Page images
PDF
EPUB

SERMON XI.

THE EXTENT OF THE REFORMATION IN THE 16TH

CENTURY.

JUDE, 3d verse.

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

THE professors of the Christian religion are, in the New Testament, denominated saints. By FAITH, in our text, the apostle includes the whole system of the gospel, in its doctrines and precepts, its examples and institutions, its promises and threatenings.

Having already, under the fourth proposition of our subject, reviewed the causes which produced the separation of protestants from the Romish Church, and considered the nature of the reformation, I shall this morning, my Christian brethren, direct your attention to its extent.

Great research and close reflection are necessary to enable any one to form a correct judg ment of the extent of the reformation of the six

teenth century, and duly to appreciate the efforts of its authors. To form right opinions of the characters of the reformers, and to estimate the real merit of their labours, we must take into view the circumstances of their education, the customs and habits of the age in which they lived, and the disadvantages under which they acted. Take Luther as the great example. In an age comparatively dark, he so far enlightened his own mind as to perceive the corruptions, the abuses, and the impositions of the Church of which he had been a devoted member. Being himself a priest of eminence, he participated in the emoluments of the hierarchy, and yet he had the honesty to proclaim the domination, the venality and wickedness of the pretended vicegerent of Christ, and of the holy universal Church. Though all the authority and all the vengeance of the Roman empire and of the Papal throne were combined for his destruction, yet he persisted resolutely in his defence of Christian liberty and Christian truth; and by the blessing of God, he triumphed over all opposition. His name is identified in every country with the reformed religion, and will be venerated and esteemed in every subsequent age, by all who prize religious freedom, and set a value on religious privileges.

"Martin Luther's life," says bishop Atterbury, was a continued warfare. He was engaged against the united forces of the Papal world, and he stood the shock of them bravely, both with courage and success. He was a man certainly of high endowments of mind and great virtues. He had a vast understanding, which raised him to a pitch of learn

ing unknown to the age in which he lived. His knowledge in scripture was admirable, his elocution manly, and his way of reasoning, with all the subtility that the plain truths he delivered would bear. His thoughts were bent always on great designs, and he had a resolution to go through with them, and the assurance of his mind was not to be shaken or surprised. His life was holy, and, when he had leisure for retirement, severe. His virtues were active chiefly, and social, and not those lazy sullen ones of the cloister. He had no ambition but in the service of God; for other things, neither his enjoyments nor wishes ever went higher than the bare conveniences of living. If, among this crowd of virtues, a failing crept in, we must remember that an apostle himself had not been irreproachable: if, in the body of his doctrine, a flaw is to be seen, yet the greatest lights of the Church, and in the purest times of it, were, we know, not exact in all their opinions. Upon the whole, we have certainly great reason to break out in the language of the prophet, and say, "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who bringeth glad tidings."

Every man who has independence enough to form his religious opinions on the result of examination, and openly to confess the articles of his belief who feels an interest in the rights of conscience, and finds satisfaction in the quiet worship of his God, according with the dictates of his own mind, will ever hold the reformers in the highest estimation, and embalm their memories with the incense of gratitude. But it must be remembered

norance.

that they were fallible men. They made no claims to inspiration. They lived in an age of great igScience and literature were then but rising from a state of the deepest depression; and their means of general information were very limited. In religion, they had been educated in all the superstitions of the Romish Church, and entered into active life with unbounded notions of Papal power, and with an almost sacred reverence for the decisions of the Church. Under circumstances like these, is it a reasonable supposition that they should at once rise above the prejudices of early education, eradicate the errours that had been the most deeply rooted in their minds, surmount the embarrasments which impeded their progress in the pursuit of truth, and, in the course of a few years, comprehend Christianity in all its doctrines, precepts, and motives? No. We might as well expect that in one season every vestige of an extended forest would, by the labour of an individual, be removed, and in its place would appear all the fruits of the most perfect cultivation. Hear what Luther says of himself, in an address to those who might peruse his works." I entreat you to read my writings with cool consideration, and even with much pity. I wish you to know that when I began the affair of indulgences, I was a monk, and a most mad Papist. So intoxicated was I, and drenched in Papal dogmas, that I would have been most ready at all times to murder, or assist in murdering any person, who should utter a syllable against the Pope. I was always earnest in defending doctrines I professed. I went seriously to

work, as one who had a horrible dread of the day of judgment, and who from his inmost soul was anxious for his salvation. You will find, therefore, in my earliest writings, with how much humility, on many occasions, I gave up considerable points to the Pope, which I now detest as blasphemous and abominable in the highest degree. This errour my slanderers may call inconsistency; but you, my pious readers, will have the kindness to make some allowance, on account of the times, and my own inexperience. I stood absolutely alone at first, and certainly was very unlearned, and very unfit to undertake matters of such vast importance. It was by accident, not willingly or by design, that I fell into those violent disputes. God is my witness."

That the reformers, under all the embarrassments of their situation, should have broken asunder so many of the cords of Papal thraldom, and corrected so many of the abuses and errours of the Romish Church, must ever astonish the world; but to bound the reformation where they left it, and to make them the standards of orthodoxy in every subsequent age, is preposterous.

That the subject may be the more clearly presented to your minds, I will prosecute the inquiry into the extent of the reformation, under three distinct branches.

1. The power exercised in the government of ecclesiastical affairs.

2. The ceremonies and exercises to be adopted in the publick worship of God. And

3. The doctrines that were inculcated and established as the essential truths of revelation.

« PreviousContinue »