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 The voice of the church one 
 
 H. 179 
 
THE 
 
 VOICE OF THE CHURCH ONE, 
 
 UNDER ALL THE SUCCESSIVE FORMS OF CHRISTIANITY: 
 
 A DISCOURSE, 
 
 PRONOUNCED AT THE OPENING OF THE 
 
 THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL AT GENEVA, 
 
 y^ 
 
 By J. H. MERLE D'AUBIGNE, D. D. 
 
 AUTHOR OF " HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION IN THE 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY." 
 
 [translated by rev. r. smith, waterford, n. y.] 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY JOHN S. TAYLOR & CO. 
 
 At the New- York Sunday School and Juvenile Book Depository 
 Brick Church Chapel, No. 145 Nassau-St. 
 
 1844, 
 
Entered according to the Act of Congress in the year 1843, by 
 John S. Taylor, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of tho 
 United States, for the Southern District of Nuw Yorls. 
 
 HOPKINS AND JENNINGS, 
 
 University Press, 111 FuUon-st. N. Y 
 1844. 
 
THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH ONE, 
 
 What astonishing labours — what untiring 
 activities — what varied efforts, do men em- 
 ploy on earth ! But time passes its level, for 
 the most part, over their productions ; while 
 they imagine themselves to be building a 
 tower which shall reach to the heavens, their 
 proud works are confounded, after a few gen- 
 erations, with the sands of the desert. 
 
 There is nothing stable here, but Christi- 
 anity. That alone is immovable, like its 
 Author. It is this rock against which have 
 broken, and are still breaking, waves ever 
 new, without being able to shake it. 
 
4 THE VOICE OF 
 
 If, then, there is any one who wishes to 
 give stability to his work on earth, let him 
 connect it with Religion : it will receive from 
 this connexion an impress of immortality. 
 
 I am aware, Gentlemen, that these are 
 truths not generally recognized among men. 
 There are two prevailing errors on this sub- 
 ject. There are those who find nothing un- 
 changeable even in the essence of Christianity. 
 " The Christian doctrine," say they, " is only 
 a particular development of the religious sen- 
 timent. This form has succeeded to a pre- 
 vious one, and will, in turn, be succeeded by 
 another. The Religion of Christ sprang ne- 
 cessarily out of the state of humanity in the 
 time of the Caesars, as a tree in Spring pro- 
 duces buds and flowers." Singular error of 
 Rationalism ; but Avhich history refutes in 
 the clearest manner. History shows that 
 Christianity was not in accordance with the 
 directions of the human mind, at the time it 
 
THE CHURCH. 
 
 appeared, but in direct opposition to them. 
 The wisdom of the world did not give Chris- 
 tianity birth ; — it sought to crush it. Chris- 
 tianity was not the child of the times : it was, 
 on the contrary, its adversary and regenera- 
 tor ; and as it was not from the dust of the 
 earth that this precious fruit sprang, it can- 
 not of course return thither again. Then did 
 the Heavens give a treasure to the world, 
 which successive generations ought to trans- 
 mit uncorrupted from hand to hand. This is 
 the treasure which we have received ; which 
 we are to hold with fear and reverence in 
 earthen vessels ; and we, in turn, must trans- 
 mit it to our posterity, still unchanged and 
 unchangeable amongst millions of men, "un- 
 til the heavens and the earth flee away, and 
 there is found no more place for them." 
 
 But if we encounter, on the one hand, the 
 triflers with Christianity, we meet, on the 
 other, with those who would give to it a uni- 
 1* 
 
b THE VOICE OF 
 
 formity of appearance in all ages. There 
 is something-, undoubtedly, which never 
 changes in Christianity, and that is its es~ 
 sence; but there is something also, which 
 does change, and that is its appearance : and 
 it is for want of properly understanding this 
 distinction, that so many have erred in regard 
 to the invariableness of Christ's religion. A 
 man changes his appearance at different 
 ages of his life : his essence, never : — he is 
 still the same man. 
 
 The Christian Religion, at the time it 
 came from heaven, was under the necessity, 
 as is every thing else in this world, of cloth- 
 ing itself in a human form. The external 
 circumstances of different epochs, must exer- 
 cise an influence upon the successive devel- 
 opments of Christian truth. To such a form 
 must succeed such another ; nor could these 
 forms be things altogether indifferent. Some 
 have been better than others ; but the same 
 
THE CHURCH. 7 
 
 essential verities have been found in all past 
 varieties, and will be, in all which are to 
 come. 
 
 Gentlemen — the v/ork in which we are 
 engaged, and of which I am to give you 
 some account to-day, is, in itself, a feeble, an 
 humble work ; but here is its glory, that it 
 belongs to the work of eternity. If we attach 
 ourselves to that which belongs to the appear- 
 ance of Religion only, we can have no secu- 
 rity for that which we labour to defend. The 
 first revolution of society would sweep our 
 work to the tomb. But if we address our- 
 selves to the essence of Christianity, the 
 cause to which we devote ourselves partakes 
 of the perpetuity of the worfc of God. We 
 may fail ; and being mortal, we shall fail : 
 our school may fail ; but the cause to which 
 it is devoted shall not fail, neither in this 
 place, nor in all the earth. To that cause, 
 according to the ancient oracle, " the gather- 
 
8 THE VOICE OF 
 
 ing of the people shall be." Yes, Gentle- 
 men, here lies the foundation of all our hopes ; 
 it is this which, by the grace of God, shall 
 animate us in all our difficulties and trials : 
 and it will be worth our pains to explain and 
 defend, on the present occasion, this remarka- 
 ble characteristic of the Religion of Jesus 
 Christ — The invar iahleness of its doctrines^ 
 under different forms : or. The voice of the 
 Church one and the same, in all ages. 
 
 If we search in the different periods of his- 
 tory for the human forms in which the truth 
 of God has been clothed, we shall fmd a great 
 number. It is necessary, therefore, to bring 
 them together — to re-unite and amass them. 
 We shall obtain thus, in the last synthesis, 
 FOUR PERIODS, or principal forms of Chris- 
 tianity. — The first, is the primitive^ or the 
 fortn of Life ; the second is the form of 
 Dogma; the third, the Scholastic, or, the 
 form of the School ; and the last, the form 
 
THE CHURCH. y 
 
 of the Reformation. The Church of 
 
 Christ, to use a Scriptural illustration, is like 
 an individual man. It has its youth, its ma- 
 turity, its old age — and then, if we might so 
 say, it has, without dying, a glorious resur- 
 rection. 
 
 Let us run rapidly over these four forms — 
 so diverse, I had almost said, so opposite, in 
 appearance — and see if we do not find, un- 
 der each of them, the same unchangeable 
 truths. 
 
 We shall hear the voice of Doctors. Un- 
 doubtedly, the declarations of no one single 
 man are sufficient to satisfy us what was the 
 faith of the Church ; but if, on examining 
 those Doctors who lived in countries the 
 most distant from each other, we find, amidst 
 great diversities of views, some doctrines on 
 which they are all agreed, shall we not safely 
 conclude that these doctrines have also been 
 those of all the Church throughout the earth ? 
 
10 THE VOICE OP 
 
 Whatj then, are the points on which to 
 direct our present inquiry ? 
 
 All Christianity, as well as all religious 
 Philosophy, has respect, necessarily, to three 
 principal points. It has respect, at first, to 
 God ; and then, to Man ; and then, to the 
 RELATION between God and man ; or, the 
 scheme adopted by Deity to restore man to 
 himself, which is Redemption. 
 
 Let us now see what the voice of the 
 Church has taught us, on these three points, 
 in the different periods of Christianity. — 
 There is, 
 
 I. THE FORM OF LIFE. 
 
 In considering this form, we shall omit the 
 time of the Apostles ; since that deserves to 
 be considered by itself The primitive form, 
 according to our plan, commences with the 
 successors of the Apostles, and extends to the 
 time of Arius. The character which distin- 
 
THE CHURCH. 11 
 
 guishes it, is that of life. The truths of Re- 
 ligion were not yet exhibited with that 
 precision and system which distinguished 
 them at a later period. The essential thing 
 was the life which results from these truths, 
 when properly received. They lived for 
 Christ, in the midst of a world of idolatry ; 
 they died for Christ, in the arena and on the 
 funeral pile, and without much discussing 
 the nature of his person, or disputing about 
 his work. Christianity was content to exist, 
 and to know and profess that it existed, with- 
 out enunciating and classifying all the parts 
 in which that existence consisted. Just as 
 a man is satisfied for a long time to have and 
 enjoy being, without studying and explaining 
 in what that being consists. 
 
 Certain Rationalistic Doctors strangely infer 
 from this character of the primitive form of 
 Christianity, that the Christian truths did not 
 then exist, and that because there was no 
 
12 THE VOICE OF 
 
 dogmatism, there were therefore no doctrines. 
 But to reason thus, is to reason as strangely 
 and falsely as would that inexperienced ob- 
 server, who should maintain that the essen- 
 tial parts of a human being did not exist 
 until the man had made a precise and rational 
 analysis of them. 
 
 It results from this characteristic also, that 
 the controversies of this period turn very lit- 
 tle upon dogmas. The differences are in 
 tendencies rather than doctrines. We shall 
 meet with families presenting different as- 
 pects, rather than sects maintaining different 
 doctrines. Let us trace these families a little, 
 before proceeding to notice th^ doctrines 
 which they all agreed to proclaim. 
 
 To the inspiration of the Apostles succeed- 
 ed the simple Christianity of the Apostolic 
 Fathers. It would seem that the ordinary 
 course of nature had in this case been re- 
 versed, and that the ingenuousness and sim- 
 
THE CHURCH. 13 
 
 plicity of infancy had followed the strength 
 and maturity of the full-grown man. The 
 Church, under the instruction of her Ignatius, 
 her Polycarp, and many other faithful disci- 
 ples, lived under the great idea of the speedy 
 return of Jesus Christ : and behold the sum- 
 mary of her faith ! ^^A neio creation must 
 he accomplished in humanity, before the 
 arrival of that solemn day^^ " There are," 
 says Barnabas, " three constitutions, or three 
 economies of the Lord ; — the hope of life, 
 (the Old Testament,) the commencement of 
 life, (the New Testament,) and the consum- 
 mation of life, (the Kingdom of Heaven.)" 
 
 But by little and little this direction to- 
 wards the heavens, seems to decline in the 
 Church. A generation appears, which does 
 not so deeply penetrate the spirit of Jesus 
 Christ. They gather curious traditions con- 
 cerning this terrestrial appearing of Christ. 
 Some carnal Jews, who are still expecting a 
 2 
 
14 THE VOICE OF 
 
 Messiah altogether human, brought in the 
 grossest views under a Christian name. It 
 seemed as if the Church was fatigued with 
 her exalted flight, and was beginning to seek 
 the earth. Let us not be astonished at this. 
 One always experiences languor and drowsi- 
 ness after long watching eind care. 
 
 But there now appeared on the limits of 
 Christianity, and almost beyond it, a tendency 
 directly the opposite of this. Oriental Phil- 
 osophy attempts to unite itself with the Re- 
 ligion of Jesus. It seeks to take away from 
 Religion its practical character, and to convert 
 it into systems, which lose themselves in the 
 clouds. Gnosticism substituted for a salu- 
 tary faith, a fantastic cosmogony, by means 
 of which it proposed to explain that which is 
 inexplicable, and to cultivate a theosophy, 
 which would procure for man on earth the 
 sublime contemplations of Heaven. The 
 West recoils before these adventurous vaga- 
 
THE CHURCH. 15 
 
 ries of the East. In Proconsular Africa, and 
 among the Gauls, the Tertullians and the 
 IrencBiises arise. These offer a Christianity 
 simple, positive, historical — and propose to 
 men that faith which nourishes alike the lit- 
 tle and the great. Regarding Philosophy as 
 the source of Gnosticism, they begin to view 
 with distrust the wisdom and scientific cul- 
 ture of the Greeks. 
 
 But this exclusive simplicity has also its 
 dangers. The cultivated Pagans, not finding 
 in the Christianity offered them, any thing 
 which responds to their intellectual taste, re- 
 main in the worship of their false Gods, or 
 precipitately cast themselves into the ad- 
 venturous systems of the Gnostics. Alex- 
 andria — situated on the borders of the Nile, 
 between the East and West — remarks this: 
 Alexandria, the grand mart of the Sciences — 
 where the gospel is said to have been carried 
 by the Apostle Mark — undertakes to mediate 
 between these two tendencies of man, into 
 
16 THE VOICE OF 
 
 which the world was divided. Pantgenus, 
 Clement, and Origen, found a Christian Sci- 
 ence, and in that approach the East ; but they 
 found it on the Scriptures and in that are 
 nearer to the West : — (^vwo»^ aXyi^hyi — true 
 Science.) Alas, it was not wholly so : and 
 these Doctors, although they did not abandon 
 the fundamental principles of Christianity, in- 
 corporated in their systems the insidious germs 
 of the two great heresies, which have since 
 troubled a subsequent epoch and all epochs.* 
 The School of Alexandria, by little and 
 little, supplanted Gnosticism. But against 
 that, in turn, are directed the arms of the se- 
 vere and practical School of the West. A 
 contest of a remarkable character, arises be- 
 tween these two churches, or Schools rather, 
 in the third century. But the opposite ten- 
 dencies seem to balance each other, and thus 
 contribute to the prosperity of Religion. Al- 
 
 * Arianism and Pelagianism. 
 
THE CHURCH. 17 
 
 exandria originates a Theological spirit in the 
 church. She begins to systematize, to eluci- 
 date her doctrines. She prevents a gross An- 
 thromorphism from mingling with the celes- 
 tial doctrines of Jesus Christ. The West is 
 always bringing back to the simple and literal 
 word of Scripture. It recalls to mind con- 
 stantly, that Christianity is a thing to be felt, 
 proved in the heart, and exhibited in the life. 
 It prevents the changing of these positive and 
 salutary doctrines for vain and fantastic spec- 
 ulations. 
 
 Such, Gentlemen, are some of the succes- 
 sive phases of our primitive form of Christi- 
 anity. But in the midst of all a spirit of life 
 still animates the Church. It is the age of 
 her youth. These Christians, delivered from 
 the sins of Paganism, feel the transforming 
 influence of the gospel, with more energy, 
 from being able to compare what it has made 
 them, with what they were before. This 
 
18 THE VOICE OF 
 
 conflict with the world reminds them con- 
 stantly of their vocation as soldiers of Jesus 
 Christ. Every thing in the Church now 
 lives — every thing moves. She aspires to the 
 skies ; she seems half-way ascended ; and al- 
 though the age of gold must be reserved for 
 " the new heavens and the new earth," which 
 she is expecting, the Christian Church pre- 
 sents, in these days of her youth and life, 
 traits of beauty, that are absolutely celestial. 
 And what are the doctj^ines, which are pro- 
 fessed by this new people, which the breath 
 of the Almighty has created in the earth? 
 They recognize o?ie living and true God. 
 They worship in God, not only the principle 
 of all things, ( The Father^) but the Redeemer 
 also, ( The Son) and the sanctifier of fallen 
 humanity, ( The Holy Spirit.) They believ- 
 ed that the same God, who created man in 
 righteousness has redeemed him from sin, 
 and does not cease to sanctify him mitil he 
 
THE CHURCH. 19 
 
 comes to everlasting life. They knew noth- 
 ing of the strange error, by which some would 
 rob God of the work and glory of Redemption, 
 by giving it to a creature. 
 
 The idea of a T7'inity i7i the God head 
 discovers itself from the very beginning of 
 the primitive'Jepoch, and never ceases to be 
 proclaimed, in a manner the most distinct. 
 How does the voice of these early soldiers of 
 the Cross, confound the bold pretensions of 
 modern times I Hear it : Clement of Ro3ie, 
 a disciple of Paul, renders glory to God in 
 the following profession, — ''One God, one 
 Christ, one Spirit of Grace :" while Polycarp, 
 a disciple of John, dying in the midst of the 
 jSames, ascribes eternal glory " to the Father, 
 to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost." 
 
 Justin Martyr, a converted sage, who 
 in the time of the Antonines, poured out his 
 blood for the cause of Christ, proclaims, " a 
 unity in Trinity." — Theophilus, Bishop of 
 
20 THE VOICE OF 
 
 Antiochj about the same time, and in a man- 
 ner still more explicit, professes " The Holy 
 Trinity/^ 
 
 A little afterwards, we find Tertullian, 
 a lawyer of Africa, now become a pastor of 
 God's flock, proclaiming " a Trinity of one 
 Divine Being, the Father, the Son, and the 
 Holy Spirit?" and in another place — "Let us 
 guard well, the sacrament of our economy, 
 '^a unity in Trinity,' recognizing three^ the 
 Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. — One 
 in substance, one in estate, and one in power, 
 became one God."* 
 
 And let us hear a Bishop of a city near our 
 own, a city trampled by the fury of Christ's 
 
 * Note by the Translator. — The original authorities 
 are referred to, and printed in full, in the notes to Dr. 
 Merle's pamphlet; but it has not been deemed necessary 
 to insert them here. 
 
THE CHURCH. 21 
 
 enemies in his day, and by other furies in our 
 own — let us hear Iren^us, of Lyons, who 
 had left the enlightened shores of Asia to bear 
 the glad tidings of salvation to the barbarous 
 Gauls — how does he defend the great doc- 
 trine of God manifest in the flesh ! " Christ " 
 says he, "united in himself God and man: 
 if MAN had not vanquished the enemy of man, 
 (i. e. the Devil,) he had not been properly 
 vanquished : but, on the other hand, if God 
 had not wrought salvation, we could never 
 have been assured of possessing it." 
 
 We have thus passed, as yet, only some 
 few scores of years, from the death of the 
 Apostles, and we have found proclaimed by 
 so many illustrious Doctors, this doctrine of 
 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, a d(?ctrine of 
 which Christ designed to establish a perpetual 
 monument in the Church by the institution 
 of Baptism. The first of all the Church's 
 Teachers, defend this most consoling doctrine 
 
22 THE VOICE OF 
 
 of God become Man. The further we ad- 
 vance, the more do these testimonies increase: 
 throughout, is most deeply engraven, both in 
 the sentiments and worship of God's people, 
 the eternal Divinity of the Son of God. Even 
 one of the wisest of the Heathen sages, could 
 say of them, " These Christians meet together, 
 to sing hymns to Christ, as being God." — But 
 do we inquire now, what these Christians of 
 the primitive epoch believed concerning 
 onan ? They did not imagine with certain 
 Pagans and certain modern Doctors, that all 
 evil proceeds from natural organization in 
 man, and that this evil is not in opposition 
 
 to the holiness of God ! Their sentiment 
 
 was, that the first man, having, by disobedi- 
 ence, separated his will from the will of God, 
 human nature has been abandoned to itself, 
 and thus separated from God, has fallen under 
 the dominion of evil. 
 
 Let us approach, for proof, the college of 
 
THE CHURCH. 23 
 
 the Apostles: let us interrogate those who 
 either surrounded or succeeded them. Bar- 
 nabas^ the companion of Paul, has these 
 words : " Before we believed, the habitation 
 of our hearts was full of corruption and sin ; 
 filled with idolatry, and a dwelling-place of 
 demons." Justin^ who had sought in vain, 
 in all philosophy, a key to the history of man, 
 finds it, at length, in the fall of Adam, effect- 
 ed by the seductions of Satan concealed in 
 the form of a serpent. (See his Dialogue 
 with Trypho, p. 306.) 
 
 The first man^ according to the simple 
 and practical IreiKBiis^ is "like the case of 
 one who, being incarcerated, propagates a 
 race in prison." The profound Tertullian 
 has already called the corruption of human 
 nature "original sin." [Vitium Originis,) 
 "The first man," says he, "infected the spe- 
 cies descending from him, and rendered them 
 partakers of his condemnation." Cyprian^ 
 
I 
 
 24 THE VOICE OF 
 
 Bishop of Carthage, understands the origin of 
 sin in the same way. " The infant, at birth, 
 has no sin," says he, " unless it be, in that it 
 is descended, according to the flesh, from 
 Adam, and has, by its birth, contracted the 
 contagion of death." 
 
 And now, if we betake ourselves to the 
 school of Alexandria, and think to hear some- 
 thing more flattering to our pride from these 
 philosophical Theologians, even there we 
 shall learn from Origen, that " Adam turned 
 from the straight way of Paradise, to take 
 the evil ways of mortal life." "In conse- 
 quence, all those who, descending from him, 
 have come into the world, are also turned out 
 of the way, and become, like him, unprofita- 
 ble." " Every man is corrupted in his father 
 and in his mother : Jesus Christ alone was 
 born pure." "It is impossible that man, 
 since his fall, should regard God ; he must 
 be subject, at first, to the dominion of sin." 
 
THE CHURCH. 25 
 
 Thus Egypt, as well as Gaul, and Africa, 
 with Asia, alike recognize man as a being 
 fallen and impure. 
 
 And how is this fallen and defiled being to 
 be reconciled to a holy God ? What thought 
 the Christians of this primitive epoch, of the 
 means by which God saves ? Let us inter- 
 rogate those again who surrounded the Apos- 
 tles. They will teach us those sacred doc- 
 trines of Grace, which were more fully 
 explained at a later period. "The Son of 
 God has suffered," says Barnabas^ " that his 
 sufferings might give us life. He offered in 
 sacrifice for us, the vessel of his spirit, (i. e. 
 his hody.y Again, " Having learned to hope 
 in the name of Christ, and having received 
 the remission of sins, we are become neio 
 men, and new-createdP Hernias — the same 
 perhaps of whom Paul speaks — (Rom. xvi. 
 14) — says : " Before man receives the name 
 
 of a child of God, he is condemned to death ; 
 3 
 
26 THE VOICE OP 
 
 but when this seal is applied, he is delivered 
 from death and passes into life." " The law 
 of God," says Justin, "pronounced a curse 
 upon man, inasmuch as he could not fulfil it 
 in all its extent. (See Deut. xvii. 26.) But 
 Christ has delivered us from this curse, in 
 bearing it on our behalf" Do we speak diffe- 
 rently, at the present day ? 
 
 Irenceiis sees in circumcision "a type of 
 the saving blood of Christ, and in the tree of 
 life, a type of the cross of Christ." Else- 
 where he declares " that man must no longer 
 seek to purify himself by sacrifices, but by 
 Christ's blood and his death." The Paschal 
 Lamb, according to him, foreshadowed Christ, 
 " who saves those that believe in him, by the 
 sprinkling of his blood ;" and the two goats 
 — of which the one was sent away into the 
 wilderness, and the other sacrificed to God — 
 was a representation of the two-fold coming 
 of Christ, the one for death, and the 
 
THE CHURCH. 
 
 27 
 
 other for glory. He opposes to the disobedi- 
 ence of Adam, the obedience of Christ. — 
 " Christ reconciles the Father to us," says he, 
 ''in replacing, by his obedience, the disobe- 
 dience of the first man ;" and, pursuing his 
 comparison of a man cast into prison by sin, 
 and into captivity to the Devil, declares that 
 "Christ has paid the ransom necessary for 
 deliverance from this captivity." 
 
 In the same way does Origen represent 
 the death of Christ as "that power which 
 delivers man from sin." Indeed, the entire 
 Church regards the sufterings of the Lamb of 
 God as the means by which the Avay to the 
 Father has been re-opened to the children of 
 men. It is faith which renders man a parta- 
 ker of this deliverance, and this communi- 
 cates, at the same time, a divine life. " Called 
 by the grace of God," says Clement of Rome, 
 " v/e are justified — not by ourselves, not by 
 
28 
 
 THE VOICE OF 
 
 our wisdom or goodness, or any works which 
 we have wrought in the sanctity of our hearts ; 
 but by faith^ according to Avhich a sovereign 
 God has justified men in all time. Do we 
 live at ease, then, on that account? Do we 
 cease to do good works? Far from it. We 
 do good works with joy — even as God for 
 ever works, and rejoices in his activity." 
 
 Behold, then, this holy Church of the prim- 
 itive epoch. Hear how she speaks to us from 
 the bosom of her griefs, and, as it were, from 
 the height of the scaffolds where she suffered. 
 She confesses her miseries, and embracinsr the 
 knees of Jesus, calls him her " Saviour and 
 her God." Who can misunderstand the pro- 
 found accents of her sincere piety? How 
 pitiable the occupation of those who would 
 despoil her of these white robes, and clothe 
 her with the tattered garments of a modern 
 Infidelity ! But this profane efibrt is, in the 
 
THE CHURCH. 29 
 
 mean time, a homage rendered to the Church 
 
 — the first Unitarians had recourse to the 
 same expedient. 
 
 Yain are all these devices ; for whoever 
 will listen, shall always hear the voice of the 
 primitive Church proclaiming, with one ac- 
 cord, these unchangeable truths. 
 
 II. THE FORM OF DOGMA. 
 
 In our view of the primitive epoch of the 
 Church — although we have gathered only 
 here and there a sheaf from the vast harvest 
 
 — we have already extended ourselves be- 
 yond the proper limits of this discourse. We 
 have done so, because it is in this age alone 
 that our adversaries are wont to hazard the 
 controversy. They despair of other periods ; 
 and they make loud and violent complaints, 
 if the faith, Avhich they cannot but acknowl- 
 edge, is to be found in them. We will not 
 therefore greatly strive for a field, on which 
 
 3* 
 
30 THE VOICE OF 
 
 our foes proclaim in advance that they are 
 vanquished, and must abandon. 
 
 This epoch opens as the era of great Doc- 
 tors, great truths, and great heresies. It was 
 the period in which Christian Theology — of 
 which the elements had been preparing in a 
 preceding epoch — was carried, by illustrious 
 men of God, to its highest point of elevation. 
 It was the era of Athanasiiis, of Hilary^ of 
 Gregory J of Basil, of Ambrose^ of Augustin, 
 and of Chrysostom ; the time of lofty spirits ; 
 the age mature of the Church. The last 
 murders of the confessors of Christ have 
 ceased — the memorable Council of Nice has 
 been held — the epoch of Life is finished — 
 the form of Dogma begins. Not that there 
 was no longer any life in the Church ; but 
 that the characteristic of dogma is that which 
 now prevails. Now man loves to have dis- 
 tinct ideas of what he believes ; to metho- 
 dize ; to render reasons. The Church, no 
 
THE CHURCH. 31 
 
 longer obliged to struggle with persecution 
 from without, has more room to occupy her- 
 self with that which is within. She arranges 
 the faith which she has long possessed. 
 
 The different tendencies of a former age, 
 in the mean time, develop more and more ; 
 and bv a remarkable transformation, arrange 
 themselves in opposing doctrines — just as 
 the dispositions of youth, at first vague and 
 indeterminate, are resolved into distinct char- 
 acteristics, in the mature man. The tiDo 
 great heresies appear, conducted by Arius 
 and Felagius ; but even these heresies be- 
 came the means which God uses for the bet- 
 ter establishment of the truth. The doctrines 
 so clearly defined by the Church of this pe- 
 piod will now be faithfully transmitted. 
 They will be preserved and perpetuated 
 amidst all the troubled barbarism of succeed- 
 ing times. The Dogmatic form shall be, by 
 divine grace, the shield of these truths in 
 
32 THE VOICE OF 
 
 days of coming struggle and revolution, and 
 the very hammer to break their way into 
 minds of hardened barbarism. But while, 
 in order to recognize truth more distinctly, 
 they divide it into many minutice, it must be 
 confessed they sometimes seem to lose sight 
 of the essence — the life itself. 
 
 The East and the West preserve, in the 
 meantime, their peculiar characteristics. The 
 East remains the country of lofty specula- 
 tions — the West, that of practical questions. 
 The East discourses concerning God — the 
 West occupies itself more with m.an. The 
 East produces an Athanasias — the West, a 
 Pelagius and an Aiigustin. But both in 
 the one country and in the other, the truth is 
 assailed, and obtains distinguished victories. 
 Having passed the time of its youth, the 
 Christian doctrine, like the just man, is put to 
 trial, but was not to prove a second fall. It 
 will resist seduction ; it will remain firm. 
 
THE CHURCH. 33 
 
 The doctrine concerning God was first 
 expounded now, and with great clearness; 
 because it was the first upon which man had 
 dared to lay a menacing hand. Athanasius, 
 a distinguished Doctor of Alexandria, dis- 
 covers, in the profound mystery of human 
 redemption, the necessity of the eternal Di- 
 vinity of the Redeemer. Earth has no Sa- 
 viour, if its Saviour be not God. If Atha- 
 7iasius consecrates his life, and submits to so 
 many exiles, to defend the identity of sub- 
 stance between the Father and the Son, it 
 is not that he attaches so great value to a 
 dialectic subtlety; no, he combats for the 
 •essence of Christianity itself, and for the sal- 
 vation of souls. Christianity has for its ob- 
 ject to re-establish man in communication 
 with God. In order to this, there must be 
 a Mediator. "But," said Athanasius, "if 
 the Son of God be different in essence from 
 God, then would there be need of another 
 
34 
 
 THE VOICE OP 
 
 Mediator, to unite him with God. He alone 
 can establish a real communication between 
 God and his creatures, who has no need of a 
 mediation for himself — but who is himself 
 a part of the Divine essence. Now such is 
 the Son of God. Were he a creature — be it 
 the most excellent and exalted — he would, 
 in interposing between God and man, instead 
 of uniting, separate them one from another." 
 {Athan. Oratio contra Arian.) 
 
 But let us hear the entire Cliurch in the 
 Symbols of her faith. '• This is the faith 
 universal," says she, "that Vv^e worship one 
 God in Trinity, and the Trinity in unity — 
 without confounding the Persons or dividing 
 the Substance : for the Person of the Father 
 is one ; that of the Son, another, and that of 
 the Holy Spirit, another. But the Father, 
 Son, and Spirit, are one same Divinity — one 
 equal Glory — one co-eternal Majesty. Such 
 as is the Father, such is the Son, and such 
 
THE CHUPvCH. 35 
 
 the Holy Spirit. The Father is uncreated — 
 the Son is uncreated — the Spirit is uncrea- 
 ted : the Father is God — the Son is God — 
 the Spirit is God ; but at the same time, there 
 are not three Gods, but one God. — And the 
 true faith is : -^ We believe and confess, that 
 our Saviour Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is 
 God and man : God, of the substance of the 
 Father, begotten before the worlds began ; 
 and man, of the substance of the mother, 
 born ia time — perfect God and perfect man 
 — ■ equal to the Father, according to his Di- 
 vinity — less than the Father, according to 
 humanity." (AUianasian Creed.) 
 
 A controversy of sixty years (from 320 to 
 38 i) was necessary to determine, explain, 
 and defend this doctrine of the Divinity of 
 Christ. 
 
 Bui new combats now commenced to deter- 
 mine another dogma. A little after Athana- 
 sius and those who followed with him 
 
36 THE VOICE OF 
 
 appeared another Teacher in the Churchj 
 who seemed to have received a commission 
 to explain and defend the true doctrine con- 
 cerning IMan. This was Augustin. Al- 
 ready indeed had the truth on this subject 
 been believed and confessed by those who 
 had gone before him. " By the sin of one 
 Adam," says Hilary of Poictiers, "all the 
 human race has sinned." "We have all 
 sinned in the first man," says Ambrose, "in 
 him human nature has sinned." But it was 
 when the great Doctor of the West arose ; he 
 under whose influence were to be found, 
 during many ages, all who should have clear 
 ideas of truth ; it was when Augustin ap- 
 peared, that all the depths of human impo- 
 tency were developed. 
 
 This man had abandoned Manicheism, 
 then Platonism — not finding in the one or 
 the other that inward peace which he needed 
 in the midst of life's tempests — and he 
 
THE CHURCH. 37 
 
 seized with avidity on the Gospel, which 
 dissipated his doubts, consoled his heart, and 
 scattered lio;ht in. all his ways. In these com- 
 bats with sin and a vain philosophy, he had 
 learned to recognize in himself all the cor- 
 ruption of the human heart ; and here is the 
 chord which henceforth vibrates in all his 
 instructions. Pursued at once by the sublime 
 ideal of sanctity, and by all the seductions of 
 sensuality, he sees opened, by the shock of 
 these conflicting elements, the deep profun- 
 dities of his own heart — even as the tem- 
 pests of the ocean will sometimes uncover 
 the depths of the abyss. To perfect his 
 opportunities, he now comes in contact with 
 a man, who, without ideal, is placed in 
 easy and ordinary circumstances of life, and 
 who has formed thence, the most preposter- 
 ous opinions of the morality of human 
 nature. 
 Augitstin enters the lists with Pelagius. 
 4 
 
38 THE VOICE OF 
 
 But this is not a controversy between two 
 men alone : it lies between principles — two 
 leading tendencies of the human mind, 
 which have appeard in all ages. Augustin 
 sees the first man estranging himself from 
 God : from this estrangement proceeds sin, 
 and from this, the moral disorder of all hu- 
 manity. Human nature, according to him, 
 is a mass of ruin. [Massa perditionis.) 
 The consequence, as well as the punishment 
 of sin, in all his descendants, is the obligation 
 to sin also. {Obligatio pecati.) Man has 
 lost his liberty, and his power to do any 
 good work. He can no more have any thing, 
 except as God is pleased to give it to him. 
 If some come to have the faith of the gospel, 
 while others do not — the reason cannot be 
 found in man ; since all are equally incapable 
 of any good : it is to be found in the special 
 act of God alone — in the secret counsels of 
 the Almighty — in an election of grace. 
 
THE Church. 39 
 
 After a controversy of nearly thirty years — 
 carried on in Africa, in Italy, and in Middle 
 Gaul — the truth triumphs, and the doctrine 
 of the total inability of man, remains in the 
 Church. 
 
 In the same spirit was the doctrine of 
 grace explained and enforced by these great 
 minds ; and this brings us to the third point, 
 which is to be examined. Already had it 
 been said by the excellent Hilary ; " Re- 
 demption is given gratuitously — not accor- 
 ding to the merit of works, but according to 
 the will of the giver — the choice of Him 
 who redeems us." — "In this consists the 
 grace of God — says Augustin — that He 
 justifies, not by our righteousness, but by his 
 own." But he insists above all, that the 
 idea of grace excludes all merit, and all 
 natural disposition in man to receive salva- 
 tion. God is the Alpha and Omega with 
 him — the beginning and the end of our sal- 
 
40 THE VOICE OF 
 
 vation. " That which God begins by opera- 
 ting — says he — He ends by co-operating : 
 Commencing — He operates, that we might 
 be willing — and to finish, he now co-ope- 
 rates with those who have the will : — " ffe 
 that glorieth let him glory in the LordP 
 
 Thus is the Christian science greatly 
 advanced in this era. The doctrines of God, 
 of man, of salvation, which the teachers of 
 of the first period had indeed seen in the 
 Scriptures, are now sounded with greater 
 precision and more profound research. Un- 
 der the influence of the Spirit of God, 
 Theology advances ; for there is, gentle- 
 men such a thing as progress, even in 
 Theology. What shall we say then of those, 
 who, even at this day, would persuade us 
 to abandon this advance not only, but to 
 return to those errors which the Church has 
 long since rejected ? " Leaving the princi- 
 ples of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to 
 perfection." 
 
THE CHURCH. 41 
 
 III. — THE SCHOLASTIC FORM. 
 
 A new form succeeds to that which has 
 supplanted the primitive. After ages of 
 darkness, the East beheld a great intellect- 
 ual movement in the eleventh century. 
 This form has been called the Scholastic 
 from Schola — the School. The School 
 seeks to separate itself from the Church, 
 which had hitherto been supreme — to ob- 
 tain action and authority, independent of the 
 hierarchy. Certain liberal minded men, 
 who were in the beginning at least, neither 
 monks nor ecclesiastics, determined to es- 
 tablish schools altogether distinct from those 
 which had hitherto existed. From these 
 schools soon arises the University of Paris, 
 the mother of Scholastic Philosophy. The 
 general character of the scholastic form, 
 then, is the Spirit of the Schools, we may 
 say, of the University/, or of Science. To 
 apply philosophy to Christianity; to reduce 
 4* 
 
42 THE VOICE OF 
 
 Christian doctrines to systems ; to show 
 their connections, their internal proofs, and 
 to measure them not only by the heart, but 
 by the understanding ; such is the tendency 
 of the Scholastic form of Religion: so that if 
 the first era may be called the form of life^ 
 and the second thai o{ doctj^ines — the third 
 is that of system. There is yet life — there 
 are yet doctrines ; but that which pervails is 
 the systematic. It was then that each 
 Doctor published his system — his Summa 
 TheologicB. It was the age advanced of 
 the Church, which naturally succeeded to its 
 youth and manhood. It is the age which 
 loves to arrange what it had before collected. 
 It meditates : it has little of impulse, but 
 more of reflection. There were indeed men 
 of great force in this middle era; but the 
 prevailing disposition was to reflection and 
 system. 
 
 Historical studies there were yet none : 
 
THE CHURCH. 43 
 
 the exegeticalj were no more as esteemed ; 
 and yet the human mind was awaking with 
 great force all over Europe. It needed a 
 guide to direct it, and this guide was found 
 in Dialectic Philosophy : and as Theology 
 was the science of the age, the human mind 
 adventured upon this field, under the aus- 
 pices of their new leader. This tendency 
 of the scholastic might lead to rationalism — 
 10 infidelity ; but the good doctors of the age 
 opposed to these the holy truths of Theology. 
 " The Christian (says A?islem, the father of 
 Scholastic Theology) should come to under- 
 stand through faith, and not to faith through 
 understanding. I seek not to comprehend, 
 in order to believe ; I believe, that I may 
 comprehend." "And I believe even, because 
 if I did not believe, I should not compre- 
 hend." Immediately Ahelard and his school 
 avail themselves of the scholastic principle 
 and become the advocates of free examina- 
 
44 THE VOICE OF 
 
 tion. They wish first to comprehend, and 
 then to believe. " Faith, say they, estab- 
 lished by examination, is much more solid. 
 It is necessary to meet the enemies of the 
 Gospel on their own ground : if we are not 
 to discuss, we must believe every thing, the 
 false as well as the true." 
 
 In the mean time whatever may have been 
 the danger of these tendencies, and whatever 
 the reproaches of the Church, we cannot 
 accuse these doctors with having abandoned 
 any doctrine of the Christian faith. We 
 cannot however wholly absolve them. 
 Scholasticism often disfigured Christian 
 truth. Its tendencies and the times in which 
 it appeared, necessarily led to this. Human 
 reason never ventures without danger on 
 those great truths which surpass created 
 intelligence. The school of the middle ages, 
 like that of Alexandria before, shook the 
 foundations of the Christian system, in 
 
THE CHURCH. 45 
 
 attempting to establish them. It had its 
 great minds, and under its influence there 
 was progress — I will not say of Religion, 
 but of science, of Theology. The great 
 men, who were the lights of these times, 
 communicated much instruction to the 
 scholars, who filled their schools, and who 
 followed them by thousands, and into the 
 descent, if necessary, where chairs of doc- 
 trine were established. 
 
 It has become common, with certain un- 
 believers, to brand Christian orthodoxy, as 
 an invention of the middle ages. This 
 trite accusation does too much honour to 
 the age in question : The Christian doctrine 
 already existed. But let us interrogate some 
 of the men of this age. 
 
 For their exposition of the doctrifie of 
 Salvation^ let us hear Anselm, the most 
 influential perhaps of all the Philosophical 
 Theologians — Anselm of Canterbury, the 
 
46 
 
 THE VOICE OF 
 
 second Augustin of the Latin Church, who 
 knew so well how to unite the researches of 
 Philosophy with the purity of the Clnistian 
 faith. The system of Redemption is devel- 
 oped by him, in a manner to satisfy at once 
 the understanding and the heart. *' All 
 rational creatures, says he, are under obliga- 
 tion to submit their wills to the will of the 
 great Creator. This law, the first man 
 transgressed, and thus destroyed the har- 
 mony of moral order. Now the law of eter- 
 nal righteousness demands, either that the 
 human race should be punished, or that by 
 some satisfaction, proceeding from humanity, 
 that order should be restored. Without this, 
 it would be altogether inconsistent that 
 polluted man should hold communion with 
 happy spirits. But man could not, of him- 
 self, accomplish this satisfaction. As human 
 nature had been corrupted by one, so by one 
 ought the satisfaction to be made. 
 
THE CHURCH. 47 
 
 He, who should eftect this, must be 
 some beinof above creatures. He must be 
 God himself; and in the mean time he must 
 be human also, to the end that the satisfac- 
 tion may be applicable to humanity. This 
 could be none other, then, than God-man, 
 the Mediator. This God-man, must de- 
 liver himself up to death voluntarily, since 
 he .was not as God, subject to death : and 
 he must exhibit perfect obedience in the 
 midst of the greatest sorrows. God would 
 then owe to Christ a recompence ; but Christ, 
 as God, could need no recompence : He 
 could therefore transfer his merits to the 
 world, and demand for his reward the salva- 
 tion of believers. Thus speaks Anselm 
 in his Treatise — Lur Dens %omo ? 
 
 But what is remarkable — considering the 
 common opinion formed of these men — is, 
 that they insist much on the sanctifying 
 influence of faith. " The suflferings of 
 
48 
 
 THE VOICE OF 
 
 Christ, says Peter Lamhord, the inustrions 
 Master of the Seiitences — deliver us from 
 sin ; for this immense sacrifice of divine love 
 inspires us with love for God, and this love 
 works our sanctification." " The just man, 
 who lives by faith, says Robert Pulley n^ is 
 already sanctified within, and exhibits good 
 works as signs of his faith and sanctification : 
 faith first produces righteousness of heart, 
 and righteousness of heart produces good 
 works." Alexander de Hales^ who was 
 called the irrefragable doctor^ speaks thus : 
 " Man in his original state never opposed 
 himself to God. He then had need only of 
 formative grace ; but now that there is 
 something in him opposite to God, and 
 which cannot be removed except by the 
 power of God, man needs transformative 
 graceP 
 
 There are undoubtedly some differences 
 between these great men, but these differ- 
 
THE CHURCH. 49 
 
 ences only show how firmly established they 
 were in the essential truths of Salvation. 
 Anselm, for instance, Thomas Aquinas, and 
 others, supposed that the sacrifice of Christ 
 effected the salvation of man, in virtue of an 
 intrinsic value ; {ex insito valore :) while 
 many other Scholastics, and Duns Scott in 
 particular, contended that it was owing 
 solely to the design and counsel of God. 
 This was the diiference ; while all pro- 
 claimed that man was a lost being, and 
 saved alone by the death of the God-man 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 IV. THE FORM OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Such is the testimony of these last ages, to 
 say nothing of the Wickliffs and the Wal- 
 dos, the forerunners of that great movement, 
 which now began to appear in the world. 
 The Church had had its youth, full of life 
 5 
 
50 
 
 THE VOICE OF 
 
 and vigour, its manhood mature with 
 strength and clearness, and its ripe age of 
 reason and of system. But after the period 
 of the schools the age of rationalism was 
 past. Now the hierarchy sought to embrace 
 all within its iron grasp : life, dogma, system, 
 lay as under a funeral stone, and all the 
 noble tendencies of the Church must die. 
 Vain effort ! She burst these bands of death, 
 rolled back the stone of the Sepulchre, and 
 came forth, a dead man restored to life ! Let 
 us salute her, under this fourth form, the 
 form of the Reformation. 
 
 If the three preceding forms were those 
 of life, of doctrines, of system, what shall be 
 the characteristic of this? Gentlemen, the 
 Reformation was the re-establishment of 
 former things. But this re-establishment 
 will not have respect to any one of the pre- 
 ceding forms exclusively ; it shall be the 
 re-uniting of the whole. Of these, which 
 
THE CHURCH. 
 
 51 
 
 had before existed only in separate forms, it 
 will now form an admirable Triology. Be- 
 hold, our fourth form^ an epoch of the 
 Church. The Reformation takes the form of 
 system, carries that back to dogma, and then 
 crowns all with the characteristic of life. It 
 unites the three wisdoms of preceding ages. 
 She commenced with the life. Luther 
 proved, through divine grace, the living 
 influence of Christianity, as no preceding 
 Doctor, perhaps, had ever felt it before. The 
 Reformation sprang living from his own 
 heart, where God himself had placed it. 
 The era which passed during the time of the 
 Teacher of Wittemburgh, was, so to speak, 
 all life. This is so true, that the admirable 
 work published by Melancthoii, (the Theolo- 
 gian of the Reformation,) we speak now of 
 the 1st edition of his Loci Communes — 
 omits the doctrine of the essence of God and 
 the Trinity. Not that he considered these 
 
62 THE VOICE OF 
 
 doctriiies unimportant ; they are, on the con- 
 trary, the basis of his system ; but because in 
 his own words, " it is more profitable to adore 
 these mysteries, than deeply attempt to sound 
 them." 
 
 But even here you will find that Christian 
 life is built on Christian doctrine : and then 
 accordingly, in the second period of the 
 Reformation, {that which produced the con- 
 fession of Aiigsburgh, drawn up by Me- 
 lancthon himself,) these doctrines are pre- 
 sented, defined, and illustrated in all their 
 force. The Trinity, total depravity, and 
 above all, the doctrine of justification by 
 faith alone, are there explained with a clear- 
 ness and force scarce equalled in the epoch 
 of dogmatism itself. You find system, also, 
 in the harmonious distribution of all the doc- 
 trines of Christianity ; and this characteristic 
 appears above all in the third period of the 
 Reforniatiouj under the influence of Me- 
 
THE CHURCH. 53 
 
 lancthon of Germany, and Calvin of Ge- 
 neva. The Christian Institutes of our 
 Reformer, will remain for ages, one of the 
 most beautiful monuments of the Christianity 
 of system. 
 
 Would you know how strong is the testi- 
 mony of this epoch to the immutable truths 
 of the Gospel, hear the great Doctor of Wit- 
 temburgh on the Divinity of Christ. " If 
 Christ," says he, " be not the true and essential 
 God, begotten of the Father in eternity, and 
 the creator of all creatures — we are lost : 
 for of what avail were the sufferings and 
 death of Christ, if he were only man like you 
 and I? He could not, in that case, conquer 
 Satan, sin, and death. We need a Saviour, 
 who is truly God over all : the conqueror of 
 sin and death, of Satan and hell. In vain do 
 the Arians tell us he is the most exalted of 
 creatures. They wish in this way to screen 
 their shameful error, that the people may not 
 5* 
 
54 THE VOICE OF 
 
 perceive it ; but if we corrupt^the doctrine of 
 Christ in the least degree, irreparable mischief 
 is done. If you take away his proper Divini- 
 ty, there is no deliverance for us from the 
 wrath to come." 
 
 And what is the doctrine of the Reforma- 
 tion concerning man 7 It reduces to powder 
 the subtleties of the Scholastics on this point, 
 and presents the truth with an admirable 
 clearness and simplicity. Luther, even before 
 the publication of his famous Theses on In- 
 dulgences, published others concerning 
 man ; and here are some of the great truths, 
 which, even at the morning of the Reforma- 
 tion, he declares himself ready to defend. 
 
 " That man has become an evil tree, and 
 can neither will nor do any thing but evil." 
 
 " On the part of man, there is nothing pre- 
 ceding grace but impotency aud rebellion." 
 " There is no moral virtue without pride, 
 or discontent, {tristesse.) that is without sin." 
 
THE CHURCH. 55 
 
 " He who is destitute of the grace of God 
 sins continually, though he should not steal, 
 kill, or commit adultery." 
 
 But in what manner shall we speak, gen- 
 tlemen, of the testimony which the Refor- 
 mation gives to the doctrine of grace 7 It 
 was by this doctrine that it overturned en- 
 tirely the foundations of Rome. 
 
 The Reformation never suffers man to rest 
 the hope of his salvation in any thing done 
 by himself or in himself. Christ is the only 
 foundation ; and faith, in his name, the only 
 means of grace. Every other view leads 
 either to pride or despair. Hear Luther : 
 writing to his friend iSphanlein, he says, 
 " Have you at length despaired of your own 
 righteousness ? And do you rejoice and 
 confide in the righteousness of Christ? 
 Learn, my brother, to know Christ and him 
 crucified ; learn to despair of yourself and to 
 sing this song, 'Jesus, my Lord, thou art 
 
66 THE VOICE OF 
 
 my righteousness, and I thy sin : thou hast 
 taken that which was mine, and given me 
 that which belons^ed to thee : thou hast be- 
 come what thou wast not, and caused me to 
 be what I was not myself.' " Works," says 
 he, " on one occasion, are not taken into con- 
 sideration, when justification is the subject 
 concerned. True faith, indeed, will never 
 fail to produce good works, any more than 
 the sun will fail to shine ; but after all, it is 
 not our good works which dispose God to 
 justify us." 
 
 " Undoubtedly," says Melancthon, " renova- 
 tion of heart must flow from faith ; but if you 
 inquire after justification, turn your eyes 
 from this renovation and fix them on the 
 
 promises — on Christ— knowing that we are 
 justified only for the love of Christ, and not 
 on account of our new nature. Faith justi- 
 fies, not as some suppose, because it is in us, 
 as the root of a good tree ; but because it 
 
THE CHURCH. 57 
 
 lays hold on Jesus Christ, for the love of 
 whom we are rendered acceptable to God.'' 
 " We offer nothing to God," says Calvin, "but 
 by his grace, we are become, as it were, all 
 pure without regard to our works." 
 
 All the Reformers, while they differ on 
 some points, are of one accord in this. In 
 Germany, in Switzerland, in France, in Great 
 Britain, in Italy even, and in Spain, they 
 teach the doctrine of Justification by Faith 
 alone. 
 
 But why do I enlarge ? Have we not the 
 Confessions of the Reformers, and do not the 
 adversaries of our faith, as well as its friends, 
 agree that this was pre-eminently the doctrine 
 of the Reformation ? 
 
 Gentlemen ; there is yet another period — 
 a ffth form, perhaps, now commencing for 
 the Church ; — a form unknown, mysterious, 
 and of which the characteristics cannot yet be 
 
68 THE VOICE OF 
 
 very clearly defined. Of one thing however 
 we may be confident: one thing the past 
 teaches, and that is, that the same great veri- 
 ties which have formed the foundation hith- 
 erto, will be the essence of the form which is 
 yet to come. The salutary doctrines which 
 have yet governed the Church, will not relin- 
 quish her helm now. This precious vessel 
 shall not be abandoned to perfidious and 
 ephemeral winds ; — to the heresies of Theo- 
 dosiiis and Pelagius — of Arms and Soci- 
 nus. Ce qui ete sera ! That which has 
 been, will be. 
 
 Further than this : the history of the past 
 is a guarantee that the future shaH re-unite all 
 which was good in forms, that are now no 
 more. God will not permit any thing to be 
 lost, which was once in his Church, and for 
 his Church. And this leads me to glance at 
 an error of some well-intentioned Christians, 
 who speak of returning to primitive Chris- 
 
THE CHURCH. 59 
 
 tianity, without caring for what lies in the 
 way from that to the present times. The 
 Church could no more disengage itself from 
 the influence of the different forms through 
 which she has passed, than a tree could despoil 
 itself of the different layers with which each 
 returning spring has clothed it ; or the body 
 of a full grown man get rid of the accretions 
 of pre\rious years. 
 
 For us, gentlemen, we will not indeed 
 turn our eyes wholly to the future ; but nei- 
 ther will we wholly reject the past. The 
 past will be in the future. Life, doctrines, 
 system, all will be united and perfectly, in 
 the form which is yet to be. 
 
 In the meantime there will undoubtedly 
 be something to distinguish this new form 
 from that of the Reformation ; but who shall 
 say what it will be? I will venture to say 
 thus much, — that perhaps the principal cha- 
 racteristic, will be the missio7iary spirit — 
 
60 THE VOICE OF 
 
 the carrying to all the race of men, and to 
 every individual that which the preceding 
 forms have preserved and produced. Did not 
 the period of the Reformation unite the isola- 
 ted good of three preceding eras, to the end 
 that the new period might stretch out its 
 hand, laden with these riches, and scatter 
 them abroad over all the earth ? Oucrht not 
 these riches to become the property of all 
 men, and in a manner they have not yet been ? 
 But I refrain from these suggestions — cover- 
 ed as they are with a veil of deep obscurity. 
 But one thing is certain and we ought to. 
 know it. We are, gentlemen, entering on a 
 new era for science and for the Church : and 
 ours is the generation which must give to 
 this new era its first and most important im- 
 pulse. There is much to do, and but few as 
 yet to accomplish it. You, at least, my voice 
 can reach. Destined, therefore, to open this 
 new direction of piety and of science, form 
 
THE CHURCH. 61 
 
 yourselves as scribes and teachers for the 
 work. Understand, that to conquer a strong 
 infidelity will require a strong faith and ex- 
 tensive knowledge. Enrich yourselves with 
 the past, to prepare for the future. Ye young 
 men, who are yet to serve the Church of 
 Him who has given his life for the sheep ; 
 and ye who arfe already established over the 
 flock, understand well what it is, which a 
 sound Theology will require. Profit by the 
 instructions of history. Let her carry you 
 beyond the narrow bounds with which pre- 
 judice or locality may have surrounded you 
 — and leave the dull track where servile spi- 
 rits are willing to drag themselves along. 
 Live — not alone with the passing moment, 
 but with other ages. History invokes them : 
 history surrounds you with them, and makes 
 you hear their grand and solemn testimony. 
 Will you reject the voice of all the Church, 
 and of Jesus Christ himself, for the voice of a 
 6 
 
62 THE VOICE OP 
 
 single teacher ? Will you despise that glory 
 which comes from God, and seek for that 
 which comes from the present world ? Pur- 
 sue this wonderful chain, the first link of 
 which is in God himself, and which, forming 
 itself through so many ages, has reached at 
 length even unto us. Be unwilling to turn 
 aside for some obscure heresy : be firm and 
 faithful, should you find yourselves alone — 
 alone in the Church, alone in the world — a 
 confessor and a martyr for " God manifest in 
 the flesh." Be not disheartened, but comfort 
 yourselves in reflecting that you have God 
 for your witness, and the company of all those 
 illustrious men, whose voice you have to- 
 day heard. History shows that Christianity 
 has, in all ages, acted with force upon the 
 minds of men ; but shows at the same time, 
 that it is by the same doctrines that this re- 
 generating influence has been felt. The or- 
 thodox dogmas alone have had this power, 
 
THE CHURCH. 63 
 
 whether on individuals or a people. All 
 others have served only to amuse, and to 
 ruin them. Never will you find life, where you 
 do not find truth. Are you willing then to 
 be mere rhetoricians, and amused by high- 
 sounding language ; or do you desire to be 
 the benefactors of your race, and save them 
 by the power and wisdom of God ? Attach 
 yourselves, I pray you, to that which is sa- 
 ving — immutable — eternal : associate your- 
 selves with a sacred host. Behold ; what 
 mighty efforts are now making in Switzer- 
 land and in France, in Germany and in Hol- 
 land, in Great Britain and America, to restore 
 to the world a sound Theology and establish 
 the throne of truth. 
 
 And thou, O God most High : by that light 
 which causeth to see light — illuminate our 
 minds, and open the portals of that science, 
 whose unsearchable treasures are concealed 
 in Jesus Christ ! 
 
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 D'AUBTGNE'S HISTORY OF THE GREAT 
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 ward Dalton, 1 vol. 18rao. 447 pages. Price 50 
 
 Probably no book of modern date has obtained such 
 a wide-spread popularity, and been so extensively read 
 as D'Aubigne's History of the Great Reformation of 
 the sixteenth century, in Germany, Switzerland, &c. 
 Engrossing and enduring as must be the interest con- 
 nected with the detail of the historical incidents of the 
 6* 
 
Great Reformation, the author of this work has invest- 
 ed them with all the charm and fascination of romance. 
 The Abridgement retains most of the attractions of 
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 time and expense, of a still larger body of readers. Of 
 the faithfulness with which this Abridgement has been 
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 ^^Abridgement of D^Aubigne. — The following notice 
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 ' I have read the Rev. Mr. Dalton's Abridgement of 
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 It consists almost wholly of the author's own words, 
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 pass, will here find it faithfully condensed by one who 
 entered into the true spirit of D'Aubigne. Both edi- 
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 wish to both the widest circulation.' 
 
 The work is printed on good type, contains 447 
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