real character; the result was, that he was so perfectly convinced of their innocence, that he not only protected them during the rest of his reign, but had the magnanimity to declare, that "they were better men than himself and his Catholic subjects."

Happy had it been for himself and for the world, if the emperor Charles V. had instituted the same inquiries! Happy, if in the meridian of his power he had studied the character of mankind to as good purpose as he afterwards, in his monastic retreat, studied the mechanism of watches! Astonished to find, that, after the closest application, he never could bring any two to go just alike, he expressed deep regret at his own folly, in having bestowed so much time and pains in the fruitless attempt of bringing mankind to an exact uniformity in their religious opinions. But the discovery was made too late; he ended where he should have begun.

CHAPTER XXXV.

The Reformation.

In order to increase the royal pupil's reverence for Christianity before she is herself able to appreciate its value, she should be taught, that it did not steal into the world in the days of darkness and ignorance, when the spirit of inquiry was asleep, but appeared in the most enlightened period of the Roman empire; that its light dawned, not on the remoter regions of the earth, but on a province of that empire whose peculiar manners had already attracted much notice, and whose local situation placed it particularly within the view of surrounding nations: whereas the religion of Mahomet, and the corruptions of popery, which started up almost together, arose when the spirit of investigation, learning, and philosophy had ceased to exert itself;-that, during those dark ages, both Christianity and human learning were nearly extinguished; and that, as both had sunk together, so both together awoke from their long slumber. The restoration of letters was the restoration of religion also; the free access to the ancient authors being one grand instrument of the revival of pure Christianity.

The learning which existed in the church antecedently to the Reformation was limited to very few, and was, in the general, but meagre and superficial; and the purposes to which it was confined, formed an effectual obstacle to substantial improvement. Instead of being employed in investigating the evidences of Christianity, or in elucidating the analogy of Christian principles with the laws of the natural and the exigences of the moral world, it was pressed into the service of what was called schooldivinity; a system, which perhaps had providentially been not without its uses at a previous period, especially when under the discretion of a sound and upright mind, as having served both to elicit and exercise the intellect of a ruder age. Study and industry, however they may be misapplied, are always good in themselves; and almost any state is better than hopeless inanity. These men, perhaps, sustained the cause of religion, when she might utterly have sunk, though with arms little suited to make their support effectual, or to produce solid practical benefit, either to the church or the people. Some of the earlier scholastic divines, though tedious, and somewhat trifling, were, however, close reasoners, as well as

pious men, though they afterwards sunk in rationality as they increased in quibbling and subtlety. Yet, defective as their efforts were, they had been useful, as they had contributed to oppose infidelity, and to keep alive some love of piety and devotion, in that season of drowsy inactivity. But, at the period to which we refer, their theology had become little better than a mazy labyrinth of trivial, and not seldom of pernicious sophistry. Subtle disquisitions, metaphysical niceties, unintelligible obscurities, and whimsical distinctions, were substituted in the place of revealed truth; for revealed truth was not sufficiently intricate for the speculations of those puzzling theologians, of whom Erasmus said, that "they had brought it to be a matter of so much wit to be a Christian, that ordinary heads were not able to reach it." And, as genuine Christianity was not sufficiently ingenious for these whimsical doctors, neither was it sufficiently pliant and accommodating to suit the corrupt state of public morals.

Almost entirely overlooking the Scriptures, the schoolmen had built schemes and systems on the authority of the fathers, some of them spurious ones. The philosophy of Aristotle had also been resorted to for some of the chief materials of the system; so that, as the author of the History of the Council of Trent informs us, "If it had not been for Aristotle, the church had wanted many articles of faith."

The early reformers defeated these sophisters, by opposing, to their unsubstantial system, the plain unadulterated Bible. The very text of holy Scripture, and the most sober, rational, and simple deductions from thence, farnished the ground-work of their arguments. And to this noble purpose they applied that sound learning which Providence had caused to revive just at the necessary period. Their skill in the Greek and Hebrew languages enabled them to read the original Scriptures, and to give correct translations of them to the public. And, in this respect, they had an important advantage over the school-divines, who did not understand the language in which their master Aristotle had written. It is no wonder, if an heterogeneous theology should have been compounded out of such discordant materials as were made up from spurious fathers, and an illunderstood pagan philosopher. The works of this great author, which, by an inconsistency not uncommon in the history of man, had not long before been prohibited by a papal decree, and burnt by public authority, came, in the sixteenth century, to be considered as little less than canonical!

But this attachment to sophistry and jargon was far from being the worst feature of the period in question. The generality of the clergy were sunk into the grossest ignorance, of which instances are recorded scarcely credible in our day of general knowledge. It is difficult to say whether the ecclesiastics had more entirely discarded useful learning, or Scripture truth. In the place, therefore, of the genuine religion of the bible, they substituted false miracles, lying legends, purchased pardons, and preposterous penances. A procedure which became the more popular, as it introduced a religion which did not insist on the inconvenient appendage of a good life; those who had money enough easily procuring indemnity for a bad one; and to the profligate and the affluent, the purchase of good works was certainly more agreeable than the practice.

We are far from asserting, that there were no mixtures of infirmity in the instruments which accomplished the great work of the Reformation.

They were fallible men. But it is now evident to every sincere inquirer, that many of their transactions, which have been represented by their adversaries as corrupt and criminal, only appeared such to those who did not take their motives, and the critical circumstances of the times, into the account, or who had an interest in misrepresenting them. Many of those actions, which, through false colourings, were made to appear unfavourable, are now clearly proved to have been virtuous and honourable; especially when we take the then situation of things, and the flagitious conduct of the priests and pontiffs with whom they had to deal, into the account.

Mr. Hume has been among the foremost to revive and inflame the malignant reports respecting them. He allows, indeed, the inflexible intrepidity with which they braved dangers, tortures, and even death itself. But still they were, in his estimation, the "fanatical and enraged reformers." And he carefully suggests, through the course of his history, that fanaticism is the characteristic of the protestant religion. The terms "protestant fanaticism," and "fanatical churches," he repeatedly uses. He has even the temerity to assert, in contradiction to all credible testimony, that the reformers placed all merit in "a mysterious species of faith, in inward vision, rapture, and ecstacy." A charge, to say nothing of truth and candour, unworthy of Mr. Hume's good sense and extensive means of information. For there is no fact better known, than that these eminently wise men never pretended to illuminations and impulses. What they undertook honestly, they conducted soberly. They pretended to no inspiration; they did not even pretend to introduce a new, but only to restore to its pristine purity the old religion. "They respected government, practised and taught submission to civil rulers, and desired only the liberty of that conscience which God has made free."*

But though, in accomplishing the great work of the Reformation, reason and human wisdom were most successfully exercised; though the Divine interference was not manifested by the working of miracles, or the gift of supernatural endowments: yet who can doubt that this great work was directed by the hand of Heaven, especially when we consider the wonderful predisposition of causes, the extraordinary combination of circumstances, the long chain of gradual but constantly progressive occurrences, by which this grand event was brought about? The successive, as well as contemporary production of singular characters, calculated to promote its general accomplishment, and each peculiarly fitted for his own respective work! So many unconscious or unwilling instruments made subservient to one great purpose! Friends and enemies, even Mussulmen and popes, contributing, certainly without intending it, to its advancement! Mahomet banishing learning from the East, that it might providentially find a shelter in these countries, where the new opinions were to be propagated! Several successive sovereign pontiffs, collecting books, and patronizing that literature which was so soon to be directed against their own domination! But, above all the multiplication of contemporary popes, weakening the reve

See an excellent appendix to Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, vol. iv. page 136, on the spirit of the reformers, and the injustice of Mr. Hume, by that truly elegant, candid and accomplished scholar and most amiable man, the late Rev. Dr. Archibald Maclaine,

The lover and the love of human kind.

rence of the people, by occasioning a schism in the church, and exhibiting its several heads wandering about, under the ludicrous circumstance, of each claiming infallibility for himself, and denying it to his competitor! Infallibility, thus split, was discredited, and in a manner annihilated. To these preparatory circumstances, we may add the infatuation, or rather judicial blindness, of the papal power; the errors, even in worldly prudence, committed by Leo, a pontiff otherwise of admirable talents! The half measures adopted, at one time, of inefficient violence; at another, of ineffectual lenity! The temporary want of sagacity in an ecclesiastical court which was usually remarkable for political acuteness! The increasing aptitude of men's minds to receive truth, in proportion as events occurred to mature it! Some who loved learning, and were indifferent to religion, favouring the reformation as a cause connected with good letters; the old doctrines becoming united with the idea of ignorance, as the new ones were with that of knowledge! The preparatory invention of printing, without which the revival of learning would have been of little general use, and the dispersion of the Scriptures slow and inconsiderable! Some able and keen-sighted men, working vigorously from a perception of existing abuses, who yet wanted sufficient zeal for the promotion of religious

truth!

The pointed wit, the sarcastic irony, and powerful reasoning of Erasmus, together with his profound theological learning, directed against the corruptions of the church with such force as to shake the credit of the clergy, and be of the utmost service to that cause which he wanted the righteous courage systematically to defend !* The unparalleled zeal, abilities, and integrity of Luther! His bold genius and adventurous spirit, not contenting itself, as the other reformers had done, with attacking notorious errors, and stigmatizing monstrous abuses; but sublimely exerted in establishing, or rather restoring, the great fundamentals of Christianity! While Erasmus, with that truly classic taste of which he was the chief reviver, so elegantly satirized the false views of God and religion which the Romish church entertained, Luther's aim was to acquire true Scriptural notions of both. Ridicule served to expose the old religion, but something nobler was necessary to establish the new. It was for Erasmus to shake to its foundation the monstrous system of indulgences; it remained for Luther to restore (not to invent) the doctrine of salvation by remission of sins through a Mediator. While his predecessors, and even coadjutors, had been satisfied with pulling down the enormous mass of corruptions, the mighty hand of the Saxon reformer not only removed the rubbish, but erected a fair fabric of sound doctrine in its place. The new edifice arose in its just symmetry, and derives impregnable strength, in consequence of its having been erected on a broad foundation. Nothing short of the ardour of Luther could have maintained this great cause in one stage, while perhaps the discreet temperance of Melancthon was necessary to its support in another! The useful violence of Henry in attacking the

Every elegant scholar must naturally be an admirer of Erasmus. We should be sorry to incur the censure of any such by regretting, that the wit and indignation of this fine genius sometimes carried him too great lengths. Impiety, doubtless, was far from his heart; yet in some of his Colloquies, when he only professed to attack the errors of popery, religion itself is wounded by strokes which have such a tendency to profaneness, as to give pain to the sober reader,

Pope with a zeal as furious as if he himself had not been an enemy to the Reformation, exhibiting a wonderful illustration of that declaration of the Almighty, that "the fierceness of man shall turn to his praise!"' The meek wisdom of Cranmer, by which he was enabled to moderate the otherwise uncontrollable temper of his royal master! The undaunted spirit and matchless intrepidity of Elizabeth, which effectually struggled for, and finally established it! These, and a thousand other concurring circumstances, furnish the most unclouded evidence, to every mind not blinded by prejudice, that the divine AUTHOR of Christianity was also, though by the agency of human means and instruments, the RESTORER of it.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

On the importance of religious institutions and observances.-They are suited to the nature of Christianity, and particularly adapted to the character of man.

THAT torrent of vices and crimes which the French revolution has disembogued into society, may be so clearly and indisputably traced to the source of infidelity, that it has, in a degree, become fashionable to profess a belief in the truths, and a conviction of the value of Christianity. But, at the same time, it has too naturally happened, that we have fallen into the habit of defending religion, almost exclusively, on political and secular grounds; as if Christianity consisted merely in our not being atheists or anarchists. A man, however, may be removed many stages from the impiety of French infidels, and yet be utterly destitute of real religion.

Many, not openly profane, but even entertaining a respect for the political uses of religion, have a way of generalising their ideas, so as to dismiss revelation from the account. Others again, who, in the last respect, agree with the former class, affect a certain superiority over the low contracted notions of churchmen and collegians. These assert, that, if virtue be practised, and public order preserved, the motive on which the one is practised, and the other maintained, is not worth contending for. Many there are, who, without formally rejecting Christianity, talk of it at large, in general, or in the abstract. As if it were at once to exempt themselves from the trouble, and to escape the infamy of atheism, these men affect to think so highly of the Supreme Being, whose temple is universal space, that he needs not to be worshipped in temples made with hands! And, forgetting that the world which he thought it worth while to create, he will certainly think it worth while to govern, they assert, that he is too great to attend to the concerns of such petty beings as we are, and too exalted to listen to our prayers;-that it is a narrow idea which we form of his divine attributes, to fancy that one day or one place is more acceptable to him than another;-that all religions are equally pleasing to God, provided the worshipper be sincere ;-that the establishment of a public ministry is perhaps a good expedient of political wisdom, for awing the vulgar, but that every man is his own priest;-that all errors of opinion are innocent; and that the Almighty is too just to punish any man for speculative tencts.

But, these lofty contemners of institutions, observances, days, ordinances, and priests, evince, by their very objections, that they are not more