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The principle of Protestantism as related to the present state of the church
by Philip Schaff
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Excerpt:
The same twofold character belongs to the vast ecclesiasticoreligious movement of the Sixteenth Century. This too carries upon its standard the sacred field motto, "1 am not come to des-. trvy, but to fulfil /" And thus neither the unhislorical radical on the one hand, nor the motionless slave of the past on the other, can find in the true representatives of the Reformation either precedent or pattern.
The case requires to be surveyed under both aspects, in order that the principle of our Church may be fully comprehended, and its position turned to right account for the purposes of God's kingdom.
L The Retrospective Aspect of the Reformation; or its catholic union with the previous history of the Church.
In the first place, we contemplate the Reformation in its strictly historical conditions, its Catholic Union With The Past. This is a vastly important point, which thousands in our day appear to overlook entirely. They see in the 31st of October, 1517, it is true, the birth day of the Evangelical Church, and find her certificate of baptism in the ninety five theses of Luther; but at the same time, cast a deep stain upon the legitimacy of this birth itself, by separating it Jrom all right relation to the time that went before. In this way, all interest is renounced in the spiritual wealth of the Middle Ages ; which however belongs to us of right, as fully at least as it does to the Church of Rome. And what is worse Still, the lie is given practically to the Lord's promise itself, Zio, / am with you always, even unto the end of the world I
No work so vast as the Reformation could be the product of a' single man or a single day. When Luther uttered the bold word which called it into being, the sound was at once echoed back again, as in obedience to an enchanter's wand, not only from every quarter of Germany, but from England also, and France and Italy, and Spain. He gave utterance to what was already darkly present to the general consciousness of his age, and brought out into full view that which thousands before him, and in his own time, had already been struggling in various ways to reach. Genuine Protestantism is no such-sudden growth, springring up like a mushroom of the night, as the papist, and certain narrow minded ultra-protestants, would fain have us believe. Its roots reach'back to the day of Pentecost. In all periods of the Church, in connection with the gradual progress of Romish corruption, it has had its witnesses, though not always fully conscious of their own vocation.. And it was only when it had be-come fully prepared, in all parts of the Christian world, both negatively and positively, to stand forth in full separate,.objective; manifestation, that the Lord of the Church in the end, from r..i obscure corner of Germany, called into life the herald, whose word was to solve the oppressive riddle, with which all Christendom had been so long burdened ; the spiritual Columbus, that should open the way into the territory, still unknown though long at hand, of evangelical freedom.
As the several departments of human life are bound together by an inward organic union, like the members of the same body; while religion in particular, which takes hold upon the entire man, in the inmost ground of his personality, must exert a modi-, fying influence in. eve.ry. other direction ; the case requires, that we should take account of the tendencies which led the way to . the Reformation, in the spheres of Politics and Scitxce.t as.well as in that of the Church strictly taken. .
As it regards the first, it is clear that both Romanism and.Protestantism rest constitutionally upon a national basis. Christian^ ity, in its eternal and everlasting character, is raised indeed above every distinction of nation or race. It is a religion for the whole world. Still, on its first publication, it found on all sides a given historical development, a settled. system of society, already at hand. This, of course, it did not seek to demolish and reconr struct, but simply to transfuse with the power of its own divine life. In. this way, it became possible for the old order of existence to break into view again, with all its characteristic faults and virtues in the bosom of the Church itself, reflecting the Christian religion under its own peculiar image. Where previously the eagle of the war god spread forth his powerful talons, and the earnest, manly spirit of pagan Rome was enabled to or. ganise and hold together, by the force of one gigantic and yet minutely specific system of Law, the entire world lying submissive at her feet; there, now, a new empire appeared, Rome restored in the Church; built up in part by the same agencies as before, invigorated only by the presence of a higher principle; subduing the most barbarous nations, under the banner of the cross, and binding the most distant to a common centre; but at the same time repeating the lightnings of the Capitol in the thunders of the Vatican, directed against every motion of freedom, and in its conflict with the world gradually taking up all the elements of the world's corruption into its own constitution. In both cases we meet essentially the same features of character; immovable resolution, iron constancy, a restless grasping after universal dominion, and confidence of perpetual stability; but in connection with all this, an artful cunning policy, disguised beneath a show of urbanity, the Jesuitic maxim of the end sanctify-. ing the means, and a heartless disregard to both national and in-. dividual rights, in the midst of vast pretensions to liberality and broad-hearted pliant toleration. The papacy is a Christian universal monarchy, erected on the popular spirit of ancient Rome. And as it is necessary that authority should go before independence, the general before the particular and single; which implies that barbarous tribes require the force of a heavy disciplinary institute, in the first instance, to bring them to a full free knowledge of themselves; no unprejudiced historian will dispute the merits of the Romish system, as eminently fitted for this service. Nav, in view of such countries as Italy, Spain, and Ireland, which have not yet outgrown their political minority, must we not allow. a re-. lative necessity for it, even in our own day?
