ii. 1. 20 : CUT neque plura neque pauciora (sacra- menta) numerentur, ex iis etiam rebus, quae per similitudi- nem a naturali vitS, ad spiritualem transferuntur, probabili quadam ratione ostendi poterit. Homini enim ad vivendum vitamque conservandam et ex sua reique publicse utilitate tra- ducendam haec septem necessaria videntur, ut scilicet in lucem edatur, augeatur, alatur, si in morbum incidat, sanetur, imbe- cillitas virium reficiatur ; deinde, quod ad rempublicam attinet, ut magistratus nunquam desint, quorum auctoritate et imperio regatur, ac postremo legitima sobolis propagatione seipsum et humanum genus conservet. Quse omnia quoniam vitee illi, qua animo deo vivit, respondere satis apparet, ex iis facile sacramentorum numerus colligetur. Conf. orthod. p. 154: 'E-jrra fjLvcrrrjpia T>}- pt%i. Atari 7rprov o~LK(bvei o\a ra apaprtffiara, et? //,/ TO. /3per) TO vrpOTraropiKov, ei? Se TOU? peyaXovs Kal TO TrpoTrar. Kal TO TrpoaiperiKov Sevrepov o dv0pa)7ro<; avaKaivi&rai, Kal aTroKaOicrrarai els TTJV SiKaiaxriv eKeivyv, OTTOV el^ev orav JJTOV aO&os KOI dvapdpTijTos. . . . cTreira ol fyi'vovvrat ^\t) TOV eoafuiTos rov Xptcrrov Kal rbv Kvpiov Cf. Jerem. in Act. Wirtemb. p. 248. Luth. Cat. min. p. 376 : Baptismus operatur remissionem peccatorum, liberat a morte et a diabolo et donat seternam beatitudinem omnibus et singulis, qui credunt hoc, quod verba et promissiones divinae pollicentur. Cat. maj. p. 543 : . . . quaecunqtie baptismo promittuntur et offeruntur, \dcto- ria nempe mortis ac diaboli, remissio peccatomm, gratia del, Christus cum omnibus suis operibus et Sp. sanctus c. omnibus suis dotibus. Conf. Helv. il cap. 20 : Nascimur omnes in peccatorum sordibus et sumus filii irae ; deus autem purgat nos a peccatis gratuito per sanguinem filii sui et in hoc adoptat nos in filios . . . et variis donis ditat, ut possimus novam vivere vitam. Obsignantur haec omnia baptismo; nam intus regeneramur, purificamur et renovamur a deo per Spiritum sanctum, foris autem accipimus obsignationem maximorum donorum in aqua, qua etiam maxima ilia beneficia repraesentantur et veluti oculis nostris conspicienda proponuntur. TJiirty-nine Artt. art. xxviL : Baptism is not only a sign of profession, and mark of difference, whereby Christian men are decerned from others that be not christened ; but it is also a sign of regeneration or new birth, whereby, as by an instru- ment, they that receive baptism rightly are grafted into the church ; the promises of forgiveness of sin, and of our adop- tion to be the sons of God by the Holy Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed ; faith is confirmed, and grace increased by virtue of prayer unto God. The baptism of young children is in any wise to be retained in the church, as most agreeable with the institution of Christ. West. Conf. ch. xxviii sec. 1 : Baptism is a sacrament of BAPTISM:. 255 the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible church, but also to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remis- sion of sins, and of his giving up unto God through Jesus Christ, to walk in newness of life ; which sacrament is, by Christ's own appointment, to be continued in His church until the end of the world. Sec. 2: The outward element to be used in this sacrament is water, wherewith the party is to be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, by a minister of the gospel, lawfully called thereunto. Sec. 3: Dipping of the person into the water is not necessary ; but baptism is rightly administered by pouring or sprinkling water upon the person. Conf. Gall. art. 35 : Baptismus nobis testificandse nostne adoptioni datus, quoniam in eo inserimur Christi corpori, ut ejus sanguine abluti simul etiam ipsius spiritu ad vitae sancti- moniam renovemur. Catech. Genev. p. 522 : Baptismi significatio duas partes habet. Nam ibi remissio peccatorum, deinde spirituals re- generatio figuratur. . . . Annon aliud aquae tribuis, nisi ut ablutionis tantum sit figura ? Sic figuram esse sentio, ut simul annexa sit veritas. Neque enim sua nobis dona polli- cendo nos deus frustratur. Proinde et peccatorum veniam et vitae novitatem offerri nobis in baptismo et recipi a nobis, certum est. Cf. Catech. Heidelb. Fr. 69ff.; Declar. Thonm. p. 61. THIED POINT OF DFVEKGENCE. From the foregoing it will be assumed that the Eomanists, Greeks, and most Protestants hold baptism necessary, that is, generally necessary to salvation. On that account they teach that even the children of Christians must be baptized. The Anabaptists and Mennonites entirely deny this, however ; while the Arminians and Socinians hold it to be matter of indifference, not necessary, but permissible and decent. 256 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. I. ROMISH. Cone. Trid. sess. v. 4 : Si quis parvulos recentes ab uteris matrum baptizandos negat, etiamsi fuerint a baptizatis parenti- bus orti, aut dicit, in remissionem quidem peccatorum eos baptizari, sed nihil ex Adam trahere originalis peccati, quod regenerationis lavacro necesse sit expiari ad vitam seternam consequendam, unde fit consequens, ut in iis forma baptismatis in remissionem peccatorum non vera sed falsa intelligatur, anathema sit. /&. sess. vii can. 5 : Si quis dixerit, baptismum liberum esse, hoc est non necessarium ad salutem, anathema sit- Can. 1 2 : Si quis dixerit, neminem esse baptizandum, nisi ea cetate qua Christus baptizatus est, vel in ipso mortis articulo, anath. sit. Can. 13 : Si quis dixerit, parvulos eo quod actum credendi non habent, suscepto baptismo inter fideles compu- tandos non esse, ac propterea, cum ad annos discretionis pervenerint, esse rebaptizandos, aut praestare omitti eorum baptisma, quam eos non actu proprio credentes baptizari in sola fide ecclesiae, anath. sit. Cat. Bom. ii 2. 31 : Doceantur (fideles), omnibus homini- bus baptismi legem a domino praescriptam esse, ita ut, nisi per baptismi gratiam deo renascantur, in sempiternam miseriam et interitum a parentibus, sive illi fideles sive infideles sint, procreentur. II. ii. 2. 33 : Non dubitare licet, quin infantes fidei sacra- menta, cum abluuntur, accipiant : non quia mentis suse assen- sione credant, sed quia parentum fide, si parentes fideles fuerint, sin mi mis, fide, (ut d. Augustini verbis loquamur), universes societatis sanctomm muniuntur. Etenim ab iis omnibus recte dicimus eos baptismo offerri, quibus placet, ut offerantur, et quorum caritate ad communionem sancti Spiritus adjunguntur. II PROTESTANT. A. C. p. 12 : De baptismo decent, quod sit necessarius ad BAPTISM. 257 salutem, . . . et quod pueri sint baptizandi, qui per baptismum oblati deo recipiantur in gratiam del. Apol. A. G. p. 156: Certissimum est, quod promissio salutis pertinet etiam ad parvulos. . . . Igitur necesse est baptizare parvulos, ut applicetur iis promissio salutis, . . . quia salus cum baptismo offertur. A. Sm. p. 329 : De psedobaptismo docemus, infantes esse baptizandos. Pertinent enim ad promissam redemtionem per Christum factam, et ecclesia debet illis baptismum et promis- sionis illius annunciationem. Conf. Helv. ii c. 20 : Damnamus Anabaptistas, qui negant baptizandos esse infantulos recens natos a fidelibus. Nam juxta doctrinam evang. horum est regnum dei et sunt in fcedere dei, cur itaque non daretur iis signum fcederis dei ? Conf. Gall. art. 35 : Quamvis bapt. sit fidei et resipiscentise sacramentum, tamen cum una cum parentibus posteritatem etiam illorum in ecclesia deus recenseat, affirmamus, infantes sanctis parentibus natos esse ex Chr. auctoritate baptizandos. Thirty-nine Artt. art. 27 : Baptism is not only a sign of profession and mark of difference, whereby Christian men are discerned from others that be not christened, but it is also a sign of regeneration, or new birth, whereby, as by an instru- ment, they that receive baptism rightly are grafted into the church; the promises of forgiveness of sin, and of our adoption to be the sons of God by the Holy Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed ; faith is confirmed, and grace increased by virtue of prayer unto God. The baptism of young children is in anywise to be retained in the church, as most agreeable with the institution of Christ. West. Conf. ch. xxviii sec. 4 : Not only those that do actually profess faith in and obedience unto Christ, but also the infants of one or both believing parents, are to be baptized. Sec. 5 : Although it be a great sin to contemn or neglect this ordinance, yet grace and salvation are not so inseparably an- nexed unto it, as that no person can be regenerated or saved without it, or that all that are baptized are undoubtedly re- generated. Sec. 6 : The efficacy of baptism is not tied to that moment of time wherein it is administered ; yet, notwithstand- ing, by the right use of this ordinance, the grace promised is 258 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. not only offered, but really exhibited and conferred by the Holy Ghost, to such (whether of age or infants) as that grace belongeth unto, according to the counsel of God's own will, in His appointed time. Sec. 7 : The sacrament of baptism is but once to be administered to any person. Conf. Belg. art. 34: Credimus, omnem hominem, qui id satagit, ut vitam aeternam consequatur, semel unico baptismo illo, qui in posterum non iteretur, baptizari debere. (Infantes fidelibus parentibus natos) baptizandos et foederis signo obsig- nandos esse credimus, sicuti olim infantes circumcidebantur in Israele propter easdem promissiones infantibus nostris factas cet. Cf. Cat. Heidelb. Fr. 74; Cat. Genev. p. 524 sq. The Salvation of Infants. The necessity of baptism to salvation is carried so far by the Eoman Catholic Church, that they regard Christian chil- dren unbaptized as forfeiting heavenly blessedness. Against this the Conf. Scot, expressly protests, nor does the Declar. Tkorun. admit the absolute necessity of baptism. [The Form. Cone, does not pronounce definitively. However, the framers of that formula, in common with other dogmatic theologians, taught that not the deprivation, but the contempt, of the sacrament condemns.] I. EOMAN. Cat. Rom. ii. 2. 34 : Hortandi sunt magnopere fideles, ut liberos suos, cum primum id sine periculo facere liceat, ad ecclesiam deferendos et solennibus cerimoniis baptizandos curent. Nam cum pueris infantibus nulla alia salutis com- parandae ratio, nisis eis baptismus praebeatur, relicta sit, facile intelligitur, quam gravi culpa illi sese obstringant, qui eos sacramenti gratia diutius, quam necessitas postulet, carere patiantur cet. Bellarmine, Bapt. i. 4, represents the question in controversy between Catholics and Protestants, whether baptism is neces- sary as a means of salvation, so that he who is not baptized perishes, notwithstanding the excuse of his neglect of the BAPTISM. 259 precept having sprung from ignorance. He asserts that the church has always believed that infants perish if they depart this life without baptism, and seeks further to demonstrate this faith of the church by copious argument, ending by this : Etiamsi parvuli sine sua culpa non baptizantur, non tamen sine sua culpa pereunt, cum habeant peccatum originale. Though they are not guilty of neglecting baptism, they do not perish without guilt, for they have original sin. Of. also Klee, kath. Dogm. iii. 114. As to the Iambus Infantum, see No. xvii. II. PEOTESTANT. Conf. Scot neg. p. 127: Detestamur crudele (rom. Anti- christi) judicium contra infantes sine baptismo morientes. Declar. Thorun. ii. 6, bapt. 2 : Necessitatem baptism! adeo absolutam non statuimus, ut quicunque sine bapt. externo ex hac vita excesserit sive infans sive adultus, quocunque in casu etiam citra omnem contemtum accidat, propterea necessario damnandus sit. Hie potius regulam illam maxime valere credimus, quod non privatio sed contemtus sacrarnenti damnet. Calvin, Institt. christ. iv. 16. 26 : Explodendum esse eorum commentum palam est, qui omnes non baptizatos seternse morti adjudicant. Solis ergo adultis administrari baptismum ex eorum postulate fingamus : quid puero fieri dicent, qui pietatis rudimentis rite probeque imbuitur, dum tinctionis dies appetit, si subita morte proeter spem omnium abripi contingat ? Clara est domini promissio, quicunque in filium credidit, non visurum mortem, nee in judicium venturum, sed transiisse a morte in vitam ; nondum baptizatum nullibi damnasse com- peritur. Quod in earn a me partem accipi nolo, perinde ac si baptismum contemn! impune posse innuerem (quo contemtu violatum iri domini fcedus affirmo, tantum abest ut excusare sustineam), tantum evincere sufficit, non esse adeo necessarium, ut periisse protinus existimetur, cui ejus obtinendi ademta fuerit facultas. Atqui si eorum commento assentimur, eos omnes citra exceptionem damnabimus, quos a baptismo casus aliquis prohibuerit, quantacunque alioqui fide prseditos, per quam Christus ipse possidetur. Insuper infantes omnes 260 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. , aeternae mortis reos peragunt, quibus baptismum negant su& ipsorum confessione ad salutem necessarium. Viderint mine, quam belle sibi cum Christ! verbis conveniat, quibus regnuin coelorum illi setati adjudicatur. Atque ut nihil illis non con- cedamus, quantum ad hujus loci intelligentiam attinet, nihil tamen inde elicietur, nisi prius, quod jam constitutum est a nobis, dogma de infantium regeneration everterint. S. Hei- degger, Corp. theol. xxv. 60 sq. Cf. Limborch, Theol. chr. v. 68. 7. Observations. As it is the prevalent Protestant doctrine, that only believers ex- perience the sacramental virtue of baptism (above, xiv. 3), the ques- tion naturally arose, whether baptized infants could have faith. In the symbols this point has never been discussed or set forth at length. But the older dogmatists taught, in harmony with Luther's well-known utterance, Cat. Maj. p. 546, that baptism itself wrought faith in infants. They appeal to Matt. xix. 13-15, xviii. 6; Mark xv. 16. III. SOCINIAN. Catccli. Racov. p. 222 (final revision): Numquid ad bap- tismum infantes pertinent ? Si quidem veteris apost. eccl. morem spectes et finem, in quern hie ritus fuit ab apostolis institutus, ad infantes non pertinet, cum in scripturis nee mandatum nee exemplum ullum hac de re habeamus, nee ipsi fidei in Chr. . . . adhuc capaces sint. . . . Tamen errorem (paedobaptismi) adeo inveteratum et perviilgatum Christiana caritas tolerare suadet. Socin. Bapt. aquce, c. 17, p. 737, a: De eorum baptismo, qui ex parentibus pro fratribus agnitis et receptis nascuntur, ita statuo, ut, quando . . . non, vel si infantes baptizentur, id per se ipsum quidquam mali parere posse videtur, potestas unicuique fiat suos infantes vel baptizandi vel secus. . . . Hanc infantium suorum baptizandi vel non baptiz. libertatem ad eos etiam extendimus, qui turn primum ad Ch. ecclesiam sunt aggregandl BAPTISM. 261 IV. ARMINIAN. Apolog. Eemonstr. c. xxiii. p. 247 : Eemonstrantes ritum baptizandi infantes ut perantiquum . . . haud illubenter etiam in coetibus suis admittunt adeoque vix sine offensione et scandalo magno intermitti posse statuunt; tantum abest, ut eum seu illicitum aut nefastum improbent ac damnent. Sed nee arbitrantur tamen propterea, eum ut praecise observatu necessarium vel ex prsecepto Ch. vel ex traditione apost. vel alia aliqua" cert& atque indubitata auctoritate tenendum, urgen- dum aut imperandum esse. Cf. Curcellaeus, De pecc. orig. Ivi. p. 913. Limborch, Theol. christ. v. 68. 19 sqq., although he zealously defends infant baptism against the Anabaptists, reaches the same issue. But he contends earnestly against the error that unbaptized Christian children are condemned (iii. 5. 2), and says : Omnes infantes, sicut per Adamum moriendi necessitati subjiciuntur, ita nostro judicio ex morte liberantur per Chr., sive baptizati sint sive non ; non enim gratia div. ita huic signo alligata est, ut deus extra illud earn non communicet. John vii. 5 is re- ferred to adults only. V. ANABAPTIST. As to the older Anabaptists, via. F. C. 826. From the Men- nonite symbols we extract a few notes : Ris, Conf. art. 31 : Aqua baptizantur in nomine patris et Sp. s., qui doctrinam sancti evangelii audiunt, credunt et libenter posnitenti corde accipiunt. Tales enim jussit Christus baptizari, scd neutiquam infantes. In the Conf. of the Frisians and Germans the baptism of adults is alone mentioned. And in the Frank. Verh. infant baptism is rejected, as not ordained by Christ: Infantes salvari absque baptismo per merita Christi, et nemini signum baptismi convenire quam credenti. Schyn, P. D. 236. Horn. Bdk. art. 21 (Germ.): The baptism of young and unintelligent infants is by good reasons rejected. We hold it for a plant of man from the kingdom of Antichrist, which ought to be clean rooted out, since nowhere in the New 262 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. Testament is it commanded, or any trace of it in the apostles' words or writings. It is, in truth, no other than a contempt and violation of Christ's true baptism, and in many respects its very antagonist Re-baptism, which was usual among the Anabaptists and Mennonites, is condemned, A. 0. p. 12; Apol. 156; F. C. 623; Conf. Helv. ii. c. 20. It concerned partly those who, as the children of Christians, had already been baptized, but as adults entered their church, partly those who had been ex- communicated or cast out of the Mennonite congregations. The re-baptism of these latter was soon abandoned by the Mennonites themselves as an unscriptural abuse. The re- baptism of the former, however, continued long a usage, but is now relinquished very generally by these churches. The Con- fession of the Frisians says only : Hominem sub conditione verse poenitentiae et scriptures conformis fidei semel baptizatum nunquam rebaptizamus. VI. QUAKER. The Quakers hold the baptism of infants to be a mere human tradition, of which there is neither example nor pre- cept in the whole Scripture. Barclay, Apol. Prop. 12. Observations. I. HERETICAL BAPTISM. The baptism of heretics, if performed in the name of the Holy Trinity, and with intention, is accepted as valid by the Roman and Greek Churches: Cone. Trid. sess. vii. can. 4; Conf. orth. 157. But in the Russian Church there prevailed for a long time the rebaptiza- tion of the converts: Heinecc. ii. 256. Even in the Roman Church, here and there zealous priests have thought fit to rebaptize their converts from Protestantism. The Protestant Church has never practised this. Sim. Episcop., Resp. ad Dilemm., holds it for indiffe- rent, whether those baptized in heresy be rebaptized or not. The validity of baptism performed in the Roman Church is expressly ad- mitted in Conf. Gall. art. 28. II. FORM OF BAPTISM. The Greek Church has always adopted a triple immersion (xard- xaradveffdai rplg It rip vdan). Conf. orth. p. 157 ; Metr. Critop. BAPTISM. 263 Conf. 86 ; Jeremias, in Actis, 238. In the Western Church, Roman and Protestant, with the exception of the Baptists, sprinkling is alone adopted, although in Cat. Maj. p. 548 in aquam mergi is spoken of. The Greeks lay great stress on the immersion ; but to the Westerns, the manner in which the water is applied to the baptized is matter of indifference. Cf. Cat. Rom. ii. 2. 17 ; Limborch, Th. ch. v. 68. Jeremias condemns in the Romanists their single sprinkling ; but cf. Bossii Inst. ih. ii. 380. The Socinians are opposed to sprinkling generally. Cat. Eac. p. 222. l Exorcism has been practised always by the Roman Church among the ceremonies of baptism ; and the older Protestants retained it. III. LAY BAPTISM. The Roman, Greek, and Protestant Churches permit, under press- ing circumstances, baptism by unordained hands, including those of the midwife, or even of persons not Christians. Conf. orth. p. 159 : sig xaipov rtvog avayKrig y/A'ZoptT va rb Ka^ri TO (ivarrrfiov roiJro %ai xoff- ftiKbv vpoauffov avdpbg 73 ywatxog. Cat. Rom. ii. 2. 24 : Cogente neces- sitate baptizare possunt omnes etiam de populo sive mares sive foeminse, quamcunque illi sectam profiteantur. Nam Judseis quoque, infidelibus et hasreticis cum necessitas cogit, hoc munus permissum est. But in these cases the baptismal ceremonies must be preter- mitted. Bellarm. De lapt. i. 7 ; Gerhard, Loc. theol. ix. 95. The Reformed Church has declared against this baptism in distress. Conf. Helv. ii. 20 ; Conf. Scot. 22 ; Calvin, Institt. iv. 15. IV. BAPTISM OF BELLS. This, which is a kind of benediction, vid. A. Smalc. p. 337 ; Conf. Scot. neg. 127. 1 Non recte dicis, eos infantes baptizare ; non enim baptizant, quod sine totius corporis in aquam imtnersione et ablutione fieri nequit, sed verticetcnus tantum leviter adspergunt . . . quern tamen errorem . . . Christiana caritas tolerare suadet. XVI. THE LOED'S SUPPER. FIRST POINT OF DIVERGENCE. THE Christian communities which celebrate the Lord's Supper as a religious ordinance instituted by Christ, regard it either as a mere ceremony of thanksgiving and profession, or as a means of grace in which is imparted to the recipients some heavenly blessing. The former is the view of the Socinians, the Arminians, and the Mennonites. The latter is that of the Eomanists, Greeks, and Protestants generally ; although with many differences as to the definition of the nature of what is imparted. SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. I. SOCINIAN. Cat. Jlac. qu. 334: (Coena domini) est Christi institutum, ut fideles ipsius panem frangant et comedant et ex calice bibant, mortis ipsius annuntiandse causa. Quod permanere in adventum ipsius oportet. /&. qu. 335: (Annuntiare mortem domini) est publice ac sacrosancte Christo gratias agere, quod is pro ineffabili sua erga nos caritate corpus suum torqueri et quodammodo frangi et sanguinem suum fundi passus sit, et hoc ipsius beneficium laudibus tollere et celebrare. J&. qu. 337: Nonne alia causa, ob quam ccenam instituit dominus, superest ? Nulla prorsus. Etsi homines multas ex- 264 THE LOED'S SUPPER. 265 cogitarint, cum alii dicant esse sacrificium pro vivis et mortuis. Alii usu ipsius se consequi peccatorum remissionem et firmare fidem sperant, et quod eis mortem domini in mentem revocet, affirmant. Ib. qu. 344 : Verum sensum (verborum hoc est corpits meum) facile intelliges, si animadverteris, et in sacris literis et vulgo admodum esse usitatum, ut figurae et imagines et signa memo- rialia appellentur earum renim nominibus, quarum sunt ima- gines cet. Quare cum Ch. vellet hoc ritu a nobis annuntiari mortem suam cruentam cum quadam illius adumbratione et repraesentatione, ideo dixit, paneni hunc, qui frangitur, esse corpus suum, . . . h. e. signum memoriale et figuram quandam esse corporis sui cet. Socin. De ccend dom. p. 753 b: Quod omnes fere opinantur, hoc ritu . . . confirmari saltern fidem nostram, ne id quidem verum censeri debet, cum nee ullo sacro testimonio compro- betur nee ratio ulla sit, cur id fieri possit. Quomodo enim confirmare potest nos in fide id, quod nos ipsi facimus cet. P. 754 b : Animadvertendum est, posse quidem in ipsa ccena dom. celebranda confirmari et augeri fidem, sed non ex ipsa panis et vini sumtione, nee ex virtute aliqua divina" . . ., sed ex mutuis cohortationibus mutuoque Ch. praeceptis obedientiae exemplo, ex solenni ilia commemoratione et concelebratione beneficiorum dei et Christi, et denique ab ipso divino verbo toti cerimoniae adjuncto. II. AEMINIAN. Conf. Remonstr. xxiii. 4 : S. coena est alter Novi Test, sacer ritus, a Jesu Christo ea qua proditus fuit nocte institutus, ad celebrandum eucharisticam et solennem mortis suae commemo- rationem, in quo fideles, postquarn se ipsos explorarunt inque vera fide approbarunt, sacrum panem in ccetu publice fractum edunt et simul vinum publice fusum bibunt, idque ad cruen- tam domini mortem pro nobis obitam (qua sicut corpora nostra cibo et potu seu pane et vino sustentantur, ita corda nostra in spem vitse aeternse aluntur et nutriuntur) cum solenni gratia- rum actione annuntiandum, suamque vicissim cum crucifixo Christi corpore et efifuso sanguine (sive cum ipso Jesu Ch. pro 266 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. nobis crucifixo et mortuo), eoque beneficiis omnibus per mortem Jesu Christi partis atque acquisitis, vivificam et spiritualem communionem et mutuam simul inter se caritatem coram deo et ecclesia publice testificandam. Against the orthodox Ee- formed doctrine, vide Limborch, Theol. christ. v. 71. 9 sqq. Eis, Conf. art. 34 : Tota externae coense actio nobis ante oculos ponit, testatur et significat, Christi sanctum corpus in cruce fractum . . . esse ad remissionem peccatoram nostrorum, ilium jam in coelis glorificatum animarum nostrarum esse panem vivificantem. Per earn docemur inter externam illam actionem corda nostra sursum elevare sanctis supplicationibus, atque verum et summum bonum hac coen& adumbratum a Christo petere; tandemque nos adhortatur, ut deo agamus gratias atque unitatem et caritatem inter nos exerceamus. III. GKEEK AND EOMAN. Conf. ortlwd. p. 169 sq. : Ol Kaprcoi rov p-vart^plov rovrov etvai rovrot' rcpvnov rj avdjivrjcns rov ava^aprrjrov rrddovs KOI rov Oavdrov rov Xpi&rov ... TO Sevrepov #epSo? elvai, Siarl TO fivar. rovro ylverai iXcta-pos KOI KaXocrvvrj/Jia TT^O? rov 6ebv Sia TO? cifj,aprias TJ/JLUV eire ^wvrwv elre teal aTroOa^evcov ... TO rpLrov Sid6pei, et? fipwaiv Tot? a7ro<7ToXoi9, . . . rj vvv ev ry 6ela nvaTarjar/ia KaTaj3aivovTO<; TOV tcvpiatcov (TWfjLaTos % ovpavov . . ., aXXa /cat TOTC nal vvv p.eTa.7roiovp,evov Kal /z,era/3aXXo/4ei/ov Ty 7riK\r] pup al/Mi Xpi&Tov avafi(f)i8o\a)/ rrti a>.r,fn xai >lf>a.'nt,i rttfevfieti rtu KVf'nu r.fiui 'lr,feu Xfiffnv Iftti.eyctJftit xxi Virrtvofiir' irX f,t n ritTi; rtfj.li ra.^ffrr.fi xcci trparfipti, ei>% fit n I $soffh7a-a. tixn $i$uffxii purtuffiuns' MMVMyMf yap rev; trifrovi ptrat-afiifrtinvras ' T* SuVxw T fufj.0, rev xvp'nu ii/jwi 'itirou Xpirrou irfiui' tux. alffftirZ; .aft.- fiiinrcii, iXX' trip Tiiuf4,a.rtxSit h *itTts /.a^sura, r.ftTt xa.ftffreiKi n xcii %mfSmu* THE LORD'S SUPPER. 283 TOV apTOv Kal 97 ovcla TOV oivov fJ,Ta{3d\\eTat, els rrjv ov> vrpocttfiuf cifrov, xxi i . . . KOL OtJ/09 CI/U/CT09 . . ., KOi 49 TT)V rjv ey^elrai, KOI vBcop. Metroph. Critopul. Conf. p. 90: e H V\TJ . . . etrrl apros $v%yftoy Kal /cpafjia, rovrecmv dlvo? vSart KeKpafj^jievo^. Cf. p. 98. Jerem. in Actis Wirtemb. p. 129 : OVK ev dv/4&> aX\' eV aprat ev%vjj,q> ru> rov aprov eiSei ^pcofj^eda. Cf. p. 86. II. EOMISH. (a) Oat. Rom. ii. 4. 62 : Quamvis haec lex del et ecclesise auctoritate sancita ad omnes fideles pertineat, docendum est, eos tamen excipi, qui nondum rationis usum propter setatis imbecillitatem habent. Hi enim neque sacram eucharistiam a communi et profano pane sciunt discernere, neque ad earn accipiendam pietatem animi et religionem afferre possunt. Atque id etiam a Christi institutione alienissimum videtur. (b and c) Ib. ii. 4. 1 3 : Quemadmodum nullus panis nisi triticeus apta sacramenti materia putandus est, (hoc enim apostolica traditio nos docuit et ecclesia3 catholicae auctoritas firmavit), ita etiam ex iis, quse Christus gessit, azymum esse debere, facile intelligitur. 14 : Neque tamen ea qualitas adeo necessaria existimanda est, tit, si ilia pani desit, sacramentum confici non possit. II. ii. 4. 15: (Altera sacramenti materia) est vinum ex vitis fructu expression, cui modicum aquze pennixtum sit. Nam dominum salvatprem vino in hujus sacramenti insti- tutions usum esse cet. Cf. Trid. sess. xxii. cap. 7. S. Klee, DogmM. iii. S. 190ff. III. PROTESTANT. The Protestant symbols contain no express declarations on these points, which is easily to be explained. The practice of the Church, however, is plain enough. 292 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. FIFTH POINT OF DIVERGENCE. It is peculiar to the Greek and Eoman Churches to regard the Eucharist not merely as a sacrament, but at the same time as a true sacrifice (especially a sacrificium propitiatoriuin). They believe, namely, that the same Christ who once offered Himself to God for mankind in a bloody oblation on the cross, is continually offered in an unbloody oblation by the hand of the priest, for the living and the dead, the present and the absent, for the expiation of sin. The solemn rite, adorned with a multitude of ceremonies, by w T hich the priest accom- plishes the unbloody sacrifice on the altar, is called the mass, or missa. No part of the Eoman Catholic faith has been so vehemently assaulted as this ; and in the symbols of both Protestant Churches the mass is rejected in the most decided manner, and sometimes with expressions of abhorrence. Observation. How the two aspects under which the Eucharist may be viewed on this theory are to be united, the Council of Trent does not say ; but it is the idea of the personal presence of Christ, and the transub- stantiation which lies at the basis of it, which unites sacrament and sacrifice. That is to say, the Christ made present through the con- secration is not merely partaken of by the communicants, with which participation, according to the Protestants, the sacrament ends, but at the same time is as a sacrifice ever anew offered to God, a sacri- fice, that is, which He in His collective work ever is. It is of no importance that the two are separated in the sessions of Trent ; the Catechism and all Roman theologians treat the Eucharist in one section, first as sacrament, then as sacrifice. The mutual relation between the two is thus defined by the Cat. Rom. ii. 4. 71 : Sacr. consecratione perficitur, omnis vero sacrificii vis in eo est, ut offeratur. Quare sacra euchar., dum in pyxide continetur vel ad aegrotum de- fertur, sacramenti, non sacrificii rationem habet. Deinde etiam ut sacramentum est, iis, qui div. hostiam sumunt, meriti causam affert et omnes illas utilitates, quse commemorates sunt ; ut autem sacrific. est, non merendi solum sed satisfaciendi quoque efficientiam continet. The celebration at the altar is always sacrament and sacrifice at once ; but the communion may be separated from the sacrifice, as for the sick. THE LORD'S SUPPER. 293 L SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. I. ROMISH AND GREEK SYMBOLS. Cone. Trid. sess. xxii. cap. 1 : Dominus noster, etsi semel se ipsum in ara cmcis deo patri oblaturus erat, ut seternam illia redemtionem operaretur, quia tamen per mortem sacerdotium ejus exstinguendum non erat, in ccena novissima", ut suse ecclesiae visibile, sicut hominum naturae exigit, relinqueret sacrificium, quo cruentum illud semel in cruce peragendum reprsesentaretur ej usque memoria in finem usque sseculi per- maneret atque illius salutaris virtus in remissionem eorum, quse a nobis quotidie committuntur, peccatorum 1 applicaretur, . . . corpus et sanguinem suum sub speciebus panis et vini deo patri obtulit ac sub earundem rerum symbolis apostolis, quos tune N. T. sacerdotes constituebat, ut sumerent, tradidit et iisdem eorumque in sacerdotio successoribus, ut offerrent, prcecepit. Ib. cap. 2 : Quoniam in divino hoc sacrificio, quod in missa peragitur, idem ille Christus continetur et incruente immolatur, qui in ara cmcis semel se ipsum cruente obtulit, docet synodus, sacrificium istud vere propitiatorium esse per ipsumque fieri, ut, si cum vero corde et recta fide, cum metu et reverentia, contriti ac pcenitentes ad deum accedamus, misericordiam con- sequamur et gratiam inveniamus in auxilio opportune. Hujus quippe oblatione placatus dominus gratiam et donum poeni- tentise concedens, crimina et peccata, etiam ingentia, dirnittit ; una enim eademque est hostia, idem nunc offerens sacerdotum ministerio, qui seipsum tune in cruce obtulit, sola offerendi ratione di versa. Cujus quidem oblationis cruentse, inquam, fructus per hanc incruentam uberrime percipiuntur : tantum abest, ut illi per hanc quovis modo derogetur. Quare non solum pro fidelium vivorum peccatis, pcenis, satisfactionibus et aliis necessitatibus, sed et pro defunctis in Christo nondum ad plenum purgatis, rite juxta apostolorum traditionem offertur. Ib. can. 1 : Si quis dixerit, in missa non offerri deo verum et proprium sacrificium, aut quod offerri non sit aliud, quam nobis Christum ad manducandum dari, anathema sit. Can. 3 : 1 Cf. A. C. p. 25. 294 CONFESSIONS OF CHEISTENDOM. Si quis dixerit, missae sacrificimn tantum esse laudis et grati- arum actionis, aut nudam commemorationem sacrificii in cruce peracti, non autem propitiatorium, vel soli prodesse sumenti, neque pro vivis et defunctis, pro peccatis, pcenis, satisfac- tionibus et aliis necessitatibus offerri debere, anathema sit. For clearer view of the virtue and operation of the mass, we select from Bellarmine (Controv. de euchar. v. 6) : Sacrif. missse non habet vim ex opere operate ad modum sacramen- tomm. Non operatur sacrificium efficienter et immediate, neque est proprie instrumentum dei ad justificandum. Non immediate justificat, ut baptismus et absolutio faciunt, sed donum pcenitentise impetrat, per quod homo peccator ad sacramentum accedere velit et perillud justificetur. . . . Non majorem vim habere potest sacrif. missae quam sacrificium crucis ; . . sacrif. autem crucis non efficienter et immediate justificavit, sed tantum impetratorie et meritorie, alioqui omnes homines continuo justi effecti essent, cum dom. pro omnibus hominibus se deo in sacrificium obtulerit. . . . Sacrif. missse vim habet per modum impetrationis et ejus propria efficientia est impetrare. Sacrif. crucis fuit meritorium, satisfactorium et impetratorium vere et proprie, quia Ch. tune mortalis erat et mereri ac satisfacere poterat ; sacrif. missa3 proprie solum est impetratorium, quia Ch. nunc immortalis nee mereri nee satisfacere potest. Cum autem dicitur propitiatorium vel- satisfactorium, id est intelligendum ratione rei, quas impe- tratur. Dicitur enim propitiatorium, quia impetrat remis- sionem culpae, satisfactorium, quia impetrat remissionem pcence, meritorium, quia impetrat gratiam benefaciendi ac merita ac- quirendi Quanquam non negaverim, dici etiam satisfac- torium, quod ex Christi institutione per sacrificium hoc applicetur ejusdem Christi passio ad pcenas tollendas seu viventium seu mortuorum, quae post culpam remissam ali- quando remanent, vel in hac vita vel in purgatorio luendae. Valor sacrificii missse finitus est. Haec est communis sententia theologorum et probatur apertissime ex usu ecclesiae. Nam si missse valor infinitus esset, frustra multee missae praesertim ad rem eandem impetrandam offerrentur. Si enim una infiniti valoris est, certe ad omnia impetranda sufficiet, quorsum igitur aliae ? Et confirmatur ex sacrificio crucis, quod non alia de THE LOKD'S SUPPEK. 295 causS, unum tantum fait neque unquam repetitur, nisi quia illud unum infiniti valoris fuit et pretium acquisivit pro omnibus peccatis praeteritis et futuris remittendis. Etiamsi posset Ch. per unam oblationem sacrificii incruenti sive per se sive per ministrmn oblati quselibet a deo et pro quibus- cunque impetrare, tamen noluit petere nee impetrare, nisi ut pro singulis oblationibus applicaretur certa mensura fructus passionis suee sive ad peccatorum remissionem sive ad alia beneficia, quibus in hac vita indigenms. Cur autem id voluerit, non est nostrum curiosius inquirere. Sacrificium missse non solum impetratorium est spiritualium beneficiorum, sed etiam temporalium, ed idcirco offerri potest pro peccatis, pro pcenis et pro quibuscunque aliis necessitatibus. Conf. ortlwd. p. 165: The Eucharist is called avaipuKro^ Ovcria, p. 170, and among its tcapTrols are reckoned: To fAVcrTripiov TOVTO TTpocr^epeTat Ovaia vTrep Trdvrwv Ti> xpto'Tiav&v %a)vra>v re /cal KKoifMjfj,ev TQ> Trpoa-ffrepeo-da roi9 TrpoatyepovTas /cat vTrep &v Trpoafjjepovo-t, KOI i\eov aurot9 TOV Qeov eTepov Be TTJ ^teraX^i/ret cet. TOVTCOV T&V 6 fiat 7rpwT09 KOIVOS ytveTai ^faffi fcal TeQwjfcocri, icai yap dp(f)OTepQ)v TWV fiep&v rj Ovaria Trpocr^eperat. Of. also p. 97 sq. Dosithei Conf. c. 17: IIia-Tevof^ev, elvai 6v irdvTWV cet. See also Heinecc. Abbild. ii. 296 : The practice of the Greek orthodox Church is distinguished from that of the Eomish by this, that the former duly celebrates the office only once in the same church, and accordingly tolerates in every church only one altar ; Metrop. Critop. Conf. c. ix. p. 102. On Eomish principles, masses may be said on the several altars 296 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. of one church from dawn to mid-day. Vid. Schmid, Liturgik, i 263. From the idea of the mass as a sacrifice, it is easily ex- plained how in the Eoman Catholic Church private masses (missce privatce, but vid. Cat. Bom. ii 4. 79), at which no com- municant is present, may he held. Trid. sess. xxii. can. 8 : Si quis dixerit, missas, in quibus solus sacerdos sacramentaliter communicat, illicitas esse adeoque abrogandas, a. s. The masses for the dead, missse pro defunctis, are yet to be mentioned ; they are connected with the doctrine of Purgatory, and will be treated hereafter. The Council of Trent did not approve of masses in the ver- nacular. Sess. xxii cap. 8 : Etsi missa magnam contineat populi fidelis eruditionem, non tamen expedire visum est patribus, ut vulgari passim lingua celebraretur. Against this use of a foreign tongue in divine service protests were uttered by Apol. A. C. p. 250 ; Helv. ii cap. 22 ; Thirty-nine Artt. art. xxiv. II. PnOTESTANT. ^The references in the Protestant and Socinian symbols to the mass, and remonstrances against it, are very diffuse, and cannot therefore be cited in full Cf. A. 0. p. 23 ; Art. Smalc. 305 ; F. C. p. 602 ; Conf. Helv. ii 21 ; Eng. Artt. art xxxi. XVII. PENANCE. DIVERGENCE. THE Sacrament of Penance corresponds with that of Baptism, inasmuch as the baptized, having lost by sin his justification, can regain it only by means of penance. Romanists and Pro- testants are at one on this, that the sinner must experience deep repentance on account of his sins, and exhibit it before God, if he would be a partaker of forgiveness through Christ, and therefore of a renewed justification. But they part asunder at this point. 1. Protestants hold penitence to be a matter purely internal, and any verbal confession to a human minister as non-essential. The Romanists and Greeks, on the contrary, regard this confession of sin, confessio oris, as an essen- tial element, the second part in repentance. 2. Protestants teach that the forgiveness of such a penitent sinner is perfect at once for Christ's sake ; they require no contribution of the sinner's own. The Romanists and Greeks, on the contrary, require for the removal of the temporal punishments of sin personal satisfactioncs of the absolved, holding that these con- stitute the third element in repentance. 3. The Romanists and Greeks regard repentance, thus viewed, and connected with priestly absolution, as a sacrament. The Protestants deny this altogether. Although the evangelical Church holds confession not to be a law of Christ, and therefore not as essentially necessary, it has nevertheless retained it as a permanent institute, mainly on account of its connection with absolution. As such, it is 20; 298 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. always the preparation of the Lord's Supper. 1 (The Reformed Church, it is true, avows that common confession of sins in the congregation is sufficient ; but it permits, and for some cases of special need enjoins, a private confession to the minister as the means of consolation and instruction.) The evangelical Church is distinguished from the Eoman and Greek by this, that it regards a confession of sin in the general by the peni- tent as sufficient ; 2 on the contrary, the latter require a specific detail of all mortal sins, so far as the penitent can remember them, with their essential circumstances (confessw auricularis). With their principle, that the priest is in the place of a judge appointed by God for the penitent, Protestantism cannot be reconciled, especially as it knows nothing of satisfaction that might be imposed. The confessor is the servant or organ of God, the announcer of divine mercy : his absolution flows from the power of the keys entrusted to him. (No. XX.) a. Repentance, and the Sacrament of Penance generally ; and Satisfactions in particular. SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. I. ROMAN AND GREEK Cone. Trid. sess. xiv. poenit. cap. 3 : Sunt quasi materia hujus sacramenti (pcenitentise) ipsius pcenitentis actus, nempe contritio, confessio et satisfactio. Qui, quatenus in prenitente ad integritatem sacramenti ad plenamque et perfectam pecca- torum remissionem ex dei institutione requiruntur, hac ratione pcenitentiae partes dicuntur. Tb. can. 4 : Si quis negaverit, ad integram et perfectam 1 A. C. p. 27 ; Conf. Sax. p. 73. Confession was, down to the middle of the past century, merely a private confession, the individual went alone to his minister. Latterly, however, the public and general confession has been intro- duced, and almost entirely superseded the former. That private confession was an efficacious means of furthering piety in individuals, especially in the hands of intelligent ministers, is generally acknowledged. Many even of the Reformed theologians have expressed a wish that it could be introduced into their churches. 2 In case any man desired to confess his individual sins, the Church, in its earlier regulations at least, by no means prohibited this. PENANCE. 299 peccatorum remissionem requiri tres actus in pcenitente, quasi materiam sacramenti pcenitentiae, videlicet contritionem, con- fessionem et satisfactionem, quee tres poenitentise partes dicun- tur ; aut dixerit, duas tantum esse pcenitentiae partes, terrores scilicet incussos conscientiaa agnito peccato, et fidem concep- tam ex evangelic vel absolutione, qua credit quis sibi per Christum remissa peccata : anathema sit. Cat. Rom. ii. 5. 21 : Est hujus sacramenti (pcenitentise) proprium, ut prseter formam et materiam, quse omnibus sacra- mentis commuma sunt, partes etiam illas habeat, quse tanquam totam integramque pcenitentiam constituant, contritionem scili- cet, confessionem et satisfactionem. . . . Has autem partes ex earum partium genere esse dicuntur, quaa ad aliquod totum constituendum necessaries sunt, quoniam, quemadmodum homi- nis corpus ex pluribus membris constat, manibus, pedibus, oculis et aliis hujusmodi. partibus, quarum aliqua si desit, merito imperfectum videatur, perfectum vero, si nulla deside- retur ; eodem etiam modo poenitentia ex hisce tribus partibus ita constituitur, ut, quamvis, quod ad ejus naturam attinet, con- tritio et confessio, quibus homo Justus fit, satis sit, tamen nisi tertia etiam pars, id est, satisfactio accedat, aliquid ei omnino ad perfectionem desit necesse sit. Quare adeo hse partes inter se connexse sunt, ut contritio confitendi et satisfaciendi con- silium et propositum inclusum habeat, confessionem contritio et satisfaciendi voluntas, satisfactionem vero duse reliquae ante- cedant. Cone. Trid. sessio xiv. pcenit. can. 1 : Si quis dixerit, in catholica ecclesia posnitentiam non esse vere et proprie sacra- mentum pro fidelibus, quoties post baptismum in peccata la- buntur, ipsi deo reconciliandis a Christo institutum, anathema sit. Conf. orthod. p. 178: To 7re//,7TToi/ pvarripiov elvai vj p,era- voia, rj oTrola elvai era? TTOZ/O? TT}? KapBias Sia ra afutpnjftaTa OTTOV ea~9 av Trdprj rrjv crv^f-^wpria'iv rov, dtyecwrat ra afj,aprr)fj,ara rijv wpav eiceivrjv o\a uiro rov @eov Sia rov iepews. Ib. p. 179 sq. : Elvai dvcvynalav va %$ aWTptftijv /fapSta? o peravowv Kol \VTTIJV 8ia ra dpaprripard rov. t? rrjv avv- rpi/Srjv rovrrjv rfjs KapSias TrpeTrei va a,KO\ov6a Kal rj Sia trro- fiaros eofAO\6 i yi]a'i i s irdvru>v r&v d^iaprriiJLdrwv icaff fieaWTOK . . . To rpirov fj^epof rrjs yaeravo/a? TrpeVet va elvai o icavovas /cot TO eTTirtfJuov cet. ConciL Trid. sess. xiv. pcenit. cap. 8 : Quoad satisfactionem (quse ex omnibus pcenitentise partibus, quemadmodum a patri- bus nostris christiano populo fuit perpetuo tempore commen- data, ita una, maxime nostra setate, summo pietatis prsetextu impugnatur ab iis, qui speciem pietatis habent, virtutem autem ejus abnegarunt) synodus declarat, falsum omnino esse et a verbo dei alienum, culpam a domino nunquam remitti quin universa etiam poena condonetur. . . . Sane et divinae justitice ratio exigere videtur, ut aliter ab eo in gratiam recipiantur, qui ante baptismum per ignorantiam deliquerint, aliter vero, qui semel a peccati et daemonis servitute liberati et accepto Spiritus sancti dono, scientes templum dei violare et Spiritum sanctum contristare non formidaverint. Et divinam clemen- tiam decet, ne ita nobis absque ulla satisfactione peccata dimittantur, ut occasione accepta, peccata leviora putantes, velut injurii et contumeliosi Spiritui sancto in graviora laba- mur, thesaurizantes nobis iram in die me. Procul dubio enim magnopere a peccato revocant et quasi freno quodam coercent ha3 satisfactorise pcense cautioresque et vigil antiores in futurum poenitentes efficiunt: medentur quoque peccatorum reliquiis, et vitiosos habitus male vivendo comparatos contrariis virtu- turn actionibus tollunt. . . . Neque vero ita nostra est satis- factio hsec, quam pro peccatis nostris exsolvimus, ut non sit per Christum Jesum: nam qui ex nobis tanquam ex nobis nihil possumus, eo co-operante, qui nos confortat, omnia pos- sumus. Ita non habet homo unde glorietur, sed omnis gloria- tio nostra in Christo est : in quo vivimus, in quo meremur, in quo satisfacimus, facientes fructus dignos pcenitentioe ; qui ex illo vim habent, ab illo offeruntur patri et per ilium ac- ceptantur a patre. Debent ergo sacerdotes domini, quantum epiritus et prudentia suggesserit, pro qualitate criminum et PENANCE. 301 poenitentium facilitate salutares et convenientes satisfactiones injungere, ne, si forte peccatis conniveant et indulgentius cum pcenitentibus agant, levissima qusedam opera pro gra- vissimis delictis injungendo, alienorum peccatorum participes efficiantur. Hid. can. 13 : Si quis dixerit, pro peccatis quoad poenam temporalem minime deo per Chr. merita satisfied posnis ab eo inflictis et patienter toleratis vel a sacerdote injunctis sed neque sponte susceptis, ut jejuniis, orationibus, eleemosynis vel aliis etiam pietatis operibus, . . . anath. sit. Can. 14 : Si quis dix., satisfactiones, quibus pcenitentes per Ch. Jes. peccata redimunt, non esse cultus dei sed traditiones hominum, doctrinam de gratia et verum dei cultum atque ipsum bene- ficium mortis Ch. obscurantes, anathema sit. Cf. Confut. A. C. p. 85 ; Cat. Rom. ii. 5. 62 sqq. Conf. orihod. p. 181 : To rpLrov fiepos rfjs fieravolas irpi- iret va elvai o reavovas /eat TO ejnrLpiov, oirov BiSy KCU Siopify 6 TrvevfjiaTiKO';, a>9 av elvai Trpoaev^al, eXetj^ocrvvai, vijcrreiai, eTrlvKe-fyis cvyiaw roiraV) al >yovvK\icrlai, Kal ra oftota, OTTOV OeXovai (f)avt dpfioSia et? rrjv Kpiaiv rov TrvevfjiariKov. Metroph. Critop. Conf. cap. x. p. 105 : Elra Kal TTOIVIJ rt9 eTrdyerai rot? ptTavoovGi Trapa TWV d/cpoaa-a/Aevcov ra rovrcov et? re cra3(j)povicrfji6v r ov ^Kef ardKTws ftiovv, Kal 'iva &ia T?}? eKovcriov Kal TrpoaiperiKrjs ^Xti|rea)5 fAerpiuTepas TreipaOSxn, rrjg TOV Qeov Trpo&Kaipov pdftSov. II. PKOTESTANT. C. A. p. 12 : Constat pcenitentia proprie his duabus parti- bus : altera est contritio seu terrores incussi conscientise agnito peccato; altera est fides, quse concipitur ex evangelic seu absolutione, et credit propter Christum remitti peccata, et con- solatur conscientiam, et ex terroribus liberat. A. Srn. p. 321 : Pcenitentise adjungtmt tres partes, contri- tionem, confessionem et satisfactionem, addita grandi consola- tione et pollicitatione remissionis peccatorum, meriti, expiationis peccatorum ac plenariae redemtionis coram deo, si homo vere doleat, confiteatur et satisfaciat. Sic in pcenitentia homo ad fiduciam propriorum operum ducitur. Hinc orta est vox, quee 302 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. in suggestis, cum praelegeretur vulgo publica absolutio, usur- pata fuit : Prolonga deus vitam meam, donee pro meis peccatis satisfecero et vitam meam emendavero. Conf. Hdv. ii cap. 14 : Per poenitentiam intelligimus men- tis in homine p'eccatore resipiscentiam, verbo evangelii et Spiritu sancto excitatam fideque veraV acceptam, qua protinus homo peccator agnatam sibi corruptionem peccataque omnia sua, per verbum dei accusata, agnoscit ac de his ex corde dolet, eademque coram deo non tantum deplorat et fatetur ingenue cum pudore, sed etiam cum indignatione exsecratur, cogitans jam sedulo de emendatione et perpetuo innocentiae virtutumque studio, in quo sese omnibus diebus vitae reliquis sancte exerceat. Et hsec quidem est vera pcenitentia, sincera nimirum ad deum et omne bonum conversio, sedula vero a diabolo et ab omni malo aversio. Apol. A. C. p. 163 : Tertius actus (pcenitentiae) de satisfac- tionibus. Hie vero habet confusissimas disputationes. Fin- gunt seternas pcenas mutari in pcenas purgatorii et harum pattern remitti potestate clavium, partem docent redimendam esse satisfactionibus. Addunt amplius, quod oporteat satis- factiones esse opera supererogationis et haec constituunt in stultissimis observationibus, velut in peregrinationibus, rosariis aut sim. observationibus, quae non habent mandata dei. . . . Inter haec scandala et doctrinas daemoniorum jacet obruta doc- trina de justitia fidei in Chr. et de beueficio Christi cet. Ib. p. 184: Nunc more (ecclesiae vet.) antiquato manet nomen satisfactionis et vestigium moris, quod in confessione praescribuntur certae satisfactiones, quas definiunt esse opera non debita, rios vocamus satisfactiones canonicas. De his sic sentimus sicut de enumeratione, quod satisfactiones can. non sint necessariae jure divino ad remissionem peccatorum. . . . Retinenda est enim sententia de fide, quod fide consequamur remissionem peccatorum propter Chr., non propter nostra opera praecedentia aut sequentia. Ib. p. 189 : Cum scripturae non dicant, quod operibus non debitis pcenas aetemas compensandas sint, temere amrmant adversarii, quod per satisfactiones canonicas poenae illae com- pensentur, nee habent claves mandatum poenas aliquas com- mutandi, item partem pcenamm remittendi. PENANCE. 303 Gf. Conf. Saxon, p. 77 sqq. ; Conf. Wirtemb. p. Ill sq<|. Conf. Helv. ii. cap. 14: Improbamus illos, qui suis satisfac- tionibus existimant se pro commissis satisfacere peccatis. Nam doce"mus, Christum unum morte vel passione sua esse omnium peccatorum satisfactionem, propitiationem vel expiationem : interim tamen, quod et ante diximus, mortificationem carnis urgere non desinimus ; addimus tamen, hanc non obtrudendam esse deo superbe pro peccatorum satisfactione, sed prsestandam humiliter, pro ingenio filiorum dei. Cf. Dedar. Tkorun. p. 65 sq. 6. Confession and Absolution. I. EOMAN AND GREEK. Cone. Trid. sess. xiv. pcenit. cap. 5 : Colligitur, opertere a poenitentibus omnia peccata mortalia, quorum post diligentem sui discussionem conscientiam habent, in confessione recenseri, etiamsi occultissima ilia sint; . . . nam venialia, quanquam recte et utiliter citraque omnem prsesumtionem in confessione dicantur, taceri tamen citra culpam multisque aliis remediis ex- piari possunt. . . . Itaque dum omnia, quse' memorise occurrunt peccata, Christi fideles confiteri student, procul dubio omnia divinse misericordise agnoscenda exponunt. Qui vero secus faciunt et scienter aliqua retinent, nihil divinaa bonitati per sacerdotem remittendum proponunt. . . . Colligitur praeterea, etiam eas circumstantias in confessione explicandas esse, quse speciem peccati mutant, quod sine illis peeeata ipsa neque a poenitentibus integre exponantur nee judicibus innotescant, et fieri nequeat, ut de gravitate criminum recte censere possint et pcenam, quam oportet, pro illis poenitentibus im- ponere. Ib. can. 6 : Si quis negaverit, confessionem sacramentalem vel institutam vel ad salutem necessariam esse jure divino, aut dixerit, modum secrete confitendi soli sacerdoti . . . alie- num esse ab institutione et mandato Ch. et inventum esse humanum, anathema sit. Can. 7 : Si quis dixerit, in sacra- mento poenitentias ad remissionem peccatorum necessarium non esse jure divino, confiteri omnia et singula peccata mor- 304 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. talia, quorum memorial cum debita et diligent! praemeditatione habeatur, etiam occulta . . . et circumstantias, quse peccati speciem mutant, . . . aut demum non licere confiteri peccata venialia, anathema sit Can. 8 : Si quis dixerit, confessionem omnium peccatorum, qualem ecclesia servat, esse impossibilem et traditionem humanam a piis abolendam, aut ad earn non teneri omnes et singulos utriusque sexus Ch. fideles semel in anno cet, anathema sit. Conf. orthod. p. 180 : Eis rrjv awrpifirjv TT)? /ca/3oYa TroXvTrpaynovovvrt Kal Cf. Jerem. in Act. Wirterrib. p. 87 ; Plato, Catcch. p. 132. Auricular confession is iw9 Kal O.TTO ra Trora Kal OTTO o\a TO, Trpajf^ara rov Koafjbov Kal airo oXat? rat? eiriOvpiais rai? aai9, Bia va rjfATropf] 6 xpiffTiavos va Kavt] Trjv vrpocrevxfjv rov fte rpoTrov evKoiXwrepov Kal va iXacr/cerat Toy eov aKOfii Bia va veKpwvr} ra? r?}? crapKos eTudv/Ltias Kal va aTroBe^erac TIJV ^dpiv rov eov. . . . 'H vrjarela avrtj orav jlverat Kara TOV$ TrpocriJKovTas rpoirov^^ KavL fieryaXov t'Xacr/ioy et? rov ebv &ia ra$ d/j,apria<; /^a9. Cf. Metroph. Critop. Conf. c. 18; Jerem. in Actis Wirtemb. p. 126 sq. II. PROTESTANT. As to fasting, the Protestant principles, so far as the symbols refer to it, may be thus stated : C. A. p. 31 : Decent, quod quilibet christianus debeat se corporali disciplina aut corporalibus exercitiis et laboribus sic exercere et coercere, ne saturitas aut desidia exstimulet ad peccandum, non ut per ilia exercitia mereamur gratiam aut satisfaciamus peccatis. . . . Itaque non damnantur ipsa jejunia, sed traditiones, quse certos dies, certos cibos proescribunt cum periculo conscientise, tanquam istiusmodi opera sint necessarius cultus. Cf. Apol C. A. pp. 191, 209 sq. Conf. Wirtcmb. p. 113 : De oratione, jejunio, eleemosyna et aliis id genus operibus sentimus, ea diligentissime sectanda esse, sed longe alium habere usum, quam quod vel meritis suis satisfaciant deo pro peccatis nostris, vel applicent nobis meri- tum Christi. Ib. p. 114 : Jejunium sentimus utile esse non in hoc, ut 310 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. vel opens sui merito expiet peccata coram deo, vel applicet jejunanti meritum Christi, sed ut sobrietate injiciat carni frenum cet. 76. p. 128 : Veteres jejunamnt aliquoties totis diebus, ut vacarent publicae precationi et hac discipline admonerent ec- clesiam suam ac prsesertim juventutem de prseteritis vel de preesentibus vel de imminentibus periculis ac excitarent earn ad agendam pcenitentiam, qua ira dei mitigaretur. Hie est pius et utilis horum jejuniorum finis. Conf. Helv. ii. c. 14 : See above, S. 148, 149, cap. 24 : Omnia jejunia proficisci debent ex libero spontaneoque spiritu et vere humiliato, nee composita esse ad plausum vel gratiarn hominum consequendam, multo minus eo, ut per ipsa velit homo justitiam demereri Jejunet autem in hunc finem qui- libet, ut fomenta carni detrahat et ferventius deo inserviat. Cf. Conf. Tetrapol. cap. Y-10 ; Declar. Thorun. ii 5. 12; Calvin, InstitvM. iv. 12. 14 sqq. ; Limborch, TJicol. chr. v. 75. PurgcAorry. The pious Christian, who dies without having made full satisfaction for his sins, 1 is, according to the Eoman Catholics, placed in purgatory (ignis purgalorius), that there he may suffer the temporal punishment of sin, and thus, purged from all impurity, be fit to enter heaven. The Greek Church and the Protestant entirely reject this doctrine of a purifying fire. 2 1 Bellarmin, Purgator. ii. 9 : Restat reatus poenae et peccata venialia, quae proprie dici possunt reliquiae peccatorum, ob quas est purgatorium. Has autem reliquias aliquando certum est in morte purgari (in the case of martyrs), ali- quando certum est non purgari, aliquando dubium est quid fiat, et probabilissi- muiu est, partim purgari, partim non purgari. S. Becan. Manual, controv. i. p. 197 sqq. These satisfactions not made refer partly to mortal sins, the pardon of which has been obtained through the sacrament of penance only so far as concerns eternal punishment, partly to venial sins, which are only temporally to be expiated, which, however, cling to the most pious. Cf. Becani Man. controv. i. p. 199 sq. 8 The Latinizing Greeks at Florence, 1439, went so far as this (Harduin. Collect. Condi, ix. p. 421) : lilt ol iXtit&s ft'.ratir.fftrt; BLKcPxruaru l> 7 ri riu Qteu ayawn, #fi* vt!( ei^iaif . sess. xxv. purgator. : Cum catholica ecclesia, a Sp. s. edocta, ex. s. litteris et antiqua patrum traditione, in s. con- ciliis et novissime in hac cecumenica synodo docuerit, purga- torium esse animasque ibi detentas fidelium suffragiis potis- simum vero acceptabili altaris sacrificio juvari, preecipit s. synodus episcopis, ut sanam de purgatorio doctrinam, a. s. patribus et s. conciliis traditam, a Christi fidelibus credi, teneri, et ubique preedicari diligenter studeant : apud rudem vero plebem dimciliores ac subtiliores queestiones, quaeque ad sedificationem non faciunt, et ex quibus plerumque nulla fit pietatis accessio, a popularibus concionibus secludantur; in- certa item, vel quse specie falsi laborant, evulgari ac tractari non permittant ; ea vero, quse ad curiositatem quandam aut superstitionem spectant vel turpe lucrum sapiunt, tanquam scandala et fidelium offendicula prohibeant. Gat. Rom. i. 6. 3 : Est purgatorius ignis, quo piorum animse ad definition tempus cruciatas expiantur, ut eis in eeternam patriam ingressus patere possit, in quam nihil coinquinatum ingreditur. Ac de hujus quidem doctrinse veritate, quam et scripturarum testimoniis et apostolica traditione confirmatam esse sancta concilia declarant, eo diligentius et saspius parocho disserendum erit, quod in ea tempora incidimus, quibus homines sanam doctrinam non sustinent. Observation. Fire, the purgatorial agent, or means of purification, the Romish Church has not defined. According to Klee, kath. Dogm. iii. 425, the fire has been assumed as a mere matter of opinion. But Bellar- mine, Pur gat. ii. 10, says : Certum est in purgatorio sicut etiam in 312 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. inferno esse poenam ignis, sive iste ignis accipiatur proprie sivc meta- phorice. He himself decides for the corporeal fire, c. 11. The Limbus infantum. Children dying immediately after baptism do not enter purgatory (Bellarm. Purgat. ii. 1), but, as the schoolmen taught, into the limbus infantum, which is placed in loco iriferni altiore, ita ut ad eum ignis non perveniat : in a higher part of the Infernus, which the fires cannot reach, they undergo a poenam damni, a penalty of loss ; vid. Bellarmine, Purgat. ii. G. The symbols say nothing of this. The Limbus pairum, where the praj-Christian pious until the descent of Christ were supposed to wait (Bellarmine, de Christo, iv. 10), is mentioned only in Cat. Rom. i. 6. 3. II. GREEK. Conf. orthod. p. 112: IIox; TrpeTret, vd lypoitcovfiev Sid TO Trvp TO KadapTrjpiov ; ovSepia ypa9 fivdovs dvdpwTrwv, OTTOV Xeyoiwu Trepl -^rv)(eravor)ra<; drro TOV KOQ-JJUOV, /coXafoi/rat et? o"oi//3Xta, et? vepa teal Xt/ii/at?, TTOTC Bev TOVS eBe^drjKev f) enK^rjcrla. Metroph. Critop. Conf. c. xx. p. 149 : OVK eVrt irvp KaOap- TTjpiov Trap' rj/Mwv, aXXa QXtyi? TI? diro 9 CIV O 0605 6e\rj. S. Heinecc. ii. 410 f. The notion of an intermediate state is found in Metroph. Critop. Conf. c. xx. p. 147 sq. : elvai Tivas JJLIJ /xera QdvaTov 7^9 evepyela Tvy%dveiv aXXa Svvd/A6t, ical ev TavTTjv eAc8e^e<7^at ? eXTrtSt Xe^co /SeySaia dvavTippiJTy ol 7Tipa0evTe<; vrpOTepov Trjs TOV @eov TraTpiKrjs pd/38ou ev rcaipy ical TTJS evepyeia o~o)Tripia TO!) KOO~ILU> fir) KOTO, \oyov /x^Se Offwo Prayers of survivors may soften or shorten this condition. Confess. Dositheis, c. 18: TavTwv (those who have not ex- piated their sins upon earth) ra9 ^u^a9 aTrip-^eo-dai, ely ciSov (rrio-TevofjLev^ teal vrrofjieveiv Tr)v eveica oiv elpydaavTO d/j,apTr)fj.dTO)v Troivrfv elvai o eV a-vvaiad^crei T^9 eiceWev dira\- PENANCE. 313 ' eXevdepova-dat, Be VTTO rr)<; atcpas ayaQoTijTos Bid rrjs TWV lepewv /cal einrouwv, a 7 dvaifjiaKTOV fj,d\icna Ovaiav^ Trpoertftepei -f] e/c/cXTycrt'a Sta TOU? % /j,era TO /Sa7rTto~/ia va ^piy o iepevs rov fj,evov et? ra Sicapurpeva yu-e\-?7, 7ri\eya)v ra \6s fMera dvajev6fj,eda reroia? \oyfjs, /Lie TO 07^0^ pvpov yev6/j,eda fj,ero%ot, rov dyiov Trvev/jiaro^ (3e/3aio)6evres et? rrjv vriariv rov Kvpiov, teal av^dvoftev et? rrjv deiav %dpiv Kara rov dTroaro\ov. Aevre- pov StaTt /ie rrjv Bvva/Jitv rov dyiov rev. OI/TCU? e'lfjiea-Qev /8e/3atoi real a-repeol OTTOV Sev rj^Tropei va /SXa-v/r^ Ka06\ov 6 vorjros e^#po? rrjv "^rv^v /tia?. Cf. Metroph. Critop. Conf. c. 8, p. 87 sqq. ; Jerem. in Act. Wirtemb. p. 79. The latter confesses that this sacrament rests upon no scriptural authority, but upon apostolical tradition. II. PROTESTANT. The Protestant Confessions mention Confirmation (the Komish) only to reject it. Apol. A. C. p. 201 : Confirmatio et extrema unctio sunt ritus accepti a patribus, quos ne ecclesia quidem tanquarn necessaries ad salutem requirit, quia non habent mandatum Dei. Conf. Saxon, p. 82: Eitus confir- mationis, quern nunc episcopi retinent, quid est nisi inanis CONFIRMATION, MARRIAGE, SUPREME UNCTION, ORDERS. 321 umbra ? Conf. Heh. ii. c. 1 9 : Confinnatio et extrema unctio inventa sunt hominum, quibus nullo cum damno carere potest ecclesia. But the earliest theologians recommended Confirma- tion as freed from papistical superstition (Chemnicius, Exam. Cone. Trid. ii. 3. 25; Calvin, Instit. iv. 19. 4; cf. a. Declar. Thorun. ii. 14. 1) ; and since the middle of the seventeenth century, this ceremony, which our Church has never held to be essential, has been everywhere either introduced or brought into publicity. S. Limborch, Theol. chr. v. 77. 2 sq. b. Marriage: Divorce. I. EOMISH. Cone. Trid. sess. xxiv. matrim. : Gratiam, quse naturalem amorem perficeret et indissolubilem unitatem confirmaret con- jugesque sanctificaret, ipse Christus, sacramentorum institutor atque perfector, sua nobis passione promeruit. . . . Cum igitur matrimonium in lege evangelica veteribus connubiis per Chris- tum gratia prsestet, merito inter novse legis sacramenta an- numerandum patres, concilia et universalis ecclesiae traditio semper docuerunt. Ib. can. 1 : Si quis dixerit, matrimonium non esse vere et proprie unum ex septem legis evangelicse sacramentis a Christo institutum, sed ab hominibus in ecclesia inventum neque gratiam conferre : anathema sit. Cat. Bom. ii. 8. 3 : Ita ex communi theologorum sententia definitur : matrimonium est viri et mulieris maritalis conjunctio, inter legitimas personas individuam vitse consuetudinem reti- nens. Ib. ii. 8. 15: Quemadmodum matrimonium, ut natu- ralis conjunctio ad propagandum humanum genus ab initio institutum est, ita deinde, ut populus ad veri dei et salvatoris nostri Christi cultum et religionem procrearetur atque educa- retur, sacramenti dignitas illi tributa est. Cum enim Christus vellet arctissimse illius necessitudinis, quse ei cum ecclesia intercedit, suseque erga nos immensse caritatis certum aliquod signum dare, tanti mysterii dignitatem hac potissimum maris et feminse sanctH conjunctione declaravit. Quod quidem ap- tissime factum esse, ex eo intelligi potest, quod ex omnibus x 322 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. humanis necessitudinibus nulla inter se homines magis quam matrimonii vinculum constringit, maxim&que inter se vir et uxor caritate et benevolentiS, devincti sunt. Atque idcirco fit, ut frequenter sacrse literae nuptiarum similitudine divinam hanc Christi et ecclesiae copulationem nobis ante oculos pro- ponant rb. ii. 8. 23 : Primnm matrimonii bonum est proles, hoc est liberi, qui ex justa" et legitima suscipiuntur uxore. Id enim tanti fecit apostolus, ut dicerit : Salvabitur mulier per filiorum generationem. Nee vero hoc de procreatione solum, sed de educatione etiam et discipline, qua filii ad pietatem erudiuntur, intelligendum est. 24 : Sequitur fides, quod est alterum matrimonii bonum, non ille virtutis habitus, quo im- buimur, cum baptismum percipimus, sed fidelitas quaedam, qua mntuo vir uxori - et uxor viro se ita obstringit, ut alter alteri sui corporis potestatem tradat, sanctumque illud conjugii foedus nunquam se violaturum pollicetur. 25: Tertium bonum sacramentum appellatur, vinculum scilicet matrimonii, quod nunquam dissolvi potest. Nam, ut est apud apostolum, domi- nus praecipit uxorem a viro non discedere : quod si discesserit, manere innuptam aut viro suo reconciliari : et vir uxorem non dimittat. Si enim matrimonium, ut sacramentum est, Christi conjunctionem cum ecclesia signat, necesse est, ut Christus se nunquam ab ecclesia disjungit, ita uxorem a viro, quod ad matrimonii vinculum attinet, separari non posse. As to the matter and form of this sacrament, it has been the most common opinion of theologians that the matter is the corpora or persona contrdhentium, and the form the verba or signa mutuum consensum exprimentia. Consequently the bridal pair are the ministri sacramenti. Against this opinion the dignity of the priestly benediction has been urged by Berg and others. See, on this controversy, Bossius and Schmid. IL GKEEK. Conf. orikod. p. 183 : 'O TI/JUOS 7/xo9, o OTTOIO? yiverai irpw- rov (j.ev /Lt Tr)v t9 aXX^Xou? a-v/x^wvlav rov avSpos KOI T?}veTai, Kal evXoyrjrat, CLTTO TOV lepea 77 (ru^wvia Kal vTroa^ecri^ TCOV. Cf. Metroph. Critop. Conf. c. 12, p. 114 sqq. ; Jerem. in Actis Wirtemb. pp. 78, 80, 241. The Greek Church permits no fourth marriage, and makes the second and third difficult (Met. Critop. Conf. 12).- Divorce. The Eoman Catholic Church declares every dissolution of marriage, or divortium (which allows another marriage), even after adultery resulting, to be unlawful, and permits only a separation of the pair. The Greeks, on the contrary, like the Mennonites, admit adultery to be a reason, and the only suf- ficient reason, for divorce. Metrop. Critop. Conf. c. 1 3 : " The married pair must not bs separated for any reason save that of adultery, according to the gospel." As to the law principles which regulate the practice of the Greek Church, vide Heinecc. ii. 393. The Protestant doctrine will appear below. I. EOMAN SYMBOLS. ConciL Trid. sess. xxiv. can. 7 : Si quis dixerit, ecclesiam errare, cum docuit et docet juxta evangelicam et apostolicam doctrinam, propter adulterium alterius conjugum matrimonii vinculum non posse dissolvi, et utrumque, vel etiam innocen- tem, qui causam adulterio non dedit, non posse, altero conjuge vivente, aliud matrimonium contrahere : mcecharique eum, qui dimissa adultera" aliam duxerit, et earn, quse dimisso adultero alii nupserit : anathema sit. Cat. Rom. ii. 8. 20 sq. : Christi testimonio (Matt. xix. 9) facile comprobatur, nullo divortio vinculum matrimonii dis- solvi posse. Si enim post libellum repudii mulier a viri lege soluta esset, liceret ei sine ullo adulterii crimine alteri viro nubere. Atqui dominus aperte denunciat: omnis, qui dimittit uxorem suam et alteram ducit, moschatur. Quare conjugii vinculum nulla re nisi morte disrumpi, perspicuum est. . . . Ac ne forte alicui videatur durior matrimonii lex, quod nulla 324 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. unquam ratione dissolvi possit, docendum est, quse sint cum ea utilitates conjunctee. Primum enim homines in conjun- gendis matrimoniis virtutem potius et moram similitudinem, quam divitias et pulchritudinem spectandam esse hinc intelli- gent, qua quidem re communi societati maxime consuli nemo dubitare potest. Praeterea, si divortio matrimonium dissol- veretur, vix unquam dissidendi causae hominibus, quse iis ab antiquo pacis et pudicitise hoste quotidie objicerentur, dees- sent. Nunc vero, cum fideles secum cogitant, quamvis etiam conjugii convictu et consuetudine careant, se tamen matrimonii vinculo constrictos teneri omnemque alterius uxoris ducendae spem sibi praecisam esse, esL re fit, ut ad iracundiam et dissidia tradiores esse consueverint. Quod si interdum etiam divor- tium faciant et diutius conjugis desiderium ferre non possint, facile per amicos reconciliati ad ejus convictum redeunt. Cf. Bellarmin, De sacram. matrim. c. 1 4-1 7 ; Klee, Jcath. Doymat. iii 317 ffi; Walter, Kirchenrccht. S. 620 ff. IL PROTESTANT. The Protestant symbols recognise in marriage a divine in- stitution (Conf. Aug. p. 33 ; Apol. A. C. p. 238 ; Cat. maj. 455 ; Conf. Helv. i. art. 27 ; Helv. ii. 29), but without admit- ting that it is a sacrament. Apol. p. 202 : Matrimonium non est primum institution in novo Testamento, sed statim initio, creato genere humano. "It has the commandment of God, it has also the promises, not indeed peculiar to the New Testa- ment, but pertaining to life universal in the body. Where- fore; if any one wishes to call it a sacrament, he ought to distinguish it from those more proper sacraments which are signs in the New Testament, testimonies of grace and of the remission of sins." Cf. Calvin, Instit. iv. 19. 34; Conf. Helv. ii. cap. 19; Dec. Thor. p. 67. The ecclesiastical benediction was, however, always usual in the Protestant Church, with the exception of Holland (Luther's Traiibuchlcin became an ap- pendix of the Catechism), but not as necessary, rather as an edifying usage. 1 1 In the Harmon. Conf., the Conf. Helv. ii. c. 29 has : confirmentur (conjugia) publice in templo cum prccatione et benedidione. CONFIRMATION, MARRIAGE, SUPREME UNCTION, ORDERS. 325 As to divorce, the Protestant symbols contain nothing com- plete. Generally, we read in A. Sm. p. 355 : injusta est tra- ditio, quse prohibet conjugium personae innocenti post factum divortium. The Conf. Sax., p. 80, is more copious: De divor- tiis firmissime tenetur regula : peccare eos, qui vel adulterio vel desertione initium faciunt distractionis et adulteri et adul- terse, et desertores et desertrices condemnamus voce docentium in ecclesiis et judicum in consistoriis, et a magistratibus severe puniuntur. Sed personse innocenti, cum re cognita" pronun- tiatur esse libera, non prohibetur conjugium, ut deum invocare et pie vivere possit. . . . Haec nostra consuetudo et cum veteri ecclesia congruit. Vide Conf. Wirtemb. p. 120 ; Chemnicius, Exam. Cone. Trid. ii 14, p. 600 sqq. ; limborch, Theol. chr. v. 60. 33 sqq. c. Extreme Unction: Extrema Unctio. EOMISH AND GREEK. Cone. Trid. sess. xiv. Procem. de. sacr. extr. unct. : Visum est synodo, praecedenti doctrinae de pcenitentia adjungere ea, quse sequuntur de sacramento extremae unctionis : quod non modo poenitentise, sed et totius Christianas vitae, quse perpetua pceni- tentia esse debet, consummativum existimatum est a patribus. Primum itaque circa illius institutionem declarat et docet, quod clementissimus redemtor noster, quemadmodum auxilia maxima in sacramentis aliis praeparavit, quibus christiani con- servare se integros, dum viverent, ab omni graviori spiritus incommode possint, ita extreme unctionis sacramento finem vitse tanquam firmissimo quodam praesidio munivit. Ib. cap. 1 : Instituta est sacra unctio infirmorum tanquam vere et proprie sacramentum N. T., a. Christo Marc. vi. 13, quidem insinuatum, per Jacobum autem (v. 14 sq.) fidelibus commendatum ac promulgatum. . . . Intellexit ecclesia, mate- riam esse oleum ab episcopo benedictum. Nam unctio aptis- sime Spiritus sancti gratiam repraesentat ; formam deinde esse ilia verba : per istam unctionem cet. /&. cap. 2 : Oratio fidei salvabit infirmuni et alleviabit eum dominus et, si in peccatis sit, dimittentur ei. Ees etenim haec 326 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. gratia est Spiritus sancti, cujus nnctio delicta, si quae sint adhuc expianda, ac peccati reliquias abstergit et aegroti ani- mam alleviat et confirmat, magnam in eo divinse misericordise fiduciam excitando, qua infirmus sublevatus . . . et sanitatem corporis interdum, ubi saluti animae expedient, consequitnr. Ib. cap. 3 : Declaratur, esse hanc unctionem infirmis adhi- bendam, illis vero prassertim, qui tarn periculose decumbunt, ut in exitu vita? constituti videantur. Quod si infirmi post susceptam hanc unctionem convaluerint, iterum hujus sacra- menti subsidio juvari poterunt, cum in aliud simile vitae dis- crimen inciderint. Cat. Horn. ii. 6. 9 : Docendi sunt fideles, quamvis hoc sacra- mentum ad omnes pertineat, queedam tamen hominum genera excipi, quibus administrandum non est. Ac primum exci- piuntur, qui sano et finno corpore sunt. lis enim extremam unctionem tribuendam non esse, et apostolus docet, cum in- quit : Infinnatur quis in vobis, . . . et ratio ostendit, siquidem ob earn rem instituta est, non modo ut animae, sed etiam ut corpori medicinam afferat. Cum igitur illi tantum, qui morbo laborant, curatione indigeant, idcirco iis etiam, qui adeo peri- culose aegrotare videntur, ut, ne supremus illis vitae dies instet, metuendum sit, hoc sacramentum praeberi debet. Nemini igitur, qui graviori morbo affectus non sit, sacramentum unc- tionis dare licet, tametsi vitae periculum adeat, vel quia peri- culosam navigationem paret, vel quia prcelium initurus sit, a quo illi certa mors impendeat, vel etiam si capitis damnatus ad supplicium raperetur. Omnes praeterea, qui rationis usu carent, ad hoc sacramentum suscipiendum apti non sunt ; et pueri, qui nulla peccata admittunt, quorum reliquias sanare hujus sacramenti remedio opus sit; amentes item et furiosi, nisi interdum rationis usum haberent, et eo potissimum tern- pore pii animi significatiqnem darent peterentque, ut sacro oleo unguerentur. Ib. ii. 6. 11 : In quibus illud observare oportet, tm eadem- que aegrotatione, cum aeger in eodem vitae periculo positus est, semel tantum unguendum esse. Quod si post susceptam hanc unctionem aeger convaluerit, quoties postea in id vitae discri- men incident, toties ejusdem sacramenti subsidium ei poterit adhiberi. CONFIRMATION, MARRIAGE, SUPREME UNCTION, ORDERS. 327 Conf. orihod. p. 185 sq. : To ev%e\aiov TO OTTOLOV elvai Sia- TCTayuevov diro TOV XpiGTov (Mr. VL 13). . . . TIpwTov irpeTrec va Trpocre^ofjiev, va /?/? TWOS dpTvaaTos, KOI va elvai 6 do~0evr)S 6p06So%os ical Ka6o\iicf]s 7rurT69, va elvat, eo/J,o\oyovfj,evo<; TO, a/iapr^yaara TOV ep,Trpoa'6ev et? TOV iepea TQV TTVeVfiaTLKOV TOV Kttl TplTOV 6t9 TOV KaipOV TOV %pl(TfUlTO<; va SiojSa^erat r\ eup^ eKeivrj, els TTJV oTroiav epfj,r)veveTai TOV fjLVo-Trjpiov TOVTOV fj Suvafjiis. Ta Sidtyopa ical Kapirovs OTTOV yevvovvTat aTro TO fiva-Tijpiov TOVTO, 6 a7roo-TO\09 'la/ceo/So? (v. 14) Tou? epfirjvevei, \eycovTas atyetriv af^apTiwv r) a-coTTjpiav ijrin?}9, eTretTa vyeiav TOV cryu,aT09 va fj,rjv yiveTat,, aXV rj a To> iivcFTrjpia). . . . ware ov% a-na^ TOV j3iov aXXa /cat yjpr}aQai, TOVTW, tcadd Kal Tols lafAaTitcois aKts ^pco/ie^a, ocrd/as VO(J"TI5 rcav ^eiptav avrwv (J>e%pi TT}? TT]pia<> TUV d CONFIRMATION, MARRIAGE, SUPREME UNCTION, OKDERS. 329 Cf. Jerem. in Actis Wirteinb. pp. 78, 241. Ordination is called by the Greeks ^tporovia. II. PROTESTANT. Apol. A. C., p. 201 sq., admits that orders may be a sacra- ment in the wider sense ; that is, if ordo means the ministry of the word. A. Sm. p. 352 : Cum jure divino non sint diversi gradus episcopi et pastoris, manifestum est, ordinationem a pastore in sua ecclesia factum jure divino ratam esse. The evangelical doctrine of ordination is best given by Chemnicius, Examen Concilii Tridentini, ed. E. Preuss, S. 4*79, 480. Conf. Helv. ii. cap. 1 8 : Qui electi sunt (ab ecclesia vel ad hoc deputatis ab ecclesia), ordinentur a senioribus cum ora- tionibus publicis et impositione manuum. /&. cap. 19 : Sunt, qui sacramenta septem numerent. Ex quibus nos . . . ordinationem ministrorum non papisticam quidem illam sed apostolicam . . . agnoscimus institutum esse dei utile, sed non sacramentum. Declar. Tliorun. p. 67. XIX. THE .CHURCH: ITS IDEA AND AUTHORITY. FIKST POINT OF DIVERGENCE. THE Eomanists term the Church the fellowship of those bap- tized into Christ, as founded upon earth by Christ under His representative, the Pope, as its visible head. The Protestants, on the contrary, term it the fellowship of the saints, in which the gospel is purely preached and the sacraments are duly, that is, in harmony with their institution, administered. Observations. The preaching of the word of God and administration of the sacra- ments, as open to observation and scriptural test, have been regarded by Protestants as the externce notce of the Church. Apol. A. C. 144 ; Helv. ii. c. 17. That which lies at the basis of the fellowship of saints, true faith, is something internal. With reference to this in particular, and to the doctrine of election, some Reformed Confessions term the Church invisibilis: Helv. ii. c. 17 ; Conf. Scot. art. 16. Cf. Calvin, Institt. iv. 1. 7. The German Reformers rather avoided this term invisible, on account of Anabaptist and Romanist perversions : cf. e.g. Melanch. Loc. i. p. 283. [That the Church is at once a fellowship and an institution, is not doubted by either the Romanist or the Evangelical Church. The question is only as to which of the two is the foremost and most essential element. The Roman Church teaches that the Church is principaliter institution ; the Protestants, that it is principaliter fellowship.] 330 THE CHURCH: ITS IDEA AND AUTHORITY. 331 SYMBOLICAL TESTB10NIES. I. EOMAN CATHOLIC. Confut. A. C.7: Septimus Conf. A. artic., quo affirmatur ecclesiam congregationem esse sanctorum, non potest citra fidei prsejudicium admitti, si per hoc segregentur ab ecclesia" mali et peccatores. Nam articulus ille in Constantiensi damnatus est concilio inter errores damnatse memorise J. Huss et plane contradicit evangelio (Matt. xiii. 47 sq., xxv. 1 sqq.). Cat. Horn. i. 10. 7 : In ecclesia militant! duo sunt hominum genera, bonorum et irnprobonun, et improbi quidem eorundem sacramentorum participes, eandem quoque, quam boni, fidem profitentur, vit& ac moribus dissimiles ; boni vero in ecclesia" dicuntur ii, qui non solum fidei professione et communione sacramentorum sed etiam spiritu gratise et caritatis vinculo inter se conjuncti et colligati sunt. . . . Bonos igitur et im- probos ecclesia complectitur, quemadmodum et divinse litterae et sanctorum virorum scripta testantur. 8 : Quamvis autem bonos et malos ad ecclesiam pertinere catholica fides vere et constanter affirmet, ex iisdem tamen fidei regulis fidelibus ex- plicandum est, utriusque partis diversam admodum rationem esse ; ut enim paleae cum frumento in area" confusae sunt vel interdum membra varie intermortua corpori conjuncta, ita etiam mali in ecclesiS, continentur. 11: Unus est ecclesiee rector ac gubernator, invisibilis quidem Christus . . ., visibilis autem is, qui Eomanam cathedram Petri, apostolorum principis, legi- timus successor tenet. (Bellarmini Eccles. milit. c. 2 : Nostra sententia est, ecclesiam unam tantum esse, non duas, et illam unam et veram esse co2tum hominum, ejusdem christianse fidei professione et eorun- dem sacramentorum communione colligatum, sub regrmme legi- timorum pastorum ac prsecipue unius Christi in terris vicarii, Eomani pontificis. Ex quS, definitione facile colligi potest, qui homines ad ecclesiam pertineant, qui vero ad earn non pertineant. Tres enim sunt partes hujus definitionis. Pro- fessio verse fidei, sacramentorum communio et subjectio ad legitimum pastorem, Eomanum pontificem. Eatione primse partis excluduntur omnes infideles, tarn qui nunquam fuerunt 332 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. in ecclesia, ut Judaei, Turcae, Pagani, tarn qui fuerunt et reces- serunt, ut haeretici et apostate. Eatione secundae excluduntur catecliumeni et excommunicati, quoiiiam illi non sunt admissi ad sacramentorum communionem, isti sunt dimissL Eatione tertiae excluduntur schismatici, qui habent fidem et sacramenta, sed non subduntur legitimo pastori, et ideo foris profitentur fidem et sacramenta percipiunt. Includuntur autem onines alii, etiamsi reprobi, scelesti et impii sunt. Atque hoc interest inter sententiam nostram et alias omnes, quod onines alise re- quirunt internas virtutes ad constituendum aliquem in ecclesia, et propterea ecclesiam veram invisibilem faciunt ; nos autem et credimus, in ecclesia inveniri omnes virtutes, fidem, spem, caritatem et ceteras, tamen ut aliquis aliquo modo dici possit pars verae ecclesiae, de qua scripturse loquuntur, non putamus requiri ullam internam virtutem, sed tantum externam profes- sionem fidei et sacramentorum communionem, quoe sensu ipso percipitur. Ecclesia enim est ccetus honrinurn ita visibilis et palpabilis, ut est costus populi Eomani, vel regnum Gallioe aut respublica Venetorum.) IL GREEK. In the Confessions of the Greeks there is no permanent defi- nition of Church : even Metr. Critop., c. 7, leaves it undecided whether eKxXrja-ia signifies a-va-TTjfui iravrwv ruv TM evarfje\iKu> KTjpvyfutTi OTTCOGOVV TreiffdevTcov, op6oB6(ov KOI aiperiK&v, or, ac- cording to others, avffrrjfji.a fjiovow rwv opdoBo^cov teal trepl rbv XjjUTTiavKTfjiov Kara iravra vyuuvovrow. On the other hand, a synod pronounced against Cyril Lucar's assertion that the K\KTOI alone constituted the Church of Christ (ecclesia in- visibilis); vide Parthenii Dec. syn. p. 123; and cf. Dosithei Conf. c. II. 1 III. PROTESTANT. C. A. p. 11 : Est ecclesia congregatio sanctorum, in qufi evangelium recte docetur et recte administrantur sacramenta. THE CHURCH: ITS IDEA AND AUTHORITY. 333 Apol. C. A. p. 144: Ecclesia non est tantum societas ex- ternarum rerum ac rituum, sicut alise polities, sed principaliter est societas fidei et Sp. s. in cordibus, quse tamen habet ex- ternas notas, ut agnosci possit, videlicet puram evangelii doc- trinam et administrationem sacramentorum consentaneam evangelic Christi. Quare illi, in quibus nihil agit Christus, non sunt membra Christi. Ib. p. 148 : Non somniamus nos Platonicam civitatem, ut quidam impie cavillantur, sed dicinms exsistere hanc ecclesiam, videlicet vere credentes ac justos, sparsos per totum orbem. Et addimus notas puram doctrinam evangelii et sacramenta. Et hsec ecclesia proprie est columna veritatis. Eetinet enim purum evangelium et, ut Paulus inquit, fundamentum, hoc est, veram Christi cognitionem et fidem, etsi sunt in his etiam multi imbecilles, qui supra fundamentum sedificant stipulas perituras, hoc est, quasdam inutiles opiniones, qure tamen, quia non evertunt fundamentum, turn condonantur illis turn etiam emendantur. Cf. Conf. Saxon, p. 68. II. p. 144 : Addiderunt adversarii longam declamationem, quod mali non sint ab ecclesia segregandi. . . . Nos ob hanc ipsam causam adjecimus octavum articulum, ne quis existi- maret, nos segregare malos et hypocritas ab externa societate ecclesiae. P. 146 : In decretis inquit glossa ecclesiam large dictam complecti bonos et malos, it. malos nomine tantum in ecclesia esse, non re, bonos vero re et nomine. (Accordingly the F. C., p. 827, makes it Anabaptist error to say: non esse earn veram et christ. ecclesiam, in qua peccatores reperiantur.) Ib. p. 149 : Fortassis adversarii sic postulant definiri eccle- siam, quod sit monarchia externa suprema totius orbis terrarum, in qua oporteat Eomanum pontificem habere potestatem dvu- Trevdvvov, de qua nemini liceat disputare aut judicare, condendi articulos fidei, abolendi scripturas, quas velit, instituendi cultus et sacrificia, item condendi leges, quas velit, dispensandi et solvendi quibuscunque legibus velit divinis, canonicis et civi- libus ; a quo imperator et reges omnes accipiant potestatem et jus tenendi regna, de mandate Christi. Atque hsec definitio, non ecclesiae Christi sed regni Pontificii, habet auctores non solum canonistas, sed etiam Danielem cap. xi. Conf. ffelv. ii cap. 1 7 : Oportet semper fuisse, esse et futu- 334 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. ram esse ecclesiam, id est e mundo evocatum vel collectum coetum fidelium, sanctorum inquam omnium communionem, eorum videlicet, qui deum verum in Christo servatore per verbum et Spiritum sanctum vere cognoscunt et rite colunt, denique omnibus bonis per Christum gratuito oblatis fide par- ticipant. . . . Ulam docemus veram esse ecclesiam, in qu& signa vel notae inveniuntur ecclesise verae, inpr. vero verbi divini legitima vel sincera praedicatio. Conf. Basil, art. 5 : (Germ.) We believe in one holy, Chris- tian Church : that is, the fellowship of the saints, the congre- gation of spiritual believers, which is holy and the bride of Christ, in which all are citizens who confess truly 1 that Jesus is Christ the Lamb of God . . . and approve that faith by works. Conf. Gall, art 27 : Affirmamus ex dei verbo, ecclesiam esse fidelium ccetum, qui in verbo dei sequendo et pura reli- gione colenda consentiunt, m qua etiam quotidie proficiunt cet. Minime tamen infitiamur, quin fidelibus hypocritse et reprobi multi sint permixti, sed quorum malitia ecclesise nomen delere non possit. Conf. Belg. art. 2 7 : Credimus unicam ecclesiam catholi- cam seu universalem, quae est congregatio sancta seu ccetus omnium vere fidelium christianorum, qui totam suam salutem in uno Jesu Christo exspectant, sanguine ipsius abluti et per spiritum ejus sanctificati atque obsignatL . . . Sancta haec ecclesia certo in loco non est sita vel limitata aut ad certas singularesque personas alligata, sed per totum mundum sparsa atque diffusa. Art 29: Nequaquam hie de hypocritarum ccetu loquimur, qui quanquam bonis in ecclesia permixti sint, de ecclesia tamen non sunt, etiamsi corpore in ea sint. Notse quibus vera ecclesia cognoscitur, haB snnt: si ecclesia pura evangelii praedicatione, si sincera sacramentorum ex Chr. prae- scripto administratione utatur, si disciplina ecclesiastica, ut vitia corrigantur, obtineat. Ris, Conf. art. 24 : Fideles et regenerati homines per totum terrarum orbem dispersi sunt verus dei populus sive ecclesia Jesu Ch. in terra cet. Quamvis hanc inter ecclesiam ingens simulatorum et hypocritarum lateat et versetur multitudo, illi 1 In the Latin text of the Syntagma, it is only qui confiteutur. THE CHURCH: ITS IDEA AND AUTHORITY. 335 tamen soli sunt vera corporis Ch. membra atque eapropter beatorum promissomm haeredes cet. Cf. Thirty-nine Artt. xix. ; Conf. Scot. art. xvi ; [ West. Conf. ch. xx. 2, 3, 4]; Declar. Thor. p. 68. The definition of the Church in the style of Predestinarianism runs thus : Ecclesia est societas fidelium, quos deus ad vitam seternam praedesti- navit. Cat. Gen. p. 480. IV. ARMINIAN. The Arminians agree with the Lutherans in the definition of the true Church : limborch, TJi. ch. 7 ; Curcellsei Tr. de eccl. p. 659. What is found in the Apol. Conf. Bern. p. 241 has nothing to do with the definition of the Church, and may be passed over. V. QUAKER. The Quakers call the Church : 1. In the wider sense, the community of all, of whatever nation, or race, or tongue, including those who are far off and strangers to the knowledge and profession of the Christian faith, who follow the divine light within them, and the testimony of God in their hearts, that they may be sanctified by it and delivered from evil Such men have always been upon earth, even before the coming of Christ; and they are still to be found among Turks, and heathens, and Jews. 2. In the stricter sense, the Church is to be considered a certain number of persons gathered by God's Spirit, and by the testimony of some of His servants raised up for that end, unto the belief of the true principles and doctrines of the Christian faith, who, through their hearts being united by the same love, and their under- standings informed in the same truths, gather, meet, and assemble together to wait upon God, to worship Him, etc. Barclay, Apol. Prop. x. sec. 3. The Quakers unite with the Anabaptists and Mennonites in so interpreting the life of God in the soul, and so applying the words of Christ, as to refuse certain observances and duties which others practise, such as some political offices, taking the 336 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. oath in courts of justice, serving in war. Barclay, Apol. xv. Ris, Conf. art 37; F. C. 827. VL SOCINIANS. The Socinians, placing all religion in the knowledge and obedience of the divine will, and thinking that both these may be attained without the Church, hold the idea of the Church to be unimportant. They understand by it the fellowship of those who adhere to the true doctrine of Christian salvation. This they call the invisible Church, as embracing those who trust in Christ and obey Him, and the visible as embracing those who hold and profess this doctrine together (Cat. Eac. qu. 488). The trusting and obeying are to them altogether internal ; while the profession is external, and constitutes the visible Church. But they hold the Church proper to be the visible ; the word is used of the invisible only by metonymy. But then the visible Church is of course something very different from that of Rome. Cat. Eac. 352. SECOND POINT OF DIVERGENCE. Outside the Church of Christ, which is led by the Spirit of God into all the truth, there is for men no eternal salvation. Romanists and Protestants agree in this. But their several view of the Church affects the meaning of this expression. Hence the proposition has a very different meaning and appli- cation in the two systems. SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. a. Extra ccclesiam nulla salus. I. ROMAN CATHOLIC. Cone. Trid. sess. v. Deer, de pecc. orig. : Ut fides nostra catholica, sine qua impossibile est placere deo, . . . per- maneat. THE CHURCH : ITS IDEA AND AUTHORITY. 337 Cat. Eom. i 10. 16: Universalis etiam ob earn causam dicitur (ecclesia), quod omnes, qui salutem ceternam conscqui cupiunt, earn tenere et amplecti debeant, non secus ac qui arcam, ne diluvio perirent, ingress! sunt. Ib. L 10. 19 : . . . In sola del" ecclesia", neque extra earn usquam, verus cultus verumque sacrificium reperitur, quod deo placere ullo modo possit. Profess, fid. Trid. : Catholica fides, extra quam nemo salvus esse potest cet. S. Klee, JcatM. Dogma*, i. S. 123 II. PROTESTANT. C. A. p. 10 : Neque vero pertinet (promissio salutis) ad illos, qui sunt extra ecclesiam Christi, ubi nee verbum nee sacramenta sunt, quia regnum Christi tantum cum verbo et sacramentis exsistit. Cat. maj. p. 500 sq. : Extra christianitatern, ubi evangelio locus non est, neque ulla est peccatorum remissio, queniad- modum nee ulla sanctificatio adesse potest. Cf. p. 503. Conf. Helv. ii. c. 17: Communionem cum ecclesia Ch. vera tanti facimus, ut negemus, eos coram deo vivere posse, qui cum vera dei ecclesia non communicant, sed ab ea se separant. Nam ut extra arcam Noe non erat ulla salus, pereunte mundo in diluvio, ita credimus extra Christum, qui se electis in ecclesia fruendum proebet, nullam esse salutem certam, et proinde docemus, vivere volentes non oportere separari a vera Christi ecclesia. Conf. Bdg. art. 2 8 : Credimus, quod cum . . . extra eccle- siam nulla sit salus, neminem, cujuscunque ordinis aut digni- tatis fuerit, sese ab ea subducere debere, ut se ipso contentus separatim degat ; sed omnes pariter teneri huic se adjungere eique uniri, ecclesice unitatem conservare cet. Conf. Gall. art. 28 : Papisticos conventus damnamus, quod pura dei veritas ab illis exsulet, in quibus etiam sacramenta fidei corrupta sunt cet. Ac proinde arbitramur, omnes eos, qui sese ejusmodi actionibus adjungunt et iis communicant, a Chr. corpore se ipsos separare. S. Conf. Scot. art. 16. Y 338 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. 5. Infallibility of tlie Church. t KOMAN CATHOLIC. Catech. Horn. i. 10. 18: Quemadmodum haee una ecclesia (cathoL) errare non potest in fidei ac morum discipline, tra- denda, cum a Spir, s. gubernetur: ita ceteras omnes, quae sibi ecclesiae nomen arrogant, ut quae diaboli spiritu du- cantur, in doctrinae et morum perniciosissimis erroribus versari necesse est. (Bellarmini Eccl. milit. c. 14 : Nostra sententia est, ec- clesiam absolute non posse errare nee in rebus absolute neces- sariis nee in aliis, quae credenda vel facienda nobis proponit, sive habeantur expresse in scripturis sive non ; et cum dici- mus, ecclesiam non posse errare, id intelligimus tarn de uni- versitate fidelium quam de universitate episcoporum, ita ut sensus sit ejus propositionis : ecclesia non potest errare i. e. id quod tenent omnes fideles tanquam de fide, necessario est verum et de fide, et similiter id quod docent omnes episcopi tanquam ad fidem pertinens, necessario est verum et de fide. Cf. Klee, kathol. Dogm. i S. Ill ff.) [The Encyclical of 8th Dec. 1864: Eomani pontifices et concilia cecumenica a limitibus suae potestatis recesserant, jura principum usurparunt, atque etiam in rebus fidei et morum definiendis errarunt. The present Vatican Council makes Papal Infallibility an article of faith.] II. PROTESTANT. Apol. C. A. p. 148 : Haec ecclesia proprie est columna veritatis, p. 150. Non est ad pontifices transferendum, qiiod ad veram ecclesiam pertinet, quod videlicet sint columnaa veritatis. [Hutterus, Compendium locorum theologicorum loc. xvii. No. 18: Ergone errare potest ecclesia? Potest. No. 19. Sic statuendum est, errare non posse ecclesiam si totam ac uni- versam ecclesiam sive catholicam ecclesiam respicias. .-.4 Cseterum quoad hanc vel illam particularem ecclesiam, imo THE CHUECH : ITS IDEA AND AUTHORITY. 339 quoad maximam etiam ejus partem errare potest ecclesia, imo enormiter erravit saepissime, id quod patet exemplo ecclesise tempore diluvii, tempore Elise prophetse, tempore nati Christi, tempore Arianismi per totum orientem ecclesias occupantis.] Conf. Helv. ii. c. 17 : Ecclesia dei . . . non errat, quamdiu innititur petrae Christo et fundamento prophetarum et apos- tolorum. Against the infallibility of the Eomish Church, see Thirty- nine Artt. art. xix. THIED POINT OF DIVERGENCE. The Christian Church upon earth (ecclesia militans) has, according to the Protestants and the Greeks, only one invisible Head, Christ. In the Eomish system there is a visible head, the Eoman Bishop or Pope, as the successor of Peter ap- pointed by Christ as chief Bishop and Vicar of Himself. The power of the Pope in the Church has, however, not been de- fined, as to its extent, in the symbols. SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. I. EOMISH. Condi. Florent. diffinit. (in Harduin, ix. p. 986) : Diffini- mus, sanctam apostol. sedem et Eomanum pontificem in uni- versum orbem tenere primatum et ipsum pontificem Eom. successorem esse Petri, principis apostolorum, et verum Christi vicarium totiusque ecclesise caput et omnium Christianor. patrem ac doctorem exsistere cet. In the Cone. Trid. is ascribed to the Pope (Christi in terris vicario, sess. vi. ref. cap. 1) suprema in ecclesiai universal! potestas (sess. xiv. cap. 7) ; the confirmation of bishops (sess. xxiii. can. 8) ; the decision as to indulgences and Comnmnio sub utraque (sess. xxv. de indulg., sess. xxii. super petitione concess. calic.). 340 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. In the Profess, fid. Trid. the Pope is called Petri aposto- lorum principis successor ac I. Ch. vicarius. Cat. Rom. L 10. 11 : Unus est ecclesise rector ac guber- nator, invisibilis quidem Christus, . . . visibilis autem is, qui Eomanam cathedram, Petri apostolorum principis legitimus successor, tenet. Ib. i 10. 12: (De Romano pontifice) fuit ilia omnium patrum ratio et sententia, hoc visibile caput ad unitatem ecclesise constituendam et conservandam neces- sarium fuisse. Ib. ii. 7. 28 : Catholica ecclesia Romanum pontificem maximum, quem in Ephesina synodo Cyrillus Alexandrinus archiepiscopum totius orbis, terrarum patrem et patriarcham appellat, semper venerata est. Cum enim in Petri apos- tolorum principis cathedra sedeat, in qua usque adfixlem sedisse constat, summum in eo dignitatis graduni et jurisdio- tionis amplitudinem, non quidem ullis synodicis aut uliis humanis constitutionibus sed divinitus datam agnoscit. Quam- obrem omnium fidelium et episcoporum ceterorumque an- tistitum, quocunque illi munere et potestate prsediti sint, pater ac moderator universali ecclesia? ut Petri successor Christique verus et legitimus vicarius in terris prsesidet. II. GREEK AND PROTESTANT. Conf. ortJwd. p. 138 sq. : AiBaaKofieda, TTW? fiovos 6 Xp^cTo? eivat Kea\7) T??S KK\T)a\r) TrdvToW) ef ov irav TO trwytta a 975 tca\r)<>, Kal ovSeva rwv iro\fiioiv a\^a\r]v XeyeaBai, TTJS e/c/cX^o-ta?. As to the opinion of the Greeks concerning the primacy of the Roman bishop, cf. Heinecc. ii. 371 ff. ; s. Philaret, n. 16. THE CHURCH : ITS IDEA AND AUTHORITY. 341 In the Greek symbols the Pope is not mentioned. The four patriarchs have equal rank. A. Sm. p. 312: Quod papa non sit jure divino sen. secundum verbum dei caput totius christianitatis (hoc enim nomen uni et soli Jesu Christo debetur), sed tantum episcopus et pastor ecclesise, quce est Komse, et eorum qui voluntarie et sponte vel per humanam creaturam, id est politicum magis- tratum, se ad eum conferunt, . . . vetera concilia et setas Cypriani ostendunt. Ib. p. 313: Hinc sequitur, omnia, quse papa ex tarn arro- gante, temeraria, mendace, blasphema et furto accepta" potestate suscepit et fecit et adhuc facit, fuisse et esse mere diabolica acta et instituta (excepta politici regni administratione, ubi deus etiam saepe per tyrannos et perfidos nebulones populo alicubi benefacit) ad perditionem totius sanctse ecclesise catho- licse seu christianse (quantum in ipso est) et ad destructionem primi et prsecipui articuli de redemtione facta per Jesum Christum. Ib. p. 314: Ecclesia nunquam melius gubernari et conser- vari potest, quam si omnes sub uno capite, quod est Christus, vivamus. Ib. p. 340 (tr. de potestate et primatu papse) : Eom. pontifex arrogat sibi, quod jure div. sit supra omnes epis- copos et pastores ; deinde addit etiam, quod jure div. habeat utrumque gladium, h. e. auctoritatem etiam regna confer- endi et transferendi ; et tertio dicit, quod haec credere sit de necessitate salutis. Et propter has causas Eom. episcopus vocat se vicarium Christi in terris. Hos tres articulos sentimus falsos, impios, tyrannicos et perniciosos ecclesite esse. Cf. also Con/. Wirtemb. p. 131 sq. Conf. Helv. ii. cap. 27: Caput est, quod in corpore emi- nentiam habet et unde vitam haurit, cujus spiritu regitur in omnibus, unde et incrementa et ut crescat habet. Unicum item est corporis caput et cum corpore habet congruentiam. Ergo ecclesia non potest ullum aliud habere caput quam Christum. Nam ut ecclesia corpus est spirituale, ita caput habeat sibi congruens spirituale utique oportet. Nee alio potest regi spiritu, quam Christi. Non probamus ergo doc- 342 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. trinam cleri Eomani, facientis suum ilium Eom. pontificem catholicae in terris ecclesiae militantis pastorem universalem et caput summum, adeoque verum Christi vicarium, qui habeat in ecclesia plenitudinem, ut vocant, potestatis et dominium supremum. Docemus enim, Christum dominum esse et man- ere unicum pastorem universalem, summum item pontificem coram deo patre, ac in ecclesia ipsum omnia pontificis vel pastoris obire munia ad finem usque seculi, ideoque nullo in- digere vicario, qui absentis est. Christus vero praesens est ecclesiae et caput vivificum. Confess. Angl. p. 91 : Credimus, ecclesiam esse regnum, esse corpus Christi, ejus regni Christum solum esse principem, ejus corporis Christum solum esse caput cet. . . . Caput ec- clesiae totius aut universalem episcopum non magis aut ilium (Roman, episcopum), aut alium quemvis mortalem esse posse, quam sponsum, quam lucem, quam salutem, quam vitam ec- clesiae : haec enim esse Christi unius privilegia et nomina et illi uni proprie atque unice convenire. See Conf. Gall art. 30 ; Bdg. art. 29 ; Declar. Thorun. p. 70 ; and limborch, Theol. chr. vii. 10. Apologia Conf. Aug. S. 149 and 208. Art. Smalc. S. 347 : Constat, Eomanos pontifices cum suis membris defendere impiam doctrinam et impios cultus. Ac plane notae Antichristi competunt in regnum papas et sua membra. Paulus enim ad Thessalonicenses describens Anti- christum, vocat eum adversarium Christi, extollentem se super omne, quod dicitur aut colitur Deus, sedentem in templo Dei, tanquam Deum. Loquitur igitur de aliquo regnante in ecclesia", non de regibus ethnicis : et hunc vocat adversarium Christi, quia doctrinam pugnantem cum evangelic excogita- turus sit, et is arrogabit sibi auctoritatem divinam. Primum autem constat, papam regnare in ecclesia", et praetextu ecclesi- .asticse auctoritatis et ministerii sibi hoc regnum constituisse. . . Deinde doctrina papae multipliciter pugnat cum evan- gelio, et arrogat sibi papa auctoritatem divinam tripliciter : primum quia . . ., secundo quia . . ., tertio quia . . . Hoc autem est se Deum facere, nolle ab ecclesiS, aut ab ullo judicari. . . . Haec quum ita sint, cavere omnes Christiani debent, ne fiant participes impiae doctrinae, blasphemiarum THE CHUECH : ITS IDEA AND AUTHORITY. 343 et injustse crudelitatis papSB. Ideo papam cum suis membris, tanquam regmirn Antichristi, deserere et exsecrari debent. Cf. Confessio et expositio brevis et simplex sincerce rel. christ. cap. xi. in August!, S. 28; Confessio Bohcemica, art. 8; Niemeyer, S. 798; Confessio Sigismundi, c. xiii. ; Nie- meyer, S. 649. XX. THE MINISTEY, THAT the Church might exert its energies for the advantage of its members, certain special organs, chosen from the body of Christians, are necessary : the ministri ecclcsice, or an ap- pointed ministerial function. With the exception of the Quakers and Anabaptists, all Christian communities have been agreed in this. But a divergence of sentiment has obtained as to the relation of the ministerial order to the general body of Christians. The Protestants ascribe to that order a distinction from other believers, grounded only on the function of their office ; but the Eomish Church vindicates for its priesthood an indelible character, imparted in ordination, which for ever separates them from the laity. It sharply opposes the clergy as the governing, to the laity as the governed body. SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. I. QUAKER. As by the light or gift of God all true knowledge in things spiritual is received and revealed, so by the same, as it is manifested and received in the heart, by the strength and power thereof, every true minister of the gospel is ordained, prepared, and supplied in the work of the ministry ; and by the leading, moving, and drawing hereof ought every evangelist and Christian pastor to be led and ordered in his labour and 844 THE MINISTRY. 345 work of the gospel, "both as to the place where, as to the persons to whom, and as to the time wherein, he is to be minister. Moreover, they who have this authority may and ought to preach the gospel, though without human commis- sion or literature ; as, on the other hand, they who want the authority of the divine gift, however learned, or authorized by the commission of men or churches, are to be esteemed but as deceivers, and not true ministers of the gospel. Also, they who have received this holy and unspotted gift, as they have freely received it, so are they freely to give it without hire or bargaining, far less to use it as a trade to get money by ; yet if God hath called any one from their employment or trades by which they acquire their livelihood, it may be lawful for such, according to the liberty which they feel given them in the Lord, to receive such temporals (to wit, what may be needful for them for meat or clothing) as are given them freely and cordially by those to whom they have communi- cated spirituals. As to the first part of the objection, viz., that I seem to make no distinction between the minister and the people, I answer, if it is understood of a liberty to speak or pro- phesy by the Spirit, I say all may do that, when moved thereunto, as above is shown. But we do believe and affirm that some are more particularly called to the work of the ministry, and therefore are fitted of the Lord for that purpose ; whose work is more constantly and particularly to instruct, exhort, admonish, oversee, and watch over their brethren ; and that as there is something more incumbent upon them in that respect than upon every common believer, so also, as in that relation, there is due to them from the flock such obedience and subjection as is mentioned in these testimonies of the Scripture: Heb. xiii. 17; 1 Thess. v. 12, 13 ; 1 Tim. v. 17 ; 1 Pet. v. 5. Also, besides those who are particularly called to the ministry, and constant labour in the word and doctrine, there are also the elders, who, though they be not moved to a frequent testimony by way of declaration in words, yet, as such are grown up in the experience of the blessed work of truth in their hearts, they watch over and privately admonish the young, take care for the widows, the poor and fatherless, 346 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. and look that nothing be wanting, but that peace, love, unity, concord, and soundness be preserved in the Church of Christ ; and this answers to the 'deacons mentioned, Acts vi That which we oppose is the distinction of laity and clergy, which in the Scripture is not to be found, whereby none are admitted into the work of the ministry but such as are edu- cated at schools on purpose, and instructed in logic, philo- sophy, etc., and so are at their apprenticeship to learn the art and trade of preaching, even as a man learns any other art, whereby all other honest mechanic men who have not got this heathenish art are excluded from having this privilege. Seeing male and female are one in Christ Jesus, and that He gives His Spirit no less to one than to the other, when God moveth by His Spirit in a woman, we judge it no ways unlaw- ful for her to preach in the assemblies of God's people. Accordingly, the fundamental principle of the Quakers is, that speaking in their assemblies, the end of which is edifica- tion, is not and cannot be limited to any special order or office. Hence the preacher in their meetings is only a provision or surrogate for the case in which no one in the congregation is moved by the Spirit. II. ROMISH AND PROTESTANT. The relation of the clergy to the laity has been laid down in no one precise statement of the Romish symbols (it is hinted only in Cat. Rom. ii. 7. 24) ; but it may without diffi- culty be gathered from what will be adduced below as to the priesthood and hierarchy, and from what has been adduced on the sacrament of orders. The works of the theologians and of the writers on ecclesiastical law plainly distinguish between the clerical order and the people. Nor do the Pro- testant symbols enter fully into the matter. The avoidance of the terms clcrici and laid, however, teaches that the Re- formers were averse to it (Calvin, Inst. iv. 4. 9 ; vid. Bellar- mine, De cler. i I 1 ) ; and the proposition that all the power of 1 Prima inter nos et haereticos qusestio nascitnr, rectene, an secus quidam inter Christianos clerici, quidam laici nominentur. Lutherani euim et Calvin- THE MINISTRY. 347 the ministry flows from the Church primarily, that is, from the fellowship of believers, is not reconcilable with the division of the Church into two essentially different classes. Finally, where the communio sub und is in question, the Eomish doc- trine is contradicted. Apol. A. C. p. 235. SECOND POINT OF DIVERGENCE. In the Roman and Greek Churches the ministerial office is regarded as, in its essential character, a true priesthood. But as various classes of ecclesiastical officers are subordinated to the priests, so also among the priests themselves there is, jure divino, a spiritual distinction of rank and office ; that is, there exists in the Romish Church a hierarchy, instituted by Christ Himself, and continued in unbroken succession, which consists of bishops, priests, and deacons. The evangelical Church not only rejects the priestly character of the ministers of the Church having no sacrifice, needing therefore no priests but attributes to all ministers, jure divino, equal official status. Observations. For the sake of better order than has been introduced into the evangelical Church, a distinction of rank and function and ordination has almost everywhere been reserved for the higher ministry, the bishops, general superintendents, etc. But this ordinance exists only jure humano. It affects not so much the spiritual office itself, as the supervision of the clergy. The general superintendent has, as minister ecclesiae, no more comprehensive authority than the parochial pastor ; hence, in the elevation of a deacon to a pastorate, or of a pastor to the superintendency, there is no new consecration. The English Episcopal Church approximates in this to the Eomish constitution ; it has not only three separate orders, but also for each a special conse- istse, tametsi minime negant, quod ad rem attinet, ministerium verbi et sacra- mentontm non ex sequo ad omnes pertinere, et habent ipsi quoque suos quosdam ministros et pastores, . . . tamen quod eorum contentiones et schismata ab odio clericorum et laicorum favore initium duxerint, et vocabulum cleri non obscure excellentiam quandam ac dignitatem prse se ferre videatur, nullo modo ferunt, ut ministri ecclesiastic! clerici, ceteri laici appellentur. 348 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. cration, and a special and exclusive circle of official functions. The English Articles, however, have nothing OH this point. SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. I. ROMISH AND GREEK. Concil Trid. sess. xxiii. cap. 1 : Sacrificium et sacerdotium del ordinatione conjuncta sunt, ut utrumque in omni lege ex- stiterit. Cum igitur in N. T. sanctum eucharistiae sacrificium visibile ex domini institutione catholica ecclesia acceperit, fateri etiam oportet, in ea novum esse visibile et externum sacerdotium. Hoc autem ab eodem domino institutum esse atque apostolis eorumque successoribus in sacerdotio potes- tatem traditam consecrandi, offerendi et ministrandi corpus et sanguinem ejus nee non et peccata dimittendi et retinendi, sacrse literce ostendunt et catholicae eccL traditio semper docuit. Cf. can. 1. 76. cap. 2 : Cum autem divina res sit tarn sancti sacerdotii ministerium, consentaneum fuit, quo dignius et majori cum veneratione exereeri potest, ut in ecclesiae ordinatissima dis- positione plures et diversi essent ministrorum ordines, qui sacerdotio ex officio deservirent, et ita distributi, ut, qui jam clericali tonsuni insigniti essent, per minores ad majores adscenderent. Nam non solum de sacerdotibus, sed et de diaconis sacne litterse apertam mentionem faciunt, et qufe maxime in illorum ordinatione attendenda sunt, gravissimis verbis docent. Et ab ipso ecclesia} initio sequentium ordinum nomina atque uniuscujusque eonim propria ministeria, sub- diaconi scilicet, acoluthi, exorcistae, lectoris et ostiarii, in usu fuisse cognoscuntur, quamvis non pari gradu. Nam sub- diaconatus ad majores ordines a patribus et sacris conciliis refertur, in quibus et de aliis inferioribus frequentissime legi- mus. Can. 6 : Si quis dixerit, in ecclesiH, catholica non esse hierarchiam divina ordinatione institutam, quse constat ex episcopis, presbyteris et ministris : anathema sit Cat. Horn. ii. 7. 26 : Tametsi unus est ordo sacerdotalis, varios tamen dignitatis et potestatis gradus habet Primus est eorum, qui sacerdotes simpliciter vocantur. Secundus est episcoporum, qui singulis episcopatibus praspositi sunt, ut non THE MINISTRY. 349 solum ceteros ecclesise ministros, sed fidelem populum regant et eorum saluti summa cum vigilantia et cura prospiciant. . . . Tertius gradus est archiepiscoporum, qui pluribus episcopis preesunt, qui metropolitani etiam vocantur, quod illarum iirbium antistites sint, quse tanquam matres habeantur illius provincise. Quare superiorem, quam episcopi, locum et ampliorem potes- tatem habent, tametsi ab episcopis ordinatione nil differunt. In quarto gradu patriarchse collocantur, id est primi supremique patres. Cone. Trid. sess. xxiii. cap. 4 : S. synodus declarat, prseter ceteros ecclesiasticos gradus episcopos, qui in apostolorum locum successerunt, ad hunc hierarchicum ordinem prsecipue pertinere et positos a Spiritu s. regere ecclesiam dei, eosque presbyteris superiores esse ac sacramentum confirmations con- ferre, ministros ecclesise ordinare atque alia pleraque peragere ipsos posse, quarum functionum potestatem reliqui inferioris ordinis nullam habent. Conf. orthod. p. 173 : 'H lepoxrvvrj OTTOV elvat ftva-Tijpiov, rot9 aTroaroXot? airo rov Xpta-rov, KOL Sta TT} auroi5 rd^ecov. Ovroi (JLCV 'yap ^eiporovovvrat, VTTO rpicav eTTia-KOTTcov TOv\d i ^LO'TOV' ea<7TO? Se TOVTCOV ra? vTroBeeaTepas T|et9, ffvfjt,7rap6vr(i)v aura) irpeaftvrepwv re Kal SiaKovwv dSto- piaTwv. Against the Protestant doctrine as to the equality of ministers, s. Dosithei Confess, c. 10. * II PROTESTANT. Apol. A. C. p. 201 : Sacerdotium intelligunt adversarii non de ministerio verbi et sacramentorum aliis porrigendorum, sed 350 CONFESSIONS OF CHEISTENDOM. intelL de sacrificio, quasi oporteat esse in N. T. sacerdotium simile levitico, quod pro populo sacrificet et mereatur aliis remissionem peccatorum. Nos docemus, sacrificium Ch. mori- entis in cruce satis fuisse cet. Ideo sacerdotes vocantur non ad ulla sacrificia velut in lege pro populo facienda, . . . sed ad docendum evang. et sacramenta porrigenda populo. Nee habemus nos aliud sacerdotium, simile levitico. Cf. p. 265, and Conf. Wirtenib. p, 119. Conf. Hdv. ii cap. 18 : Diversissima inter se sunt sacer- dotium et ministerium. Illud enim commune est christianis omnibus, hoc non item. Nee e medio sustulimus ecclesise ministerium, quando repudiavimus ex ecclesia Christi sacer- dotium papisticum. ... In Novo Testam. Christi non est amplius tale sacerdotium, quale fuit in populo veteri, quod unctionem habuit externam, vestes sacras et caerimonias plu- rimas, quae typi fuerunt Christi, qui ilia omnia veniens et adimplens abrogavit. Manet autem ipse solus sacerdos in seternum, cui ne quid derogemus, nemini inter ministros sacer- dotis vocabulum communicamus. Ipse enim dominus noster non ordinavit ullos in ecclesia Novi Testam. sacerdotes, qui accepta potestate a suffraganeo offerant quotidie hostiam, ipsam inquam carnem et ipsum sanguinem domini pro vivis et mor- tuis, sed qui doceant et sacramenta administrent. Art. Sm. p. 314: Ecclesia nunquam melius gubernari et conservari potest, quam si omnes sub uno capite, quod est Christus, vivamus et episcopi omnes pares officio, licet dispares sint quoad dona, sumrnS, cum dfligentia cet. C p. 352. Conf. Helv. ii. cap. 18 : Data est omnibus in ecclesia mini- stris una et sequalis potestas sive functio. . . . Interea propter ordinem servandum unus aut certus aliquis ministrorum coetum convocavit et in ccetu res consultandas proposuit, sententias item aliorum collegia denique ne qua oriretur confusio, pro virilicavit. Conf. Gall. art. 30 : Credimus omnes veros pastores, ubi- cunque locorum collocati fuerint, eadem et sequali inter se potestate esse prseditos sub unico illo capite summoque et solo universali episcopo Jesu Christo. Conf. Belg. art. 31: Quantum attinet divini verbi ministros, ubicunque locorum sint, eandem illi potestatem et auctoritatem THE MINISTRY. 351 habent, ut qui omnes sint Christ! unici illius episcopi univer- salis unicique capitis ecclesise ministri. Conf. Remonstr. xxi. 7 : Cum episcoporum et presbyterorum omnium mtinus atque officium sit juxta propositam ab apostolis formam ecclesias docere ac regere, manifestum satis esse vide- tur, aliis in alios imperium ac potestatem proprie dictarn nullo jure div. competere. Neque idcirco tamen omnino impro- bamus . . . gradus illos docentium ac regentium, qui . . . ordinis et decori causs& jam olim instituti sunt et passim hactenus obtinent, si modo ii tandem non degenerent in tyrannidem cet* Observations. The bishops, on Romish principles, constitute, when they are assem- bled under their Primus the Pope in an (Ecumenical Council, the ecclesia reprcesentans, to which belongs an infallible decision as to the faith and morals of the Church out of the word of God. In the Pro- testant symbols the synodal constitution is only touched (J.. Sm. p. 351 ; Conf. Helv. ii. c. 18 ; Eng. Art. xxi.) ; yet the idea of a general council is not foreign to Protestantism, though for infallible as such it could not be held, Conf. Wirt. p. 134. On the foregoing premisses, however, all ministers without exception would be eligible for election. THIED POINT OF DIVEEGENCE. All Christian communities, which hold a separated order of ministry as necessary, require also (the Socinians excepted) a special call on the part of each individual. The prerogative of this call Protestants generally assign to the Church ; while the Eomanists and Greeks vindicate it lege divind for the epis- copate, that is, in the final resort, for the head of the Church, from whom all ecclesiastical jurisdiction flows. (The possible committal of this right to an ecclesiastical selection, or to the civil power, cannot be entered upon here, as the symbols have not decided it.) SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. I. EOMISH. Concil. Trid. sess. xxiii. cap. 4 : Docet s. synodus, in ordi- natione episcoporum, sacerdotum et ceterorurn ordinum nee 352 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. populi nec cujusvis secularis potestatis et magistrates consen- sum sive vocationem sive auctoritatem ita requiri, ut sine ea irrita sit ordinatio ; quin potius decernit, eos, qui tantummodo a populo aut seculari potestate ac magistratu vocati et instituti ad hsec ministeria exercenda ascendunt, . . . non ecclesiae ministros, sed fures et latrones per ostium non ingressos habendos esse. (Bellarmin, De cleric, c. 2 : Exsistit inter nos et adversaries controversia, cui potissimuni -jus sit in ecclesia episcopos creandi, id est eligendi, vocandi, atque initiandi. . . . Sunt autem tres de hac tota qusestione sententiae. . . . Altera sen- tentia est M. Lutheri, J. Calvini, Matthise Illyrici, Jo. Brentii, Mart. Chemnicii aliorumque hujus temporis sectariorum, qui electionem et vocationem jure divino ad ecclesiam universam, hoc est ad clerum et populum spectare volunt, ita prorstis ut sine populi consensu ac suffragio nemo legitime electus aut vocatus ad episcopatum habeatur. Contra autem doctores catholici summa consensione docent, jus episcopos ordinandi ac vocandi ad plebem nullo modo pertinere posse, jus autem eligendi fuisse aliquando et aliquo modo penes populum, sed pontificum concessione vel conniventia, non lege divina. Ex quo nos longe verius colligemus, nullam esse apud hsereticos veram ordinationem, nullam vocationem, nullam electionem, proinde nullos episcopos, nullam ecclesiam. The Greek Confessions say nothing on this point; but Jeremias shows from the decrees of councils that the people have no part in the choice and vocation of the clergy. II. PROTESTANT. A. Sm. p. 353 (de potestate et primatu papse) : Ubicunque est ecclesia, ibi est jus administrandi evangelii Quare necesse est, ecclesiam retinere jus vocandi, eligendi et ordinandi mini- stros. Et hoc jus est donum proprie datum ecclesiae, quod nulla humana auctoritas ecclesias eripere potest. . . . Idque etiam communissima ecclesiaB consuetudo testatur. Nam olim populus eligebat pastores et episcopos cet Conf. Hdv. ii cap. 18: Vocentur et eligantur electione ^ecclesiastica et legitima ministri ecclesiaa, i e. eligantur reli- THE MINISTRY. 353 giose ab ecclesia vel ad hoc deputatis ab ecclesia, ordine justo cet. Conf. Belg. art. 31 : Credimus, ministros divini verbi, seni- ores et diaconos ad functiones suas legitima ecclesiae electione . . . eligi debere. Cf. Eng. Art. xxiii. III. SOCINIAN. Catech. Eacov. qu. 505: Nonne ii, qui decent in ecclesia" et ordini tuendo et conservando invigilant, ut singulari aliqua ratione mittantur, opus habent ? Nullo modo. Etenina illi nunc nullam novam nee antea inauditam doctrinam afferunt. Sed apostolicam antiquitus ab omnibus exceptam tantum proponunt, inculcant, utque secundum earn vitam instituant homines hortantur. Unde etiam apostolus describens diserte omnia, quse ad constituendas personas ejusmodi pertinent, nullam missionis facit mentionem. Nihilominus tamen, cum personse ejusmodi ex prsescripto apostolicae doctrinse consti- tuuntur et his duabus rebus prsestant, vitse innocentia et ad docendum aptitudine, propter ejusmodi constitutionem merito apud omnes auctoritatem justam invenire debent. FOUKTH POINT OF DIVEEGENCK According to the fundamental principle of all Christian bodies, the ministry thus called are ordained to their office by imposition of hands and prayer. Differences of view obtain only : 1. As to the dignity of this usage ; the Eomish Church holding ordination as a sacrament, which impresses an indelible character, while Protestants regard it only as an observance continued from the apostles. 2. As to the person whose office it is to ordain ; the Eomanists and Greeks assigning that prerogative to the bishops alone, while Protestants hold every minister competent and justified in imparting consecration to others, most individual Protestant churches attaching the office of ordination to special superior functionaries only for the sake of order. Vide No. XVIII. | ^ z 354 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. FIFTH POINT OF DIVERGENCE. The Roman Catholic Church has imposed on consecrated priests the law of perpetual celibacy ; the Protestant Church leaves marriage free to its ministers. The Greek Church tolerates no married bishops, but allows other clergy to marry under certain restrictions. SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. I ROMISH. Cone. Trid. sess. xxiv. Sacram. matrimon. can. 9 : Si quis dixerit, clericos in sacris ordinibus constitutes vel regulares castitatem solemniter professes posse matrimonium contrahere contractumque validum esse, non obstante lege ecclesiastica vel voto, et oppositum nil aliud esse, quam damnare matri- monium; posseque omnes contrahere matrimonium, qui non sentiunt se castitatis, etiamsi earn voverint, habere donum : anathema sit, cum deus id recte petentibus non deneget nee patiatur nos supra id, quod possumus, tentari. Confut. A. C. p. 94 : Quod memorant inter abusus cseliba- tum cleri, et quo pacto sacerdotes eorum uxdres ducant et alios ducere suadeant, res profecto est admiratione digna, quod cselibatum sacerdotalem abusum vocent, cum potius e diverso violatio cselibatus et illicitus ad conjugium transitus in sacer- dotibus pessimus abusus dici mereatur. Etenim sacerdotes nunquam debere uxores ducere, testatur Aurelius in concilio 2 Carthaginiensi, ubi inquit : quia sic docucrunt apostoli ex- emplo et ipsa servavit antiquitas, nos quoque custodiamus. Et paulo ante talis legitur canon : placet, ut episcopi, presby- teri -et diaconi vel qui sacramenta contrectant pudicitise cus- todes ab uxoribus se abstineant. Ex quibus verbis liquet, ab apostolis receptam esse hanc traditionem, non ab ecclesia novi- ter inventam. . . . Ad hsec sacerdotes veteris legis tempore officii et ministerii sui in templo separabantur ab uxoribus. Cum autem sacerdos novae legis semper debeat esse in ministerio, sequitur, semper eum debere continere. Amplius, conjuges THE MINISTEY. 355 non debent se fraudare officio conjugali, nisi ad tempus (1 Cor. viL), ut vacent orationi. Cum ergo sacerdos semper debeat orare, semper debet continere. . . . Continentia sacerdotalis cum sit a conciliis, a pontificibus praecepta et a deo revelata, proprio voto a sacerdote deo promissa, non est rejicienda. Nam hanc exigit sacrificii, quod tractant, excellentia, orationis frequentia, libertas et puritas spiritus, ut curent, quomodo deo placeant, juxta S. Pauli doctrinam. . . . Habet sacerdos medium, ut neque uratur neque nubat, sed per gratiam dei contineat, quam oratione devota et castigatione carnis, jejuniis et vigiliis a deo impetret. Amplius, dum aiunt, Christum docuisse, non omnes homines ad caelibatum idoneos esse, hoc quidem verum, ideo- que nee omnes idonei sunt ad sacerdotium, sed sacerdos oret, et poterit capere verbum Christi de continentia. Comp. Eck, Loci, c. 18; Bellarmin, De cleric, c. 18-22; Eichhorn, Kir chenr edit, i. S. 516 ff. II. PKOTESTAXT. A. C. p. 23 : Cum exstet mandatum dei, cum mos ecclesias notus sit, cum impurus caelibatus plurima pariat scandala, adulteria et alia scelera, digna animadversione boni magis- tratus, tamen mirum est, nulla in re majorem exerceri ssevi- tiam, quam adversus conjugium sacerdotum. Deus prsecepit honore afficere conjugium. Leges in omnibus rebus publicis bene constitutis etiam apud ethnicos maximis honoribus orna- verunt. At nunc capitalibus pcenis excruciantur, et quidem sacerdotes, contra canonum voluntatem, nullam aliam ob causam, nisi propter conjugium. Paulus vocat doctrinam dae- moniorum, quae prohibet conjugium 1 Tim. iv. 3. Id facile nunc intelligi potest, cum talibus suppliciis prohibitio conjugii defenditur. Apol. A. C. p. 237: Non legem de coelibatu, quam defen- dunt adversarii, ideo non possumus approbare, quia cum jure divino et naturali pugnat et ab ipsis canonibus conciliorum dissentit, et constat, superstitiosam et periculosam esse. Parit enim infinita scandala, peccata et corruptelam publicorum morum. A. Sm. p. 334: Quod conjugium prohibuerunt et divinum 356 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. ordinem sacerdotum perpetuo caelibatu onerarunt, malitiose sine omni honesta causa 1 fecerunt, et in eo anticliristi, tyran- norum et pessimorum nebulonum opus exercuerunt ac causam prsebuerunt multis horrendis, abominandis, innumeris peccatis tetrarum libidinum, in quibus adhuc volutantur. . . . Quare ipsornm spurco cselibatui assentire nolumus, nee etiam ilium feremus, sed conjugium liberum habere volumus, sicut deus illud ipse ordinavit et constituit, cujus opus nee rescindere nee destruere nee impedire volumus. Comp. Conf. Wirtemb. p. 120 sq. Conf. Helv. ii. cap. 29 : Qui coelitus donum habent casli- batus, ita ut ex corde vel toto animo puri sint ac continentes nee urantur graviter, serviant in e& vocatione domino, donee senserint se divino munere prseditos, et ne efferant se ceteris : sed serviant domino assidue, in simplicitate et humilitate. Aptiores autem hi sunt curandis rebus divinis, quam qui pri- vatis familise negotiis distrahuntur. Quod si ademto rursus dono ustionent senserint durabilem, meminerint verbi aposto- lici : melius esse nubere, quam uri. Art. Angl. 32 : Episcopis, presbyteris et diaconis nullo mandate divino praeceptum est, ut aut caelibatum voveant aut a matrimonio abstineant. licet igitur etiam illis ut ceteris omnibus christianis, ubi hoc ad pietatem magis facere judica- verint, pro suo arbitratu matrinionium contrahere. Cf. Conf. Angl. p. 92. S. Calvin, Institut. iv. 12. 23 sq. III. GREEK. MetropL Critop. Conf. c. 11, p. Ill : Uao-at? rat? rd^eat (of the ministry) 7r\r)v TWV eVto-/ro7r&>i> arvyKe^caprjrai 6 70/^05, &>? eru^e Be, d\\a fjwa \6yov Trdvv 4iraiverov. Hpwrov ev 01 j3ov\6/j,evoi yafj,eiv, irpo T^6r) TO %rjv eKfierp^aaaa, el /j,ev irpecr- /Sure/305 r) SiaKovos eartv 6 . ^rjpeua-a^ /cat /SouXerat Sevrepa l Trpocro/iiX^orat, Travel T^? rS)v /AVffTijpifDV lepovpyias. Be novov et? TTapajJivdiav ... 6 fiev rrjv yuera rwv 7rpe ^wai/cl crvva(j)6evTe<; cet. Cf. Jerem. in Actis Wirtemb. p. 129. SIXTH POINT OF DIVEEGENCE. The ministerial authority committed to the pastorate con- sists, on Romish and Protestant principles, in the preaching of the word of God, the administration of the sacraments, and the power to forgive or retain sins. But as the Romish Church has reserved the administration of two sacraments, ordination and confirmation, and the Greek Church that of ordination, to the bishops, so both limit still further, and more than they limit preaching, the offering of the sacrifice on the altar. Ex- communication, that is, exclusion from the communion" of the Church, is regarded as issuing from the power of the keys, and has consequently never been considered in praxi to be the function of any particular minister. The excommunication practised in the Ionian Church, the major and the minor, has always been held to belong to the episcopate. But the power of jurisdiction given by that Church to the bishops, as by divine right, is rejected by Protestants. SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. I. ROMISH AND GREEK. Catech. Rom. ii. 7. 6 : Potestas ecclesiastica est duplex, ordinis et jurisdictionis. Ordinis potestas ad verum Christi domini corpus in sacrosancta eucharistia refertur, jurisdictionis vero potestas tota in Christi corpore mystico versatur. Ad earn enim spectat christianum populum gubernare et moderari et ad seternam coelestemque beatitudinem dirigere. 358 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. JTb. ii 7. 2 : Sacerdotibus potestas turn corpus et sanguinem domini nostri conficiendi et offerendi, turn peccata remittendi collata est. 32 : In sacerdote non solum ea cognitio requi- renda est, quae ad sacramentorum usum et tractationem per- tinet, sed etiam sacrarum literar. scientia ita instructum esse oportet, ut populo christianae fidei mysteria et divinae legis praecepta tradere, ad virtutem et pietatem excitare, e vitiis revocare fideles possit. Cf. praefat. 5. Ib. i 11. 4: Cum necesse fuerit, in ecclesiS, potestatem esse peccata remittendi, ali& etiam ratione, quam baptismi sacramento, claves regni coelorum illi concreditae sunt, quibus possint unicuique poenitenti, etiamsi usque ad extremum vitae diem peccasset, deKcta condonari. 5 : Neque vero existiman- dum est, hanc potestatem certis quibusdam peccatorum gene- ribus definitam esse, nullum enim tarn nefarium facinus vel admitti vel cogitari potest, cujus remittendi potestatem sancta ecclesia non habeat. Cone. Trid. sess. xxv. d, reformat, cap. 3 : Quamvis excom- municationis gladius nervus sit ecclesiasticas disciplinae et ad continendos in officio populos valde salutaris : sobrie tamen magnaque circumspectione exercendus est, cum experientia doceat, si temere aut levibus ex rebus incutiatur, magis con- temni, quam formidari, et perniciem.potius parere, quam salu- tem. Quapropter excommunicationes illae, quae monitionibus praemissis ad finem revelationis ut aiunt pro deperditis seu subtractis rebus ferri solent, a nemine prorsus praeterquam ab episcopo decernantur, et tune non alias quam ex re non vul- gari causaque diligenter ac magnet maturitate per episcopum examinata, quae ejus animum moveat ; nee ad eas concedendas cujusvis saecularis etiam magistrates auctoritate adducatur cet. As to the distinction between excommunicatio major and minor, s. Walter, Kirchenrecht, S. 365 ff. Conf. orthod. p. 174: 15 rrjv olKOvofiiav ravrrjv (fivarr)- Geov, 1 Cor. iv. 1) &vo Trpdjfjiara irepie^ovrat, irpwTOV 77 KOI rj %ova-{a rov \veiv ra? T avQpwTrwv afiaprias, . . . Sevrepov rj e^ovcria Kal 17 Sui/a/zt? rov BiSdcriceiv. Metroph. Critop. Conf. c. 11, p. 108, Btaicovia rov \6yov Kal rwv fiva-rr)- piwv iepovpyia, cf. p. 110, and Jer. in Actis Wirtemb. p. 105. Excommunication is not in the Greek Confessions. But it THE MINISTRY. 359 is customary in that Church, though attended by much super- stition and abuse. II. PKOTESTANT. Apol. A. O. p. 294 : Habet episcopus potestatem ordinis, hoc est ininisterium verbi et sacramentorum, habet et potesta- tem jurisdictionis, hoc est auctoritatem excommunicandi ob- noxios publicis criminibus et rursus absolvendi eos, si conversi petant absolutionem. A. Sm. p. 351: Evangelium tribuit his, qui prsesunt ecclesiis, mandatum docendi evangelii, remittendi peccata, administrandi sacramenta, prseterea jurisdictionem, videlicet mandatum ex- communicandi eos, quorum nota sunt crimina, et resipiscentes rursum absolvendi. Ac omnium confessione etiam adversa- riorum liquet, hanc potestatem jure divino communem esse omnibus, qui prsesunt ecclesiis, sive vocentur pastores, sive presbyteri, sive episcopi. A. C. p. 39 : Secundum evangelium s. de jure divino nulla jurisdictio competit episcopis ut episcopis h. e. his, quibus est commissum ministerium verbi et sacramentorum, nisi remittere peccata, item cognoscere doctrinam et doctrinam ab evangelic dissentientem rejicere et impios, quorum nota est impietas, excludere a communione ecclesiae sine vi humana sed verbo. ... Si quam habent aliam vel potestatem vel jurisdictionem in cognoscendis certis causis videl. matrimonii aut decimarum cet, hanc habent humano jure. Conf. Helv. ii. cap. 1 8 : In hoc sunt vocati ministri ecclesiae, ut evangelium Christi adnuncient fidelibus et sacramenta ad- ministrent. Potestas ecclesiastica ministrorum ecclesiae est functio ilia, qua ministri ecclesiam dei gubernant quidem, verum omnia in ecclesia sic faciunt, quemadmodum verbo suo prsescripsit dominus, quae cum facta sunt, fideles tanquam ab ipso domino facta reputant. Officia ministrorum sunt varia, quae tamen plerique ad duo restringunt, in quibus omnia alia comprehenduntur, ad doctrinam Christi evangelicam et ad legi- timam sacramentorum administrationem. A. Sm. p. 333 : Majorem illam excommunicationem, quam papa ita nominat, non nisi civilem poenam esse ducimus, non pertinentem ad nos ministros ecclesiae : minor autem, quam 360 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. nominat, vera et Christiana est excomraunicatio, quae manifestos et obstinates peccatores non admittit ad sacramentum et com- munionem ecclesiae, donee emendentur et scelera vitent. Et niinistri non debent confundere hanc ecclesiasticam pcenam seu excommunicationem cum poenis civilibus. Ib. (de potest. et prim, papae) p. 354 : Constat, jurisdictionem illam commu- nem excommunicandi reos manifestorum criminuin pertinere ad omnes pastores. Conf. Gall. 33 : Excommunicationem approbamus, et una cum suis appendicibus necessariam esse arbitramur. Eng. Artt. art. xxxiii. : That person which by open denun- ciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the unity of the Church, and excommunicated, ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the faithful as an heathen and publican, until he be openly reconciled by penance, and received into the Church by a judge that hath authority thereunto. Conf. Angl. p. 9 1 : Ministris a Christo datum esse dicimus ligandi, solvendi, aperiendi, claudendi potestatem. Ac solvendi quidem munus in eo situm esse, ut minister vel dejectis animis et vere resipiscentibus per evangelii praedicationem merita Christi absolutionemque offerat et certam peccatorum condona- tionem ac spem salutis seternae denunciet, aut ut eos, qui gravi scandalo et notabili publicoque aliquo delicto fratrum animos offenderint et sese a communi societate ecclesiae et a Christi corpore quodammodo abalienarint, resipiscentes reconciliet et in fidelium ccetum atque unitatem recolligat ac restittiat. Ligandi vero ilium claudendique potestatem exercere dicimus, quoties vel incredulis et contumacibus regni ccelorum januam occludit illisque vindictam dei et sempiternum supplicium edicit, vel publice excommunicatos ecclesise gremio excludit. Sententiam autem, quamcunque ministri dei ad hunc modum tulerint, deus ipse ita comprobat, ut quidquid illorum opera solvitur et ligatur in terris, idem ipse solvere et ligare velit et ratum habere in ccelis. From the passages of the Eeformed symbols it is clear that excommunication is understood of an exclusion from church fel- lowship, but without civil consequences. Vid. A. C. 39. The distinction in practice between the major and minor excom- munication is post-symbolicaL THE MINISTRY. 361 THE POWER OF THE KEYS. Observations. The power of forgiving or retaining sins is termed, both in Romish and in Protestant formularies, after Matt. xvi. 19, potestas eluvium. Yet this expression is by no means limited to that meaning. The Reformed Confessions, almost without exception, and the Lutheran here and there, refer it to the ministry of the gospel generally, by which the entrance of the kingdom of heaven is opened or shut. The power of the keys, then, includes in it that binding or loosing, since the preaching of the word is either an announcement of forgive- ness or threatening of condemnation. The disciplinary power of the keys is proved from Matt, xviii. 17 by Calvin, Inst. iv. 11. Bellar- mine, De Rom. Pont. c. 13, refers Matt. xvi. to Peter's primacy, and understands by the claves (cceli) the summa potestas in omnem ecclesiam. SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. I. PROTESTANT. A. C. p. 37 : Sic sentiunt, potestatem clavium seu potesta- tem episcoporum juxta evangelium potestatem esse seu man- datum del prsedicandi evangelii, remittendi et retinendi peccata et administrandi sacramenta. Nam cum hoc mandate Christus mittit apostolos. Conf. Helv. ii. cap. 14: De clavibus regni del traditis a domino apostolis multi admiranda garriunt et ex his cudunt enses, lanceas, sceptra et coronas, plenamque in maxima regna, denique in animas et corpora potestatem. Nos simpliciter judicantes secundum verbum dei dicimus, omnes ministros legitime vocatos habere et exercere claves vel usum clavium, cum evangelium adnunciant, id est populum suae fidei creditum decent, hortantur, consolantur et increpant inque disciplina retinent. Ita enim regnum coelorum aperiunt obsequentibus et inobsequentibus claudunt. . . . Eite itaque et emcaciter ministri absolvunt, dum evangelium Christi et in hoc remis- sionem peccatorum, quae singulis promittitur fidelibus, sicuti et singuli sunt baptizati, praedicant et ad singulos peculiariter pertinere testantur. Cat. Heiddb. Fr. 83: What is the office of the keys? The preaching of the holy gospel and Christian discipline, by 362 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. which the kingdom of heaven is opened to believers and shut against unbelievers. Cf. Conf. Hdv. i art. 16 ; Conf. Angl. p. 91 sq.; Conf. Tdrap. c. 13 ; Calvin, Instit. iv. 6. 3 and xi. 1. II. EOMISH. Bellarmin, I.e. : Nos et catholici omnes per claves datas Petro intelligimus summam potestatem in omnem ecclesiam. Id tribus rationibus confirmamus. Prirnum ipsa metaphora clavium, ut in scripturis accipi solet, cf. Isa. xxii. 15-22, Hie aperte per claves non intelligitur remissio peccatorum aut ministerium verbi, sed principatus ecclesiasticus. . . . Secundo probatur verbis illis quodcunqiie ligaveris cet., nam in scripturis ligare dicitur, qui praecipit et qui punit, Matt. xxiiL 4, xviii. 18. Tertio probatur ex patribus cet XXL DIYINE WOKSHIP: LITUKGY. WITH the exception of the Quakers, all Christian communions have an appointed order of divine service. The necessary constituents of this are the preaching of the word of God, and the administration of the sacraments, with the sacrifice of the mass in the Komish and Greek Churches. These essential elements may be clothed with edifying ceremonies, and, as in a liturgy, made compact and harmonious. Such religious cere- monies appear to Protestants as in their nature adiaphora, indifferent, that is, as not necessary to the attainment of sal- vation ; and every particular Church has the right to appoint them, according to its necessities, and in accordance with the word of God. The Papists and Greeks regard the ritual and ceremonial of the Church as commandments necessary to be observed ; and derive them, or those of them which are con- nected with the sacrifice of the mass, from apostolical or ecclesiastical tradition. Their worship is at the same time complicated with much more abundant ceremonies than that of the Protestants. The Reformed Church among the latter is almost entirely free from ceremonial ; and its symbols appoint but few ecclesiastical usages of any kind. Observations. Parallel with ecclesiastical ceremonies are the pious exercises which are appointed in the Romish Church ad promerendam gratiam, such as fastings, pilgrimages, etc. For the protests of the evangelical Church against these human traditions, see No. I. The priestly con- secrations of various things are contended against in Conf. Wirt. p. 129. Many matters of this kind are usually by Papists summed up under the term sacramentalia or ritus sacramentales. 363 364 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. SYMBOLICAL TESTIMONIES. I. QUAKER. Barclay, Apol. Prop. XL : All true and acceptable worship to God is offered in the inward and immediate moving and drawing of His own Spirit, which is neither limited to places, times, nor persons. For though we are to worship Him always, and continually to fear before Him; yet as to the outward signification thereof, in prayers, praises, or preachings, we ought not to do it in our own will, where and when we will, but where and when we are moved thereunto by the stirring and secret inspiration of the Spirit of God in our hearts ; which God heareth and accepteth of, and is never wanting to move us thereunto when need is, of which He Himself is the alone proper judge. All other worship, then, both praises, prayers, or preachings, which man sets about in his own will and at his own appointment, which he can both begin and end at his pleasure, do or leave undone as himself seeth meet, whether they be a prescribed form, as a liturgy, etc., or prayers conceived extempore by the natural strength or faculty of the mind, they are all but superstition, will-worship, and abominable idolatry in the sight of God, which are now to be denied and rejected, and separated from, in this day of His spiritual arising. However, it might have pleased Him (who winked at the times of ignorance, with a respect to the simplicity and integrity of some, and of His own innocent seed, which lay as it were buried in the hearts of men under that mass of superstition) to blow upon the dead and dry bones, and to raise some breathing of His own, and answer them ; and that until the day should more clearly dawn and break forth. In that these particular men come not thither to meet with the Lord, and to wait for the inward motions and operations of His Spirit ; and so to pray as they feel the Spirit breathe through them, and in them ; and to preach as they find them- selves actuated and moved by God's Spirit, and as He gives utterance, so as to speak a word in season to refresh weary souls, and as the present condition and state of the people's DIVINE WORSHIP : LITURGY. 365 hearts require, suffering God by His Spirit both to prepare people's hearts, and also give the preacher to speak what may be fit and seasonable for them. To come, then, to the state of the controversy as to the public worship, we judge it the duty of all to be diligent in the assembling of themselves together, and when assembled, the great work of one and all ought to be to wait upon God ; and returning out of their own thoughts and imaginations, to feel the Lord's presence, and know a gathering into His name indeed, where He is in the midst, according to His promise. And as every one is thus gathered, and so met together in- wardly in their spirits, as well as outwardly in their persons, there the secret power and virtue of life is known to refresh the soul, and the pure motions and breathings of God's Spirit are left to arise ; from which, as words of declaration, prayers and praises arise, the acceptable worship is known, which edifies the Church, and is well-pleasing to God. And no man here limits the Spirit of God, nor bringeth forth his own conned and gathered stuff; but every one puts that forth which the Lord puts into their hearts ; and it is uttered forth not in man's will or wisdom, but in the evidence and demon- stration of the Spirit and of power. Yea, though there be not a word spoken, yet is the true spiritual worship performed, and the body of Christ edified ; yea, it may, and hath often fallen out among us, that divers meetings have passed without one word, and yet our souls have been greatly edified and refreshed, and our hearts wonderfully overcome with the secret sense of God's power and Spirit, which without words hath been ministered from one vessel to another. II. EOMAN AND GREEK. Cone. Trid. sess. xxii. Sacrific. niissae, cap. 5 : Cum natura hominum ea sit, ut non facile queat sine adminiculis exteriori- bus ad rerum divinarum meditationem sustolli, propterea pia mater ecclesia ritus quosdam, ut scilicet qusedam summissa voce, alia vero elatiore in missS, pronunciarentur, instituit ; ceremonias item adhibuit, ut mysticas benedictiones, lumina, thymiamata, vestes aliaque id genus multa ex apostolic^ dis- 366 CONFESSIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. ciplin& et traditione, quo et majestas tanti sacrificii commenda- retur et mentes fidelium per haec visibilia religionis et pietatis signa ad rerum altissimarum, quae in hoc sacrificio latent, con- templationem excitarentur. Jb. can. 7 : Si quis dixerit, ceremonias, vestes et externa signa, quibus in missanun celebratione ecclesia catholica utitur, irritabula impietatis esse magis, quam officia pietatis, ana- thema sit. Ib. sess. vii. sacram. can. 13 : Si quis dixerit, receptos et approbates ecclesiae catholicse ritus, in solemni sacramentorum administratione adhiberi consuetos aut contemni aut sine pec- cato a ministris pro libito omitti, aut in novos alios per quem- cunque ecclesiarum pastorem mutari posse : anathema sit. Cat. Eom. ii 2. 59 : These ceremonies in the sacraments are not obscurely referred to the apostles' origination. (Bellarmin, De sacram. ii. 30 : Fatemur omnes catholici, ceremonias ecclesiasticas non esse praecipuum cultum, nee ab iis pendere essentiam et efficaciam sacramentorum, nee habere vim justificandi, ut habent sacramenta, proinde inferiora esse sacramentis nee esse approbandos ritus, qui pugnant cum verbo dei, nee esse nimis multiplicandas, ita ut sua\ multitudine obruant quodammodo religionem, cui servire debent. Nota, totam controversiam consistere in sex capitibus. Primum est, an sint aliquse ceremoniae a Christo vel apostolis insti- tutae, quae non habeantur in scriptura, sed ex traditione solst cognoscantur ; secundum est, an ceremoniae, quae non sunt sacramenta, habeant vim aliquam spiritualeni, ut coercendi daemones ; tertium est, an ecclesia possit instituere novas ceremonias: quartum an possit eas ita instituere, ut teneantur fideles in conscientia eas servare etiam circa scandalum ; quintum, an ejusmodi ceremoniae sint res bonae et meritoriae et pars aliqua divini cultus ; sextum, an lingua latina sacra- menta celebranda et ministranda sint. Ad hasc omnia catho- lici respondent affirmative, ad eadem capita solo excepto tertio omnes fere Lutherani et Calvinistae respondent negative. Id. De missa, ii 13 : Chemnicius dicit, apud catholicos ita neces- sariam existimari ceremoniarum observantiam, ut pronuncient mortaliter peccare, qui aliquid in ill is neglexerint. At hoc mendacium est, non enim ap. nos quaelibet negligentia pec- DIVINE WORSHIP : LITURGY. 367 catum est mortale, sed contemtus aut notabilis negligentia in rebus gravibus.) The Greeks not only regard their liturgy as perfect, but attach to ceremonies as much importance as the Eomans do. Comp. Simeon Thessalon. irepl rov vaov /cal ef j^o-t? et