which they were placed, their doctrines claim great respect.

It cannot, with reason, be supposed, that any other consideration than a sincere and ardent love of truth, could prompt them to go against that formidable opposition which they must meet, in the course which they had chosen. If they wished for personal ease, they took the most effectual measure to deprive themselves of that gratification. Had they been influenced by a desire to obtain riches, their measures were no better calculated to secure this object. Wealth was principally engrossed by the estab lished Church. If honor had been their aim, all places of honor or profit were at the disposal of the Pope. They could not be ignorant, that the most safe, and effectual way to honor, would be to court the favor of him, who was the source of all Ecclesiastical preferment; and there is evidence, that some of the reformers had very flattering offers of Ecclesiastical preferment, on condition that they would return into the bosom of the Church.

Although these circumstances will not all prove that those who began the Reformation were infallible, yet certainly great respect is due to their persons and doctrines. Moreover, if we consider with most of those writers, who have undertaken to explain the book of Revelation, that these persons were among the witnesses whom Christ raised up, in perilous times, to bear testimony to the truth, the doc

trines which they taught are entitled to greater regard than those of most uninspired men. In a word, the circumstances in which they were placed, and the effects which were produced, through their instrumentality, lead to the conclusion that they were taught of God.

The principal reformers were Luther, and Melancthon, in Germany; Zuingle, Calvin, and Ecolampadius, in Switzerland; Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley, in England; and Knox, who was a scholar of Calvin, in Scotland. These men were instrumental in effecting a revolution, the most important, in its consequences, of any that has happened since the introduction of Christianity. It has had great influence on the state of science as well as religion. It has delivered the Church from ignorance, and superstition; and given a new direction and spring to human inquiry. It will be a useful employment to review the sentiments of those persons who were instrumental in opening the eyes of mankind, and of bringing the Church into its present state,

Two points are here to be considered: 1 What were the doctrines in dispute between the reformers and the Church of Rome? 2. Were the reformers agreed, in doctrine, among themselves?

1. In regard to the first inquiry, it is admitted, that Luther's opposition to the Church was, at first, excited, by observing the abuses which were practised in the scale of indulgen

*ces. When he examined farther into the reasons of this practice, he saw that it was founded on a principle which is in direct opposition to the spirit of the Gospel, that is, the principle of merit in works.

It is well known, that when the Reforma tion began, one of the capital errors of the Catholic Church, was, that there is, in works, an intrinsic merit to obtain salvation. It was supposed, that, in some eminent saints, there was a superabundance of merit; or more than the individual needed for his own salvation. The deluded multitude were made to believe, that there was, in the Church, a treasure of merit; and what one eminent saint possessed, more than was necessary for himself, might be applied to the benefit of others. It seems to have been upon this absurd principle, that the Church claimed the right to grant indulgence, and forgive sins.

Luther saw the absurdity of this principle. It is evident, that he not only opposed the practice of dispensing pardon, and selling indulgence; but he also opposed the principle on which this right was claimed, to wit, the merit of good works.

A short time after Luther had begun to preach the reformed doctrine, Eckius, the Pope's legate, challenged Carlostadt, the inti mate friend of Luther, to dispute on the deep subject of free-will. They met at Leipsic:

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and Luther appeared, as the second of his friend. In this dispute, Carlostadt maintained, that since the fall, we have no ability (inclination) to good, but what is derived from divine Grace. Eckius asserted a native power of self-determining volition, to concur with, or resist, the divine operations. The former, representing the doctrines of the Reformation, was the advocate for the sovereignty of divine Grace; the other maintained the power and merit of man, in his co-operation.*

No Calvinist, at the present day, more fully asserts the total moral depravity of mankind, and the necessity of divine influence, to renew them to holiness, than Carlostadt, and his friend Luther. Indeed these two reformers appeared in the defence of those doctrines, which, in the fifth century, Augustin had exhibited against the Palagians and Semi-Palagians. The same doctrines, for substance, constitute, at this day, the Calvinistic system. The Pope's legate, on the other hand, was an advocate for the same sentiments which the Semi-Pelagians maintained. It appears, therefore, that in the progress of the Reformation, this became a point of separation. The Romish Church favored the opinion, that there is, in the creature, a self-determining power; and that he can either co-operate with, or resist, the influences of the Holy Spirit, and make them ineffectual.

The reformers believed the total inclination of the heart to sin; and that all which is good

* Haweis' Ch. Hist. of the Ref. page 22.

*

in man, is the effect of a divine influence. Dr. Haweis asserts, that the reformers, as appears by their conferences at Marpurg, were agreed in the following doctrines:

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1. Of God's eternal purpose and predestination of an elect people, and those comparatively few, ordained to life and glory:

แ 2. That man had lost all ability to do good, and was in his nature, as fallen, only inclined to evil:

"3. That nothing ever did, or can, alter this propensity of the heart, but the Holy Ghost, by his own immediate agency upon the souls of men ::

"4. That a sinner is, and can be, justified by faith only; and this not of himself, being unable either to comprehend or receive the things that be of the Spirit of God; and therefore the faith itself must be the gift of God:

5. That in the creature there is no merit, nor can be From first to last, a sinner must

be saved by Grace :

"6. That the vicarious atonement, by the one oblation of Jesus Christ upon the cross, is effectual, not for the many called, but for the few chosen."

The decrees of the council of Trent will prove, that the reformers separated from the

Eccls. His. of the Ref. page 44