the Reformation. Though no sculptured stone bears his eulogy, such has been and such is the influence of his life, that we may take our stand in the centre of the civilized world, and say of him, as it is written of Sir Christopher Wren, in the cathedral of St. Paul, in London: “Si monumentum requiris circumspice.”

The name of Calvin has been eulogized and defamed by many who have no just conception of his mission. He was the theologian of the Protestant Reformation. That appellation belongs to no other. The wonderful life of Martin Luther, the Reformer, was like an epic poem-a magnificent drama in which kings and armies, cabinets and councils, marches and revolutions make up the shifting scenes of the splendid pageant. Too much cannot be said in praise of some of his theological theses; but it is no derogation from his just and lofty fame to affirm that his theology was not distinguished by completeness, by system. Finding in the Word of God the great doctrine of justification by faith, it was to him like the discovery of a new continent, or the mariner's compass. Enamored with the life and glory of this one truth, he believes in nothing else. He did not learn how to frame all of Scripture into one compact and symmetrical system. The epistle of James upon good works he never could speak of with any patience.?

When the basis of the old Jewish economy was to be broken up by the introduction of a better hope, the bold and impetuous Peter,

а and the other fishermen and tax-gatherers in his company, were sufficient to arouse attention to the new opinions; but when the storm was raised, and inquiry was active, and the new faith was to be carried into schools and councils; when it was to be vindicated before the Areopagites of Athens, and the philosophy of Rome, then did God appoint that young man who had been educated at the feet of Gamaliel, an adept in canon-law, a proficient in tongues, and skilled in logic and rhetoric. Analagous to this, in many respects, was the mission of the French Reformer. Luther and Zwingle had gone before, and the whole mass of European mind was in a state of perilous agitation. Possessed of a strong and healthy intellect, acute in discrimination, patient of research, addicted to study as the great pleasure of his life; his attenuated frame and pallid face betraying a life purely intellectual and spiritual; pronounced by cautious men as the greatest scholar of his age; John Calvin exhibited, in admirable combination, those mental and moral qualities which marked him as one destined to guide the opinions of inquiring and agitated empires. In that perilous crisis when the intellect of the world was roused, without instruction, and without a guide, save the Spirit and the Word of God, did this great Reformer arise to separate the chaff from the wheat, disengaging the truth from the follies, superstitions and impieties of the

"Le Lutheranisme et la Réforme ou leur Diversite essentiell ea leur unité. Par M. Merle D'Aubigné.

a

dark ages, to demonstrate its harmonies and relations ; giving form,

, stability, unity and consistency to opinions then floating about in atomic confusion ; forming a Christian theology worthy of the name, which, as a system, was destined to stand and develope its power in all future time, on the intellect and heart of the world.

The influence of Calvin in the reformation and progress of Christian theology, it is impossible to estimate. What a vast interval between the speculations of Jerome-the"Summa Theologia” of Aquinas, and the “Christian institutes" and Biblical expositions of the Genevan professor! Great progress is visible here in the comprehension and statement of Christianity. Did that progress find a limit when the pen of Calvin had done its work?

Was there no room for subsequent improvements in Christian theology? Were the truths of the Christian system ever after to be confined to that form of expression which were given to them by this distinguished theologian? Is it heresy to affirm that there are many things in the system of Calvin which we do not believe, and cannot believe at all?

The Reformers of the sixteenth century brought to light the essential and vital doctrines of Christianity. Earnestly will we

. contend for their faith, holding fast to their religious system as embodying the substantial teachings of the gospel of Christ. At the same time, we believe that many theories, and speculations, and philosophies were then attached to the Christian system, which are altogether distinct from it. Some of them have already been discarded. Others yet remain, which are destined to pass away, leaving the system itself more simple, more powerful, because unmixed with foreign or contrary qualities. We claim that there has been, within a century past, a great improvement in the mode of stating, and explaining the doctrines of Christianity, and we are sure that this improvement is to proceed yet farther, with no other effect than to develope the life and increase the efficacy of these eternal verities. The doctrine of justification by faith through the atonement of Jesus Christ, affords an illustration of our meaning. Can any one deny that there has been a palpable improvement in the mode of explaining and stating this fundamental doctrine; not such a change however as endangers the doctrine itself, as though we could modify it into something else which denies a real atonement through the blood of an expiatory sacrifice. Among those who believe in such an atonement there have been various opinions as to the mode in which we are made to participate in its benefits. We need only to allude to the extreme opinions of some writers on the subject of imputation ; the transfer of our sins to Christ. Many there are who believe, as really as did the Reformers, in justification through faith in the atonement of Christ, who would neither use nor tolerate the language which they employed in explanation of the mode. Is there a man now living-We doubt if there is—who

would dare to use, in a Christian pulpit, the language which Luther was wont to employ to describe the transfer of our sins to Jesus Christ? It gives us pain to repeat or reprint many of the expressions which were employed by this noble and godly man upon this subject; but as they were published after mature and deliberate reflection by the Reformer himself, in his favorite work, which he was wont to designate by the pet name of his own wife (his commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians), we copy a few sentences in this connexion as a good illustration of the distinction at which we aim between Christianity and Christian Theology.

“And this, no doubt, all the prophets did foresee in spirit, that Christ should become the greatest transgressor, murderer, adulterer, thief, rebel, and blasphemer that ever was or could be in the world. For he being made a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world is not now an innocent person and without sins—is not now the Son of God born of the Virgin Mary; but a sinner, which hath and carrieth the sin of Paul, who was a blasphemer, an oppressor, and a persecutor; of Peter, which denied Christ; of David, which was an adulterer, a murderer, and caused the Gentiles to blaspheme the name of the Lord ; and briefly, which hath and beareth all the sins of all men in his body; not that he himself committed them, but for that he received them, being committed or done of us, and laid them upon his own body that he might make satisfaction for them with his own blood. Therefore, this general sentence of Moses comprehendeth him also (albeit, in his own person he was innocent), because it found him amongst sinners and transgressors; like as the magistrate taketh him for a thief, and punisheth whom he findeth among other thieves and transgressors, though he never committed anything worthy of death. Now Christ was not only found amongst sinners, but of his own accord, and by the will of his Father he would also be a companion of sinners, taking upon him the flesh and blood of those which were sinners, thieves, and plunged into all kinds of sin. When the law, therefore, found him among thieves, it condemned and killed him as a thief. If it be not absurd to confess and believe that Christ was crucified between two thieves, then it was not absurd to say that he was accursed, and of all sinners the greatest."

Men of all theories would agree, in this day, to reject language like this with horror. Progress, improvement surely, there has been in the explanation of the great doctrine of Christianity, since the day that the above extracts were penned by Martin Luther. Bishop Butler did not hold to the private interpretations of the Reformers concerning imputation ; but the Scriptural doctrine of vicarious atonement he most ably demonstrated alike from the analogies of nature, and the teachings of inspiration.

1 Luther on the Galatians.-Chap. ii., iii.-pp. 213, 214: Lond. ed., 1838.

.go."

Irreconcileable is the difference between those who believe in such an atonement, and those who reject it; nor let any anticipate such modifications of our opinions on this subject, as will result in a denial of this essential truth of the Bible-a vicarious atonement for sin. Whatever accretions of philosophy some may attach to this doctrine ; however, they may wrap it about and about with traditions of men, and to whatever degree of simplicity others may denude it; in all changes of dress we detect the body, the life of the same doctrine. Between the rejection of the atonement, and the belief of the atonement, the difference is as great as between Lazarus dead, and buried in the grave, and Lazarus brought forth alive ; but when the bands and constraints of traditionary theories and appendages are fallen off, it will be like the second direction of our Lord—66 Loose him and let him

The great improvement which we anticipate in Christian theology, is in a more complete separation between the simple facts of Christianity, and the private interpretations and theories of men. Now for a long time men have been striving to amend Christianity by means of philosophy; the time is coming when philosophy will itself be instructed and amended by means of Christianity. Reflecting men must and will pursue their favorite philosophies, and it is right that they should; but contrary to the prevalent practice of the past, we hold that the doctrines of revealed religion, and the speculations of human philosophy, belong to entirely different spheres; and that it is possible that it is right, and that it is necessary to separate them entirely. The pure gold of Christianity admits of no mixture with iron and clay. Its statements are sufficiently distinct and practical without the aid of that forward philosophy which is for ever obtruding itself beyond its sphere, to modify that, which should be the source of its own faith.

In a word, we are anticipating at length the entire liberation of Revealed Christianity from those dominant systems of philosophy which have been its bondage and its burden; and the use of common sense, associated with rectified affections, and all illuminated with the Spirit of the Most High in the interpretation of Revealed Christianity. Very much remains to be done before this is accomplished. It is astonishing to what an extent at this late day, the simple facts of Christianity are obscured and blunted by the theories and traditions of men. No book has been so much abused as the Word of God, because men have wished to detect some authority in its divine teachings for their private dogmas. They come to the study of the Bible with their a priori reasonings, their pre-conceived opinions, hoping to find therein some authoritative announcement to justify and fortify them. The time we believe is coming, when the simple inquiry of the Biblical Interpreter will be, what is written ; and every thing besides will be carefully confined within its own proper limits. For these

ages past, men have been prone to attach their own theories to the pure letter of Scripture, and exalt them to a sort of coordinate authority with the Word of God. Our great hope of improvement in Christian Theology lies in a better interpretation of, and a more faithful adherence to the pure scriptures of inspiration; neither adding to nor subtracting therefrom. That all mankind both sin and suffer in consequence of the apostasy of the original pair, is a fact which lies on the surface of Scripture, and of the world, too. But the little preposition “ By,” in the 5th of Romans—“ by one man's disobedience many were made sinners,” is surely of too slender proportions to sustain all the ponderous theories which theologians of different schools have suspended upon it.

Observe how the analogies of religion have been perverted and falsely applied to the serious detriment of theology. Were Bishop Butler living now, he would write on the abuse, rather than the use of analogy, precisely that part of his subject which, as his preface informs us, he left unfinished, because the circumstances of his times did not demand the discussion ; while the errors of our day make it so imperative. Mr. Macaulay, in his splendid critique on the life and writings of Lord Bacon, has exposed a strange error into which that distinguished man, and many others of less note, have frequently fallen in the misuse of analogies for purposes of argumentation. When Sir William Temple, strangely confounding rational and fanciful analogies,-analogies which are arguments and analogies which are mere illustrations,—deduces his theory of government, -a defence of monarchy, from the properties of the pyramid; when Mr. Southey in like manner elaborates his whole system of finance from the phenomena of evaporation and rain, the mistake, however amusing, is perfectly innocent. But when theologians carry the same want of discrimination into the vital concerns of Religion; when strong and subtle intellects lay hold of those many analogies employed in Scripture to illustrate particular parts of theology, and confounding them with direct' resemblances, press them beyond their sphere and convert them into proofs and arguments ; when Toplady, arguing against. free will, quotes the text, “Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house," and then triumphantly exclaims, “this is giving free will a stab under the fifth rib, for how can stones hew themselves and build themselves into a regular house ;'' when Charnock argues the entire passivity of man in regeneration, from a scriptural expression like

a this, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature,” for what creature, adds he,“ can give itself a being; what matter can infuse a soul into itself,” when learned doctors will soberly describe the healing of the withered hand as a correct and philosophical explanation of the union of divine and human power in the process of conversion; when, on the one hand, the atonement is alto

THIRD SERIES, VOL. III. NO. 2.