Symbolism (1/2) 💖 By Johann Adam Möhler. FULL Audiobook

Symbolism. By Johann Adam Möhler FULL Audiobook
“Symbolism” by Johann Adam Möhler is a significant work that delves into the theological differences between Catholics and Protestants, particularly focusing on their symbolical writings. Möhler, a professor of theology at the University of Tübingen, penned this magnum opus in 1832, sparking intense controversy in Protestant circles across Europe.

## Overview:
The book is structured meticulously, addressing key aspects of theological anthropology and ecclesiology. Möhler engages in critical dialogue with Protestant theology, seeking to illuminate the doctrinal divergences between the two Christian confessions.

## Key Themes Explored:

1. Original Sin and Grace:
– Möhler examines the concept of original sin from both Catholic and Protestant perspectives.
– He dissects the Lutheran and Calvinist doctrines concerning man’s fallen state and the causes of moral evil.
– The Catholic view on original sin is contrasted with that of other denominations.

2. Justification and Sanctification:
– The book delves into the process of justification and how it unfolds in the lives of believers.
– Möhler analyzes the interplay between God’s grace and human agency in the work of regeneration.
– He scrutinizes the Protestant understanding of the relationship between grace and freedom.

3. Predestination and Faith:
– Möhler explores the Catholic notion of predestination and its implications.
– The Protestant perspectives on justification, sanctification, and faith are thoroughly examined.
– He evaluates the theoretical and practical grounds underlying these theological positions.

4. Sacraments:
– The book scrutinizes the Catholic and Protestant views on the sacraments.
– Möhler dissects the significance of the Eucharist, Penance, and other sacramental practices.
– He highlights the differences between the two traditions regarding these sacred rites.

5. Unity and Dissonance:
– Möhler identifies points of affinity and opposition between Protestantism and Catholicism.
– He discusses the influence of Gnosticism and Pantheism on Protestant thought.
– The book underscores the theological tensions that persist between the two Christian streams.

## Impact:
Möhler’s work remains relevant today, providing valuable insights into the theological nuances that continue to shape Christian discourse. His rigorous analysis invites readers to engage critically with the complexities of faith, tradition, and doctrine.

For those interested in exploring Möhler’s thought further, the book is available for free on the Internet Archive. Additionally, a translated version is accessible in PDF format. If you seek a deeper understanding of the theological landscape, Symbolism is a compelling resource.

—
Note: The information provided here is based on Möhler’s work and historical context. For an in-depth exploration, I recommend referring directly to the original text or scholarly analyses. 📚🔍.
More: Symbolism, Johann Adam Möhler, Audiobook
Theology, Catholicism, Religious symbolism
Christianity, Philosophy, Spirituality
Sacraments, Faith, Divine
Allegory, Transcendence, Mystery
Ecclesiastical, Doctrine, Soul
Metaphysics, Church, Theological
Scripture, Esoteric, Sacred
Divinity, Apocalypse, Parables
Eucharist, Grace

00:00:00 Introductory Note by the Translator
00:07:58 Author’s Prefaces to the First through Fourth Editions, Editor’s Preface to the Fifth Edition
00:39:35 Memoir of Dr. Moehler, Part 1
01:09:52 Memoir of Dr. Moehler, Part 2
01:49:26 Memoir of Dr. Moehler, Part 3
02:24:40 Memoir of Dr. Moehler, Part 4
02:58:27 Memoir of Dr. Moehler, Part 5
03:27:15 Memoir of Dr. Moehler, Part 6
03:58:32 Introduction, Part I- Nature, Extent and Sources of Symbolism.
04:28:15 Introduction, Part II – Symbolical Writings of Catholics and Protestants.
04:56:20 Book I, Part I, § I – Primitive State of Man According to the Catholic Doctrine.
05:12:27 § II Lutheran doctrine on man’s original state. § III The Calvinistic doctrine on the primitive state of man.
05:25:38 § IV On the causes of moral evil.
05:40:19 Chapter II § V The Catholic doctrine on original sin.
06:04:04 § VI Doctrine of the Lutherans respecting original sin.
06:27:24 § VII Considerations on Heathenism…
06:44:03 § VIII Doctrine of the Calvinists on original sin. § IX Zwingli’s view of original sin.
07:01:38 Chapter III § X General statement of the mode in which… man becomes justified.
07:11:54 § XI Of the relation of the operation of God to that of man, in the work of regeneration…
07:33:26 § XII Doctrine of the Calvinists on the relation of grace to freedom, and human cooperation.-Predestination
07:43:57 § XIII Of The Catholic notion of predestination.
08:03:57 § XIV Doctrine of the Protestants on justification and sanctification.
08:25:43 § XV Catholic View of this subject.
08:41:35 § XVI Lutheran And Calvinistic view of faith.
08:59:00 § XVII Appreciation of the theoretic gro

Section one of symbolism this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org symbolism by Johan Adam Mueller translated by James Burton Robertson introductory notice by the translator some years ago I presented the public with a translation of

Frederick schlegel’s philosophy of History which may be termed a sort of quote discourse on universal history adapted to the actual State and wants of Catholic science I now venture to bring forward a translation of a work that has been called by a French critic a necessary supplement to

Besets history of the variations of the Protestant churches a Work Well Suited also to the present necessities of the Catholic church and fitted for the existing state of controversy between the two great religious parties in Europe the kind reception which my former task experienced from the British public at a

Time when all Catholic Productions were still viewed with peculiar distrust and aversion encouraged me to hope that now when so happy and so remarkable a change has come over the Protestant mind of England the same Indulgence will not be refused to my present effort the work indeed whereof a translation is now

Offered to the public enters far more deeply into the discussion of those great questions which divide the minds and the hearts of our countrymen the moral wound that for three centuries have disfigured the aspect crippled or misapplied the energy and exhausted the vital forces of our country is here

Probed with a firm and dextrous the most gentle hand yet Dr Muer’s book is more historical explanatory and analytical than really pical in the spirit of eminent charity which which breathes through his Pages the mild accents wherewith error is rebuked the aversion from all exaggeration that will never

Push beyond their legitimate bearing the words of an adversary the Exquisite sense of justice that never fails to award to Merit wherever it is found its due recognition that is ever ready to make allowance for human Frailty that amid the great aberration of the human mind points with pleasure to the truth which

Tempered them as well as to the truth which they abused that even in the most hideous caricatures of fanaticism loves to seek out some trait of the Divine original which that fanaticism strove to realize or restore all these qualities I trust will not fail to obtain from the author

Even from the most prejudiced Protestant an impartial and attentive hearing a distinguished English Protestant writer once characterized with sets history of the variations as a book qu where a Catholic might study his religion and a Protestant learn Logic the same remark applies in an equal perhaps more eminent degree to

Muer symbolism yet with this difference that the latter is a work where a Protestant too may study his religion the Protestant of every denomination May here see the tenants of his own religious community on the controverted points stated and explained according to the m solemn and unexceptionable of all authorities the

Public formularies of that religious community itself the Declarations of such formularies are placed in a ju position with those of the Catholic Church by this means the better understanding of the doctrine of either church is promoted Mutual misconceptions are obviated points of agreement as well as the points of Divergence are more

Prominently brought out the means for the reconciliation of religious parties are at once laid open and facilitated and as a clear knowledge of error leads of necessity to a better appreciation of Truth The Return to the true church is thus at once rendered more easy and more certain this work and its apologetic

Parts noticing but cursorily or incidentally the historical and traditional proofs of the Catholic faith and confining itself in general to a priori Vindication of our tenants I recommend the Protestant reader who happens to be totally unacquainted with writings of Catholic controversy consult prior to the perusal of the symbolism

One or more of the approved books of Catholic evidences where the external as well as intrinsic arguments and favor of our church are more fully and elaborately entered into among these I may particularly recommend three excellent Works which though differing in their plan will furnish the Protestant with the proofs required

I mean the right Reverend Dr Milner’s solid and instructive book the end of religious controversy Dr Kirk’s learned work the faith of Catholics and the ingenious learned and eloquent lectures of the principal doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church by my illustrious friend the right Reverend Dr

Wisman if besides one or the other of these Works Protestant reader has Leisure to consult the history byet above referred to he will then derive from the perusal of the symbolism more spiritual advantage and intellectual profit and will find but few passages that will present a difficulty in the

Course of perusal it would be well for him frequently to refer to the decrees the Council of Trent the word quote unquote symbolism or as the Germans say symbolic has it is proper to observe a two-fold signification sometimes it means the science that has for its object to explain the

Symbol or outward sign used in the religions of antiquity and in this sense it is imployed by Cruiser as his title to the celebrated work on that subject at other times the word is used by German divines Catholic and Protestant to signify the signs of comparative inquiry into the confessions or

Symbolical writings of the different Christian churches and this is the sense it bears in the title of the book here translated there is a small but learned work entitled confessions of Faith by my lamented friend the late Mr Charles Butler where the reader will find an interesting literary history of the

Formularies of the different Christian communities it was my wish that this translation should have appeared two years ago but other literary occupations have contrary to My Hope its publication Protestant mind however I flatter myself is now better prepared for the reception of the work than at

The period referred to and if in the great moral ferment which now pervades my country it should be the means of allaying and reconciling in any degree the agitated elements of religious Strife if it should extricate but one Spirit from the difficulties the distractions and the anguish of Doubt

Wherein so many are now involved and should help him onto the solution of that great problem whereon all depends I shall consider consider my labor to be more than sufficiently recompensed may he from whom every good gift descends shed his Blessing on the present undertaking and enable all to

Come to the perusal of the work with the suitable dispositions wenberg Bavaria August 1843 end of Section 1 so section two of symbolism this LibriVox recording is in the public domain symbolism by Johan Adam Mueller translated by James Burton Robertson author’s preface to the first edition every book has a two-fold

History a history before and a history after its publication the first can be described only by the author himself in respecting this the public imposes on him the duty to make no history and accordingly to relate to it partly and outward occasions that induced him to undertake

The composition of his work and partly to assign the more intrinsic Reasons by which he was determined to the undertaking hereupon I have now to communicate to the indulgent reader the following remarks the present work has arisen out of a course of lectures that for several years I’ve delivered on the doctrinal

Differences between between Catholics and Protestants on this subject it has been the custom for years in all the Lutheran and calvinistic universities of Germany to deliver lectures to the students of theology in highly approving of this custom I resolved to transplant it to the Catholic soil for the following

Reasons certainly those who are called to take the lead in theological learning may be justly expected to acquire solid comprehensive knowledge of the tenants of the religious communities that for so long A Time have stood opposed to each other in mutual rivalry and still Endeavor to maintain this their

Position justly are they required not to rest Satisfied by any means with mere General uncertain obscure vague and unconnected Notions upon the great vital question which is not only for 300 years continually agitated the religious life of Europe but has in part so deeply and mightily convulsed it

If the very notion of scientific culture makes it the duty of the Theologian to enter with the utmost possible precision and depth into the nature of the differences that divide religious parties if it imperiously requires him to set himself in contradiction to render account of and assign the grounds

For the doctrinal peculiarities of the different communions so regard for his own personal dignity and satisfaction of mind presses the matter on him nay on every well-instructed Christian with a still more imperious claim for what is less consistent with our own self-respect than to neglect instituting the most careful and accurate inquiry

Into the grounds and foundations of our own religious belief in convincing ourselves whether and how far we stand on a firm footing or whether we have not placed ourselves on some treacherous covering that conceals beneath it an enormous Abyss how is it possible to enjoy a true

And Solid Peace of the soul and in the midst of great ecclesiastical communities that all pretend alike to the possession of the pure and unmutilated Truth We Stand almost without reflection without possessing any adequate instruction there is indeed in this respect a quiet such as they possess in

Relation to a future life who are utterly heedless whether there be such a state this is a quiet that casts deep indelible disgrace on any being endowed with reason every man accordingly owes it to himself to acquire the clearest conception of the doctrinal peculiarities the inward power and

Strength or the inward weakness and unbless of the religious community whereof he acknowledges himself a member a conception which entirely depends on a very accurate and precise knowledge of the opposite system of belief there can even be no solid acquisition nor confident use of the arguments for any communion unless there

Be conceived in relation to the antagonist system nay solid acquaintance with any confession must necessarily include its apology if at least that confession make any pretensions to Truth for every educated Christian possesses such General Notions of religion and Christianity he possesses such General acquaintance with holy RIT that so soon

As any proposition be presented to him in its true light and in its General bearings he can form a judgment as to its truth and immediately discern its Conformity or its repugnance to the fundamental doctrines of Christianity we are also at a loss to discover how a practical Theologian especially in countries where

Conflicting communions Prevail can adequately discharge his functions when he is unable to characterize the distinctive doctrines of those communions for public homes indeed on matters of religious controversy the cycle of Catholic festivals conformably to the origin and the nature of our church happily gives no occasion all the festivals established

By her have reference only to facts in the life of Jesus Christ and to those truths where on all our faith and all our hopes depend as well as to the commemoration of those highly meritorious Servants of God who hold a distinguished place in the history of

The church such in particular as were instrumental in the general propagation and consolidation of Christianity and in its special introduction to certain countries for the office of preaching accordingly the Catholic pastor with the exception of some very rare and peculiar cases can make no immediate use of his knowledge of other

Creeds on the other hand we may hope that his discourses on the of the Catholic faith will be rendered more solid more comprehensive more animated and more impressive and those doctrines have been studied by him in their opposition to the antagonist confessions in the strict sense of that word that

The highest class of cumans should receive solid instruction nay a far more solid one than has hitherto been given when the dogmas controverted between Christians nay that in this instruction the doctrinal differences should be explicitly and as fully as possible attended to As a matter on which I entertain not the slightest

Doubt whence predes the deplorable helplessness of many Catholics when in their intercourse with Protestants the concerns of religious Faith come under discussion whence the indifference of so many among them towards their own religion from what other cause but from their almost total ignorance of the doctrinal peculiarities of their Church

In respect to other religious communities when comes it that whole Catholic parishes are so easily seduced by the false mysticism of their curates when these happen to be secretly averse to the doctrines of the church once even the fact that many curates are so open to the pietistic

Errors but because both priest and congregation have never received the adequate nay any instruction at all respecting the doctrinal differen between the churches how much are Catholics put to shame by the very great activity which Protestants display in this matter it is of course to be understood that instruction on these points of

Controversy must be imparted with the utmost charity conciliation and mildness with a sincere Love Of Truth and without any exaggeration and with constantly impressing on the minds of men that however we may be bound to reject errors or the pure doctrine of Jesus Christ and the gospel truth is the most sacred

Property of man yet are we required by our church to embrace all men with love for Christ’s sake and to evince in their regard all the abundance of Christian virtues lastly it is clear that opportune and inopportune questions consultations and conferences on the doctrines controverted between the

Churches will never fail to occur but most assuredly the appropriate reply the wished for counsel and the instructive reputation will be wanting in case the pastor be not solidly grounded in a knowledge of the respected formularies of the Christian communities but if what I have said justifies the delivery of academic

Cources on the doctrinal peculiarities of the different communions yet it proves not the necessity of their publication at least as regard their essential substance on this subject I will take the liberty of making the following remarks in the Protestant church for many years a series of manuals on symbolism have been

Published The Elder plank marhi in two Works a larger and a smaller Weiner glawson and others have tried their efforts in this department the Catholics indeed on their part have put forth a great multitude of apologetic and suchlike works having for their object to correct the misrepresentation of our doctrines as

Set forth by non-catholics but any book containing a scientific discussion of all the doctrinal peculiarities of the Protestant churches has not Fallen within my knowledge accordingly in communicating to the public the substance of my lectures I conceived I should fill up a very perceptible void in Catholic literature throwing my researches into

The authorities required by the subject of my lectures I thought I had further occasion to observe that the territory I had begun to explore had not by any means received a sufficiently careful cultivation and that it was yet capable of offering much useful and desirable produce this holds Good even when we

Regard the matter from the mere historical point of view but it cannot fail to occur that by bringing to light data not sufficiently used because they were not thoroughly understood or had been consigned again to Oblivion the higher scientific judgment on the mutual relations of the Christian communities

Will be rendered more mature and circumspect whether my inquiries in either respect have been attended with any success it is for competent judges to decide thus much at least I believe I may assert that my labors will offer to Catholic theologians especially many a hint that their industry would not be

Unrepaid if in this department they were to devote themselves to solid researches for several decades the most Splendid talents spend their Leisure nay give up their lives to inquiries into the Primitive religions and mythologies so remote from us both as to space and time but the efforts to make us better

Acquainted with ourselves have evidently been more rare and less perseverant in proportion as this problem is a matter of near concern than the former there are not any indeed wanting a countless multitude of writings that dilate and PRX dissertations on the relations between the different churches but alas their authors too often possess

Scarcely the most superficial knowledge of the real state of facts and hereby it not unfrequently comes to pass that treaties which would even perhaps Merit the epithet of ingenious tend only to render the age more superficial than to cause the most important questions that can Engage The Human mind and heart to

Be most frivolously overlooked such sort of writings are considered quote considerations unquote while in truth nothing objective was at all considered but mere Phantoms of the brain that passed before the writer pafic objects also indued me to commit this work to the press and these objects I conceived I should not be able

To attain by giving the most precise and most undeserved description of the doctrinal differences I did not indeed dream of any peace between the churches deserving the name of a true reunion as being about to be established in the present time for such a peace cannot be looked

For in an age which is so deeply degraded that even the Guides of the people have often times so utterly lost sight of the very essence of faith that they Define it as the adoption of what appears to them probable or most probable whereas its nature consists in embracing with undoubting certainty the

Revealed truth which can be only one as many men now believe the heathens also believed for they were by no means devoid of opinions respecting Divine things when in so many quarters there is no faith a reunion in faith is inconceivable hence only a union and unbelief could be attained that is to

Say such a one wherein the right is mutually conceited to think what one will and wherein there is therefore a mutual tacit understanding that the question regards mere human opinions and that it is a matter left undecided whether in Christianity God have really revealed himself or not for with the

Belief in Christ as a true Envoy of the father of light it is by no means consistent that those who have been taught by him should be unable to Define in what his Revelation on Divine things consist and what on the other hand is in contradiction to his word and his

Ordinances all things not this or that in particular appears accordingly opposed to a religious Union a real removal therefore of the differences existing between the Christian communities appears to me to be still remote but in the age in which we live I flattered myself that I might do something toward bringing about a

Religious Peace by revealing a true knowledge of the great dispute in so far as by this knowledge men must come to perceive that that contest sprang out of the most Earnest Endeavors of both parties to uphold the truth the pure and genuine Christianity in all its Integrity I have made it

Therefore my duty to Define with the utmost possible Precision the points of religious difference in nowhere and at no time to cloak and disguise them the opinion sometimes entertained that the differences are not of importance and affect not the vitals of Christianity can conduce only to Mutual contempt for

Opponents who are conscious of not having adequate grounds for opposing each other and yet do so must despise one another then certainly it is this vague feeling of being an adversary of this stamp that has in modern times given rise to Violent Sally on the part of many Protestants against Catholics and vice

Versa for many by a sort of self-deception think by these sallies to stifle the inward reproaches of their conscience and mistake the forced irritation against an opposite communion or a true pain on account of the rejection of Truth on the part of its adherence even the circumstance is not

Rare that an ignorance of the true points of difference lead leads to the invention of false ones and this certainty keeps up a hostile and charitable Spirit of opposition between parties far more than a just and accurate knowledge of the distinctive doctrines could do for nothing wounds and embitters more than unfounded

Charges for the same cause it so frequently happens that men on both sides charge each other with obduracy of Will and with a selfish regard to Mere personal and transitory interests and ascribe to these alone the divisions in religious life Protestants are uncommonly apt without hesitation to ascribe to what

They denominate hierarchical arrogance and the plan of obscuration any resistance in the Catholic church to the full influx of protestant light many Catholics on the other hand are of opinion that in the same way is the commencement of the Reformation political interests and the desire to exercise over the church in absolute

Domination were the sole inducements that engaged princes to embrace and encourage the Protestant doctrines and domestic ease sensual gratifications Hollow arrogance and a frivolous love of Independence were the only motives that brought over churchmen to the new opinions so this is for the most part the case even at the present day these

Charges indeed of Pride arrogance and the rest which parties bring against each other cannot alas be entirely disputed we know moreover from experience that everywhere there are very zealous men who in their conduct towards opposite communions are not actuated by quite based motives yet have immediately in view only the interests

Of a party a faction or a system and not the cause of divine truth especially in its living manifestation in Christ Jesus who should alone be the object of our love and all else should be so only in so far as it is nearly or remotely connected with that

Love all this indeed is unquestionably true yet it would betoken very great narrowness of mind if the duration of the mighty religious contest were not sought for in deeper causes than in those assigned under these circumstances I conceived it were no small gain if I should succeed in drawing back attention

Entirely to the matter itself and in establishing the conviction that in the conflict between Catholicism and protestantism moral interests are defended a conviction which as it implies in the adversaries earnestness and sincerity must lead to more conciliatory results and is alone calculated to advance the plan which in

The permission of so fearful a Strife Divine Providence had in view lastly I must mention also a phenomenon of the age which if I remember right first inspired me with the thought of committing to the press my treaties on the distinctive doctrines of the Christian communions for a long time Lutheranism

Seemed to have entirely disappeared from Germany at least to possess no voice in public opinion in fact it was scarcely represented in literature by a single Theologian of any name in our thoughtful Germany the gloomier Calvinism never found itself really at home and when it penetrated into some of

Its provinces it was almost always with considerable modifications its real home has always been a part of Switzerland and of France next Holland England and Scotland though the great revolution in public affairs during our times the old Orthodox protestantism has again assumed new life not only finds many adherence

Among the clergy and Ley but in the number of its partisans can reckon very able theologians as was naturally to be expected it immediately marked out its position relatively to the Catholic church and assailed the latter with all the resources it could command the more this party visibly

Increases and partly by its Junction with the pietistic movement that had previously existed partly by the encouragement of one of the most influential cabinets in Germany begins again to constitute a power the more must Catholics feel the necessity of taking up their right position in respect to it and of clearly Discerning

The true nature of the relation wherein they stand towards it this however is not so easy as we might at first view imagine for when from rationalism and naturalism we must turn our thoughts to the old protestantism as represented in the symbolical books we are required to transport ourselves into a totally

Different religious world for while for the last 50 years Catholics have been called upon to defend only the Divine elements in Christianity the point of combat is now changed and they are required to uphold the human element in the Christian religion we must now March precisely from one extreme to the

Other yet the Catholic has this advantage that his religious system Embraces as well but constitutes an object of one-sided or exclusive reverence with the rationalist is what the Orthodox Protestant with an equally one-sided or exclusive veneration adheres to in Christianity in fact these two contrari are in the Catholic system adjusted and

Perfectly reconcile the Catholic faith is as much akin to one Principle as to the other and the Catholic can comprehend the two because his religious system constitutes the unity of both the Protestant rationalists are indebted to Luther only in so far as he acquired for them the right to profess

Completely the reverse of what he himself in the religious community he founded maintained and the Orthodox Protestants have with the rationalist no tie of connection save the saddening conviction that Luther established a church Church the very nature whereof must compel it to Bear such adversaries with patience

In its bosom and not even to possess the power of quote turning them away unquote the Catholic on the other hand as with either party a moral Affinity inherent in his very doctrines he stands higher than either and therefore overlooks them both he has alike what distinguishes the two and is therefore

Free from their one-sided fear feelings his religious system is no loose mechanical Patchwork combination of the two others for it was anterior to either and when it was first revealed to the church organically United the truth which in the other two is separated the adverse party seceded from

The Catholic Church breaking up and dividing its Doctrine the one appropriating the human the other the Divine principle in Christianity just as if the indivisible to be at pleasure divided I have further to observe that German solidity or German pedantry or German distrustfulness Call It by what name we

Will appear to me to require that I should give the passages I quoted at full length the reader is thus enabled to form his own judgment by the materials brought before him or at least is furnished with the means for testing the Judgment of the author I was bound

To suppose that to by far the greater number of my readers the symbolical books of the Protestants the writings of Luther zingus and Calvin were inaccessible and if I were unable to preserve the true medium between an excess and a deficiency in quotations I preferred to offend by the former he who

Was unable to read the quotations which are for the most part thrown into the notes can easily pass them over on the other hand it cannot be said that he who would feel desirous to make himself acquainted with the passages cited could have easily collected these himself du benjin

1832 preface to the second edition from the attention with which the theological public have been pleased to favor this work I’ve have conceived it my duty to Endeavor as much as the small space of time that intervened between the first and second edition allowed to improve and even to enlarge

It in the first part there are few sections which whether in the language whether by additions or emissions in the text or in the notes have not undergone changes advantageous as I trust to the work under the Article of Faith the 17th section has been newly inserted and the

27th section which contains a more precise definition of the real distinctive points in the theological system of Luther and of zingus was not found in the first edition the article on the church has undergone considerable changes the addition of the 37th section appeared to be peculiarly calculated to

Render more clear the theory of the Catholic church in the second part the article on the methodists has been entirely recast as I’ve now been able to procure Dr sui’s life of Wesley Clarkson’s portrait of quakerism which in despite of many Endeavors I had been unable to obtain in time for the

First edition but which has since come to hand has been less useful for my purpose than I had expected in the introduction it has appeared to me to enter into a more particulars as to the use which in a work like the symbolism is to be made of

The private writings of the reformers I’ve deemed it useful also to point out there the important distinction which in all Sy symbolical researches should be observed between the use of private writings of the reformers and that of the works of Catholic theologians preface to the Third Edition the information of my publisher

That the second edition is out of print was too sudden to allow me to bestow on this third edition those improvements which I would Fain have made and whereof it stood in so much need there is but one article I can name which has undergone an important amelioration

It is the eighth section on original sin for in the former editions there were some historical notices touching the Catholic views of that doctrine that much needed correction the very ponderous criticism of my symbolism which in the meanwhile Professor Bower has put forth I will leave unnoticed in the present work for

The necessary discussion would occupy proportionally too great a space to find insertion either in the notes or in the text I have therefore prepared to write a separate reply which please God will soon be sent to press preface to the fourth edition after the publication of the Third Edition which appeared at the

Beginning of the year 1834 I saw myself compelled to compose a defense of the symbolism it is already appeared under the title new investigations Etc in this work many subjects having reference to the controversy and which in the symbolism has been only lightly or not at all touched upon or more fully

Treated while not a few articles have been investigated under a new point of view others more precisely defined and several more fully established from this book nothing has been transferred to the fourth edition of the symbolism I held it to be my duty to make no essential alteration in the form

Under which the present work was originally presented to the the public under which it has been favored with their indulgent attention to notice in the body of the work the various writings treaties and reviews that have been directed against it I conceive to be in every way unsuitable independent even of the facts

That I am unwilling to see the Pacific tones of the symbolism converted into an angry and warlike tone yet some things have been amended in this fourth edition others have been added these are changes which could be made without any external provocation and without any alteration of my original

Plan and as have formerly been made in every new addition by God’s Providence the symbolism has hitherto produced much good fruit as from many quarters has been related to me partly by word of mouth and partly by writing even Protestant periodicals as for example the Evangelical Church Gazette of October

1834 do not in their peculiar way call this fact in question May It Be Still further attended with the blessing of the Savior who from the beginning hath ever chosen weak and imperfect things for the instruments of his glorification preface of the German Editor to the fifth

Edition while the fifth edition of this work was in the press the Catholic Church of Germany had the Affliction to see its illustrious author snatched away from her by an untimely death if his loss for the Catholic literature be an event so deeply to be deplored it is so

Especially in reference to the symbolism the lamented author had intended to introduce many amendments into this new edition and so to render it more complete partly by transferring into it several things from his work entitled new investigations of doctrinal differences partly by by incorporating with it the results of new

Researches as regards a very considerable part of the work his intention he has happily been able to carry into effect many articles and sections as for example that on original sin have received from him extension or greater Precision or been entirely recast the like he had designed in

Respect to the articles on the doctrine of the sacraments and the following sections that until the close of his life this concern of his heart ever occupied him but the final execution of his design was not permitted by Divine Providence may this new edition produce those blessed effects which had ever

Been intended by the author and that have doubtless gained a rich recompense for him Before the Throne of God Munich 21st June 1838 end of section two section three of symbolism by Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Burton Robertson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain Memoir of Dr molair part

One many of the facts related in the following biographical sketch rest on the authority of two short m Ms of the illustrious writer the one by Dr run professor of Catholic theology at the University of tuenin the other by the anonymous author of the interesting introduction prefixed

To the fifth German edition of the symbolism for many other particulars I’ve been indebted to the kindness of Dr wath Meer professor of divinity at the University of Munich as well as to that of Dr burer Dean of Wartburg and of Dr ducks recor of the ecclesiastical seminary in the same

City the following Memoir is preceded by an historical survey of the state of protestantism and Catholicism in Germany during the last 100 years to enable the English reader to better to understand the general scope and tendency of the work I’ve translated as well as the many Illusions and references it contains to

The great changes that in modern times have occurred in the Protestant Theology of Germany I’ve endeavored according to my humble ability to take a rapid historical view of those changes though indeed only the Elder protestantism and its opposition to the Catholic church is analyzed in this work

And the rationalism which sprang up in Germany towards the middle of the 18th century and which has almost entirely superseded the old Lutheranism is for the reason assigned by the author himself not here forly investigated still as frequent comparisons are constituted between the older and the more modern systems of

German protestantism some degree of acquaintance with the latter is evidently highly useful for the better understanding and appreciation of the work now translated but this great revolution in the German Protestant church can be comprehended in all its bearings and estimated in all its results only through a comparison with

The state of German Catholicism during the same period under this impression I have placed beside the representation of ger protestantism a corresponding picture of the Catholic church I conceive too that by such a historic portraiture of the latter the moral and intellectual influence of the illustrious Divine whose biography I’ve

Attempted to trace will be better discerned and more fully appreciated in drawing up this preliminary historic sketch the authorities I have consulted are on the Catholic side Dr dollinger’s continuation of hk’s church history the compendium of ecclesiastical church history by Dr alav and gur’s historico political journal and on the Protestant

Side and the Reverend Mr Rose’s lectures on the state of protestantism in Germany Professor thic’s essay entitled historic sketch of the Revolution which since the year 1750 has occurred in German Theology and the manual of Christian history by Dr haaste in a work which has recently appeared in

Germany and is attributed to the pen of an eminent Protestant we find a passage where the history of German protestantism from the commencement of the Reformation down to the middle of the 18th century is traced in a few brief vigorous and masterly strokes this passage I prefer to cite

Rather than attempt on my part any delineation of the same subject quote the first 50 years says this writer that followed on the outbreak of the Reformation witnessed incessant wranglings disputes and mutual anathematizing between the several Protestant parties first between Lutheran swingle next between the rigid Lutheran and the crypto Calvinists and

So on when after long intrigues and tedious negotiations the chancellor of tuenin James Andrea succeeded about the year 1586 in obtaining acceptance for the so-called formula of Concord the theological Strife receded from the arena of public life into the school and for the whole Century that followed the Protestant church was distinguished for

A narrow-minded pical scholasticism and a self-willed contentious theology the Lutheran Orthodoxy in particular degenerated more and more into a dry spiritless mechanical formalism without religious feeling warmth and unction the same authors of the new faith that had with so much violence contested the church’s prerogative of infallibility in her

Tradition desired now to claim for their own symbolical books a divine origin and an exemption from error they whose religious community was founded in the principle of recognizing scripture as the sole standard of Faith now disputed its right to be the exclusive depository of the Divine word

They who had refused to the Catholic Church infallibility now pretended to an absolute and immutable possession of revealed truth in opposition to this Protestant Orthodoxy that had fallen away from the fundamental principle of the reformation and therefore clung to the greater obstinacy of the letter of its symbolical books spenner insisted upon a

Living faith rooted in the regenerate will and undertook to revivify religion that had perished in the stiff forms of a mechanical Orthodoxy but from his very confined views on philosophy and speculative theology from his aversion to all settled and defined religious Notions from his indifference about dogmas in

General and his deficiency in a solid groundwork of learning and an undue propensity to a false mysticism whereby he beares a remote Affinity to the Quakers and other sects from all these defects spenner was unable to bring about the completion of the Reformation which he had promised although on

Several leading points he entertained convictions which fitted him for reforming the Lutheran doctrines the Protestant Orthodoxy having succeeded by anathemas and persecution and reducing to Temporary silence the first commotions of the yet impotent rationalism sank into soft Repose on its pillow but in the midst of German protestantism an alliance had

Been formed which at first appeared to be of little danger nay to be even advantageous but which soon overthrew the whole scaffolding of doctrine that the old Protestant Orthodoxy had raised up and precipitated Protestant theology into that course which has in the present day LED it entirely to subvert

All the dogmas of Christianity and totally to change the original views of the reformers unquote the principle of rationalism is inherent in the very nature of protestantism it manifested itself in the very origin of the reformation and has since to a greater or a less extent and in every variety of form revealed

Its existence in almost every Protestant community in the less vigorous constitution of Lutheranism it had fewer obstacles to encounter than in the calvinistic churches and more particularly in the Anglican establishment it entered too undoubtedly into the design of Providence that the people which have been the first to welcome the so-called Reformation should

Be also the first to pay the bitter penalty for apostasy that the L land which had first witnessed the rise of protestant heresy should be likewise the first to behold its lingering painful and humiliating dissolution but the several causes which were the middle of the 18th century brought about this great moral distemper

In the Protestant churches of Germany as well as the forms which the malady successively assumed I will now Endeavor to describe it was in the department of biblical exegesis that this movement of rational is M first displayed itself the school of michis with its false over fastidious worldly-minded criticism

Treated the scriptures with levity and even disrespect denied the inspiration of some portions of the Bible and debased and vulgarized its Doctrine the same views were carried out with much greater boldness and consistency by simler who abusing the right principle that in the interpretation of scripture regard should be had to the language

Wherein it is written and to the history of the times at which it was composed degraded the Dignity of the Bible by circumscribing its teachings within mere local and temporary bounds deluded its doctrines and attached importance to those parts only where a moral tendency was clearly visible from this period the

Lutheran divines became divided into three classes there were first those who remain true to the symbolical books secondly those who like nelt and insisted more particularly on the ethics of Christianity and without positively rejecting all its peculiar dogmas declared them to be of no essential importance and thirdly those who like

Romeris and the Elder icorn systematically pursuing the work commenced by semler not only assailed the inspiration of the Bible but rejected its prophecies denied most of the Miracles it records and refused to acknowledge in Christianity ought else than a mere local and temporary phenomenon nay two celebrated theologians of Berlin teller and

Spalding did not hesitate to enter into a secret Confederacy with professed infidels like nicolay Engel Soler and the rest for the purpose of purifying as they professed the doctrines of the Christian religion this Confederacy was entitled Association for the diffusion of light and truth and this is the place to say a few

Words respecting the popular philosophers as they were called who openly and recklessly attacked that Revelation which the theologians I have described were insidiously and covertly undermining the writings of the English theists in the early part of the 18th century exercised a very pernicious influence in Protestant Germany and later contemporaneous literature of the

French infidels so much encouraged by Frederick II excited there a spirit of disastrous emulation a society was formed so early as the year 1735 by Nat senen and Elman for the diffusion of irreligious pamphlets and writings in which not only all Christianity was decried but the most daring atheism unblushingly avowed

Nicolay whose name already occurred established about the year 1765 at Berlin a literary review with the object object of propagating the pernicious doctrines of a shallow illuminism and in that infancy of German literature when this periodical had scarcely a Ral to encounter the influence it exerted was

More extensive that can at present be even conceived Bard and bow at the same time in cheap and popular tracts scattered among the lower classes the poison of infidelity and they as well as nicolay were in close communication with whop who in Bavaria had founded the order of

The Illuminati for the purpose of undermining the foundations of the throne and the altar I may here observe that in Catholic countries infidelity assumes a very different aspect and is forced to pursue a very different policy than among Protestant nations in the former countries unbelief reprobated by the

Church driven from her communion finding her on every point a vigilant unassailable unrelaxing relenting adversary is compelled to hide its head in secret societies or if it Brave the daylight it then wages Fierce immitigable Warfare with catholicity but in Protestant states such a mode of Warfare on the part of infidelity is

Neither necessary nor expedient for its purpose as it Springs out of the very root of protestantism as it is but a natural and necessary development of its doctrines as it differs from the latter not in essence but in in degree only it is its policy and we see it practice it

Invariably to flatter the Protestant church to court its allegiance to mingle with its teaching to soften down its own principles in order the better to diffuse them and when threatened with exclusion to appeal to Protestant principles and defy condemnation it is objective that infidelity abounds as much in Catholic

As in Protestant countries and that therefore it cannot be said that protestantism is more favorable to its growth than the Rival church but a few remarks will suffice to show the futility of such an objection in the first place it is true that voler like Luther went out of the Catholic church

But while the corus of French infidelity extoled the Reformation eulogized the reformers and boasted that he himself came to consummate the work they had left incomplete he waged the fiercest hostility against the Catholic church and her ministers and the deists of England and Protestant Germany though they came into less immediate collision

With that church than voler and his disciples well knew where their most powerful and formidable antagonist was to be found secondly if protestantism were not more favorable than catholicity to the growth of unbelief how do it happen that in those ages when the Catholic Church exerted the greatest influence over mind

And manners over public and private life ages too be it remembered often distinguished for a boldness and acuteness and a depth of metaphysical inquiry that have never been surpassed how do it happen I say that in those ages infidelity was a thing so rare So obscure so

Insignificant how do it happen that it followed so closely in the wake of the Reformation that history makes mention of a sect of deists in Switzerland at the close of the 16th century that in Protestant England during the 17th and 18th century theism assumed an attitude of such boldness and attained to such

Fearful Vigor and expansion that at the commencement of the 18th century the Protestant baale first introduced into Catholic France that voler and the encyclopedists confessed they borrowed the weapons of their anti-christian Warfare from the Armory of the English theists and that rouso that most dangerous of the French infidels was a

Protestant by birth and only developed principles of protestantism and more than once declared that if the Divinity of the Christian religion could be demonstrated to him he would not hesitate to embrace the Catholic faith thirdly it will not be denied that socinianism leads by easy gradations to unbelief that some classes of unitarians

Are distinguished from deists only by their belief in the general credibility of the Bible and that therefore any church which would show itself indulgent towards socinianism any church which openly or ctly in a greater or less degree will Foster its tenants proves itself thereby favorable to the propagation of

Deism now socinianism like a poisonous plant cast off from the Catholic soil of Italy took root and flourished in the Protestant communities of Poland attained during the 18th century to a most ranked luxuriance in the Church of Geneva and at the same time cast a blighting shade over the Episcopal establishment of

England fourthly if any doubt remained as to the intimate connection between protestantism and infidelity it would be dispelled by the history of the German Protestant churches during the last 100 years there we see men holding important offices in the church pastors of congregations superintendant of consistories professors of theology not

Only reject the authority of the symbolical books and disavow almost all those Catholic dogmas which the Lutheran and Calvinists had hither to retained but openly assil the divine inspiration of the scriptures deny the integrity and authenticity of large portions of the old and the New Testament allegorize the prophecies and disbelieve and sometimes

Even ridicule the Miracles recorded in the Bible these opinions professed more or less openly carried out to a greater or less extent were once held by an immense majority of protestant theologians and even in despite of a partial reaction are still held by the greater part yet they nevertheless retain their

Function and dignities in the Protestant Church they are thus enabled to propagate their doctrines with impunity those Protestants who protest against their opinions still communicate with them in sacrus and when any attempt has been made to deprive them of their offices it has been invariably unsuccessful against their Orthodox

Opponents they invariably appeal to the right of free inquiry which is the fundamental principle of the reformation and on Protestant grounds the position they take up is perfectly impregnable for if the interpretation of the Bible belonged to private judgment the previous questions as to its authenticity integrity and inspiration

Without the settlement whereof the right of interpretation becomes nugatory must be submitted to the decision of individual reason thus has the most Insidious and dangerous form of infidelity grown naturally immediately and irresistibly out of the very root of protestantism the vampire of rationalism while it leaves to the bosom and sucks

The life blood of the German Protestant Church mocks with a fiend-like sneer her impotent efforts to to throw off the monster efforts which will never be attended with success till the aid of the old mother Church be called in but I have digressed too long and must not anticipate while obscure writers like

Nikolai Bart and bow were carrying on with the most Reckless violence and with the weapons of a most Shameless rebaler the Warfare against Christianity which the Protestant theologians had insidiously commenced the great critic Ling the founder of the modern German literature lent his powerful support to the anti-christian league while

Librarian at wolfen bule he edited a work exposed by romeris consisting of various irreligious essays entitled fragments of wolf and butel and which from the tone of earnestness and dialectic acuteness wherein they were written exerted a very prejudicial influence over public opinion the vigorous mind of blessing could not rest satisfied with the

Shallow illuminism of the 18th century and his irreligious Productions seemed oftener to Spring out of a desire to torment the Orthodox lutherans of his day than to be the result of his inmost conviction sometimes he pushed his unbelief even to the pantheism of Spinosa and sometimes again he took up

The Catholic side and with that dialectic art in which he was so great a master proved the necessity of tradition for the right interpretation of scripture the name of Ling leads me naturally to speak of the German literature of the 18th century in its relation to religion this literature

Considered as a whole if not always decidedly hostile was at least perfectly alien from the spirit of Christianity as the Protestant Theology of the day was fast Reviving the doctrines and morality of paganism so this literature consciously or un consciously strove to awaken an exclusive enthusiasm in behalf of the

Moral and social institutions the manners the Customs the feelings and modes of thinking of the Heathen world we all know what injurious effects the sudden Revival and two particular cultivation of the old classical literature produced in the 15th century yet if in an age when in despite of the

Growing laxity and Corruption of manners the tone of society was still still eminently Catholic and the church yet held such an immense sway over the minds and conduct of men an ill-directed classical enthusiasm was attended with such mischief and danger what must be the result at a time when Christianity was almost entirely

Obliterated from the minds of many when the Protestant Church of the day instead of checking encouraged the advances of heathenism and when the new helenic enthusiasts CAU up the genius of paganism not timidly but openly and boldly not in mere translations and commentaries as here to but in the popular poetry in the

Drama the romance the critical essay and the philosophic dialogue and when the evocators were endured with that power of Seduction those irresistible magical spells that belong to the genius of Al Lessing fder a Shiller a shelling and a go thus the new literature which was a child of the new Protestant theology

Tended much to confirm its Authority and extend its influence of herder Friedrich sleel in his history of literature says quote in his earlier life he had pursued a better path and sought to find in the Primitive Revelation the clue to all Traditions to all sagas to all philosophy and

Mythology and so we must the more regret that in his latter years he should have abandoned that light and at last have totally sunk down into the fashionable ways of a mere shallow and insipid illuminism unquote Schiller was one possessed of high intellectual endowments and Noble qualities of heart which in a more

Genial clim and under kindlier influences would have doubtless produced far different fruits but as it is we see a generous plant whose foliage was too often nipped and blighted by the icy breath of a rationalist theology the most pernicious influence however over the public mind was exerted

By the mighty Genius of goth his cold worldly minded egotism his epicurian aversion to all energetic patriotism and self-devoted heroism his subtle disguised sensuality his utter indifference for all religious belief and on the other hand his false idolatry for art and his he eish enthusiasm arrayed in all the charms of the most

Seductive poetry were most fatal to the cause of Christianity and of all public and private virtue yet goth too had occasional glimpses of the truth in his autobiography we find an interesting description of the extraordinary love for the Catholic liturgy and ceremonial that had captivated his heart in Boyhood

And even in latter years this feeling had not entirely died away the same work contains some Splendid pages on the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church where their Mutual connection and their Exquisite adaptation to the wants of the human heart and the necessities of human life are set forth with a depth of

Thought and a beauty of diction not surpassed by any Catholic Divine but if the polite literature of this period was so propitious to the growth and spread of rationalism the remark applies with far greater force to the syst systems of philosophy that exerted so great an influence in the

Latter half of the 18th century in the early part of the present quote the new philosophic systems says Dr dolinger conceived born and bred in protestantism aided and promoted the progress of rationalism the Canan philosophy declares the religion of reason to be the only true one the ecclesiastical

Faith that is to say faith in the truths of a positive of Revelation is there opposed to the religious Faith whose purport may be derived from Every Man’s own reason revealed religion according to this system can and ought to be not else but a mere vehicle for the easier

Introduction of rational religion the ecclesiastical faith will by degrees become extinct and give place to a pure religion of Reason alike evident to all the world in Conformity with these principles a new rule was set up for the interpretation of scripture to it that nothing was to be looked for in the

Bible save the mere religion of reason and that everything else was to be regarded as a mere Veil or as an accommodation to the popular notion of the time or as the private opinion of the Sacred writer all these theories perfectly harmonize with the favorite opinions of

The day and hence we may account for the extraordinary approbation which this philosophic system received on the part of sim many Protestant theologians by the side of the Canan philosophy the Rival system of jaab found its partisans among the Protestant divines and this philosophy was no less incompatible with a Christian religion

Than that of K according to jacobe religion like all philosophic science depends on a natural immediate faith and in demonstrable perception of the true and the spiritual and any other Revelation besides this inward one do not exist quote to the true religion says he in his work on

Divine things no outward form can be ascribed as the soul and necessary shape of its substance on the contrary the utter absence of all forms is characteristic of its very essence as the glory of God lay hidden in Christ so it lies hidden in every man lastly as regards the philosophy of identity

Quote some of its disciples especially the Theologian do have doubtless were justly appreciated the speculative value of some Christian dogmas but none have succeeded in demonstrating the compatibility of the general principle of this philosophic system with the fundamental doctrines of Christianity on the contrary the followers of this philosophy put forth

Assertions which are at open variance with the primary dogmas of that religion among these we we may include the doctrine that it is only in history the absolute first becomes personally conscious of himself and that all things divided will finally return to Identity a Doctrine which annihilates all personality

Unot emboldened and confirmed by these philosophical speculations the theological rationalism assumed a more decided tone and pursued a more daring course Weg shider detet Scott paus Brett Schneider Roar and others successively arose who denied the inspiration of the Bible disputed the authenticity of many books of the Old and New Testament

Explained away the prophecies rejected and ridiculed the Miracles recorded in the scriptures threw out imputations on the intentions of the Apostles arraigned the wisdom with the divine Savior himself and lastly contested the necessity and even possibility of a supernatural re ration the game of the old Gnostic sex was revived on the most

Arbitrary assumptions and frivolous hypothesis entire books of scripture were rejected the genuiness of the most important passages of the Bible were disputed even the authenticity of one or other of the gospels was assailed till at last as Reinhardt once observed quote whoever wished to obtain the Applause of

The critical journals was obliged to declare some scripture spous or attack some established Doctrine but between these rationalists and the early Heretics with whom I have compared them there is an important difference to be observed the latter called in question the genuiness and authenticity of various portions of holy

Red not on critical grounds but from pical motives they were LED on to these assaults on the scripture by an impassioned fancy heated with strange extravagant and perverse to often ingenious systems of philosophy among their modern imitators on the other hand it was the cold critical understanding

Directed by a mere negative hostility to the Christian religion which engaged in these attacks on the Bible end of section three section four of symbolism by Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Burton Robertson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain the Memoirs of Dr Mohler part

Two The Men Who treated the scriptures that they still affected to consider as the sole source and standard of Faith with such audacious irreverence such atrocious profanity could not be expected to pay much regard to the doctrines they taught not even those for which the Elder Protestant

While they tore them from all living connection with other Christian dogmas had professed such exclusive attachment accordingly we find the great doctrines of the Trinity the Divinity of our savior original sin Christ’s atonement and satisfaction justification Grace and the efficacy of the sacraments even of the two retained by the old

Lutheran church baptism and the Lord’s Supper positively rejected or explained away were debased to the lowest point of insignificance by these rationalist divines even the dogma of the resurrection of the flesh passed for a mere figurative representation of the idea of immortality and The Eternity of future torments was pronounced to be a

Mere Chima there is always the closest connection between the doctrinal and the ethical system of any sect in Conformity with their frightful dualism we see the ancient gnostics alternate between the most most extravagant asceticism and the wildest lust the Aryans by denying the Divinity of the Redeemer had narrowed and choked

Up all the channels of Grace and were accordingly ever remarkable for a low tone of morality reformers of the 16th century with their doctrine of justification swore Eternal enity to all the heroic virtues of Christianity and effectually dried up the mighty stream of Charity which had fertilized and embellished our

European soil and covered it with countless institutions formed to glorify God and Solace sustain and exalt Humanity The rationalists Who so far outran the early reformers in extravagance and blasphemy of teaching outstripped them too in the licentiousness of their moral code for what was more natural than that they who

Had revived the principles of paganism should revive her morals also accordingly the theologians doter lane and quabit among other things roundly asserted that fornication is blameless and is not interdicted by the precepts of the Gospel every branch of theological learning was subjected by degrees to the potent dissolvent of these subtle

Chemists till at last after the process of evaporation a substance less Christian than muhammadanism was found as the residuum these doctrines of unbelief taught by the immense majority of the Protestant clergy penetrated by degrees among all classes of the lady and led to the general neglect of divine service to

The perversion of Youth in the establishments of Education to the desecration of the Sabbath the fearful multiplication of divorce and to General demoralization yet a system so void so absurd so repugnant to Christian sentiment could not long subsist without provoking a powerful reaction especially among a people like the Germans so

Remarkable for deep feeling and inquisitive intellect this coarse and vulgar rationalism whose flourishing Arrow was from the year 1790 to 1810 now met with vigorous opponents in the theologians Reinhardt store flat lucer titman and more recently neander tholo and Stenberg and several others who in the various Departments of dogmatic theology EX

And church history have with considerable learning and ability striven to infuse more Christian principles into the minds of their fellow religionists in the ranks of these more Orthodox divines however it is vain to look for uniformity of Doctrine among themselves or concurrence with the formularies of the old Lutheran

Church the articles of that church on original sin on the atonement on the imputation of Christ’s righteousness on the real presence in the Lord’s supper and on The Eternity of future torments are in part rejected by some of their number Scher mocker and after him neander have revived the heresy of selus

And th luk has declared the Trinity to be no fundamental article of the Christian religion but a later invention of the schoolmen so we see those who at Berlin asked for high Church divines who at Oxford and even at Cambridge be looked upon as low very low churchmen a small party called quote

Unquote old lutherans and headed by a fiery preacher named Claudius harmes is the only one now existing which upholds in all its figure the Lutheran Orthodoxy it is in the province of celissia only that these religionists appear to have taken deep root they are strenuous opponents of the Union between

The Lutheran and calvinistic churches brought about in 18 17 by the late king of Russia as well as to the new liturgy which in consequence of that Union the same Monarch enforced on all the Protestant churches in his dominions refusing to hold communion with the new Mongrel Church on which his Prussian

Majesty had bestowed the pompous epithet of quote unquote Evangelical these old Lutheran resorted for worship the secret conventicles which were often broken up by the military and police their ministers were sometimes thrown into prison sometimes compelled to immigrate to America and on the whole a very Resolute contest was carried on by them

With the Prussian government until on the accession to the throne of the present enlightened Sovereign of that country the men whom Luther could he return to Germany would alone recognize as his true spiritual Sons were admitted to the blessings of the full religious toleration the late king of Russia had

Long cherished the a darling project of uniting the Lutheran and calvinistic churches looking at the matter with the eye of a soldier he thought the junction of the two such powerful bodies would present a bolder front to the Roman adversary and he therefore seized the opportunity offered by the celebration

Of the tricentenary Festival of the Reformation to carry his scheme into execution his majesty had also during his stay at Vienna in 1814 been much impressed with the Beauty the majesty and the touching Holiness of the Catholic liturgy he therefore conceived that by the introduction of some of its

Forms and ceremonies into the Protestant service that service would then possess greater attractions for its followers the churches in consequence would be better attended and a new barrier thus raised up against the progress of ir religion this was the origin of the new liturgy he devised for what has since been called the

Evangelical Church unquote the union between the Lutheran and calvinistic churches begun in Prussia in the year 1817 was adopted in rhines Bavaria in 1819 in the Kingdom of wenberg in 1820 and in the grand duche of B in 1821 yet the success of this Royal work was more than

Problematical the more violent lutherans as we have seen refusing Ascent to the new ecclesiast itical Arrangements seceded from the established church of Prussia and held separate conventicles even some of those however who adhered to the Evangelical Church took exceptions to several forms and ceremonies introduced into the new

Liturgy as being of quote a too popish character unquote and thus as regards public worship the desired uniformity was but imperfectly attained the wish so credible to the honest but sadly misguided Sovereign who lately swayed the Prussian scepter to infuse by an imitation of parts of the Catholic

Ceremonial more dignity and unction into the Public Service of his own religious community was still more fous the Catholic understands the secret spring when flows that unction that sacred charm that awe and Majesty in his worship which rivets the senses and win the heart of all beholders he knows that

It is the great dogma of the Eucharistic sacrifice that gives life and significancy and importance to all even the minutest forms of his public liturgy but such an appreciation of things is impervious to the Protestants and most of all to the Calvinists for the late King of Prussia was by birth and education

Calvinist and therefore that a certain set of forms and ceremonies when detached from their natural connection and separated from the doctrine that alone imparted to them meaning and efficacy should not produce the same fruits in the Protestant as in the Catholic Worship was to him an incomprehensible mystery if from the consideration of

Worship we proceed to that Doctrine we shall find that that quote unquote Union was attended with even far less happy results the Calvinists in Germany at least says Dr dolinger no no longer attach importance to their Founders doctrine of absolute predestination and the lutherans had for

The most part given up the old Lutheran doctrine of the real presence in the Eucharist and had adopted the zwinglian theory the authority of the symbolical book was at an end and therefore as regarded dogmas no important obstacle appeared in the way of the desired Union hence under the influence of the

King of Prussia the conjunction of the two communions the Lutheran and the calvinistic was in the year 1817 brought about without any difficulty the differences of belief in regard to the Lord’s Supper that still prevailed among the people might in the opinion of the theologians be still allowed to continue under the

Union in the reception of the outward Eucharistic signs every individual was allowed to think what he pleased thus according to this new Theory signs are the thing essential but what should be understood by those signs is a matter of no importance the union was made to consist

In the mere declaration that the members were United and the new community was decorated with the title of the Evangelical Church unquote thus in our times was brought about the union of two communities differing on the most important and fundamental doctrines of Christianity a union which whenever

Proposed in the age of the Reformation was stigmatized as an Abomination by Luther and his early followers as the very principle and Constitution of such an alliance presupposes religious indifference so it is eminently calculated to confirm and diffuse it and what the late King of Prussia and his councilors devised as an

Instrument for checking the progress of ir religion as conducting to its further spread among all classes of the people but the principal element of hope in Protestant Germany is undoubtedly pism the great reform which towards the close of the 17th century Spencer attempted and to a certain extent

Brought about in the Lutheran Church has been ay described in the second volume of the work now translated it was the aim of Spencer to infuse into that church more of the ethical element in opposition to the dry and sterile dogmatism of its symbolical books to insist on the inward moral and

Spiritual regeneration of man and to reform discipline and morals in his own religious community he was the first to undermine the authority of the Lutheran formularies and thereby he unconsciously prepared the way for that great revolution of rationalism which as we have seen had shattered to Pieces the fabric of Lutheran

Orthodoxy in the 18th century Spencer’s disciples United with those of Zinzendorf and assumed ever more and more a sectarian character but they’re discountenanced and reprobated by the Orthodox lutherans they form in the words of Müller the true salt of their Church un and the general shipwreck of protestantism visible in our time this

Party appeared to many to offer the only plank of safety and hence their numbers have been swelled and their influence and importance vastly augmented by the Ascension of the most able and learned Protestant Theologian who in the war against rationalism had put forward the pietists as the Vanguard this party is

Now constituted is United rather by a general conviction of the truth of Christianity and a sense of piety than by any defined set of doctrines the belief in a supernatural Revelation in the authenticity and inspiration of holy writ and in the prophecies and miracles it relates seems to be the only Bond of

Union for as to special dogmas there is much division of opinion and there are even some pests who call in question our Lord’s Divinity like some of our own methodists they are distinguished for a more careful culture of the religious feelings than the bulk of Protestants they are assiduous in prayer and in

Bible reading active in dissemination of religious tracts and liberal and pecuniary contributions toward its missionary objects and though much less numerous than the rationalists they make up for that deficiency by superiority of learning and talents greater energy of zeal and higher moral worth though like the English secretaries with whom I have compared

Them they often invin a bitter sectarian hostility to the church yet like them whenever they wish to excite a devotional feeling among their followers they are obliged to have recourse to the works of our great divines and itical writers the writings of Tois the great Mystic of the 15th century the treaties

Of Thomas Aus the penses of Pascal and the sermons of melan are held by them in great estimation on the whole in the desolate waste of German protestantism this religious party is like a rivulet which harsh bitter and brackish though its Waters often be yet is cheering and

Refreshing to the eye of the Christian Observer yet among these new religionists the same phenomena has occurred which the history of rical sex has so often exhibited where religious enthusiasm degenerates after a time into the darkest most fearful fanaticism and an ill-directed asceticism sinks into the most undisguised sensuality in konigsburg a fanatical

Sect sprang out of this ptic movement and which under the name of muckers held errors not unlike those of some ancient gnostics and perpetrated the most Shameless Mysteries these scandalous scenes in which together with others two Lutheran pastors and several persons of rank were engaged Drew down a long judicial

Investigation in Saxony a fanatical ptic party headed by the Pastor Steven was forced to immigrate to America where after he had exercised over his followers the most unbounded despotism in spiritual and temporal matters and abused his ecclesiastical authority to the gratification of his personal lusts the religious community was broken

Up suabia during the present Century has brought forth several singular sects many members whereof on immigrating to North America that El Dorado of all false religious enthusiasts have boldly proclaimed and carried out their monstrous opinions preaching up among other things the community of goods and community of

Wives yet while the pseudo mysticism of protestantism has run into such fearful aberration rationalism still pursued her destructive career in the year 1834 a teacher of theology at tienan Dr Strauss published a book entitled quote unquote life of Jesus which written with consider able learning and Ingenuity and

Composed in a tone of dogmatic assurance and imperturbable fleem concentrated in one focus and raised to the most intense degree of extravagance all the Monstrous hypotheses and blasphemous sophisms put forth by proceeding rationalists deeply sunk as religious feeling and principle are in Protestant Germany yet it is gratifying to observe

That as the celebrated Catholic biblical scholar flug observes this work has encountered the most formidable opposition among Protestant theologians and that not a single eminent individual of their number has entirely subscribed to its doctrines yet this Infamous book for which rationalists of a less decided stamp had prepared the way has wrought

Immense mischief and precipitated many especially among the Protestant L into the depth of total unbelief Strauss the deived of his place of private teacher of protestant Divinity in the University of tuenin was offered a few years ago by the Revolutionary government of Zurich in Switzerland a theological chair but an

Armed Insurrection of the Sounder portion of the Protestant population prevented this outrage on Christianity in Hall two years ago 150 students presented a petition to the government that a professorship should be bestowed on this INF in Holstein a party called quote unquote philes and in Berlin another denominated quote unquote freemen have severally

Formed leagues to renounce all show of outward communion with any Christian Church whatsoever in the year 1841 a late of protestant theology at the University of bond Bruno Bower published a work entitled quote criticism on the Evangelical history of the synoptics unquote a work which in lenus impiety

Surpassed even that of Strauss the pantheistic views of Hegel insinuated in strauss’s book are distinctly avowed by Bow the identity of the Divine and the human conscious openly proclaimed in the personal existence of God and the immortality of the human soul denied the author then absolutely and without restriction rejects the authenticity and

The credibility of the whole gospel history the Prussian government naturally conceiving it most absurd and dangerous that a man holding such principles should be allowed to remain a teacher of divinity opposed to the several Protestant theological faculties within its dominions the two following questions quote what point of view does

The author of the above mentioned work hold in regard to Christianity and whether the lentia dendi should be granted to him in reply to the two questions proposed the several faculties of Berlin Bon hail ralo rewald and keenburg have published their opinions and no documents that have ever appeared throw

So clear and with all so fearful a light on the present state of German protestantism that Bower’s book is in opposition to Christianity is the opinion of the faculty of Berlin with one exception of the entire faculty of bond of that of bre Lao with one

Exception and of one half of the members and the faculties of grewall and keenburg that the work is compatible with the essence of Christianity though opposed only to its ecclesiastical development is the opinion of Professor marhan of Berlin professor middledorf of bre laau and one half the member members

Of the faculties of grial and keenburg as to the second question whether the lentia desend should be granted to the author the opposition to Bow was not quite so strong as on the first question the faculty of bond which passes for the most Orthodox and Protestant Germany made the disgraceful

Remark that if B were permitted to teach theology there would be no hindrance to any member of the Evangelical Church inculcating the doct of invocation of Saints and the papal Supremacy this doubtless would be a great Misfortune but a greater Misfortune it is a candid Protestant Christian will confess to see a

Theological faculty calling itself Christian and Evangelical to boot Place doctrines held by the immense majority of Christians on the same level with the grossest pantheism had the Prussian government proposed the aesa question to some other Protestant faculty like that of tijin for example it would have found the

Majority of members probably pronounce a declaration in favor of Bow’s Infamous book for the majority are there pantheistic these Dreadful doctrines have obtained alarming currency among the junior members of the theological as well as philosophical faculties at several Protestant universities thus have I tracked the Restless Spirit of negation through all

Labyrinths for the last 100 years we have seen at first question the genuiness of certain passages and books of scripture next reject the theory of divine inspiration then deny the authenticity of several of the apostolic Epistles and even gospels and afterwards subvert one after another all the Christian dogmas that

The Elder protestantism had retained till at last it had reached the ultimate term of folly and wickedness and proclaimed the essential identity of the Divine and the human consciousness as the old Orthodox lutherans gave way to the rationalists of the school of semler and these again to the rationalist represented by Weg

Shider and paus so the latter are now by many of the rising generation forsaken for the Mythic divines as Strauss and his followers are denominated Melancholy as is the picture which has here been drawn of the state religion in Protestant Germany let not the reader suppose that all hopes of a

Religious regeneration there are utterly extinct a remarkable reaction headed by the most distinguished Spirits in favor of more Christian views he has already had occasion to observe a far more favorable sign is that never intermitting stream of controversies that for the last 40 years has set in towards the Catholic church and which

Every year sees flow on with a more rapid tide and in a more expansive course if among the middle and the lower ranks of society conversions be not near so numerous relatively to the population as in Holland and in our own country yet in the upper and more cultivated classes

They were until very lately of much more frequent occurrence Germany is peculiarly circumstanced there are vast districts in the north where a Catholic priest and Catholic Chapel are objects as rare as in North Wales and unfortunately in several of those provinces like wartenberg and benen where the two

Churches come in contact the loose opinions and the de edifying conduct which until very lately were very generally prevalent among the Catholic clergy were not of course calculated to raise their Church in the estimation of Protestants in other parts like the ranish province West phalia Bavaria cesia and parts of Austria districts

Where new elements of religious life are fermenting through the whole Catholic population conversions are exceedingly numerous and are annually on the increase but the solution of the great problem that perplexes Protestant Germany the return to a higher religious life whereof she seems to have a dim anticipation and whereof so many Noble

Individual examples seem to be the necessary forerunners the solution of this great problem I say mainly depends on the moral regeneration of Catholic Germany herself and this leads me to the second part of this historical sketch where and I purpose briefly to describe the Destinies of the German Catholic

Church for the last 100 years Catholic Germany that in the latter part of the 16th century had opposed with so much energy the progress of the Reformation sank after the convulsions of the 30 Years War into a state of moral and intellectual Langer and lasted for a period of a hundred

Years under the opes of Catholic prets however many laudable attempts were made in that interval to bring about a reunion of Protestants with the Catholic church and Protestant princes such as the landra Ernest of Hess Frederick of Brunswick Duke of Hanover Frederick Augustus elector of Saxony and Alexander Duke of wartenburg were successively

Admitted into her communion the number of ecclesiastical principalities in Germany though on the whole conductive to the temporal welfare of the people were in a spiritual point of view attended with great disadvantages the prets too exclusively engaged with cares of State often entirely abandoned to their coadjutors the spiritual administration of their

Dicese and there were instances in the last century where the character of the bishop seemed entirely merged in that of the prince that a certain share of political power and influence is necessary to the episcopacy for the better protection of the interests of religion and morality as well as of the church’s propriety

Rights for the conservation of order and the promotion of popular freedom canot Not For a Moment be doubted that moreover the temporal sovereignty enjoyed by the holy sea was a means devised by Divine Providence for preserving intact its spiritual Independence the most superficial glance over the page of history may suffice to

Convince us but whether in Bishop Ricks where Independence is not of the same vital importance which possesses not the same promise of indect ability and divine assistance and consequently are void of the same guarantees against the abuses and dangers attendant on the possession of secular power such extensive political jurisdiction be

Conducive to the interests of religion is a matter exceedingly questionable it was not so much however the temporal sovereignty of the prets as to the exclusive aristocratic composition of the capitular bodies that operated so prejudicially to the well-being of the church the priesthood as it holds the

Office of mediator between all ranks of society should itself represent the blending of all classes and as nobility is calculated to infuse into it moderation of temper and dignity of habits so the commonality pours into it a Perpetual stream of energy talent and popular sympathy in this as in so many

Other instances the noblest example has ever been set by Rome whose sacred College has in every age been open to Virtue and Merit in the humblest as well as in the highest ranks of life and where it is so often happened as even at this moment in the case that the son of

A peasant sits clad in the Roman Purple by the side of a brother of the first Christian Emperor the members of the German chapters thus exclusively composed were too often listless and given up to ease indifferent to literature little conern conc ered about the great objects and interests of the church and evincing

Activity only in the Obscure intrigues that preceded and accompany the election of a bishop if we extend the laudable labors of the benedictines and the excellent writings of the brothers Wallenberg the theological literature of that period was mostly confined to Petty pical skirmishes while in the schools Divinity

Finding few able expositors was taught in the most dry tasteless and mechanical manner but in the reign of the excellent Empress Maria Teresa a better Spirit arose popular education was considerably extended the theological schools underwent great improvements and the method of instruction then adopted has been found so excellent as to be ever

Since retained for the close of this Reign however the jansenist became active and influential a spirit of unworthy distrust towards the holy sea began to display itself the Odus place it on all papal Bulls was an imitation of France established and the Evil Genius that so often blighted all salutary reforms in

The 18th century here again exerted its banful influence there principles of hostility to papal and Episcopal power which characterized the French jansenists of the 18th century and distracted and convulsed the Galan church at the moment when she needed all her combined energies and resources in order to resist unbelief found their way into

Catholic Germany where the relaxation of discipline and the growing lukewarmness among a large portion of the clergy and Le presented a too favorable soil to the growth of such principles they found an orgon and defender in John Nicholas vanhin suffragan Bishop to the elector of treves who under the name of fonus

Published in the year 1763 a work against the authority of the Holy Sea Under the pretense that by the depression of prerogatives peculiarly odious to Protestants the return of the latter to the Catholic Church might be more easily brought about quote hence he asserted says Dr dolinger that the

Constitution of the church is not monarchical that it was not Christ but the church that had conferred on the Roman pontiffs the supremacy that the pope has indeed an authority over all churches but no proper jurisdiction that his superiority among Bishops is no more than the precedency allotted to the

President or speaker of a parliament and that he can indeed make laws but that they receive a binding Force only through the unanimous adhesion of all Bishops unquote the author moreover counil princes to hold back the papal Bulls in order to impede the Intercourse of their churches with Rome and thereby to force

The latter into concessions and also with the advice of their prelates to take in hand the reform of all those National churches this work condemned by the holy sea and prescribed by several German Bishops called forth able replies from several distinguished divines of Germany and Italy yet the principles it

Inculcated exercised for a long time a most fatal influence over public opinion passed into the teaching of the theological schools furnished the secular power with most formidable weapons against the Liberties of the church and led to the degradation and oppression of the German clergy while such principles were

Leading Minds astray a prince arose who was destined to enforce them in public life and by his great power give to them the most fatal extension and diffusion imbued with the maxims of the Insidious jansenism as well as with many of the false principles of illuminism vain frivolous and

Egotistical yet not devoid of benevolent feelings the perverted philanthropy of the emperor Joseph was the curse of his subjects while with the view of improving the happiness of his people he ventured on crude precipitate violent political reforms that often infringed on their Liberties violated their ancient customs

And were repugnant to their feelings his ecclesiastical reforms that originated likewise in a true affected Zeal for the advancement of piety were still more unsuccessful true to the councils of fonus he prescribed by ordinance the Royal plet as the necessary condition to the reception of all papal Bulls whether

Of a doctrinal or disciplinary kind forbade recurrence to Rome in all matters and took upon himself to transfer the right of giving dispensations in matrimonial cases from the holy sea to the Bishops of his own dominions he next cut off all communication between the heads of religious houses within his states and

Their superiors at Rome prescribed all the contemplative orders and tolerated none but those dedicated to the care of souls attend on the sick and the instruction of Youth and at last with few exceptions dissolved all the monasteries confiscated their property and applied it to the endowment of parishes the

Foundation of schools and the building of Barracks his reforming Zeal was then exerted on the public liturgy and worship where the Innovations he introduced attested at once the littleness of his mind and his Reckless arrogance the the numerous confraternities devoted to exercises of piety and the spiritual and Corporal

Works of Mercy this ruthless enemy of the church abolished also the education of clerical students was withdrawn from the eye of the Bishops Episcopal Authority was everywhere invaded those preets who resisted the impious Innovations of the emperor were by his agents held up to odium and contempt and writings more or less

Openly directed against the discipline the Constitution and the dogmas of the Catholic Church were encouraged and circulated by the government he proclaimed the dissolubility of the nuptial tie before the Civil tribunals and while he thus undermined the constitution of the family as established by Christianity he thereby to a certain extent severed the

Connection between church and state the celibacy of the clergy he would Fain have abolished but was compelled to yield to the remonstrances of the Austrian prelates the venerable pontiff pasus I 6 crosses the Alps to check the giddy infatuated emperor in his headlong course his remonstrances exhortations

And prayers are unavailing till the loud murmur of Austria the menacing attitude of Hungary and the open Revolt of Flanders roused the Monarch from his illusion he lived to see in part the futility of his efforts but his career was terminated before he could consummate the Schism in Austria the ecclesiastical policy of

This Imperial revolutionist well deserves our consideration because it has been the main source of all the evils that for the last 50 years have Afflicted the German Church those prelates who had encouraged this Monarch and his encroachments on the papal power lived to become the victims of that policy

The blow leveled at a higher authority recoiled on themselves their jurisdiction was soon infringed trampled on and despised and experience proved on this as on so many former occasions that the safest bul workk of the national churches against the assaults of the secular power is in their firm adherence to the apostolic

Sea in the suppression of monasteries Joseph II was doubtless an unconscious instrument in the hands of a high retributive justice for the chastisement of declining piety and relaxing Zeal yet here as elsewhere the abolition of those institutes left an irreparable void in society in directing their first attacks against the contemplative orders the

Revolutionists of the last as of the present Century struck at the very root of the monastic life for all outward energy all zealous manifestations of love for God and our neighbor all heroic exercises of Works of Mercy spiritual and Corporal have their foundation in prayer and Heavenly contemplation which

Form the basis of all religious communities though in some the exercise be more rigidly prescribed and more prominently practiced than in others end of section 4 section five of symbolism by Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Burton Robertson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain the Memoirs of Dr Mohler part

Two The Fountains of Education were now often poisoned the instruction of Youth rested from the hands of the Vigilant guardians of virtue was entrusted to men Divo of the same guarantees or even the avowed partisans of schismatical and irreligious principles while in the duties of the Sacred Ministry in the care of the

Infirm and in the relief and education of the poor the secular clergy lost often zealous Cooperators and admirable models in the path of virtue their suppression of the religious confraternities was also a most fatal blow to the cause of public virtue these admirable sodalities Foster faith and piy among their members

Inspire Deeds of benevolence keep up a holy conquer among citizens of all classes in are to laymen even such as are not therein enrolled what religious orders are to the secular clergy Perpetual incentives to the practice of the higher virtues the destruction of these Pious brotherhoods was followed in

Vienna by the establishment of various societies for the promotion of work worldly gayties and profane amusements so indestructible is the spirit of Association in the mind of man the elaborate despotism which Joseph had contrived for the oppression of the church though Modified by his successors as long continued to enervate Episcopal

Authority to check the Zeal of the inferior clergy to thwart the efforts and weaken the influence of those religious orders that were originally retained or have since been restored and to dry up among the people many Springs of spiritual life the spirit of distrust and alienation towards the holy sea inspired

By the writings of fonus and encouraged by the legislation of Joseph II finds still unhappily its adherence among a portion of the Austrian priesthood and a large body of the Civil functionaries while in some other parts of Germany that Spirit terminated in the the open profession of schismatical principles lastly the sacriligious

Spoilation of monastic property on the part of this Emperor as well as the encouragement he gave to a lenus irreligious press coupled with his avowed contempt for all ancient Customs popular franchises and Liberties and the prescriptive rights of civil corporations led to the loss of his Belgian provinces facilitated the

Triumph of the arms and the principles of French jacobinism and the consequent dismemberment of the Germanic Empire and brought about that long train of calamities disgraces and humiliations that Austria was destined to endure while the head of the empire was thus Waging War against the church she received severe blows from those who

Were her natural protectors and Defenders the extensive jurisdiction which for two centuries the papal nuncios had exercised in Germany and which have been conferred on them in order to check the progress of the Reformation now irritated the jealousy of some German prets and rendered them in the general religious laxity of the

Age but too well disposed to lend a willing ear to the doctrines of fernius imbued to a certain extent with those opinions and spurred on by the councils and example of Joseph the three ecclesiastical electors of Mayan Trev and cologne accompanied by the Archbishop of salsburg met in the year

1786 at the basss of M and there frames a series of Articles called to 26 points insulting to the dignity and derogatory to the rights of the Holy sea they were to the effect that Episcopal jurisdiction should be freed from those restraints whereby recurrence to Rome is rendered

Necessary that the right of dispensation in matrimonial cases down to the second degree belong to the right of Bishops that all the papal bulls and Brees must be sanctioned by the acceptance of the Bishops that anets and dues for the reception of pums to be abolished and an equitable tax

Substituted that in cases of appeal the pope must select judices in partus or leave them to the determination of a provincial Council and that the prets when restored to the possession of their or rights would undertake a reform of ecclesiastical discipline these articles some whereof struck at the essential right of the

Papal power others at long established usages sanctioned by The Authority or practice of the church were strenuously resisted by several German prets as well as the Pope’s Nuno at cologne the next year the parties themselves who had been implicated in these proceedings revoked in a formal address to the Pope the

Obnoxious articles but it would be an error to suppose that the Scandal and Mischief of such declarations are immediately removed by a retraction at the moment where these attempts were made to introduce disorganizing principles into the German Church infidelity was not behind in the concoction of her own schemes W shop a

Professor at the Bavarian University of engstead entered as I before observed into close communic unication and Confederacy with Nikolai who in the north of Germany was actively diffusing the principles of irreligion the former founded in the year 1776 the order of the Illuminati which was destined to propagate the atheistic and antisocial

Principles of the French encyclopedists through the mysterious forms and agency of masonic lodges the founder and first member of this destructive order were even more systematic in their scheme and more crafty in the execution of them than the infidels of France a well-informed eyewitness of the time says quote the Illuminati undertake to

Give ecclesiastics to the church counselors to sovereigns tutors to princes teachers to universities nay even commanders to the Imperial Fortress unquote this formidable Association was indeed broken up by the energy of the elector Carl Theodore but it’s principles to a certain extent survived and wrought great Mischief in Bavaria

And other parts of Catholic Germany in this state of things did the French Revolution surprise the inhabitants of Catholic Germany a clergy partly relaxed in discipline and tainted with fabroni and doctrines its better members often thwarted by the despotic control of the state and their zealous efforts for the maintenance of faith and

Piety a nobility in part corrupted by the irreligious literature of France and the rationalist philosophy of Northern Germany a Third Estate in many instances perverted by doctrines openly proclaimed from many University chairs or secretly inculcated in The Lodges of the Illuminati all these were social elements ill calculated to encounter the

Shock of the moral and physical energies of revolutionary France to these causes the moral debility others of a political nature must be add it the political absolutism which from the reign of Lou the 14th had become so predominant in France in Spain and Portugal and to a less extent in Germany

For here many remnants of ancient Freedom survived powerfully contributed to bring about the great popular commotion which now shook Europe to its Center in the first place by detaching the Nobles from the sphere of their local power and influence this political system threw them into the Vortex of

Dissipation so often incident to aort life and thereby render them more obnoxious to The Irregular philosophy of the day that ministered to sensuality secondly by excluding them as a body from a participation in the conduct of public affairs it rendered them frivolous inexperienced ready to concur in any Hollow sophism or adopt

Any rash crude expedient suggested or put forth by political innovators thirdly it exposed the aristocracy to the jealousy and envy of the middle classes who were at a loss to understand the meaning of surviving distinctions and privileges when they no longer beheld the corresponding exercise of power lastly the middle classes

Themselves deprived of their old sound historical legitimate Liberties were the more prone to run after the elusive meteor of a false pernicious abstract freedom in a word the solitary column of royalty unaided by the pills of nobility and the strong buttresses of democracy was found incapable of sustaining the whole weight

Of the social edifice such were some of the evils that the modern system of political absolutism brought on church and state and though by no means the chief it was certainly one of the greatest concurrent causes of that Mighty Revolution which darkened and convulsed the close of the

18th century and the last shocks whereof we are ever and Aon doomed to feel the Divine Nemesis now stretched forth his hands against devoted Germany and chastised her rulers and her people for the sins and transgressions of many successive Generations like those wild sons of the desert whom in the 7th Century heaven

Let loose to punish the degenerate Christians of the East the new islamit hordes of revolutionary France were permitted by Divine prophet Providence to spread through Germany as through almost every other country in Europe Terror and desolation what shall I say of the Endless evils that accompanied and

Followed the march of her armies the desolation of provinces the blunder of cities the spoilation of church property the desecration of altars the prescription of The Virtuous the exaltation of the Unworthy members of society the horrid memories of irreligion practiced in many of the conquered cities the degradation of life

And the profanation of death such were the calamities that marked the course of these devastating hosts and yet the evil inflicted by Jacob in France were less intense and less permanent than those exercised by her legislation in politics the expulsion of the old ecclesiastical electors who if

They had sometimes given into the false Spirit of the age had ever been the mildest and most Ben vent of rulers prescription of a nobility that had ever lived in the kindliest relations with its tenantry and on the ruins of old aristocratic and Municipal institutions that had long guarded and sustained

Popular Freedom a coarse leveling tyranny sometimes Democratic sometimes Imperial established in the church the oppression of the priesthood a heartless religious indifferentism undignified even by aent attempts at philosophic speculation propagated and encouraged and through the poison channels of Education the taint of infidelity transmitted to Generations yet unborn such were the evils that

Followed the establishment of the French domination and the conquered provinces of Germany doubtless through the all-wise dispensations of that Providence who bringeth good out of evil this fearful revolution had partly become and will yet further become the occasion of the moral and social regeneration of Europe it was thus protestantism gave

Occasion to the reform of manners instituted by the Council of Trent in both instances the Regeneration was brought about in utter opposition to the principles of the Revolution that furnished occasion for reform by the Treaty of lonville in 1801 and a corresponding decree of the Imperial diet in 1803 the Left Bank of

The Ry was seeded to France and in order to indemnify the secular princes who thereby lost their territorial possessions all the ecclesiastical electorates principalities and landed properties of Bishop bricks abies convents chapters and other ecclesiastical corporations throughout the greater part of Germany were given up to them thus did all the secular Pomp

And temporal Grandeur of the German Church perish with that Holy Roman Empire which which had risen and for so many ages grown up under her opes and which had imparted to her in turn so much power and dignity the monasteries and convents were almost everywhere suppressed their Estates confiscated and their inmates

Reduced to a poultry pance which was often but irregularly paid the chapters also were despoiled their promised endowments with held and while their members died one after another the Bishops were left with without advisers and Cooperators the Episcopal Seas themselves were arbitrarily broken up contracted or extended in their

Dimensions and as their occupants died off or resigned from age or other circumstances they were replaced by Vicor Apostolic who without the same influence or authority were incapable of repressing the abuses or coping with the evils of the time every impediment was opposed to a free intercourse between the episcopacy

And the holy Sea and the jurisdiction of the former was subjected to the odious shackles of a jealous legislation ecclesiastical seminaries were with few exceptions not restored and thus one of the most efficient means for training up a Pious priesthood was neglected altars and churches were despoiled and Pious and charitable

Foundations misapplied or squandered away principles of ir religion propagated by the press or from the University chair met with secret encouragement or passive connivance from several governments the popular and grammar schools were often entrusted to teachers totally devoid of religion and in Bavaria especially the propagate Ministry of count Von melis left no

Measure untried in order to obliterate religion from the hearts of a most Catholic people to these calamities under which Catholic Germany groan we must add the many and various evils attendant on the campaigns of Napoleon it often partook of the sacriligious and atrocious character of the first revolutionary

Wars the general prostration of moral and intellectual energy that foreign domination in genders and the demoralizing effect that followed the arbitrary transfer of countries or provinces from one ruler to another the dissolution of the Sacred ties of nationality and the breaking up of old hereditary attachments yet the hour of Liberation

For Germany and Europe at last sounded that Mighty Hunter before the Lord un as guris once called Napoleon who had been raised up by Divine Providence to chastise in the words of dren a luric and adulterate generation unquote had now accomplished his mission of Terror and amid the exultations of of

The Civilized world was himself caught in the toils which his ambition had laid down for others on the restoration of General peace in 1814 the several German governments saw the necessity of cooperating with the Holy sea for the establishment of a new ecclesiastical organization in the year 1817 Bavaria

Entered into a concordant with the Pope and after long negotiations Russia Handover wartenberg benen and other minor States followed her example the stipulations in several concordat were tolerably favorable to the church but in a very few instances only were they honestly carried out The Virtuous emperor of Austria

Francis strove to negotiate with the papal sea a concordat whereby the many evils engendered by Joseph’s policy might be removed but owing to the Fatal influence of a dignity of the church this Godly work was not accomplished it was the great Merit of the emperor Francis that he relaxed the

Severity of his predecessor’s legislation in regard to the church discountenanced impiety restored several religious orders and mitigated the harsh despotic laws respecting the spiritual government and temporal administration of others that had been retained placed every Department of Education in closer connection with the church and generally nominated to the Episcopal dignity and other

Ecclesiastical functions men of Orthodoxy Zeal and learning in bararia the church languished in a miserable condition until the year 1825 when the present enlightened Sovereign ascended the throne he has made it his duty to heal his country’s wounds by restoring to religion or salutary influence he had appointed men of

Eminent learning and piety to the Episcopal Seas reformed the establishments of public education revived several religious orders of either sex encouraged all institutions of piety and charity and labored to bring about a holy Union between the church and Art and Science under his opes Catholic science has reached a

Magnificent pitch of development and religious art and especially painting has achieved wonders unexampled since the days of perago Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael in Prussia and the other German states ruling over a Catholic population the church after the so-called restoration of 1814 had to encounter a long succession

Of secret intrigues odious minations and vexatious oppressions at times the independence of canonical election was violated at others Bishop Ricks were kept vacant and almost always by the influence of the State men noted for subserviency of character or laboring under the infirmities of age were promoted to the

Episcopal office a bulls even on doctrinal matters were for years held back by these many governments Episcopal Authority in wartenberg more especially was and is still Shackled by the most humiliating feds and in general every favor was evinced towards those churchmen who were most unmindful of their duties

Every attempt was made to protestan tize or rather un catholici the Catholic population partly by the Protestant or irreligious teachers appointed to the schools as well as by the professors nominated to the university chairs and partly by the instrumentality of the press under government influence every disfavor was manifested

Towards zealous Catholics lay as well as clerical and every encouragement given to mixed marriages in Ed Under such circumstances and with such conditions as were calculated to promote a considerable increase in the Protestant population but the web which a cunning tyranny had spun for years the memorable

Night of the 20th of November 1837 saw the courageous wisdom of one man suddenly unravel the venerable Archbishop of colog count Vanos vasher forced the Prussian government out of its Labyrinth of secret machinations into the path of open violence hereby its hypocrisy was exposed its flatterers were put to shame

And the vigilance energy and religious Zeal of Catholic Germany were aroused it is here unnecessary to do more than briefly avert to recent transactions that must be still fresh in the reader’s mind and which I have not space to recount the example of the illustrious Archbishop of cologne was followed by

That of the distinguished prelate who occupied the arch Episcopal Sea Of poen The Sovereign pontiff denounced the gross Injustice of the Prussian government and its imprisonment of the two archbishops and applauded the firmness prudence and self-d devotedness of the latter while backed by that high Authority the other prets within the

Prussian dominions United in strenuous resistance against the encroachments of the secular power this was the dawn of a new Epoch on Catholic Germany from the banks of the Rind down to the frontiers of Hungary a new spirit hath breathed over the German Church a warmer more filial attachment the result at

Once of gratitude and conviction hath sprung up towards the holy sea the inferior clergy rallied around their Bishops and churchmen formerly timid and lukewarm are now become fervent and courageous among the lady many have been reclaimed from idity and even unbelief the duties of religion are prosecuted with greater fervor Pious and charitable

Confraternities have multiplied and a Zeal to diffuse the Blessed truths of religion to defend the doctrines of the church against the calumnies of the press and her Liberties against the oppressions of the state has become more and more manifest but before I close this account of the German Catholic Church it is my

Duty to notice two parties that Disturbed her peace and were even several converted by Protestant governments into instruments for her annoyance and oppression the first is the party of the so-called liberals or anti- celibates a faction that carries to the most violent excess the principles of the old fonan headed by wessenberg

Alexander Mueller hero and others it prevails chiefly in benen wenberg and celesia distinguished for a strong semi-rational istic tone in their General doctrines its members clamor for a German National Church with a mere nominal dependence on the pope they demand doubtless with the view of better diffusing their peculiar opinions the

Celebration of the Liturgy and the administration of the sacraments in the vernacular tongue and insist with peculiar force on the abolition of the irksome law of celibacy while in politics they profess an Ardent liberalism they are noted in ecclesiastical matters for their mean subserviency to the state which finds in

Them ready tools for the accomplishment of any clandestine or open Act of tyranny against that church where of they profess themselves members in the earlier part of the present century when so many Episcopal Seas were vacant when the secular power ventured on so many encroachments upon ecclesiastical jurisdiction this party wrought much

Mischief spread pernicious doctrines among the people people suppressed many practices of devotion and not unfrequently set the example of a scandalous violation of their sacred bows several of its members have gone over to protestantism others have been suspended for immoral conduct or the profession of false doctrines it is remarkable that as in

Former times schismatics generally ended by falling into heresy so in the present age when on the continent especially heresy has little or no Vitality Schism generally terminates in the profession of total unbelief such was the case with the old constitutional ecclesiastics of France such is the case with their successors

The ab chatel and his followers such too is the case with the German clerical faction I am now describing and examples still more Melancholy might be induced stigmatized by Episcopal Authority rep ated by the Sounder portion of Le unsupported by a single writer of eminence and combed moreover

By a distinguished theologians and among others by the subject of this Memoir this schismatical faction they’re still powerful in the grand duy of benen is in wenberg and elsewhere rapidly sinking into insignificance and before the day star which hath Arisen above the German Horizon these impure and turbulent innovators

Like birds of night will doubtless soon disappear but while this party was Trucking to the state in its iniquitous invasion of ecclesiastical rights and disturbing the church by its Endeavors to subvert an Apostolic and most salutary and necessary ordinance of discipline another party arose which attempted to form a degrading alliance with

Rationalism by adopting Luther’s fundamental principle of private judgment the the late Dr Hermes a professor of Catholic theology at the University of bond deemed he could better succeed in undermining Luther’s theological doctrines like Dart he proclaimed that methodical doubt was the only path to wisdom but whereas the French philosopher had expressly limited

This method of Doubt to Scientific objects only Hermes extended it to all truths of Revelation even the existence of God the immortality of the Soul and the distinction between right and wrong quote this method of Doubt says the celebrated CLE is the worst system that can be devised it is a sin against

The object which suspended in its rights on our belief is declared to have no existence for us it is a sin against the authority of Christ of the Apostles and the church whose existence and character are hereby called in question with whom we place our own private reason on a

Level and who whom we summon to the bar of our own judgment it is a sin against God as we hereby destroy Faith which is God’s work in man and then presume by our own energies to reconstruct it it is a sin against the subject who is dragged

From his state of Faith which is for him a want and a duty for eminentia and transported into a state of skepticism from which the Escape is to many a matter extremely arduous and problem itical to conjure up the demon of skepticism is no difficult task but to

Exercise him again into his gloomy regions is a matter that may baffle the art of the conjuror unquote this radically false and vicious method naturally led the author into many doctrinal errors more or less Grievous and which as enumerated by The Sovereign pontiff in his bull of condemnation regarded the nature of

Faith the essence the Holiness the justice and the liberty of God the ends which the most high proposed to himself in the creation the proofs whereby the existence of God should be established Revelation the motives for belief the scriptures the tradition and Ministry of the church as the depository and judge

Of Faith the state of our first parents original sin the faculties of Fallen man the necessity and distribution of divine Grace and the rewards of Merit and the inflictions of punishment these errors and the methods which led to them were after a long and careful investigation condemned by the holy

Sea this system though it numbered among its partisans no inconsiderable portion of the Rish and westfalian clergy and was countenanced by count V Spiegel the former Archbishop of cologne found not many supporters among the Le and was not upheld by any Theologian of eminent Talent had this system however been

Broached 40 years ago when the ecclesiastical disorganization was so great when the cantium philosophy exerted such sway over the public mind and before the great regeneration of religious life and of theological science had taken place in Catholic Germany the results would have been far more fatal thanks to the decision of the Holy

Sea and the firmness of count VR Archbishop of cologne as well as his present able coh aditor these pernicious doctrines which caused some young men to make a shipwreck of the faith have sunk into utter discredit many on the other hand who had innocently embi these opinions have

Bowed to the sentence of The Sovereign pontiff and recanted others and they constitute the smaller number have been abashed into silence not a single work or even pamphlet has for the last two years been put forth in behalf of the system the stronghold of the party the University

Of bond has lately been cleared of those professors who were its most obstinate Defenders and the error may be considered as all but defunct in conclusion it is necessary to say a few words on the relation which the literature of the present age is born to the Catholic church and here the

Task is far more pleasing than when I had to trace the destructive consequences of the alliance between rationalism and the literature of the 18th century the illustrious count stalberg at the commencement of the present age gave the first impulse to Catholic literature and commen that series of eminent writers who have since adorned

Catholic Germany deeply imbued with the spirit of helenic antiquity stalberg had in his youth published spirited translations from some of the old Greek dramatists while his own lyrical poems breathe a noble chival Spirit after his conversion to the Catholic church he consecrated his genius to her exclusive service and

Certainly no man ever rendered his classical acquirements more serviceable to the cause of Christianity his great work the history of the Christian religion from the origin of the world down to the fifth century is written with considerable learning great Elegance of diction brilliancy of fancy and much amenity of feeling indeed

The work may be called a noble epose of History where the narrative is from time to time intermingled with lyrical affusions of the author’s own pure and exalted feelings at the same time arose the Romantic School the object of this school established by the two schal

Novalis and take was as is well known to revive a love for Christian art and literature and to explain the principles whereon they are founded the founders of this school were at first indeed exclusively Protestant and their aim apparently was purely aesthetic yet were their labors most useful in dispelling

Many prejudices of their fellow religionists and in pointing out the ennobling influences of catholicity on the human mind nor is it true as has sometimes been asserted that a mere literary dilettantism and no Earnest religious thoughts were at the bottom of this remarkable intellectual movement the great poet Tech was so Earnest in

The matter as to induce his wife to become Catholic and she and her daughter are Pious members of our church and that the great writer himself never took the step he had recommended is only a proof of that sad discrepancy between the intelligence and the will which is one

Of The Melancholy consequences of the Fall the eminent piety of novalis and his attachment to the Catholic Church breathe through all his writings and those possessing the best opportunities of forming an opinion declare that but for his untimely death he would have sought a refuge in that church which is

The native home of all lofty intelligences as well as the Asylum of all bruised Hearts his illustrious friend Frederick sgel the deepest thinker of all embraced at a mature period of life the Catholic faith and the sincerity of that conversion as well as the py which subsequently characterized him was

Proved in the Memoirs I published several years ago to the satisfaction of my English Protestant critics several of his disciples like Adam Mueller Baron dein and others were LED partly by aesthetic studies partly by historical researches and philosophic speculations to follow the noble example which legal had set as the Avenues that

Led to the old Egyptian temples were bordered on either side by representations of the mysterious Spinx so it was through a mystical art poetry and philosophy many spirits were then conducted to the sanctuary of the true church I am however far from pretending to assert that all the followers of the

Romantic School were equally Earnest or that the admiration professed by many among them for the Catholic Church went beyond a mere enthusiasm for the music of pergolesi the paintings of Raphael and the Poetry of Dante end of Section Five Section six of symbolism by Johan Adam mher translated by James Burton

Robertson this LibriVox recording is in the public public domain the Memoirs of Dr Mohler part 4 the heathenish fanaticism which goth had called up and which was exercising such destructive sway Friedrich Schlegel opposed by a noble chrisan enthusiasm this was the aim of all his

Labors this was the task of his life in which he so gloriously accomplished and whether we Behold Him pouring forth the religious effusions of his earnest refle ctive Muse or displaying in comparative philology his admirable analytic skill or unfolding with such marvelous depth The Peculiar Genius of ancient and

Modern literatures or tracing on the map of the world’s history the workings of God’s providential dispensations or throwing out in metaphysics his rapid searching intuitive perceptions or before an audience of celebrated painters like shadal V Cornelius and overbeck revealing The Fountains of artistic inspiration we are lost in Wonder at a

Mind of such depth and universality it is no exaggeration to say that the whole Modern Art literature and science of Catholic Germany sprang kindled up by the fire which this Promethean Spirit stole from Heaven of the genius of nalis who was cut off at the premature age of 29 it is

Impossible to speak with the same confidence but it may be asserted that if inferior to his illustrious friend in solidity of judgment he was endowed with nearly the same depth of understanding and with even higher poetical imagination his writings and pros and in poetry exhibit a mind instinctively Catholic wrestling with the prejudices

Imbibed from a Protestant education his tender piety which among other things frequently exhibited itself in an extraordinary Devotion to the Glorious Mother of God unique perhaps among Protestant writers stamped on all his poetical conceptions a character of indescribable Purity and had his brilliant career not been so speedily terminated he would

Under the patronage of that powerful Advocate have in all probability reached the temple after which he had so fondly yearned as in the cloudless atmosphere of the South the stars of Heaven shine with greater effulgence so those lights of human existence love friendship patriotism that beam along the immortal

Verse of novalis receive as it were a more magical glow from the Exquisite purity of his devotional feelings The Genius of guras exhibits the same wondrous combination of deep comprehensive understanding and lofty imagination they’re not in the same beautiful Harmony as we find developed in freed

Legal and as in an immature state was perceptible in nalis this combination is the rare privilege of the most favored sons of genius and when as in the case of GIS it is consecrated to the service of Truth it becomes indeed the most potent instrument of good gures who devoted his

Energetic Youth and manhood chiefly to political and historical literature wherein he combed at once the absolutist of democracy and the revolutionists of absolutism has in the evening of Life gone into the sanctuary of the Mystic theology as after the fatigues and agitations of the Day Men love to retire into the secret

Oratory the other great thinkers of Catholic Germany like Moler wind disman G and others having the several Departments of Jewish Traditions Oriental philosophy and speculative theology displayed great extent of erudition and depth of understanding and rendered eminent services to the church in this rapid survey I can notice only

The most celebrated men in the most important departments but it may be asserted without fear of contradiction that in almost every branch of literature and science Catholic Germany has in our times produced most distinguished men and is nobly redeemed herself from the reproach of intellectual sloth that once deservedly attached to her

The historical School founded by the eminent Protestant John Van Mueller and continued by the Protestant Voit Leo and herder is more or less distinguished for impartiality extensive research and a noble appreciation of the social influence of the Catholic church this school when we look to its General tone in spirit particularly in

Its most distinguished ornament furder belongs certainly more to Catholic than to Protestant literature and certainly in no Department have German learning genius and rectitude shown to Greater advantage or been attended with more benefical results if the department of special history has not been cultivated by the Catholic party with such brilliant

Success is by the Protestant the former on the other hand has produced the most celebrated men in public and constitutional law and among these Aller Adam Mueller dark and Phillips Hold the most cons spicuous place yet theology the queen of Sciences was still unrepresented in the high Circles of

Intelligence in the last century the Jesuit Statler and the augustinian clell and in the present age Zimmer do Mayer Bishop sailor liberman and Bruner had treated dogmatic Theory with remarkable acuteness and learning and some of them with great taste and elegance of diction and clearness of method

But a high creative Spirit was still wanting Divine Providence took compassion on that Afflicted German church and at the right moment sent her the age she most needed it was in the beautiful province of suabia that through the whole middle age and down to recent times has ever furnished church

And state Art and Science with the most distinguished men this great luminary arose and this leads me to the subject my biography John Adam Mohler was born on the 8th of May 1796 at Ur shim near morony on the confines of fronia and swabia about 20 miles from

Wartenberg his father who was a substantial inkeeper of the place resolved to give his son the benefit of a liberal education in his 12th year Mohler began to attend the gymnasium at burgum a town two miles distant from the place of his birth and every evening he was obliged to

Return home during his four years attendance at this school he was distinguished as well for a peculiar gentleness of disposition and blameless conduct as for his diligence and love of study yet his mental Powers were but of slow development and gave no Earnest of the intellectual Eminence he was

Destined one day to reach in most branches of study he was surpassed by some of his fellow students although the strong PR addiction for history which he evinced even at this early period and the Keen interest he took in the events of the day are well worthy of

Attention such a love for historic lore was also a characteristic trait in the Boyhood of Gibbon it was Mo’s happiness to receive a religious education from his virtuous parents for in Germany more than in any other country the task of Education in the strict sense of the word devolves on

Parents far more than on the heads and teachers of schools under the modern system of gymnasium instruction which for the last 50 or 60 years as there prevailed the students of all the schools whether Elementary commercial or Latin are mere day Scholars who after the prescribed hours of study must

Return to the paternal roof with the exception of the catechetical instruction which in many parts of Catholic Germany is now most solid and excellent and with ception for the strict hours of attendance at mass and the frequentation of the sacraments the moral training of the pupil the culture

Of his religious feelings and the superintendence of his moral conduct devolve on his parent or Guardian the defects of this system in most instances are obvious and are deeply deplored by the most eminent Catholics of Germany yet it cannot be denied that where as is the case of the

Subject of this Memoir parents are very Rel religious it may be attended with advantages M had The Misfortune to lose his mother very early and his father though a most worthy and excellent man treated him with a certain degree of harshness on his return from school he would sometimes compel him to perform

The household duties and during the vacations the labor in the field on one occasion a friend of his youthful days came to his house and saw him pouring out wine for his father’s customers while on the table lay a grammar which at every spare interval he would take up

And study after attending the gymnasium of orthon for four years mlea repaired in 1814 to the Lum in the swabian city of El Wagon in order to prepare for the study of theology after remaining there some time he began to entertain serious doubts whether he were equal to the discharge

Of the arduous and awful duties of the priesthood and already revolved in his mind the project of embracing another of the Learned professions for this end the consent of the father was to be obtained and the conduct of that father on this occasion harsh and injudicious as it undoubtedly

Was and perilous as it might have been was under the mysterious guidance of Providence the means of giving a great teacher to the church and the most edifying minister to her altars on his sons soliciting his approbation and support in a new professional career the father replied

That the most fervent wish of his heart was to see his son a worthy Catholic priest but that if he felt not the call from Heaven to that state he might give up his studies and return to the parental roof where he would meet with kindness and find

Occupation qu but said he as regards any other of your liberal professions I can never give my consent to your embracing one of them them when subsequently censured for his conduct the father replied to a friend I could not possibly see my son take to the study of the law for I have

Seen so many young men at the universities make a shipwreck of their faith and lose the heritage of Eternal lifequote when we consider the state of the German Universities at that period the pernicious doctrines which were then inculcated from so many professional chairs the unbelief and immorality of so

Many of the students we may well understand the apprehensions of this honest and simple-minded man however we may feel disposed to condemn his severity but molair whose talents by this time were quickly and vigorously developing felt an irresistible attraction to the Learned Pursuit and after some consideration he returned to the study of

Theology in the following year he repaired to the UN University of tuenin where the theological faculty numbered among its members distinguished professors like Dre hers and hersher here he entered the ecclesiastical Seminary and after passing four years in the study of divinity under the guidance of these distinguished Masters he was

Ordained priest on the 18th of September 1819 and thus reached the term of all his labors and obtained the most Ardent desire of his heart the first fruits of sacral Grace he wished to offer up to God by devoting himself to the Pastoral Ministry and accordingly in the following year he officiated as

Assistant Vicor in the successive parishes of Walden stad and Reed lingan in wartenberg I shall here take the liberty of citing the testimony so honorable to both parties which this principle and the last name Parish the now Canon Robel has given respecting the life of Ministry of the subject of this

Memoir During the period in questione his pastoral career was characterized by such an amiable modest and in every respect deportment joined to such holy earnestness in all his functions and intercourse with men that he won in an eminent degree the love and veneration of the whole congregation and especially of the young

Scholars whom he had to catechize his style of preaching simple and feeling addressed itself more particularly to the hearts of his hearers and thus atoned for defects and delivery the inhabitants of Reed lingan boasted of their vicer whose name even now is mentioned among them with love and

Respect the half year which he spent by my side was to be my friend the then chaplain eh hanger and myself a period of cordial Mutual cooperation but even then his desire I might almost say his destination for learned Pursuits was so decided that every hour he could devote to them was

Precious to him and therefore the official writings which as my assistant in the rural Deery he was obliged to go through he felt as an irksome duty to lighten this burden as much as possible my friend ehinger and myself undertook a portion of his task and said to him in

Just that we expected he would give us in return some fruits of his learned lab neighbors I must here make mention of a visit which at this time the venerable and celebrated Bishop sailor honored me with Mohler made on the mind of this pret a deep impression in the manner in

Which he fixed his eyes on him through our modest vicer into great embarrassment this amiable Bishop made particular inquiries respecting this interesting young man as he termed him and Testify the Great Hopes he entertained of him which the latter afterwards so well Justified that moreover mh’s way of

Thinking had not been the same turn which it afterwards took is notorious and I well remember that on seeing some essays he had delivered at several ecclesiastical conferences the venerable and learned curate H expressed with apprehension a hope that this young man for whom he entertained such sincere

Affection might regain the path of strict Orthodoxy and the old carot birched once said on a similar occasione well well it is allowable for such a learned young man to believe a little differently from us old men but he will later recur to our way of thinking un biography in the quarterly

Theological review of tuenin pages 578 and 580 the pernicious influence that the neologist had exerted over public opinion in southern Germany particularly in and wenberg I have already described the theological faculty in the University of tuenin at which Mohler had studied was to a certain extent and in

Some of its professors infected with those doctrines and even hersher who has since become so eminent a Divine then gave in to many of those false opinions it was not to be expected that a young man like Mohler should have escaped totally free from the contagion of doctrines often put forth with

Seductive eloquence and learning and then held by so many fellow students and the majority of the swabian clergy quote the church says his friend Professor run had not yet won all the affections of his heart and the objects of his enthusiasm lay in part Beyond her Circle his views did not entirely harmonize

With all her doctrines nor agree with all her disciplinary institutions yet from the outset of his career he was a conscientious priest and preserved intact the sanctity of the sacerdotal character and most assuredly he was devoid of all perty towards the church whose Minister he had become unquote to

Benjin quartel Shri Pages 580 and 1838 his passion for learning was too irresistible to keep him long ala from the university life after passing a year in the Pastoral office he returned on the 31st October 1820 to the University of tuenin where he was soon nominated to

The place of tutor in The gymnas Institute connected with a conv victorium or ecclesiastical Seminary of that town during the two years he filled this place he devoted himself with uncommon ardor and astonishing success to the study of the ancient Classics particularly the Greek philosophers and historians the study of these ancient

Masters of human eloquence and speculation brought out and developed all those faculties wherewith nature had so richly endowed him in this school he acquired that delicacy of taste that solidity of judgment that Vigor and dexterity of ration that clearness and precision of language which afterward so eminently characterized him the Insight too which

He hereby obtained in the nature of paganism as well as the acquaintance he formed with the various systems of ancient philosophy was of the greatest service to the Future speculative Divine and learned church historian and in illusion to the importance of these Preparatory studies for his subsequent career Moher used to

Speak jestingly quote of the times when he lived in heathenism unquote so strong was his love for ancient literature that in 1822 he drew up a petition to the wartenberg government soliciting the nomination to a place that had just become vacant in the theological faculty and there is no

Doubt that had he pursued this career he would have reached the highest Eminence but Providence had reserved far higher Destinies for him while he was on the point of forwarding this petition to the government the theological faculty that had long observed his great talents transmitted to him with unanimous

Consent a written invitation to accept the place of private teacher in theology a place which is always sure in time to conduct to professorship Muller hesitated not a moment gave up his cherished plan accepted the offer that had been so graciously made him and thus became

Bound by new and more intimate ties to the interests of the church his appointment to this place was on the 22nd of September 1822 confirmed by the government which at the same time furnished him with pecuniary means for under undertaking a great literary journey through northern and southern

Germany in order that by visiting the most celebrated seats of learning and conversing with distinguished professors he might the better qualify himself for the important office he was about to enter on he began his journey in the Autumn of 1822 and visited successively the universities of Jenna leig Hae Berlin

Goan and on his return visited those of Prague Vienna and L shut the conversation and literary advice of so many distinguished Scholars and theologians whether Catholic or Protestant whom he met with on his journey were doubtless of the greatest service to the Future development of his mind and there was one individual in

Particular from whom moer received lasting benefit the celebrated plank Protestant professor of theology at goldenen have been the first to revive I had better perhaps have said introduce the study of the fathers in Protestant Germany by his profound study of Christian Antiquity he had been led to approximate very closely to the

Doctrines of the Catholic church and it was said that more than one member of his family evinced no little inclination to embrace its Faith with plank Muller held much conversation on the subject of the fathers and of church history and the result was that several neological opinions which the latter had embi in

The school of tuenin were dispelled by this learned and enlightened Protestant plank urged him also to prosecute with diligence study of the fathers a study which in the school of Hermes and in that of the wartenberg and B theologists had been from their strong leaning to heretical and semi-rational istic

Opinions as well as from a conceited contempt for all former ages grossly neglected the nearer insight into the essence of rational ISM which from his visit to Protestant Germany Muller had obtained the perception of the Dreadful moral ravages it had occasion its dry and heartless worship its churches

Vacant even during the sermons of the most celebrated preachers the unbelief that had spread from the upper to the lower classes of society the sight of all these evils I say tended heartily to discuss the subject of this Memoir with all those sickly offshoots of rational ISM that the swabian inators were

Endeavoring by degrees to engraft on the Catholic Church on his return to tuenin Mohler took wenberg in his way and called on his friend Dr Ben Curt then Rector of the Seminary and who has since succeeded him in the Deery of that City Dr burn Kurt affirms that he found Mohler vastly

Improved by this journey in a more decided Catholic tone pervading all his theological views having arrived at tuenin in the summer of 1823 Mohler opened his theological course with lectures on church history and occasionally on canon law here he devoted himself with his characteristic ardure and untiring perseverance to the

Study of the fathers and of ecclesiastical history the first fruit of his labors was the work entitled unity in the church or the principle of Catholicism 18 25 this work is now out of print nor have I been able anywhere to procure a copy of it quote in this book says one

Of his biographers there was much which in his riper years he no longer approved of yet it must ever be regarded as a noble proof of his originality of mind as well as of the depth of his feelings and gave Earnest of his future Eminence in theological literature the reputation which it soon

Required for the author induced the baen government to make him the following year the offer of a theological chair at the University of freeberg in bcow this honorable offer molair declined but was thereupon immediately raised to the Dignity of Professor extraordinarily at his own University in the year

1827 a more important work entitled quote athanasius the great for the church of his time in her struggle with aryanism unot tended vastly to extend Mal’s reputation there were many reasons which induced him to make the Aryan controversy and the illustrious Saint who played so salutary and glorious a

Part in that religious dispute the subject of special investigation and description now as in the age of constantius the Cardinal mystery of Christianity that the Elder protestantism in its destructive march had yet respected was assailed with a subtlety and a violence that even aryanism itself had never displayed those rationalizing views of

The whole system of Christianity but timidly put forth by the Heretics of the 4th century were developed and proclaimed with an unblushing E frony and A recklessness of impiety that would have startled and shocked the extremist Aran now as in the former period lukewarmness and timidity not to a cowardice characterized a great

Proportion of Catholics while the oppression of the German Church by the secular power if Less open and violent than in the age of the son of Constantine was far more Insidious refined and systematic and what more glorious model could be presented to many of the degenerate churchmen of Germany than

That illustrious Saint who combines in himself the characters of the learned and profound Theologian the prudent an inagotable pret the holy aesthetic and the Intrepid Confessor the work is divided into six books in the first we find a very clear learned and elaborate dissertation on the doctrine of the ant nine fathers

Respecting the Divinity of our Lord and the trinity in general the following five books are taken up with the public history of St athanasius with a copious analysis of his various works against the heathens the Aryans and the apollon arists and with a very full account of

The Aryan heresy from its rise down to the death of St athanasius in the year 373 the author by giving copious extracts from contemporary historians and also from the letters of St athanasius and the other Defenders of the Catholic cause as well as from those of their Aryan opponents completely

Transports us into the age he described it is however to be regretted that The Narrative of events is too often interrupted by doctrinal dissertations and analytic expositions of writings and this defect renders the perusal of this valuable work sometimes irksome all the personages who took part in this Mighty conflict are portrayed

With much truth life and interest in the Hostile camp we find the false-hearted double tonged A IUS The Crafty uus of Nica the hypocritical vs and Urus the audacious atius the weak and tyrannical Emperor constantius and lastly the Pagan Enthusiast Julian who hangs over the church like a dark boating but happily passing

Thundercloud on the side of the combatants for truth the firmness of Pope Julius the noble-minded character of his successor liberius the Intrepid fortitude of the venerable osus the burning Zeal of marcelus of eny the high courage but harsh and intemperate Zeal of Lucifer of kageri the genius the eloquence the mild

Virtues and unshaken constancy of Hillary of puer and lastly the lofly genius and Majestic character of the great aanus alternately challenge our admiration and enlist our sympathy much as all Catholics are taught from childhood to rever the character of this great Confessor that none can rise from the perusal of

Müller’s work without feeling increased admiration for his genius and increased love and veneration for his virtues in the writings of athanasius what marvelous acuteness of dialect what prodigious depth of observation do we discover what intuitive insight into the mind of scripture what dexterity in the application of its

Texts what knowledge in the traditions of the fathers and what instinctive adherence to the spirit of the church in his life what magnanimous intrepidity in the defense of Truth what unwearied perseverance in the path of Duty what unbroken constancy under persecution what presence of Mind in the face of

Danger what scious insight into the Ws and machinations of Heretics what generosity towards his enemies how temperate too is his Zeal and what a spirit of conciliation where compromise is possible and where concession is safe what activity and what wisdom and the government of his vast patriarchy watch him through all the

Phases of his various Destinies see him now surrounded by the love and sympathy of his alexandrians now confronting hostile sinards now undertaking long and perilous Journeys to defend his character from calumny and to unmask before the head of the church the Arts of heresy now fearlessly proclaiming the

Truth at the court of the tyrannical constantius and now banished time after time from his dicese his country his friends encompassed by perils from false Brethren perils from the sea perils from the Wilderness and while surrounded by the lines of the Libyan in desert writing those Immortal letters and

Treaties where he consoles the persecuted sons of the church confirms her wavering members and refutes the elated Heretics Productions that to the end of time will be the Solace and the glory of the church Behold Him now at the close of his glorious career after 40 years incessant toil hardship and suffering

With a frame unbent and a mind unsubdued by age still ready to fight new battles for the Lord spared by heaven to see the great adversary he had so long combed the adversary of Christ the monster aryanism gasping and bleeding from his death wound behold the veteran Warrior now

Honored by the degenerate Court which had so long persecuted him cons so by the respect and sympathy of the Christian World consulted on all important Affairs by the dignitaries of the church near or remote and nerving the courage and directing the counsels of that young hopeful band of Christ’s

Soldiers the basil the nazenin and the nas who were destined to follow up the victory he had achieved and annihilate the great antagonist of the church but athanasius attained to this great Authority in the church only because he had been most obedient and most faithful to the authority of the church it was

Not by his personal genius learning and sanctity alone that he obtained such a prodigious ascendancy over the minds of his contemporaries but also by the weight he derived from the sanction of the church and its visible head what a glorious part doth not the Holy Roman sea act in this Aryan contest

While Orthodox prets are driven from their Seas while some Quail before triumphant heresy and others are incautiously entrapped into the acceptance of ambiguous formularies while the faithful are distracted by the conflicting decisions of hostile coods and Doctrine is undermined and discipline subverted by intruded heretical Bishops the Roman pontiffs

Ever uphold the authority of the nyine council wash the decrees of heretical provincial senates restore to their Church the banished prets condemn their adversaries everywhere enforc canonical discipline and sometimes overall the hostile Pates of the Earth the approbation which this work universally received the spirit of zealous Orthodoxy that pervaded its

Pages the immense patristic and historical learning it displayed and the original and profound views with which it abounded through more and more the attention of protestant as well as Catholic Germany towards its illustrious author end of section six section seven of symbolism by Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Burton

Robertson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain the Memoirs of Dr Mohler part five he now began to deliver lectures on the doctrinal differences between Catholics and Protestants the errors of his time as I before observed the struggles the Catholic church had to encounter and the oppression she had to

Endure by rendering her position very analogous to her state in the age of the great athanasius at first induced mhler to compose the work that has just been described but now he resolved to Grapple more closely and directly with the errors of his age judging that the most

Effectual method to bring about the return of our airing Brethren to the Catholic Church as well as to awaken many Catholics themselves from their state of toror was to set forth with accuracy the points of Doctrine which divide the churches he commenced a thorough investigation into the public formularies of the various Protestant

Communities as well as the private writings of the reformers and their most eminent disciples this was a field which had been but partly tilled by preceding ing laborers and which offered much to reward the industry of a new cultivator the course of lectures which in the year 1828 Mohler opened on this

Important subject soon attracted a crowded auditory and every year they were received by the students with increasing interest and attention the fame of these lectures getting abroad the Prussian government made to mhler the offer of a theological professorship at the University of breau and celissia an offer which he immediately

Declined the wartenberg government now nominated him professor ordinary of theology at the University of tuenin a nomination that was confirmed by the theological faculty which at the same time conferred on him the honor of doctor of divinity at length in the year 1832 the great work whose Fame the public had

Long anticipated issued from the press under the titlee symbolism or exposition of the doctrinal differences between Catholics and Protestants is evinced by their symbolical writings un the sensation It produced throughout all Germany parant as well as Catholic was prodigious perhaps unparalleled in the history of modern theological literature hailed by Catholics with joy

And exaltation its Transcendent merits were openly acknowledged by the most eminent and estimable Protestants the celebrated Protestant Theologian and philosopher sler vasher declared it to be the severest blow ever given to protestantism another very distinguished Protestant professor of philosophy at Bond candidly confessed that none of the

Protestant replies at all came up to it in force of reasoning quote Germany says a French Journal of high Merit so parceled out into different states so divided in religious belief Germany where opinion is not centralized in a single City but where the taste of Vienna is checked by the critics of Goen

Munich or Berlin Germany with one voice extols the merits of molair symbolism unquote the university cathol page 75 Volume 11 but this testimony is not exaggerated the rapid sale of the work will show for in the course of 6 years it passed through five editions each consisting of from 3 to

4,000 copies which were nearly as much sought for in Protestant as in Catholic Germany it was adopted by several universities as a textbook was translated into Latin and Italian by the papal Nuno of Switzerland and into French by majour lat the same French critic as before observed termed the symbolism an

Indispens ible compliment to besets Immortal history of the variations this is suggested to me a parallel between the two Works looking to the plan and the matter of the two books I may call the work of the illustrious French pret a more external that of the German Theologian a more internal history of

Protestantism in the first place the bishop of Mew points out with admirable skill the endless variations and inconsistencies of protestantism so does the German Professor yet the inconsistencies and variations which in the pages of the former appeared isolated unconnected accidental phenomena the later shows to be bound by the ties of a necessary

Though secret Connection in a word Mohler not contending with proving the many mutations and self-contradictions of protestantism and its repugnance to reason and Revelation sets forth its consistency also I mean the filiation of its Doctrine and the concatenation of its errors secondly the French pret confines his attention to the two leading sects

Of the Reformation the Lutheran and the calvinistic and expressly informs Us in the preface to his work that his intention is quote not to speak of the socinians nor of the several communities of anabaptists nor of so many different sects which in England and elsewhere have sprung up in the bosom of the

Reformation unquote a resolution that was the more to be regretted as the description of these sects would not only have lent a fresh charm to his historic narrative but have vastly increased the weight and extended the compass of his argument and that Sous mind which in the funeral

Oration on Queen Henrietta had cast such an intuitive glance into the history of our domestic troubles would doubtless have given an admirable portraiture of the various and mult multitudinous sect of the cromwellian era yet we must remember that in the course of his work buet had more particularly in view the

Calvinists of his own country this void is supplied in the symbolism for the history and the dogmas of the minor sects of protestantism are fully analyzed and described a portion of the work which is certainly not the least important and to the English reader perhaps the most interesting and

Attractive thirdly buet who lived at a period when protestantism had just entered on the second stage of its existence not only with the most masterly skill traced its Progressive development from its birth down to his own days but foretold the course of its future Destinies from his lofty Eerie the eagle

Of Mew beheld the whole coming history of protestantism he snuffed from afar the tempestuous clouds of irreligion that were spring from its already agitated Waters and the Whirlwind of impiety that was to convulse Christianity to its Center Mohler on the other hand cannot be said to bring the history of the

Reformation down to his own times for with the exception of the hear huters the methodists and the Sweden borgian the sect whose doctrines he examined were not posterior to the age of betet the new and prodigious forms which within the last 60 years protestantism in Germany especially has assumed the

Doctrines of rationalism and pism that as the reader is already seen have quite superseded those of the Elder protestantism are as was before stated for the reasons assigned in the work itself left unnoticed by the author of the symbolism it may at First Sight appear singular that a work which has excited

So prodigious a sensation throughout Germany which has been read by Protestants as well as Catholics with an avidity that proves they responded to a want generally felt should have left untouched the existing forms of protestantism and been exclusively engaged with the reputation of those Antiquated doctrines that though in

Certain Protestant countries they may still retain some influence and Authority can count in Protestant Germany but a small number of adherence how is this fact to be accounted for I must observe that although though the symbolism abstains from investigating the modern systems of protestantism yet it presupposes throughout their existence and the work

Itself could never have appeared if protestantism had not attained its ultimate term of development present forms of protestantism moreover being only a necessary development of its earlier errors a solid and vigorous reputation of the latter must needs overthrow the former but there is yet another and more

Special reason which in despite of first appearances rendered this work eminently opportune a portion of the German Protestants as we have seen recoiling from the abyss to which rationalism was fast conducting them sought a refuge in falling back on the old symbolical books of the Lutheran and calvinistic churches

Whose authority for upwards of 60 years had been totally disregarded this movement of Minds was seconded by some Protestant princes particularly by the late King of Prussia who had learned from bitter experience the disastrous political consequences which the doctrines of rationalism are calculated to produce this Sovereign who was as

Skillful and ecclesiastical as he was a military tactician in order to escape from the two enemies Catholicism and rationalism who were guling his flanks sounded the trumpet for retreat and assisted by an able staff of theologians was making a rapid retrograde gr march on the old formularies the bullworks of protestant

Orthodoxy which for more than half a century neglected and dilapidated had remained utterly untenanted Mohler watched his moment fell with terrific Onslaught on the retreating forces blew up the old Protestant strongholds compelled the enemy to retrace his steps and brought him at last into such Straits that he

Must now either make an unconditional surrender to the church or be swept down the abyss of pantheism this is the origin and the meaning of the present book this is in part the cause of its prodigious success thus it not only presupposes the extinction of the Elder more Orthodox

Protestantism but in so far as any human production can accomplish such a thing it effectually will prevent its Revival fourthly if we look to the form of these two remarkable Productions of the human mind which I have ventured to compare the history of the variations is characterized in an eminent degree by logical

Perspicuity the symbolism at least equal to it in dialectic force is vastly Superior in philosophic depth the learning displayed in the former work is quite sufficient for its purpose and when we consider the period at which It Was Written the comparative faity of materials accessible to its

Illustrious author and the then state of historical researches we are astonished at the extent and the critical soundness of the learning they exhibited Mr Howen however in his history of literature complains that busette had not given his citations from Luther in the Latin original so that he

Himself had often been unable to verify his quotations this complaint at least he will be unable to prefer against the symbolism where the Latin citations from Luther and the other Patriarchs of the Reformation are given with a fullness and an exactness that must satisfy perhaps rather more than satisfy our fastidious

Critic the erudition displayed in the symbolism is admitted on all hands to be the most extensive and profound its style is clear forcible and dignified but in point of eloquence the bishop of Mew ever Remains The unrivaled Master the symbolism called forth many replies from Protestant theologians such as NCH

Moreni and Dr Bower of tuenin the work of the latter which was the longest and most elaborate was entitled quote opposition between Catholicism and protestantism according to the leading dogmas of the two religious systems with special reference to mher symbolism to Benin 183 33 of this work a writer in the

Conversation’s Lexicon thus speaks quote that Protestant writers should stand up in defense of a church to which mhler denies every right save that of political existence was very natural but it is equally certain that in an inquiry where in the symbolical writings only of the different churches possess a

Decisive Authority hegelian with its subjective views and the attempt to enforce these as the doctrine of the Evangelical Church could play no brilliant part yet in this false position we find Dr Bower whose writings moreover is not exempt from personal attacks against his adversary unquote Muller replied without delay and

In a tone of suitable dignity in a work entitled new investigations into the doctrinal differences between Catholics and Protestants May n 1834 this work will be found a most valuable appendex to the symbolism although no inconsiderable portion of it has been incorporated into the addition from which the present translation has been

Made the personal acrimony which Dr Bower had infused into the controversy with the subject of this Memoir as well as the Intrigue set on foot to alienate the wertenberg government from the latter who was represented as a disturber of religious peace rendered his Abode into benjin daily more unpleasant and

Irksome the Prussian government probably appraised of this state of things renewed negotiations with mhler in the view of obtaining his services for one of its universities yet these negotiations credible to the prudence and discernment of the Prussian government a second time failed through the opposition of the herian

Party this party already a most formidable opponent to encounter in the celebrated CLE professor of theology at Bond and it was evident that the assession of mhler to the theological faculty or indeed to any other in the Prussian States would be most detrimental to the influence and adverse

To the projects of the party count Von Spiegel then Archbishop of cologne and predecessor to that illustrious Confessor whose humiliation prepared the Triumph of the German church and whose captivity was the Prelude to her liberation count Fon Spiegel I say a worldly minded courrier little acquainted with theology

Was alternately the tool of the herian and the Prussian government his sanction as Archbishop of cologne was necessary for the confirmation of mohler’s appointment to a theological chair at bond to the latter he addressed the letter requiring as the condition to such a sanction the public retraction of

The work entitled Unity of the church just as if Mohler with herian obstinacy had continued to defend in the face of the church and as the doctrine of the church what its highest tribunal had formerly and solemnly condemned he wrote back to the Archbishop of cologne that the mistakes

Such as they were in his first work were entirely rectified in his subsequent Productions and it may be added that he had never been called upon by the competent authorities to make a public recantation of any opinion therein contained it was indeed truly ridiculous that while purity of Doctrine and

Glowing love for the church as well as profound genius were claiming for the illustrious author of aenasius and the symbolisms the respect and admiration of Germany and Europe the organ of a party that had for years approached pricious doctrines evinced a marked disrespect for ecclesiastical tradition and subsequently displayed a most obstinate

Resistance to the authority of the church should forso take exception to mohler’s Orthodoxy here it may be proper to make a few remarks on the position which he had taken up in relation to this party it has sometimes been asked why he did not appear in the list against the

Herian many reasons may be assigned for his not taking an active part in this controversy in the first place his opposition would have been ascribed to motives of personal resentment against a body of men through whose intrigues he had been twice thwarted in the attainment of an honorable and lucrative

Professorship secondly the herian system unsupported by a single Theologian of eminence had been prostrated by the vigorous arm of plee thirdly the Holy sea having pronounced a solemn sentence of condemnation The View which all Catholics were to take of this system would no longer be problematic fourthly the utter disgraceful part that

The herian had played in the tyrannical proceedings of the Prussian government against count VR basharin the venerable Archbishop of cologne Drew down upon them the general odium of Catholic Germany lastly the tactics of this party was to avoid an open dispassionate scientific discussion of principles and to drag into the controversy matters of

Personal dispute and even of ecclesiastic Administration a course of warfare where even victory was somewhat ignoble and which Above All Things was abhorent to the gentle disposition and elevated feelings of Mohler but there was another party in the church with whom he came in more immediate contact the so-called liberals

Of Catholic Germany whom I’ve already had occasion to describe this party whose principal seat was in bayen and wartenberg had as has already been observed exerted some influence over the youthful mind of mhler and the last faint tinge of their principles is tracable and his first production Unity of the

Church but his mature genius his more extended acquaintance with ecclesiastical Antiquity and above all his advances in piety had revealed to him the hollow pretensions and dangerous Tendencies of this party in the year 1827 he published his celebrated essay on quote unquote sacral celibacy that inflicted on this party a

Wound from which it has never since recovered in this masterly production he proves the apostolic Antiquity of clerical celibacy its Conformity with reason and with the most ancient traditions of Nations its close connection with the most sacred dogmas and essential institutions of the church as well as the occasions that led to a

Partial deviation from the law and after after showing by the enemies of sacral celibacy must necessarily be the foes of ecclesiastical Independence and the papal Supremacy he stigmatizes the baen churchmen for their shallow theological learning in despite of all their High pretensions to general knowledge for their carnal-minded Tendencies their

Often propagate habits and their political harlotries with the secular power this essay was in the year 1829 followed up by another entitled quote fragments on the false de cradles un where with much skill and learning the author rested from the enemies of the papal Authority one of their most

Favorite weapons of attack The Rage of the anti- celibates was as we may suppose wound up to the highest pitch mhler was denounced as an apostate an ultram monist a Roman obscurantist and his Fame which grew from year to year served only to embitter the animosity and stimulate the assaults of this poultry

Faction while the great Genius of the illustrious author of athanasius and the symbolism was hailed with Joy by Catholic and recognized with respect by Protestant Germany these false Brethren had discovered that he was devoid of talent and erudition they openly gave the palm of Victory to his Protestant opponent Dr

Bow and in one of their periodicals where Shameless enough while they denominated the symbolism a violation of religious peace to avow their satisfaction with the mythical theory of the Blasphemous Strauss a proof If further were wanting how utterly many of these so-called quote unquote liberals had aized from the principles of that

Church whose communion they still so audaciously profane it was not however by his writings only that this Excellent Man opposed the progress and defeated the projects of a dangerous faction by his amiable disposition and engaging manners as well as by his great reputation he had gained an extraordinary influence over the minds

Of his pupils and this influence he employed to inspire these young theologians with a Zeal for the cause and interest of the church a deep veneration for the holy sea a love for the duties of their future calling and a noble passion for learning nor was the benefical influence

Of his example and exhortation confined to his pupils alone during the 10 years he filled a propes Serial chair at tuenin a complete change came over the Catholic theological faculty of that University such of its members as had hitherto been sound in Doctrine but timid in its avow like Dr Dre took

Courage by mohler’s example and suchu like herser had been to some extent LED Away by neological doctrines where now probably through that example partly by their own researches gradually reclaimed the evidence of this change is afforded by the theological quarterly review of tijin which from the year 1828 breathes

A very different spirit and which supported as it was by Mohler and his most distinguished colleagues and disciples has remained down to the present day by its Orthodoxy its learning and its philosophic Spirit an ornament to liter lure and the church the noble attitude which in the present struggle for the Liberties of

Their Church the younger members of the swabian clergy have taken the Zeal and courage wherewith they defend their spiritual rights and rally the people around that sacred standard the talent and learning they Evin in defense of their religion are all according to a recent public acknowledgement of the

Prime Minister of wartenberg in the assembled States mainly ATT tribut able to the influence of mhler yet the spot which was dear to him from so many early associations where the Lord had blessed his labors where he had won so many brilliant victories over the enemies of the faith he was now for

The reasons above reverted to about to quit at the commencement of the Year 1835 a theological chair at Munich became vacant and the king of Bavaria with that enlightened Zeal which makes him ever attentive to the promotion of the interests of the church in the advancement of Catholic learning

Solicited on this occasion the services of mhler to this proposal the latter immediately acceded and deeply regretted by his friends his colleagues and the academic youth he quitted to Benin and arrived at Munich in the spring of the same year warmly welcomed by his friends at the Bavarian capital and

Enthusiastically greeted by its students he immediately medely opened a course of lectures on St Paul’s epistle to the Romans which was soon followed up by others on church history petology as well as commentaries on various Epistles of St Paul this seems to me the most proper place to speak of the various

Theological and historical essays that mher contributed to periodical pages and especially to the theological quarterly review of tuenin these essays have since his death been collected by his friend Dr dolinger and published in two volumes they are as follows one an investigation of the dispute between St Jerome and St

Augustine on the 14th verse of the second chapter of Galatians two a critical inquiry into the period of publication of the epistle to dagnus usually attributed to St Justin and an analysis of its contents three an historical sketch of St ansam Archbishop of Canterbury and his times four an essay on clerical

Celibacy Five Short considerations on the historical relation of universities to the state six fragments on the false dcdal seven an essay on the relation of Islam to the gospel eight an essay on the origin of gnosticism the second volume contains the following one considerations on the state of the

Church during the 15th and at the commencement of the 16th century two an essay on Saint simonianism three fragmentary sketches on the abolition of slavery four letters to the ab bour of straussburg on his system of philosophy five rise in the first period of nism a fragment six two articles on the

Imprisonment of the Archbishop of colog it does not enter into the plan of his Memoir to give an analysis of these collected essays which certainly furnish new evidence of the author’s great historical as well as theological learning his critical acuteness his depth of observation and elegance of

Style the most remarkable piece in this miscellaneous collection are the already noticed essay on clerical celibacy that on gnosticism the beautiful fragment on the early history of monasticism which was to form part of a large work on the monastic orders of the West and the essay on Islam that has received its due

Meat of Praise from one of our own Protestant critics quote this essay of MERS says a writer in a number of the quarterly review that appeared two years ago was composed with an express view towards the progress of Christianity in the East and the question how it might

Be offered in the most commanding and persuasive manner to muhammadans it is written with so much learning judgment and moderation that it might be well worthy of translation in some of our religious journals unquote end of section s section8 of symbolism by Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Burton

Robertson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain Memoirs of Dr mhler part six the lectures which Dr Mohler delivered on patristic literature have since his death been collected and edited by his friend Dr reth Mayer professor of theology at the University of Munich of this work three parts only have as yet

Appeared embracing the first three centuries of the church and containing nearly a thousand pages of print in small octavo after some very interesting and profound preliminary Reflections on the Greek and Roman languages and literatures and their relation to Christianity and some general views on the nature of patristic literature the

Author in the first part treats of the lives and writings of the apostolic fathers from Pope St Clement down to Pi in the second part the lives and writings of the fathers of the second century from St Justin Martyr down to pentus and in the third the lives and

Writings of the fathers of the thir Century from St Clemens alexandrus down to lactantius are described analyzed and appreciated in this work the plan of the author is to prefix to each Century General views on its ecclesiastical and literary character then under a special section devoted to each particular

Father to trace a short sketch of his life where the materials for such exist next to give an analysis of his various Works accompanied with a critical inquiry into the age or the authenticity of such writings as have been disputed then to furnish a summary of The Father’s Doctrine and lastly to

Pronounce judgment on his literary merits to each biographical section the Ed edor has appended notices of the best additions of the works of the father it should be added that the account of the fathers of the 2 century is closed with a notice of the most celebrated

Martyrologies and that of the fathers of the 3 Century with a short disertation on the sporus gospels and a more lengthened one on the cils a more useful as well as more engaging introduction to the study of patristic literature cannot be perhaps recommended than the present work the author’s prodigious knowledge in

Ecclesiastical history as well as in the writings of the fathers his power of clear Exposition and acute analysis and his depth of originality of Genius which enabled him easily to enter into and duly to appreciate the conceptions of the great thinkers of Christian Antiquity eminently qualified him for

The execution of this task and although the work be posthumous and did not therefore receive a careful revisal from its author yet its every page evinces the hand of the master among the various dissertations I may notice those on St Justin Martyr St irenaeus Oren and St cyprian as peculiarly able and elaborate

From its postumus character there were of course many gaps and admissions in it which The Talented editor has in the true Spirit of the author endeavored to fill up supplying biographical notices of those ecclesiastical writers whose Works have perished and carefully citing the authorities for statements and

Assertions in the text as well as making various other additions everything contributed to make mohler’s Abode in Munich more agreeable surrounded by the distinguished Catholic professors whom the king had assembled in the capital living amid a people that in despite of all the efforts made during the late

Reign to pervert it was still eminently Catholic in a city too where the theological faculty was undisturbed by the opposition of any rival where the Catholic Church could unfold all her salutary influences and all her pomp of worship and where art was making the noblest efforts to minister to the

Splendor of that worship mhler might confidently look for still more blessed results from his literary labors and during the first 18 months of his residence in the Bavarian Capital the contentment he enjoyed had in despite of the severe climate of the place reestablished his health which of late years had been much

Impaired at length in the Autumn of 1836 came that Dreadful Scourge the chera and for 6 months without intermission exercised the most Dreadful ravages at Munich though the prevailing epidemic affected mler but in a slight degree yet he experienced a general debility that incapacitated Ed him from Prosecuting

His public duties this indisposition was succeeded in the following Spring by an attack of influenza that confined him for two months to his bed and did not quit him without leaving behind most dangerous symptoms of a disease on the lungs on rising from the bed of sickness

He was not permitted by his Physicians to pursue his ordinary duties but on their urgent advice he took a journey to South Tyrell where the genial climate of mirin the use of Wei and the cheering Society of the benedictines of that place whose learning and py he made a

Constant theme of eulogy to his friends soon produced the most beneficial effects on his health after passing the whole summer of 1837 in that beautiful country he returned in the Autumn to Munich to resume his public functions but the hopes which his friends had entertained of his complete

Recovery were soon to undergo a bitter disappointment on the 1st of November his indisposition returned in symptoms of a decided pulmonary complaint became even more manifest again to his grief and to the regret of his numerous Auditors his promised course of lectures must be put off The Bleak climate of the Bavarian

Capital was at that season especially little pritu to one laboring under such a disorder and most unfortunately towards the close of the month a calamitous event occurred which while it threw the whole German Church into mourning and convulsed West philia and the ranish provinces to their Center

Filled the soul of mhler with a disquietude and dismay that operated most prejudicially on his health the imprisonment of the venerable Archbishop of cologne on the 20th of November 1837 is the event to which I allude this act of Reckless tyranny which put the seal to that long series of intrigues imaginations and

Oppressions that for five and 20 years had been directed against the Catholic church in Prussia Mohler appreciated in all its vast importance he saw the evils with which it was fraught the fearful and general persecution against the German church that it seemed to pretend and yet with a

Prophetic eye he discerned the good that Providence would one day bring out of that evil the Triumph and regeneration of that church so long betrayed insulted and oppressed these apprehensions and these hopes he is recorded in two remarkable essays which he published in February 1838 in the Universal Gazette of osberg

The last which he ever wrote The Last diffusions of that heart which amid the Langer of sickness yet be quick and strong to all that concern the glory of its God at this time the Russian commissary rugman who was sent to Rome on a diplomatic Mission from the court of

Berlin received instructions to hold an interview with mler on his Passage through Munich and attend to him in the name of his Sovereign a prendo stall in the Cathedral of cologne and if he pleased a professorship at Bond the reader will observe that this was the third attempt made by the Prussian

Government to enlist the professorial services of mhler what could be the meaning of of these repeated Endeavors on the part of a hostile government to obtain for one of its universities the greatest Theologian of Germany how did these attempts agree with the well-known policy of a government that by every species of

Intrigue imagination encroachment and crafty tyranny had endeavored to protestan tize its Catholic subjects and which in some parts of its dominions like cesia had too well succeeded in its Endeavors and at that very moment when it made this proposal to mhler had torn from his dicese and plunged into prison

An illustrious prelate for having courageously unmasked and defeated its designs to the honor of the Prussian government it must be said that it was its pride and boast to fill its universities with eminent men and that hostile as it was to Catholicism its respect and love for learning exceeded that

Hostility thus in the very Heyday of her mesianismo it great antagonist plea to a theological chair at Bond and in its conflict with the Archbishop of cologne it artfully pointed to the nomination of this eminent Divine as a proof that it wished to give no exclusive encouragement to any particular School

Of Theology but at the conjuncture at which we have arrived the Prussian government Had A peculiar inducement to make the proposal whereof I speak the general discontent that reigned in its Catholic provinces the ever growing indignation of Catholic Germany at the treatment they had experienced and the precarious relations were in Prussia

Stood with Belgium and France neighbors to whom her fatal policy had unbarred her own weakness and disunion this state of things rendered the redress of public wrongs and the allaying of public irritation in her Catholic dominions a matter of the most imperious necessity in this posture of Affairs as

A professor of theology must needs exercise great influence over the rising members of the priesthood and in an ecclesiastical question over the lay members also of the University a sort of political importance now attached to a theological chair at Bond and unless the Prussian government were prepared to

Close the door irrevocably against all Justice and conciliation he could not have selected a man who by his high reputation and zealous attachment to the interests of the church as well as by his amiable and ilory disposition was fitter than the subject of this Memoir to be the medium of any safe and

Honorable negotiation the offer of maure buerman mour however immediately declined this refusal was dictated not only by the precarious state of his health as well as by the distracted condition of Affairs in the renish province but also by a feeling of attachment to Bavaria this feeling his Bavarian Majesty delicately appreciated by

Conferring on him the nightly order of St Michael his health seemed to rally for a while so as to enable him for a few weeks to resume the delivery of his lectures but toward the end of January a violent Katara insued which soon terminated an inflammation of the chest

The following count of his last illness is from the pen of an eyewitness and friend and the tone of the mournful earnestness wherein it is written must challenge the sympathy of every reader quote the experience of the late years says the anonymous biographer convinced the Physicians that the injurious influence of the Munich

Climate combined with the arduous duties of the professorial charge afforded no certain Prospect of the preservation of mohler’s life and it was only by changing his Abode for some milder climate any chance for his recovery existed the king of Bavaria informed of the condition of the illustrious patient

And anxious to preserve a life so valuable to church and state nominated Mohler by a decree dated March 1838 to the just vacant Dignity of Dean of wartenberg mhler was deeply affected by this Mark of his sovereign’s delicate attention and forethought yet his Joy was not unalloyed he had entered with

Uncommon uror on the professorial career for which he had f favored him with the highest qualifications and wherein his efforts have been blessed with the most signal success the very idea of the abandonment of that character had inspired him with the deepest Melancholy he anticipated something more

Than a mere change of employment to a friend who congratulated him on the promotion to his new dignity he expressed himself in the following remarkable words I have often observed in history said he that men who God hath highly favored in life he often on the eve of their

Separation from this world invested with the glimmer of some temporal honor I cannot without being guilty of great ingratitude deny that Providence hath loaded me with many favors but the prognostic which I here advert to may now be realized in me also unquote this anticipation alas was too

Soon verified that day the fever returned a week later Suddenly at night Atara and the critical symptom of horseness ensued and then a few days afterward the Physicians observed all the signs of a violent hectic fever his Knights especially were attended with great suffering on the 7th of April he

Felt himself again better and desired that for his entertainment a favorite book of travels should be read to him this was done not without a fearful presentment that that wish was to Prelude to another and a more distant journey and so it happened at the beginning of Holy Week the fever assumed

The character of typhus and the mind of the patient from time to time slightly wandered in Delirium feeling his end approach he again on the 10th of April prepared by the reception of the sacraments for appearing before his Almighty judge the sacraments appeared to exert a beneficial influence on his health for

On the following day he felt much relieved and hope began to revive in the bosom of his friends but he no longer looked forward to recovery and on the same day he made his last testamentary arrangement in regard to his temporal concerns the following night dispelled

All hopes of a change for the better on the morning of the 12th of April he felt great oppression at his chest he became somewhat Restless the ice heavy cold sweat drops gathered about his brow and temples the last struggle had come on his Confessor Dr alosis Butner now a

Prender at pel never left his side at 1:00 in the afternoon he woke from a gentle Slumber clasped both hands to his head and exclaimed quot ah now I’ve seen it now I know it now I would like to write a book this must be written down

But now it is gone unquote he then laid himself calmly down a look of serene and winning love passed again over his countenance as if the soul were evidently making an effort gently to sever the last bonds of life he then gasped violently three times and the Soul bursting her feathers sprang

Upwards to her God the sad event took place on Monday Thursday the 12th of April 1838 at half 2:00 in the afternoon his remains were inured on Holy Saturday the 14th day of April and his death was mourned by his King deeply bewailed by his friends and regretted by all

Unquote thus died this celebrated man in the midst of his career at a crisis so eventful for religion and at a moment when he could be so ill spared by the church and by his country his career though brief had been ently useful as well as brilliant and

His life though not full of years have been replete with good works he might at the close of his course examine with the great Apostle quote bonam San sortav curum consumi feed Sur repita Im coronae happy saith the scripture are they who die in the Lord unquote

And happy Thrice happy we may add are they who die before the enemy hath snatched from their hands the fruit of their Mourning’s toil and when we are tempted to lament the untimely end of this great luminary of the church we should assuage our sorrows with the reflection how infinitely more enviable

Was his fate than that of his celebrated contemporary the once great gel in the Church of France where is Death we may confidently hope brought to one the Garland of eternal life existence hath cast over the other the blight and desolation of death in abandoning the Glorious

Mansions of the church for those Bleak and desolate regions where the grizzly Phantoms of airing fancy dwell that unhappy Spirit hath abandoned too the sweet Recollections of early days and the sacred ties of friendship and the Merit and the glory of all his victories over heresy and unbelief and the

Inestimable peace of of the soul in a word all the Earthly charms and all the Heavenly hopes that cheer and sustain existence and Solace and sweeten death and as a great writer once said that the fall of the Rebel Archangel cast a sadness over all creation whereof the

Traces are even now perceptible so the fall of this Mighty Spirit has saddened the church the mourning of her Reviving hope and joy M’s countenance deportment and manner were perfectly indicative of his moral and intellectual qualities the perfect harmony or equilibrium of his mental Powers was expressed in the

Serenity of his countenance in the modulations of a most pleasing voice and in the Dignity of his Carriage the same Exquisite sense of justice the same aversion from all exaggeration which characterized his writings were perceptible in his conversation yet though owed with this natural benignity of temperor which in

Him was exalted and Sanctified by motives of Christian charity he was not slow to the perception of defects of character and whenever the meaner passions crossed his path his instinctive imporance would find bent in the SES of a subdued yet pungent satire his personal appearance has thus been described by one of his

Biographers tall in stature he was of a slight delicate frame his outward bearing was most decorous and dignified his features were delicate regular and prepossessing in his large dark eye beamed a gentle fire which shed over a pallet countenance an Indescribable charm his voice like his bodily frame was weak and slender yet

Harmonious his pronunciation was pure without the alloy of any peculiar dialect was ever most agreeably pre possessed with his General appearance unquote during the first year of his professorship and before he had quite thrown off some of the LAX opinions already averted to he was not so

Assiduous in prayer nor so diligent in the celebration of the Holy sacrifice as might be desired then too exclusively occupied with science he did not seek out with sufficient ardor that Heavenly wisdom without which all human learning like the grass of the field without the refreshing duw will soon become Aid and

Unprofitable a friend concluded at that time all his letters to him with an Earnest exhortation to the habit of frequent prayer these exhortations as well as the diligent perusal of the writings of the Holy fathers which are no less powerful in cherishing the feelings of piety than in confirming and

Enlivening Faith wrought under the divine blessing the happiest change in mohler’s devotion exercises for in subsequent years he never let a day pass without celebrating the holy sacrifice and with a tenderness of devotion that excited Universal edification with the laborious duties of the professorial office he combined to

Some extent the functions of the Sacred Ministry and to many of the academic youth he acted as spiritual director not content with personally discharging the obligations of his sacred calling with the strictest Fidelity and an irreproachable purity of conduct he strove by example and conversation as well as by his writings

And his lectures to stem the tide of corruption that had burst into the swabian church and was it is confidently asserted the means of guarding many a young clergyman against the evil councils and evil practices of the anti- celibate party his Zeal for the glory of God and

The interest of his church while it was the animating and sustaining principle of all his intellectual exertions often communicated itself with electrical effect to his youthful Auditors yet that Zeal which consumed him for the house of his Lord was exceeded if possible by a spirit of mildness modesty and

Humility qualities which while they endeared him to Heaven made him too the favorite with men adorned with all the sacral virtues he possessed at the same time a winning amiability of manner that caused his Society to be courted by men of various ranks and professions and even of the

Most opposite religious and political principles Protestants as well as Catholics laymen as well as churchmen consulted him personally or by letter on every variety of subject religious political literary or domestic and had his life been prolonged he would probably have become one of the most influential men in Germany having thus briefly described

The moral character of this remarkable man it remains for me to sum up his intellectual qualities he was distinguished for an uncommon clearness precision and vigor of ration that shows how well he had profited by the example of those adct Masters to whom his youth had been so sedulously

Devoted his plan is to let his adversary bring forward his strong EST arguments and dispose them in the most advantageous order then without stopping to refute him in detail he rings from him some reluctant concession or forces him unconsciously into some false position whereby he is enabled at a

Single stroke to shake or overthrow the whole system of his antagonists reasoning in depth of reflection and comprehensive grasp of generalization he equals Frederick’s legal and if inferior to him in the fervor of a poetic imagination he yet possesses partly from nature partly from the severe training of theological discipline a superior

Force and precision of reasoning like the great writer to whom I have compared him mhler was eminently endowed with the faculty called by critics dith thesis The Faculty of seizing on the main points of his subject divesting it of its subordinate or accessory parts and in a few bold Strokes tracing a perfect

Outline the learning of mhler was most profound and various though he died at the premature age of 43 he yet had mastered every branch of theological science and in patristic literature and the writings of the schoolmen as also in the works of the reformers and the later Protestant divines of various sexs he

Was preeminently versed his acquaintance with profane history in modern literature was most extensive and his acquirements In classical philology were so great as to call forth the astonishment and admiration of the most learned professors in that faculty his style reflects the calm equable Dignity of his soul clear

Flowing and stately if it seldom Rises to eloquence it never sinks into dryness or loses itself in obscurity yet all these High intellectual endowments were rendered still more effective because as was above said they were tempered chased exalted and Sanctified by an amiable modesty a deep unaffected humility a

Glowing Zeal and a piety serenely bright that like a light within a beautiful vase brought out all those mental ornaments into Bolder relief in a communication which Dr R Mayer has had the kindest to make to me he writes as follows quote brief as was the period of mohler’s labors in Munich

Yet it is difficult to describe the good he wrought and the seed for still greater good which he sowed powerful as his influence over Southern Germany had become great as was his authority honored as was his name and mighty as was the impulse he had given to the

Public mind he was yet far from entertaining the thought of wishing to form a school in so far as we thereby understand a certain peculiar theological system whether its nature consists in a special theoretical method or in the adoption and more precise development of certain opinions his faith was of a much too

Positive kind he was too removed from all Hollow speculation and his whole intellectual cultivation was too strongly historical then he was with all too modest to wish to bring his own person thus prominently forward or to stamp upon other Minds The impress of his own individual conceptions if anything can be said to

Characterize or distinguish in any degree his Auditors and admirers it is a certain idealism in the treatment of science an enthusiasm for the institutes and interests of the Church abhorrence of all sectarianism and a closer attachment to the mother Church of Rome unquote the new school of German

Catholic divines is characterized by the union of great patristic learning and high philosophic speculation by severe Orthodoxy and warm attachment to the church coupled with a singular Spirit of conciliation and tenderness in the treatment of controversy towards the Airing Brethren this spirit is of course modified according to The Peculiar

Temper and genus of different individuals but such is the general characteristic of the new school the more celebrated theological contemporaries of Mohler were CLE dolinger gray herser and V and among his Scholars stud mayair run eelli and re mayair have attained to Great Eminence Lee has treated every branch of

Theology his works are characterized by vast erudition great metaphysical depth and a consumate power of dialect this very acute think an eminently learned man will ever exercise the greatest influence in the school but as he was deficient in Grace of style and power of imagination his influence will be less

Perceptible in the great Republic of letters dolinger whose excellent church history is known to the English reader from Dr Cox’s elegant translation combines extraordinary learning in Theology and canon law with great historical research critical acumen and clearness of method and style Dre has proved himself a very learned and philosophic apologist for

Christianity of hersher I can speak with less confidence as I possess but little acquaintance with his writings he cultivates chiefly moral Theology and unites it is said uncommon unction of feeling to originality of thought and extent of learning some prejudices however which he has still retained tend somewhat to impair the influence his

Genius and py would otherwise command V has distinguished himself more particularly in pastoral Theology and combines in an eminent degree Elegance deep thought and high asceticism run is distinguished for great depth of philosophic speculation and stoden mayair displays great fertility of ideas and amenity of feeling heeli and r a both as Scholars

And thinkers bid fair to tread in the footsteps of their illustrious Master the number and Excellence too of the theological periodicals and smaller essays and treaties as well as the more extended works that now appear in Catholic Germany evince the Vigor and productiveness of her religious genius Divine Providence when he

Suffered the German Church to be despoiled of her temporal riches and political greatness repaid her with all the abundance of moral and intellectual wealth end of Section 8 section n of volume one of symbolism by Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Burton Robertson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain

Introduction part one nature extent and sources of symbolism by symbolism we understand the scientific exposition of the doctrinal differences among the various religious parties opposed to each other in consequence of the ecclesiastical revolution of the 16th century as these doctrinal differences are evidenced by the public confessions or symbolical

Books of those parties from this definition it follows first that symbolism has directly and immediately neither a pical nor an apologetic aim it has only to give a statement to furnish a solid and impartial account of the differences which divide the ab mentioned Christian communities this Exposition doubtless will indirectly

Assume partly a defensive partly an offensive character for the personal conviction of the writer will involuntarily appear and be heard sometimes in the tone of adhesion and Commendation sometimes in the tone of Repro and contradiction still the mere explanatory and narrative character of symbolism is thereby as little impaired as that of

The historical relation in which the historian conceals not his own personal opinion respecting the personages brought forward and the facts recounted the claims of a deeper science especially cannot be satisfied unless the exposition occasionally assume in part A pical in part an apologetical character A Narrative of facts even when

Accompanied with the most impartial and most solid historical research will not suffice nay the individual propositions of a system of Doctrine must be set forth in their mutual concatenation and their organic connection here it will be necessary to decompose a Dogma into the elements out of which it has been formed

And to reduce it to the ultimate principles whereby its author had been determined there it will be expedient to trace the manifold changes which have occurred in the Dogma but at all times must the parts of the system be viewed in their relation to the whole and be

Referred to the fundamental and all pervading idea during this analytical process without which a true profound and Vivid apprehension of the essential nature of the different confessions is absolutely impossible the relation of these to the gospel and to Christian reason must necessarily be brought out and the Conformity of the

One and the opposition of the other the universally acknowledged truths must follow as a matter of course in this way indeed symbolism becomes the most cogent apology or elusive reputation without designing to be in itself either the one or the other secondly in the definition we have

Given the limits and extent of our course of symbolism have been expressed for as they are only those ecclesiastical differences that sprang out of the convulsions of the 16th century that form the subject of our investigations so all those religious communities that have Arisen out of the earlier exclusion or voluntary secession

From the church even though they may have protracted their existence down to our times will necessarily be excluded from the of our inquiries hence the course of doctrinal disputes in the Oriental church will not engage our attention the religious verment of the 16th century and the ecclesiastical controversies which It

Produced are of a totally different nature from the contest which divides the Western and Eastern churches the controversy agitated in the west regards exclusively Christian anthropology for it will be shown that whatever other things may be connected with this they are all mere necessary deductions from the answer given to the

Anthropological question mooded by the reformers the controversy on the other hand agitated in the East has reference to christology for it would be strange indeed if the Orthodox Greek Church whose dispute with the Catholic regards no doctrine of Faith were alone to claim attention while the nestorians and the

Monophysites who are separated from Catholics Orthodox Greeks and Protestants by real doctrinal differences were to be excluded from the inquiry but the special objects of our undertaking neither occasion nor justify so extended discussion an account of these doctrinal differences has moreover appeared to us uncalled for since even the most Abridged ecclesiastical history

Furnishes respecting all these phenomena more information than is requisite for practical purposes in fact no present interest conducts us to the Oriental church and its various subdivisions for although the ancient disagreement of these communities with the Catholic and Protestant churches still continues it is at present without real and vital

Influence on the other hand the doctrinal peculiarities of the Lutheran and reformed churches in opposition to the Catholic Church as well as to each other must be set forth with the utmost precision and in every possible bearing as must also be the position of the Catholic Church against the negations of the two

Former it might indeed appear proper to presuppose a general acquaintance with the Catholic dogmas as asserted and maintained against the reformers in the same way as plank in his comparative view of the churches has presupposed the knowledge of the Lutheran system of Doctrine but as the tenants of

Protestants have sprung only out of opposition to the Catholic Doctrine they can be understood only in this opposition and therefore the Catholic thesis must be paralleled with the Protestant antithesis in all its bearings if the latter would be duly appreciated on the other hand the Catholic Doctrine will then only appear

In its true light when confronted with the Protestant the present comparative view of the differences between the Christian confessions is besides as indicated in the preface destined for Protestant readers also but that these on an average possess more than a superficial acquaintance with Catholic Doctrine we cannot here reasonably

Suppose the various sects which have grown out of the Protestant church like the anabaptists or the menites the Quakers methodists and Sweden boranes could the less pass unnoticed by us as they only further developed the original protestantism and have in part alone consistently carried out its principles

And push them to the farthest length hence although all these sects did not spring up in the 16th century we still regard them as in their inward purport belonging to that age the socinians and arminians also will claim our attention these appear indeed as the opposite extreme to primitive

Protestantism for while the latter sprang out of a strong but one-sided excitement of feelings the former as in the case of the so Ians either originated in a one-sided direction of the understanding or as in the case of the Armenians terminated in such a course completely rejecting the fundamental doctrines of the Reformation

So that in them one extreme was replaced by the other while Catholicism holds the just medium between the two whether moreover the socinians are to be numbered among Protestant sects is a matter of dispute among the Protestants themselves it is however really unquestionable that socinianism ought not to be looked upon as an

Appendage to Orthodox protestantism as was strongly pointed out by us when we just now call the cinan conception of Christianity the precise opposite to the old Protestant view but as the Protestants have not yet succeeded in dismissing the rationalist from their Community to use the language of Mr Han

We do not see why they should now at least least refuse admittance to the socinians Nay everyone who abandons the Catholic Church who only ceases to be a Catholic whatever in other respects may be the doctrines which he believes or refuses to believe though his Creed May

Stand ever so low beneath that of the socinians is sure to find the portals of the Protestant Church turn open to him with joy it would therefore not be praiseworthy on our parts if in the name of protest we were to exercise an act of intolerance and deny to the socinians

The gratification of seeing in one writing at least the object of their ancient desire attained on the other hand the doctrines of the rationalists cannot be a matter of Investigation here because they form no separate ecclesiastical community and we should have to set forth only the views of a

Thousand different individuals not the tenants of a church or sect they have no symbol and therefore can claim no place in our symbolism Roar has indeed put forth such a one and BR Schneider has passed on it no unfavorable judgment but that it has been in any place adopted by any one

Community we have not learned still less could any notice be taken of the saint simonian for they are not even to be numbered among the Christian sects in order that a religious party may be deemed worthy of that place of honor it is at least requisite that it should

Rever Christ as him through whom mankind have attained to their highest degree of religious culture so that all which from him downwards has been thought or felt in a religious spirit should be regarded only as the further expansion of what in Germ at least he had imparted to his

Followers hence the caroc crans are by no means to be included in the class of Christian sects because they placed Christ merely on the level with orus Pythagoras Socrates and Plato the same honor must be refused to the muhammadans also because they exalt the Arabian Prophet above Christ

Although the latter they still rever as a Divine Envoy the same now holds Good of the saint simonian according to them Christianity like heathenism comprises only a one-sided conception of the religious idea it is indeed a according to their principles a necessary point of transition but still only a point of

Transition to attain to what they please to term absolute religion in which every preceding form as a mere transitory phase is abolished as they have thus exalted themselves above Christianity they have thereby absolutely excluded themselves from her pale thirdly the definition we have given establishes the limits within which the characterization of the

Different ecclesiastical communities that fall within the compass of the present work must be confined treating only of doctrinal differences it is the object of the present work solely to unfold the distinctive articles of belief and to exclude all lurgical and disciplinary matters and in general all the non-essential ecclesiastical and political points of

Difference although even thus the peculiarities of the communities described must find a general explanation in our symbolism in this respect symbolism is distinguished from the sence of comparative liturgy ecclesiastical statistics Etc it is only in a few cases that an exception from this principle has appeared admissible fourthly and lastly the

Sources are here pointed out which symbolism must draw it is evident that the public confessions or symbols of the ecclesiastical communities in question must above all be attended to and hence hath the science itself derived its need other sources meanwhile which offer any desirable explanations or more accurate decisions in reference to the

Matters in hand must not be neglected the liturgies prayers and hymns also which are publicly used and are recognized by Authority symbolism May accordingly appeal for in these the public faith is expressed in appealing to hymns however great Prudence is necessary as in these the feelings in the imagination exert a

Too exclusive Sway and speak A peculiar language which has nothing in common with dogmatic Precision hence even from the Lutheran Church songs although they comprise much very serviceable to our purpose and some peculiar Protestant doctrines are very accurately expressed in them that also from Catholic lays hymns and the like we

Have refrained from ucing any proofs that even those writings of the reformers which have not obtained the character of public confessions are of great importance to our inquiries into symbolism must be perfectly clear reference must be especially made to these when the internal signification and the worth of protestant dogmas is to be

Apprehended in the same way Catholic theologian of acknowledged Orthodoxy and above all the history of the Council of Trent offer many satisfactory and Fuller elucidations of peculiar decisions in the Catholic formularies yet the individual opinion of one or more teachers belonging to any confession must not be confounded with

The doctrine of the confession itself a principle which must be extended even to the reformers so that opinions which may be found in their writings would have not not received any Express public sanction must not be noted down as general Protestant tenants between the use however of Catholic writers and of the reformers

For the purpose of proof and illustration in this symbolism a very observable difference exists the importance of the matter will render deeper insight into this difference necessary the relation namely wherein the reformers stand to the religious belief of their followers is of a very peculiar nature and totally

Different from that of Catholic teachers the Catholic Doctrine Luther zwingley and Calvin are the creators of those religious opinions prevalent among their disciples on no Catholic dogma can be referred to any Theologian as its author as in Luther the circle of doctrines which constitute The Peculiar moral life of the Protestant communities

Was produced with the most independent originality as all who stand to him in a spiritual relation like children to their parents and on that account bear his name draw from him their moral nurture and live on his fullness so it is from him we must derive the most Vivid profound and

Certain knowledge of his doctrines The Peculiar emotion of his Spirit out of which his system gradually arose or which accompanied its rise the higher views wherein often the though only in passing he embraced all its details as well as traced the living germ out of which the whole had by

Degrees grown up the rational construction of his Doctrine by the exhibition of his feelings all this is of high significancy to one who will obtain a genuine scientific apprehension of protestantism as a doctrinal system and who will Master its leading fundamental principle the Protestant articles of Faith are so living

Interwoven with the nature of their original production in the mind of Luther and with a whole succession of views which filled his soul that it is utterly impossible to sever them the Dogma is equally subjective with the causes which cooperated in its production and has no other stay nor value than what they

Afford doubtless as we have said before we shall never ascribe to the Protestant party as such what has not been received into their symbolical writings but although we must never abandon this principle yet we cannot confine ourselves to it for this religious party was generally satisfied with the results of that process of

Intellectual generation whereby its doctrines had been produced and separating by degrees those results from their living and deepest root it rendered them thereby for the most part unintelligible to science as the bulk of mankind are almost always contented with broken unsubstantial and Airy theories but it is for science to restore the

Connection between cause and effect between the basis and the superstructure of the edifice and to discharge this task the writings of Luther and in a relative degree of the other reformers are to be sedulously consulted it is otherwise with individual Catholic theologians as they found the dogmas on which they enlarge

Which they explain or illustrate already pre-exist we must in their labors accurately discriminate between their special and peculiar opinions and the common doctrines declared by the church and received from Christ and the apostles as these doctrines existed prior to those opinions so they can exist after them and can therefore be

Scientifically treated without them and quite independently of them this distinction between individual opinion and common doctrin presupposes a very strongly constituted community based at once on history on life on tradition and is only possible in the Catholic church but as it is possible so also it is necessary for Unity in its

Essence is not identity in science as in life such scope is to be afforded to the free expansion of individual exertion as is compatible with the common wheel that is to say so far as it is not in opposition to it nor threatens it with danger and destruction according to these

Principles the Catholic church ever acted and by that standard we may estimate not only the offre repeated charge that amid all their vaun of unity Catholics ever had divisions and various disputes among themselves but also the Protestant habit of ascribing to the whole church the opinions of one or more

Individuals thus for instance it would argue a very defective insight into the nature of Catholicism if anyone were to give out as the doctrine of the church Augustines and anam’s Exposition of original sin or the theory of the latter respecting the vicarious atonement of Christ were Anthony gunter’s speculative inquiries on those

Dogmas these are all very laudable and acute Endeavors to apprehend as a conception of reason the revealed Doctrine which alone is binding upon all but it is clear that it would be gross ignorance to confound them with the teaching of the church itself for a time even a conception of Dogma or

An opinion may be tolerably General without however becoming an integral portion of a Dogma or a Dogma itself there are here eternally changing individual forms of a universal principle which may serve this or that person or a particular period for mastering that Universal principle by way of reflection and speculation forms

Which may possess more or less of truth but whereon the church pronounces no judgment or the data for such a decision are wanting in Tradition and she abandons them entirely to the award of theological criticism for what has been said it follows that such a distinction as we

Speak of between dogma and opinion must be extremely difficult for Protestants as their whole original system is only an individuality exalted into a generality as the way in which the reformers conceive certain dogmas and personally thought and lived in them perfectly coincided in their opinion with those dogmas themselves so their

Followers have inherited of them an irresistible propensity everywhere to identify the two things in Luther it was the inordinate pretention of an individuality which wished to constitute itself the arbitrary center around which all should gather an individuality which exhibited itself as the Universal Man in whom everyone was to be reflected in

Short it was the formal usurpation of the place of Christ who undoubtedly as individual represents also redeemed Humanity a prerogative which is absolutely proper to him and after him to The Universal Church as supported by him in modern times when the other opposite extreme to the original Reformation as in many Tendencies found

Favor with the Protestants not only are all the conceivable individualities and peculiarities which can attach themselves to Dogma willingly tolerated but even all the peculiar Christian dogmas are considered only as doctrines which we must tolerate and leave to individuals who may need them for their own personal wants so that if Luther

Raised his own individuality to the Dignity of a generality the generality is now debased into a mere individuality and thus the true relation of the one to the other can never be established in the consistent progress of things everyone considered himself in A Wider Circle the representative of

Humanity redeemed from error at least as a sort of microcosmic price but in order that this phenomenon might not appear too strange for it is no easy matter to reconcile one Christ with the other an expedient of compromise was discovered by leaving to each one his own that is

To say by permitting him to be his own Redeemer and to represent himself is also to consider the extreme points wherein all individuals concur as representing redeemed Humanity the common property of Protestants could only now consist of some abstract formulas which must be acceptable to very many non-christians as everyone wished to

Pass for a christ the true Christian the real Scandal to the world necessarily vanished for as each one redeemed him himself there was no longer a common Redeemer to this we may add the following circumstances whereby was formed that peculiar kind of individuality which the Protestants would Fain confound with the universal

Principles of the Catholic Church protestantism arose partly out of the opposition to much that was undeniably bad and defective in the church and therein consists the good it has achieved although this was by no means peculiar to it since hostility to evil upon Church principles existed

Before it and has never ceased to exist beside it protestantism too sprang partly out of the struggle against peculiar scientific expositions of Doctrine and against certain institutions and ecclesiastical life which we may comprehend under the expression of a medieval individuality but a change in this respect was the object of many zealous

Churchmen since the latter half of the 14th century as the contest grew in behemoths it came to pass as passion views everything in a perverse Light That Matters took such a shape in the eyes of the reformers as if the whole pre-existing Church consisted of those elements of evil and of those individual

Peculiarities as if both constituted the essence of the church this opinion having now been formed the two things were further set forth in the strongest colors of exaggeration for in this course of proceeding there was a manifested advantage since with such weapons the Catholic church was most easily combed

Accordingly among the reformers we very frequently find if we accept some rare but gratifying avows in Luther’s writings not only the necessary distinction between the dogmas of the church and the individual views or conceptions of particular writers in periods of time entirely overlooked but the latter so pointedly brought forward

That the former not seldom sink totally into the background the nature of the origin of any institution determines in general its duration if accordingly Protestants would enter into the distinction in question if in their estimate at Catholicism they would look only to what was universally receive what was laid

Down in her public formularies and leave all the rest to history then as their first rise would have been impossible their separate existence even now would be essentially endangered the complaint here averted to complaint which has so often been made by Catholics appears therefore to be so intimately interwoven with their whole

Opposition against protestantism that it is only by the cessation of that opposition the complaint will ever be set aside though from this it will be evident that in the course of our symbolical inquiries a usage to be made of the works of the reformers which cannot be made of those of any Catholic

Writer we must nevertheless now draw attention to some peculiar difficulties attending the use of Luther’s and mangan’s writings Luther is very variable in his assertions he too often brings forward the very reverse of his own declarations and is in a surprising degree the sport of momentary Impressions and transient

Moods of mind he Delights in exaggerations also willingly runs into extremes and lets what are called energetic expressions in which often times when taken by themselves his true meaning is certainly not easy to be discovered the most advisable course under these circumstances is by a careful study of his writings learn the

Key note which pervades the whole individual passages can in no case be considered as decisive in themselves and a sort of average estimate therefore naturally commends itself to our adoption with Malton we have pure difficulty to encounter he indeed is involved in contradictions of Greater moment than Luther but for that very

Reason he lightens for us the task of separating in his works the genuine Protestant elements from their opposites in this respect his reforming career may be accurately divided into two distinct Parts in the first being yet a young man little familiar with theological studies and versed Only In

Classical literature he was by degrees so subjugated in religious Matters by the personal influence of Luther as to embrace without any qualification his way of thinking and it was in this period that the first edition of his most celebrated work the locai theologic appeared when his ripening talents his

More extended theological learning and a more enlarged experience of Life had pointed out to him the abyss before which he had been conducted he receded by degrees but yet he was never able to attain to a certain independence of mind for in the flower of his years he had given himself

Up to foreign influences that confined and deadened his Spirit he now on one side vasculated without a compass between Catholicism and Lutheranism on another side between Lutheran and calvinistic opinions hence we have felt no difficulty in making use only of his above mentioned work in the Edition described and in opposite ition

To those who may be of another opinion we appeal to the controversies that have been agitated among the lutherans respecting the Corpus filipic and to the final settlement of the question in respect to zwingley and Calvin there are no such difficulties as the former for the most part has only historical

Importance and the latter is ever uniform with himself end of section n section 10 of volume one of symbolism by Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Burton Robertson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain introduction part two symbolical writings of Catholics and Protestants subsection one the Catholic

Formularies before we proceed to the treatment of our subject we must inquire into the public confessions of Catholics as well as of Protestants it is a matter of course that those formularies only are here understood where in the peculiar and opposite doctrines of the two confessions are set forth and not by

Any means those wherein the Elder class of Protestants in accordance with Catholics have expressed a common belief the apostolic nyine and athanasian Creeds and in general all the doctrinal decrees which the first four General councils have laid down in respect to the Trinity and to the person of Christ

Those Protestants who are faithful to their Church recognize in common with the Catholics and on this point the Lutheran at the commencement of the urg confession as well as in the smal Articles solemnly declared their belief not less explicit and public were their Declarations of the reform these formularies constitute the

Common property of the separate churches the precious Dow which the overwise daughters carried away with them from the maternal house to their new settlements they cannot accordingly be matter of discussion here where we have only to speak of the disputes which occasion the separation but not of those

Remaining bonds of union to which the severed yet cling we shall first speak of those writings wherein at the springing up of dissensions the Catholic Church declared her primitive domestic laws one the Council of Trent soon after the commencement of the controversies of which Luther was the author but whereof

The cause lay hidden in the whole Spirit of that age the desire from many quarters was expressed and by the emperor Charles I warmly represented to the pap court that a general Council should undertake the settlement of these disputes but the very complicated nature of the matter themselves as well as

Numerous obstacles of a peculiar kind which have seldom been impartial appreciated did not permit the opening of the council earlier than the year 1545 under Pope Paul III after several long interruptions one which lasted 10 years the council in the year 1563 under the pontificate of Pas IV was

On the close of the 25th session happily concluded the decrees regard dogma and discipline those regarding the former are set forth partly in the form of treaties separately entitled theum or doctrina partly in the form of short positions called canones the former describ sometimes very circumstantially the Catholic

Doctrine the latter declaring tur and piy terms against the prevailing errors in Doctrine the disciplinary ordinances with the title of theum the reformi will but rarely engage our attention the second writing which we must here name is the Trenton or Roman catechism with the title catechism Romanus execo pili

Trentini the fathers of the church assembled at Trent felt themselves the want of a good catechism for General use although very serviceable works of that kind were then not altogether wanting these even during the celebration of the council increased to a great quantity none however gave perfect satisfaction

And it was resolved that one should be composed and published by the council itself in fact the council examined the outline of one prepared by a committee but this for want of practical utility and general intellig bless it was compelled to reject at length when the August

Assembly was on the point of being dissolved it saw the necessity of renouncing the publication of a catechism and of concurring in The Proposal of theal legates to leave to the holy sea the preparation of such a work the Holy Father selected for this important task three distinguished theologians namely Leonardo Marino

Archbishop of lanciano aidio foscari Bishop of medena and Francisco fuero a Portuguese Dominican they were assisted by three cardinal and the celebrated philologist paus manutius who was to give the last finish to the Latin diction and style of the work it appeared in the year 1566 under

Pope pus IV and as a proof of its Excellence the various provinces of the church some even by numerous codal decrees hastened publicly to introduce it this favorable reception in fact it fully deserved from the pure Evangelical spirit Spirit which was found to pervade it from the unction and clearness with

Which it was written and from the happy exclusion of Scholastic opinions and avoidance of Scholastic forms which was generally desired it was nevertheless designed merely as a manual for pastors in the ministry and not to be a substitute for children’s catechisms although the originally continuous form of its

Exposition was afterwards broken up into questions and answers but now it may be asked whether it possess really a symbolical Authority and symbolical character this question cannot be answered precisely in the affirmative for in the first place it was neither published nor sanctioned but only occasioned by the Council of

Trent secondly according to the destination prescribed by the Council of Trent it was not like regular formularies to be made to oppose any theological error but only to apply to practical use the symbol of faith already put forth hence it answers other wants and is accordingly constructed in a manner

Far different from public confessions of Faith this work also does not confine itself to those points of belief merely which in opposition to the Protestant communities the Catholic Church holds but it Embraces all the doctrines of the gospel and hence it might be named if the usage of speech and the The Peculiar

Objects of all formularies were compatible with such a denomination a confession of the Christian church in opposition to all non-Christian Creeds if for the reason first stated the Roman catechism be devoid of a formal Universal sanction of the church so it once for the second reason assigned all the internal qualities and

The special aim which formularies are want to have in the third place it is worthy of notice that on one occas in the controversy touching the relation of Grace to Freedom the Jesuits asserted before The Supreme authorities of the church that the catechism possessed not a symbolical character and no

Declaration in contradiction to their opinion was pronounced but if we refuse to the Roman catechism the character of a public confession we by no means deny it a great Authority which even from the very circumstance that it was composed by order of the Council of Trent undoubtedly belongs to it in the next

Place as we have said it enjoys a very general approbation from the teaching church and can especially exhibit the many recommendations which on various occasions The Sovereign pontiffs have bestowed on it we shall accordingly often refer to it and use it as a very important voucher for Catholic Doctrine

Particularly where the Declarations of the Council of Trent are not sufficiently ample and detail three the professio F triena stands in a similar relation four shortly after the times of the Council of Trent and in part during its celebration there arose within the Catholic Church doctrinal controversies referring mostly to the relation between

Grace and freedom into subjects of a kindred nature and hence even for our purposes they are not without importance for the settlement of the dispute the apostolic sea saw itself forced to issue several constitutions wherein it was obliged to enter into the examination of the matter and debate to these

Constitutions belong especially the Bulls published by innocent the 10th against the five propositions of jenius and the bull unog genitus by Clement the 11th we may undoubtedly say of these constitutions that they possess no symbolical character for they only note certain propositions as erroneous and do not set forth the doctrine opposed to

The error but suppose it to be already known but a formulary of Faith must not merely reject error it must State Doctrine as the afores said Bulls however rigidly adhere to the decisions of Trent and are composed quite in their Spirit as they moreover have reference to many important questions and settle

Though only in a negative way these questions in the sense of the above named decrees We Shall occasionally recur to them and illustrate by their aid many a Catholic dogma it is evident from what has been said that the Catholic church in fact has in the matters in question but one

Writing of a symbolical Authority all that in any respect May bear such a title is only a deduction from this formulary or a nearer definition illustration or application of its contents or is in part only regulated by it or in any case obtains a value only

By agreement with it and hence cannot in point of dignity bear a comparison with the original itself subsection two the Lutheran formularies the first symbolical book of the Lutheran is the osberg confession it owes its rise to the following circumstances the Schism in the church which had proceeded from Wittenberg had

Already engaged the attention of several diets but the decrees framed against it at worms in the year 1521 appeared impracticable at spires in the year 1526 and 3 years later led to a very critical dissension in the Assembly of princes which in March of 1529 was again convoked at the last mentioned

Place those states of the Empire which had protested against the demand to give no further extension to ‘s reformation and had expressed a decided repugnance to tolerate as the Catholic party proposed those Catholic familiarities of Doctrine and practice yet subsisting in their Dominion now formed close Leagues

With each other in 19 articles framed at schwabach composed the doctrinal basis of the association without the recognition whereof no one could become a member that Toral the above mentioned articles were confirmed out of these elements was formed the osberg confession Charles I summoned a diet to

Be held at osber in the year 1530 which after an impartial and Earnest examination of the doctrines of either party was to secure peace to the church and the Empire this laudable object was in no other way to be obtained and by letting the Protestant States set forth their

Doctrinal views and alleg that they found offensive and the rights and discipline of the church as hitherto practiced Malton received a commission to state in a brief essay afterwards called the osberg confession the opinions of his party for Luther was generally deemed unfit for the office of pacification although the author of this

Confession had altered in many respects the articles of swach and Toral and on the whole had very much softened down and really improved the assert of Luther yet much was still wanting to make it acceptable to Catholics hence a reputation of the Protestant confession that had been read

Out was composed and in like manner delivered before the Assembly of the princes but this also failing to carry conviction to the minds of the Lutheran States Malon wrote an apology for his confession which although no public use could be made of it at the diet was yet subsequently honored as the second

Symbolical writing of the Lutheran the object of the emperor to restore peace and Concord in Germany was not attained although special conferences between the most Pacific and moderate theologians of the two parties were still instituted at osberg on several articles indeed they came to an understanding but as the

Conciliation had been forced by circumstances it remained merely outward and apparent all hope meanwhile had long been fixed on a eneral Council and such a one was now invoked for Mana by Pope Paul III even the Protestant States received an invitation to attend it and in the

Year 1537 smal was selected by them in order among other things to confer with each other and with the Imperial and Papal deputies held and forsus Luther had previously been charged with drawing up the propositions which were to express the Protestant sentiments form the basis of some subsequent reunion and note down the

Points which might perhaps be conceded to the Catholics at smal these propositions received the sanction of the Protestant princes as well as of several theologians summoned for advice these propositions were indeed never employed for the purpose designed for from a concurrence of obstacles occasioned by the circumstances of the time the

Council was not assembled the lutherans however had thus another opportunity of expressing their opinion in regard to the Catholic church and under the name of the smal Articles a place among the Protestant symbolical books was conceded to this essay of Luthers already during these manifestos against the Catholics the seeds of a

Great inward conflict were laid among those to whom Luther had given his name and his Doctrine yet it was only after his death that these seeds were really brought to matur the subject of the dispute and the persons engaged in it will be noticed in the course of the present work but we

Cannot here refrain from observing that after long and stormy dissensions it was Andrew Chancellor of tuenin to whom the honor eminently belongs of discovering a formulary which in opposition to the attempted Innovations so expressed itself in favor of the genuine Orthodoxy has to be everywhere received for the

Only correct exposition of the Lutheran Faith which Consolidated Concord forever and secured the Orthodox Doctrine against future falsifications after long and very doubtful efforts which taxed his patience to the severest length this person at last succeeded with the aid of chemnitz a highly respectable Theologian of Brunswick in establishing in the year

1577 the intended formulary it is commonly called the formulary of Concord or sometimes the Brean book from the monastery of Brean in the vicinity of magniberg where the above mentioned theologians AED by S Neer put the finishing hand to the work this confession consisted of two pieces

A short outline of the Orthodox Doctrine called the epitome and a very diffuse exposition of the same which is commonly cited under the name of the Cita declaro moreover this writing however much conceived in the spirit of Luther’s original doctrines and singularly enough even because it was so conceived was by

No means universally accepted lastly to the afor cented symbolical writings must be added the larger and the smaller catechism of Luther called by the epitome the Bible of the Le these two catechisms in themselves though as we may conceive they comprised the contents of the Lutheran formularies

Were not intended to be symbolical books yet it is pleased the Lutheran Church so to rever them section three the calvinistic and zwinglian formularies if the symbolical books of the Lutheran confession were adopted by all the particular churches that embraced the views of the Wittenberg reformers a fact which only in regard to

The formulary of Concord admits of an exception the reformed communities on the other hand possess no confessions received the like General respect the reason is to be sought partly in zwingli’s conception of the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist which too deeply wounded the profounder religious feelings of the 16th century to gain a

Permanent or even a very extensive perception in partly in Calvin’s doctrine of predestination which revolting as it was to the sense of Christians could not in like manner penetrate into all the reformed churches hence as no General Harmony existed among the reformed communities no such General Harmony could possibly be expressed in a

Common formulary add to this The Peculiar circumstances of the Anglican Church wherein the Divine institution of episcopacy is asserted against the Presbyterian system of the other partisans of zwingley and Calvin and wherein consequently in accordance with this view a liturgy more approximating to that of the Catholic church was

Introduced thus it happened that nearly every reformed National Church had its own formulary or even several formularies differing from each other the more remarkable are the following one the confessio tetr poatina which was presented by the four cities straussburg constants mingan and lindal to the diet

Of osberg in the year 1530 but was not attended to by that assembly because the Protestant States refused these cities on account of their leaning to the zwingle in view of the Lord’s Supper admission into their league the above mentioned cities having some years later out of pure political motives subscribed

The osberg confession the confessio petropolitan was in a short time abandoned by every one two the three helvetic confession the helvetic confession which stands at the head of the collection of the reformed symbolic writings accordingly the first was in the year 1536 composed by Henry Bullinger and Leo Judas moonius and Simon

Grus but in the year 1566 was revised and published in the name of all the helvic churches those of Bassel and N Chad accepted the second confession is the first we have named but in its original form the third is the confession of mu Hassen published by Oswald m conias in the year

1532 it is also denominated the confession of Basil three the 39 articles the formulary of the Anglican Church in the year 1553 under King Edward I 6 42 articles have been composed probably by cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury and Ridley Bishop of London as the confession of the English

Church but under Elizabeth they were in the year 1562 reduced to 39 articles and were confirmed by a London sinon four the French Calvinists framed their confession of faith in a sinot at Paris which Antoine shantu a calvinistic creature at Paris had on a bidding to that effect

Invoked five the Disciples of Calvin in the Netherlands received in the year 1562 a confession of Faith composed in the French tongue by G debr and hadrien saravia with the aid of several Cooperators and which was soon after translated into Flemish but these men not having been publicly charged this

Undertaking this formulary obtained only by degrees a symbolical Authority which especially after the sin out held at Dart in the year 1574 had with the exception of a few unimportant particulars given at their sanction could not fail to occur six far more celebrated and more notorious however were the decrees of

Another calvinistic Senate held likewise at Dort in the year 1618 and 1619 Calvin’s rigid theory of predestination could not long be maintained without encountering opposition even in the bosom of the reformed this lay in the very nature of things but the majority of Calvinists showed themselves as little inclined to

Suffer one of the fundamental dogmas of their Church to be called in question as did lutherans in Germany hence when arminius a preacher in Amsterdam and after the year 1603 a professor in Leiden together with other men of a similar way of thinking called in doubt Calvin’s opinions and these

Again were vly defended by his colleague goar a very eventful contest arose the settlement whereof the above mentioned sinot attempted while in reality it only confirmed the dissension the Armenians or remonstrants though very much persecuted maintained themselves as the distinct sect meanwhile the decrees of Dort met

With a very favorable reception out of Holland even in Switzerland among the Calvinists in France and in other parts while in England they were formerly rejected and in other countries were not approved of seven Frederick III count pattin won the ride who renounced the Lutheran for the calvinistic Creed and forced upon

His subject his own own cherished opinions caused in the year 1562 a catechism to be composed which has also been included in the number of calvinistic symbolical books it is commonly called the heidleberg or pattin catechism and has met with so much approval that many reformed communities have adopted it as a school

Book eight the Protestant princes mostly entertain the same view of their prerogative as the count battin Frederick and though they were bound to decide for their subjects all religious controversies and to make their own individual opinions the property of all on his death this Prince was succeeded in the year

1576 by his son Lewis who in his turn expelled the calvinistic preachers and together with the Lutheran Creed reestablished the Lutheran service until his successor Frederick IV in the year 1582 a second time restored the peculiar doctrines and practices of Calvinism and inflicted on the ministers and professors of the again outlawed

Confession the same fate which under his predecessor those of Calvinism had sustained even the decrees of Dort were obliged to be believed in the platinate the like occurred in the principality of anhalt John George from the year 1586 Prince of anhalt desau believed it his duty to purge his lands from

Luther’s opinions and institutions and to enforce the introduction of Calvinism in the year 1597 appeared a formulary comprised in 28 articles and no other alternative was left to the preachers but subscription or banishment from the country when however Prince John in the year 1644 assumed the Reigns of government he reestablished by his

Violent means the Lutheran confession in hes Castle after the landgrave Maurice had changed his Creed the calvinistic confession indeed was enced and the preachers of Lutheran Orthodoxy were deposed yet a circumstance which must excite great astonishment no special symbolical book was proposed to the acceptance of believer perhaps such a formulary would

Not have failed to appear had not belief in the doctrinal decision of D Ben shortly after WS ordained nine on the other hand the margrave of bradenburg John Sigman on abandoning the Lutheran or the calvinistic church was unable to refrain from the pleasure of publishing a special

Formulary it is known under the name of the confession of the marches 10 lastly we must observe that the altered confession of osber not only possesses a symbolical Authority in German calvinistic churches but it is in general highly esteemed by all Calvinists Malon in fact approximated in

His later years to the calvinistic view of the Lord’s supper and for that reason introduced into the additions of this confession rised by him from the year 1540 certain alterations which must the more recommend it to Calvinists as uninstructed person at least might be led to suppose that Vin’s opinions was

Favored by the Primitive Orthodoxy of the Lutheran Church more details on this subject Hereafter on the confessions of Poland Hungary Thor and other places as we learn nothing of a peculiar nature from them it is unnecessary here to dwell at any length the symbolical writings of the smaller Protestant sex

Are those other books when their system of belief can be derived it will be more proper to notice in the chapters devoted to the cons consideration of those sects end of section 10 section 11 of volume one of symbolism by Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Burton Robertson this LibriVox recording

Is in the public domain book one the doctrinal differences among Catholics lutherans and the reformed part one difference in Doctrine respecting the Primitive state of man and the origin of evil subheading one primitive state of man according to the Catholic Doctrine in proportion as we consider the history of mankind or even of

Individual man from the Catholic or the Protestant point of view very different conclusions will in part be formed respecting our common progenitor conclusions which will affect the Destinies of this whole race even to their passage into the next life and even the first degrees of that life take

A very different form according as we regard them in the light either of Catholic or of protestant Doctrine the parties indeed originally were not conscious of the full extent of their divisions for ecclesiastical like political revolutions are not conducted according to preconcerted fully completed system but on the contrary

Their fundamental princip principles are want to be consistently unfolded only in and by practical life and their heterogeneous parts to be thereby only gradually transformed hence at the commencement of the ecclesiastical revolution of the 16th century reflection was not immediately directed towards the origin of Our Kind nor even to its passage into

Eternity for a more minute explanation of these articles of Doctrine appeared in part to possess but a very sub ordinate interest and many points seemed only brought forward to fill up the breaches in the general system of belief the great contest which now engages our attention had rather its

Rise in the inmost and deepest Center of human history as it turned upon the mode whereby Fallen man can regain fellowship with Christ and become a partaker of the fruits of redemption but from this Center the opposition spread backward and forward and reached the two terms of human history

Which were necessarily viewed in accordance with the changes introduced in the central point the more consistently a system is carried out and the more harmoniously it is framed the more will any modification in its fundamental principle Shake all its parts whoever therefore in its Center of sailed Catholicism whose doctrines are

All most intimately intertwined was forced by degrees to attack many other points also whose con ction with those first combed was in the beginning scarcely imagined we could now have started from the real Center of all these disputes and have shown how all doctrines have been seized and drawn into its Circle

And undoubtedly the commencement of our work would have much more excited the interest of the reader had we immediately placed him in the midst of the contest and enabled him to survey the entire field which the battle commands but we conceived that the controvers worded doctrines must be

Stated in a simpler and more intelligible manner when we pursue the contrary course and by following the clue presented by the natural progress of human history bring under notice these doctrinal differences hence we begin with the original state of man speak next of his fall and the consequences thereof and

Then enter on the very Central ground of the controversy as we proceed to consider the doctrine of the restoration of man from his fall through Jesus Christ we shall afterwards point out the influence of the conflicting Doctrine respecting the origin and nature of the internal life of those United with

Christ on their external Union and communion with each other and thus be led to enlarge on the theory and essence of this outward communion according to the views of the different confessions and we shall conclude with the passage of individuals from this communion existing on Earth to that of the next

World as well as with the lasting Mutual intercourse between the two the first point accordingly which will engage our attention is the Primitive state of man Fallen man as such is able in no other wise save by the teaching of divine revelation to attain to the true and pure knowledge of his original

Condition for it was a portion of the destiny of man when alienated from his God to be likewise alienated from himself and to know with certainty neither what what he originally was Nor what he became in determining his original state we must especially direct our view to

The renewal of the Fallen creature in Christ Jesus because as regeneration consists in the reestablishment of our primeval condition and this transformation and renewal is only the Primitive creation restored the insight into what Christ ha given us back affords us the desired knowledge of what in the origin was imparted to us this

Course has been at all times and by all parties pursued when the original condition of man was to be traced as regards the Catholic dogma this Embraces the whole spiritual as well as the Corporal existence of the paradic man extending not only to his preeminent endowments of soul and body

But to those gifts which he possessed in common with all men so far at least as the doctrinal controversies of the 16th century rep re ired a special explanation on this latter Point accordingly in the higher portion of his nature he is described as the image of

God that is to say as a spiritual being endowed with freedom capable of knowing and loving God and of viewing everything in him as Adam had this Divine similitude in common with the whole human race the distinction which he enjoyed herein consisted in his being what the simple expression of the C

Council of Trent denominates just and holy in other words completely acceptable to God or as the school says in language however not quite expressive enough quote his inferior faculties of soul and bodily impulses acted unresistingly under the guidance of his reason and therefore everything in him

Was in obedience to reason as his reason was in obedience to God unquote and accordingly he lived in blessed harmony with himself and with his maker the action of the faculties and impulses of the body was in perfect Accord with a reason devoted to God and shunned all conflict with it it was

Moreover coupled with a great gift of immortality even in man’s Earthly part as well as with an exemption from all the evils and all the maladies which are now the ordinary preludes to death the ideal moral state in which Adam existed in Paradise the theologians of antiquity Knew by the name of quote

Original Justice unquote on the notion and nature whereof it will be proper to make some other remarks partly of a historical kind in order to explain the opposition which in this article of Doctrine the Catholic church has had to encounter from the Protestants the essential and Universal interest of the Christian religion in

Deter determining the original condition of our common progenitor is by the above stated brief doctrine of the church amply satisfied here in consists the interest on one hand to guard against evil in the world being attributed to a Divine cause and the dogma of the Supreme Holiness of

God the creator of the world being disfigured and on the other hand to establish on a solid basis the principle of a totally unmerited Redemption from the fall that practical fun Al doctrine of Christianity by most earnestly inculcating that God had endowed the first man with the noblest gifts and

That thus it was only through his own deep self- guiltiness he fell upon both points however there exists more stringent and by no means Superfluous definitions of the church theologians likewise taking as their standard the ecclesiastical Doctrine clearly based as it is on scripture and tradition and following certain hints

Which particular passages of holy writ and some dogmas appear to furnish having endeavored to Fathom more deeply the nature of original Justice and the church has viewed with pleasure the attention and love bestowed on the consideration of the Holy work and permitted within the determined limits which Revelation itself has marked out

The freest scope to speculation when the church attributes to Adam in his original state Holiness and justice she by no means merely means that he was unpolluted with any alloy adverse to God or contrary to his natural impulse and bearing to God but what is far more that he stood in the

Most interior and the closest communion with his maker now it is a universal truth holding good of all even the highest orders and Circles of intellectual creatures that such a relation to God as that of the paradic men is no wise to be attained and upheld by natural powers that consequently a special

Condescension of the almighty is required thereto in short that no finite being is Holy Saved By The Holy and sanctifying spirit that no finite being can exist in a living moral communion with the deity save by the communion of the self-same holy spirit this relation

Of Adam to God as it exalted him above human nature and made him participate in that of God is hence termed as indeed such a denomination is involved in the very idea such an exaltation a supernatural gift of divine grace super added to the endowments of nature moreover this more minute

Explanation of the Dogma concerning the original Holiness and Justice of Adam is not merely a private opinion of theologians but an integral part of that dogma and hence itself a Dogma the following observation will not perhaps appear unimportant so often as from a mere philosophical point of view

We mean to say so often as without regard to or knowledge of revealed truth the relation of the human Spirit to God have been more deeply investigated men have seen themselves forced to the adoption of the homalia or equality of essence between the Divine and the human nature in other words to embrace

Pantheism and with it the most arrogant deification of man now on the other hand the doctrinal system of the Catholic Church obviates the objections of pantheism and while filled with a spirit of humility satisfies those Cravings after a more profound science which profane pantheistic philosophy vainly Endeavors to supply is Apparent from

What has been above stated what man as a creature by the energy of his own nature abandons to itself was unable to attain is conferred on him as a Grace from his creator so exceedingly great is the goodness and love of God the blessing above described which

Knit the bonds of an exalted holy and happy communion between God and the paradic man is founded on the supposition that a struggle would by degrees have naturally Arisen between the sensual and spiritual nature of man characterized by many theologians as that power whereby by the sensual and

Super sensual parts of Adam were maintained in undisturbed harmony the same divines necessarily suppose that on Adam the supernatural gifts were bestowed simultaneously with his natural endowments that is to say that both were conferred at the moment of his creation other theologians on the other hand distinguishing undoubtedly between

Justice and Holiness prefer the opinion that Adam was created as a sound pure polluted nature with the harmonious relation of all his parts and that he was favored with the supernatural gift of a Holy Spirit and blessed communion with God at a later period only to it

When he had prepared for its reception and by his own efforts had rendered himself worthy of its participation this latter opinion possesses the advantage of more accurately distinguishing between the two orders of Nature and Grace and is moreover recommended by the fact that what nature is in itself and what it is

Enabled to accomplish of itself is pointed out with great clearness that the spiritual nature of man as being in its Essence the image of God hath the faculty and the aptitude to know and to love him nay that to a certain extent it is of itself really

Capable of loving him and that the desire after the full Union with the deity is a want inherent in his very nature are truths very well pointed out in this Theory thus the natural and necessary points of contact for the higher Communications of Grace are here very finely brought out the same opinion

Also distinguishes Adam’s original Justice from his internal sanctity and acceptance before God considering the former to be the attribute of pure nature as it came from the hand of the Creator the latter to be only the gift of super natural Grace The Advocates of this opinion are thus in a condition successfully to

Prove that it was not the creation as such which gave occasion to any in congruity in the relation of man to God any Interruption of the former’s freedom but that every such in congruity every such disturbance had its rise only in the abuse of Freedom further this Theory significantly implies that without any

Antagonism of evil man could yet have attained to the consciousness of his own nature and the wants extending Beyond it as well as the manifestations of divine favor and Grace a Doctrine which is of the highest importance lastly the possible condition of man after his fall and the course of

His conversion and regeneration are here prefigured moreover both these opinions regard the justice and sanctity of Adam as accidental qualities the Council of Trent has not pronounced itself either for or against either of them but has employed such Expressions that both may coexist within the pale of the

Church the first Declaration of the council regarding our great progenitor was catched in the following terms quote the justice and sanctity wherein he Adam was created unquote gidus this form was afterwards and so far modified that instead of the word quote unquote created that of quote unquote established constitutes was

Selected end of section 11 section 12 of volume one of symbolism by Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Burton Robertson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain chapter 1 subheading two the Lutheran Doctrine on man’s original state Luther by no means called in question the fact that Adam was

Positively holy and just on the contrary he was totally unacquainted with the later negative conceptions of a state of mere innocency an indifference between good and evil wherein the paradic man is represented to have existed and was accordingly far removed from those opinions which make the doctrine of the Fall foolish

And make the human race adopt a course which is the necessary entrance into evil in order to serve as a transition to a self-conscious return to good unhappily he fell into other errors which considered in their consequences outweigh at least those we have mentioned respecting original Justice

Luther brought no new and peculiar views into Vogue he only selected out of the rich store of theories which the fruit fulness of scholasticism had produced the one which seemed most favorable to his own opinions handled it with no great dexterity and in the form which it

Assumed under his hands interwove it in such a way into his whole system of doctrine that the latter without it can not be at all understood hence it is only later that its full importance in the whole Lutheran system will become perceptible against those theologians who called Adam acceptableness before

God Supernatural Luther asserted it to be natural and in opposition to the schoolman who regarded it as accidental he conceived it to be essential to human nature an integral and constitutive part of the saint essay de Natura de asentia ominus he meant to say the pure nature

Of man as it sprung forth at the omnipotent word of the Creator comprised absolutely in itself all the conditions to render it pleasing unto God that the various parts of Adam’s Nature by The Peculiar energy inherent in them were maintained in the most beautiful Harmony and the whole man preserved in his due

Relation to God the religious faculty especially of the first man in virtue of an inborn fullness of energy expanded itself in a way acceptable to the deity so that without any Supernatural Aid he TR truly knew God believed in him loved him perfectly and was holy the religious and moral disposition

Of Adam together with its practical development the reformers called the image of God without drawing any distinction between the bare faculty itself and the exercise of that faculty in correspondency to the Divine will from the very fact that Adam possessed this faculty he was according to them truly religious truly

Devoted in all things to God and His holy will and perfectly United with him Catholic theologians on the other hand distinguished very exactly between the one and the other so that to determine rightly the distinction they commonly term the religious faculty quote unquote the image of God but the

Pious exertion of that faculty quote unquote the likeness unto God we shall later see what Mighty consequences were involved in these at the first view trifling doctrinal differences that seemed merely to concern the schools and we must in the meanwhile prepare ourselves to expect on the part of Luther a most singular Doctrine

Respecting original sin moreover the non-distinction averted to had partly its foundation in the Endeavor of the reformers to be in their teaching very practical and generally intelligible hence they avoided with as much care as possible all distinctions and Abstract Expressions as a Scholastic abuse but thereby frequently fell into a

Strange and most pernicious confusion of ideas the second main point of difference between the two confessions in the matter under discussion is the doctrine of Free Will Luther asserted and he would have this assertion maintained as an article of faith that man is devoid of Freedom that every

Pretended free action is only apparent that an irresistible Divine necessity rules all things and that every human Act is at bottom only the act of God Malton taught the same he also comprised all things in the circle of an unavoidable necessity and predestination declared the doctrine

That God is the sole agent to be a necessary part of all Christian Science and thereby the wisdom and cunning of human reason were duly repressed and condemned he repeatedly insisted that the word quote unquote freedom of election was unknown to scripture and that its meaning must be rejected by the

Judgment of the spiritual man he added that this expression like the very pernicious word quote unquote reason to which he declared equal hostility had been introduced through philosophy into the Christian Church from no other cause did he deem himself so well justified in daring to apply to the professor of the

Theological faculties in the middle age the so-called schoolmen the term sophists thees and the like as on account of their crime and having established among Christians the doctrine of human Free Will so firmly that as he complained it was scarcely any longer possible to root it out perceiving after more Diversified

Experience and mature reflection especially after the controversy with the Catholics the prodigious Abyss into which such a Doctrine must precipitate the church he subsequently abandoned and even combed it on the other hand we are unacquainted with any such recantation on the part of Luther and the formulary

Of Concord gives an Express sanction to the writing of Luther against arasmus this doctrine of the servitude of the human will has had the greatest weight and its influence according to malton’s Assurance pervades even the whole religion I system of the Lutheran in regard to the original constitution of the human body both

Confessions are agreed and if the Lutheran formularies speak not expressly of that property of Adam’s Body whereby he would have remained exempt from Death this silence is to be ascribed to the total absence of all controversy on the matter subheading three calvinistic doctrine of the Primitive state of man

And enlarging on the spiritual condition of the paradic man Calvin by representing it with Luther is one devoid of Supernatural Graces sets himself up in opposition to the Catholic church but by expressly ascribing to the first man the gift of free will he equally opposed the Lutheran in other

Respects we find in this article no difference of Doctrine and the same remark will hold good of the confessions of the reformed churches in respect to the injurious con consquences produced by the sin of our first parent on his Corporal existence and that of his posterity most of the

Formularies of the reformed expressly teach with Calvin that death is the fruit of Adam’s transgression but the question here occurs how Calvin could feel himself justified in attributing free will to Adam when in common with zwingle he completely shared Luther’s Doctrine touching a Divine necessity of all occurrences

And even pushed this opinion to the extremist Verge conscious of this discrepancy he observes undoubtedly that the question as to the mysterious predestination of God is here unseasonably mooded for the matter and issue is not what could have happened but how man was originally constituted in despite of this expressed

Demand to hold the two doctrines distinct that a Divine necessity of an absolute eternal Destiny which enchains and holds all things together and that of the freedom of man prior to his fall we are at a loss to discover how this claim can be satisfied for these two doctrines are in fact

Incompatible and with the adoption of the one the other must be abandoned unless to the word Freedom a notion be attached which in reality destroys its very existence and such is really the case foras we shall have occasion to show Calvin evidently after Luther’s example makes not inward necessity but outward

Constraint the opposite to freedom on the other hand Malton has expressed himself openly and honestly on the mutual correlatives of these two articles of Doctrine and declared that from that very correlatives they should be simultaneously treated we shall find moreover that Calvin even teaches is an eternal immutable predestination of the fall of

The first man an opinion which is certainly quite incompatible with the proposition that Adam was free that is to say could have avoided sinning hence it has happened that though some symbolical writings of the reformed communities have with Calvin expressly ascribed free will to Adam others have judged it more expedient in

What they teach respecting the paradisiac man to pass this matter over in silence and this was evidently the most consistent course we think it still proper to direct attention to the internal reasons which Calvin alleged in behalf of the doctrine of an absolute necessity destructive of all human Freedom partly

Because it will then follow that it ought not at least absolutely and immediately to be confounded with the Pagan fatum and partly because the knowledge of this reasoning will be of importance in later investigations if Malton after indulging in harsh assertions could assign no other practical ground for this Doctrine

Than that the relation of man towards God averted to was very useful towards subduing human arrogance Calvin on the other hand observed that the knowledge not merely that God guided the Affairs of the world in small as in great things but that nothing whatever could occur without the express ordinance of God

Desate Deo compris the very abundant source of consolation for it is only in this way man feels himself secure in the hands of an all wise all ruling powerful and indulgent father hence the idea of a Divine permission and such a conduct of things that ultimately everything even

Evil in the world conduces to the benefit of those who serve God did not satisfy him hence the idea of a Divine permission and such a conduct of things that ultimately everything even evil in the world conduces to the benefit of those who serve God did not satisfy him

He believed the elect insecure and the notion of a Divine Providence not sufficiently defined unless for example the assaults of an enemy on an elect were absolutely willed and ordained by God moreover even the public confessions of the reformed occasionally adopt this view which Calvin here enforces of the

Providential guidance of all things mitigating considerably however this opinion and evincing a very laudable dread of stamping on their articles the harsh Spirit of Calvin by the latter however as well as by his disciple Theodore Biza the opinions averted to respecting Divine Providence were held with such tenacity and carry out with

Such consistency that they found it a matter of extreme difficulty to convince the world nay in despite of all their eloquence and dialectic art they utterly failed to convince very many that they did not in fact refer all evil to God we are bound to enter more fully into the investigation of this

Subject end of section 12 section 13 of volume 1 of symbolism by Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Burton Robertson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain chapter 1 subheading 4 on the cause of moral evil in all the more important doctrinal manuals and pical writings of the 16th

And 17th centuries in the works of bellerine panis chemnitz geart and others nay even in several public confessions the reader meets with a special and copious chapter bearing the title of the present section as in the second and third centuries of the church no writer could enlarge on the religious concerns of his

Times without entering upon the question whence is evil so the same question was now again most anxiously investigated and it soon became apparent that the opposition between Catholicism and and protestantism could not be duly appreciated and that the inmost essence of the latter would remain eternally misconceived if the different replies

Which have been made to that question were not well considered no subject in the first times of the Reformation so embittered the Catholics against the authors of that Revolution as their Doctrine respecting the relation wherein the deity stands to moral evil it was precisely on this account

The Catholic Church laid down again with so much earnestness and emphatic energy the proposition that man was created with the endowment of freedom in order that without any restriction and without subterfuge the guilt of evil in the world might fall on the head of man for

The denial of free will on the part of Luther Alon zwingley and Calvin was calculated to excite an apprehension that in consequence thereof the Catholic doctrine of God’s perfect sanctity to whom sin is an Abomination would be thrown into the shade and on the other hand that even the most vicious man

Would be thus sheltered from all responsibility and in fact mongon in his commentary on the epistle to the Romans in the addition of the Year 1525 had the Hardy Hood to assert that God wrought all things evil as well as good that he was the author of of

David’s adultery and the treason of Judas as well as of Paul’s conversion now howsoever strange and Prejudice the notion an individual may have formed of the erors of the Catholic church we ask him would he dare to assert that all these errors put together can outweigh the single enormity here uttered by

Munton then yet chemnet to whom we are indebted for the original passages in question for in the later Editions of malton’s aforesaid work they have disappeared chemnet we say excuses his teacher Malon and how does he excuse him in so complicated a matter he says among other

Things all in the beginning could not be systematically and properly treated more especially as on the part of Catholics the doctrine of Free Will had been exaggerated just as if the question when is evil had only in the 16th century first excited attention just as if holy

RIT left us at all in doubt how that question was to be answered just as if in the second and third centuries the question had not really been settled by the church however in this matter Malton merely spoke after Luther as the writing of the latter against arasmus will show

But it was malton’s assertion the Council of Trent had in view when it anathematized the proposition that God Works evil as well as good and that it is not in the power of man to abstain from wickedness in proportion however as the Notions which the Saxon reformers especially munton had entertained

Respecting Free Will became purer they abandoned the opinion that God was the author of evil and the last named writer had even the courage to revoke in the osberg confession his former Doctrine the latter formul of the lutherans are in perfect accordance with this amelioration of opinion but it was

Quite otherwise with the Swiss reformers who remained obstinately addicted to their errors the importance of the subject calls upon us to describe at greater length the nature of their opinions in his writing on Providence addressed to the landgrave Philip of Hess in 1530 zwingley asserts that God

Is the author mover and impeller to sin that also he makes the sinner that by the instrumentality of the creature he produces Injustice and the like in numberless places Calvin uses the expression man at the instigation of God doeth whatever it is unlawful to do by mysterious divine inspiration the

Heart of man turneth to evil man falleth because the Providence of God so ordained GTH if these principles fill us with just detestation they were pushed still further by Theodore Biza although what he brought forward was only deduction and indeed a necessary deduction from the doctrines just deduced this leader of the reformed

After Calvin’s death is not satisfied with repeating that God incites impels and urges to evil but he even adds that the almighty creates a portion of men as his instruments with the intent of working evil through them the reasoning attempted in support of these Notions is

Quite of a character with them in order to show that God although he urged to Wicked actions doth nevertheless not sin but only man swingly observes God as the just one is subject to no law for it is written the law is not given for the

Just thus should God make an angel or a man transgress the law whom transgressor Fess it he himself does not transgress it but the creature whom the law oppresses and accuses a more pitiable train of reasoning it would be impossible to invent whether we consider the notion which swingly here gives of

The just man for according to the meaning of the passage in St Paul averted to the just man is in himself the living moral law and therefore do does not stand in a mere extraneous relation to its precepts but Bears them in himself and constantly fulfills them

Or whether we look to the essence of the deity from whose wisdom and Holiness the moral law is only an emanation in which in pure and eternal glory he realizes or whether lastly we contemplate the moral law in itself alone which swingly however much he may incidentally exalted treats as an

Arbitrary and merely positive code the reformer of Zurich completely destroys the objectiveness of evil and has not a perception of a holy moral government of the world even in those passages where he seems to speak in such a sense for these reasons he did not perceive that if God were to impel to

The transgression of a moral law given by himself he would then be in contradiction with himself and would violate his own nature and not merely an outward rule that is to say the reformer did not see that his theory destroyed the very notion of the deity the injurious influence of this Doctrine on

Public morality is evident of itself and was strongly represented to Calvin swingley still Endeavors to justify his unhappy Doctrine by the pretense that God is ever Guided by pure intentions that consequently the end sanctifies the mean means and in a somewhat strange connection with this matter he adds that David’s adultery

Whereof God was the author could as little convict God of a bad action as when a bull impregnates a whole herd of cows here he only overlooks the circumstance that man is no more a cow than God is a bull that accordingly if man had been instigated by God to

Adultery this could not occur without a violation of man’s moral nature and consequently the guilt would revert to God Wiley’s conception more nearly examined consists here in that God wrought on the sensuality of David which by its power overmastered his will that in consequence God performed only the

Outward work indifferent in itself and not the evil in it the work which in the nupal Union as well as in adultery is identical but half could he distinguish between the Temptations of Satan and such an agency as here described reverting to the observation which swingly deemed calculated to

Justify the deity that in alluring to bad actions God had good objects in view it must be said that this notion was shared by Calvin and Bea though by the latter it was put forth with more acuteness hence it will be our duty to State the opinions of these two

Reformers Calvin admits that the opinion According to which God determines man to moral corruption and impels him to sin is not compatible with the known will of the deity hence like Luther in his book against arasmus he has recourse to a hidden will of God whereby his mode of

Proceeding is indeed very just though its Equity be not obvious to our perception if this be the ordinary way wherein Calvin in his institutions seeks to defend himself in his instruction against the so-called Libertines who evidently induced by his own and zwingley writings had denied the distinction between good and evil and

Placed redemption in the knowledge obtained through Christ that no distinction exists between the two he still labors to show the great difference existing between the acts of God and the act of the impious in one and the same deed so he says God works to exercise Justice

While the Wicked Man is actuated by avarice covetousness Etc God for instance instigates a man to murder but from no other motive than to punish a crime committed we leave it to the Judgment of everyone whether the employment of such means be compatible with the very notion of the deity and

How extremely pernicious it would be and subversive of all human morality were men here in to imitate the deity so represented but it is evident that the injury must here be carried back as far as the fall of Man and the question arises what share is to be allotted to

God in that event Alvin never thinks of deducing the fall of Adam from The abuse of human freedom but on the contrary in perfect accordance with his own fundamental principles he admits that God had ordained the fall and by an eternal decree brought it about in basa we find these monstrous

Errors pushed to still further length the principal points of his reasoning are as follows God wished on one hand to show mercy and on the other to reveal his Justice Adam was created morally just and holy for from God’s hand nothing unclean can come forth but how could God unfold his

Mercies since the sinner only can be the subject object of these how could he manifest his Justice if no one committed wrong and thereby incurred punishment hence for the unfolding of these attributes the deity must prepare a channel which was found in ordaining the fall of the first

Man these Divine objects being perfectly just and holy their quality is transmitted to the means also selected for their execution here Visa does not speak of a mere cooperation of the deity in the performance of a mere outward part in an evil action for God whether to punish or

To exercise Mercy as regard to the inward evil sentiment since without this sin is not possible it was thus the part of the deity to call forth somehow an evil sentiment in order to attain his ends that is to say he must annihilate his sanctity in order on its ruins to attain

To compassion and justice hence Visa does not deny that the first man when he sinned succumbed under an invincible destiny that it was thus not left to his freedom to abstain from sin but like Luther and Calvin distinguishing between necessity and compulsion he says the latter does not

Occur in sin that on the contrary Adam sinned willingly with an inward pleasure spontaneo Motu in opposition to libero and volario Motu and although he was not able to avoid sinning he did not wish to avoid it and it was this very thing which constituted his criminality It Is by these principles

The passages in the reformed confessions are to be estimated they all assert that God is not the author of sin that is to say in the sense where swingley Calvin and Visa attempt to exculpate the deity after having denied Man’s Free will end of section 13 section 14 of volume one of symbolism

By Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Burton Robertson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain chapter 2 on original sin and its consequence subheading five the Catholic doctrine of original sin it is one of the most remarkable phenomena in the history of the religious controversies of the last

Three centuries that the reformers according to whose principles Adam in his fall only succumbed under a sentence of irresistible necessity pronounced upon Him should have represented the deity as kindling into so fearful a wrath and inflicting so frightful a chastisement for this act of the first man which according to their own views

Should be called rather his pure Misfortune it is no easy task to explain how ideas so unconnected should have been associated in one and the same head when we just now use the comprehensive word quote unquote reformers we did so advisedly for even Luther and mongan had both completely

Framed their theory of original sin when they were entangled in those opinions described in the preceding section opinions which zwingley and Calvin only took up and further developed how could Adam be the subject of such fearful wrath if he did only what he was obliged to do if he

Perpetrated only what he could not avoid hence arises a conception of original sin on the part of Protestants which in almost every respect We Trust we may be pardoned the expression devoid of sense and Reason by the most exaggerated description of the effect of Adam’s fall they seem anxious to resuscitate the

Feeling of sin and the consciousness of guilt which by their view of God’s relation to evil they were on the point of utterly destroying and yet they only aggravate the matter as will appear in the course of the present chapter which must however in the first instance be devoted

To an examination of the principles laid down by the Council of Trent the doctrine of the Catholic Church on original sin is extremely simple and may be reduced to the following propositions Adam by sin lost his original Justice and Holiness Drew Down on himself by his Disobedience the

Displeasure and the judgments of the almighty incurred the penalty of death and thus in all his Parts in his body as well as Soul became strangely deteriorated this his sinful condition is transmitted to all his posterity as descending from him entailing the consequence that man is of himself

Incapable even with the aid of the most perfect ethical law offered to him from without not accepting even the one revealed in the old Covenant to act in a manner agreeable to God or in any other way to be justified before him save only by the merits of Jesus Christ the sole

Mediator betx God and man if to this we add that the fathers of Trent attribute to Fallen man free will representing it however as very much weakened and in consequence teach that not every religious and moral action of man is necessarily sinful although it be never in itself and by

Itself acceptable to God nor any wise perfect we then have stated all which is to be held as strictly the doctrine of the church that moreover Fallen man still Bears the image of God section one necessarily follows from what has been advanced if in reading these decrees of the

Council of Trent we call to mind all those questions which since the rise of the pelagian heresy and even much earlier were on the matter at issue proposed to scientific investigation we shall not fail to observe that the assembled fathers found it expedient in their decision not to touch upon a

Considerable number of these questions and to express themselves in regard to them with a certain generality we say in regard to these questions for on the matter itself considered according to scripture and ecclesiastical tradition the council has pronounced very definite and full declarations but as in this Doctrine the

Lutherans were driven to the most pernicious exaggerations and as in the first years of the Reformation some Catholic theologians for example albertus rius as is often the case in the reputation of EX ex opinions approximated to the opposite extreme the decrees of Trent were received with feelings of very

Great Prejudice by the Protestants who in their rash Behemoth charged them with pelagianism as regards the deliberations of Trent Piva AB andrada a Portuguese Theologian who assisted at them informs Us in the third book of his defense of the council that it purposely abstained from any minutu definitions and palisin

Says that the council has expressed itself more negatively yet with such distinctness that the errors on this matter then current were as such clearly and distinctly rejected if the church he continues be unable to give any accurate definition of original sin it is sufficient for her to denote what

Original sin is not and this she can do with as much propriety as one who having no clear notion of Heaven could still assert with confidence that it was not composed of linen adorned with gold paper the same celebrated historian also relates that the pap legats reminded the

Assembled fathers not to decide on the nature of original sin itself because scripture and tradition are silent upon this matter and he adds the holy sinod was not convoked to pronounce upon opinions but to condemn errors we shall soon be enabl to see the great propriety of this judgment of

Pichin in order to point out more nearly the points whereon the various schools were United and the points about which they were at variance we shall lay before our readers a summary statement of the Scholastic views respecting original sin in so far at least as their relation to the Protestant errors may

Require by showing their agreement it will appear that it was only the most inv venomed Prejudice which could venture to charge the schoolman with a superficial pelagianism that is to say with the den of original sin or at least with a misapprehension of its magnitude but while we Mark the point at

Which the schoolmen diverge in opposite directions we encounter the limit which a higher hand has set to the investigations of human science if their efforts to extend this boundary have been somewhat unsuccessful if they explain nothing or much less than they ought it will still be unjust to regard what has been

Explained as the sole Criterion of that which it was their task to have explained quote all those who descend from the seed of Adam says bonaventura have a nature marred not only by punishment but by guilt unquote this is Manifest in the want of God’s intuition in the ignominy which weighs

Upon reason and in the preponderance of evil desire concupisent the want of the Divine intuition evidently presupposes guilt because no one can be deprived of Eternal good for the enjoyment whereof he has been created unless there be in him something which renders him Unworthy of standing in the presence of his God

In respect to the second no one need be ashamed of anything which is the property of his nature but is not reason ashamed of certain motions of the flesh this too betokens an inherited guilt the preponderance of evil lust is a matter of certainty also because then only is

The soul of man well ordered when the spirit is in subjection to God and the Flesh and animal faculties are in subjection to the spirit but ill ordered and therefore perverted is the soul of man when its relation to God and the senses has been inverted this is now the case and not

Only does faith teach so but philosophy here in concurs the violence of wicked lust and the law of the members which each one half from its birth holds the spirit captive and overmaster it it is thus undeniable that the soul of each one is from his birth perverted

Perversa but if the right state of the Soul be Justice its perverted state is guilt and as we are perverted from our birth we bear about with us from our birth the stain of guilt of this no one doubts except he who is ignorant of the power of evil

Desire and does not know in what way the rational Spirit should be obedient unto God for it is acknowledged that unless our spirit love God above all things and for his own sake it is not perfectly obedient unto him it is also acknowledged that without the gift of

Grace no one in the state of corrupt nature loveth God above all things and for his own sake nay he is necessarily overcome by the force of wicked lust so as to be more enamored of himself and of some apparent good thus is every soul from its birth a sinner because

Perverted and disordered and hence the Apostle speaking in the person of Fallen Humanity saith quote I see another law in my members which striveth against the law of the spirit and holdeth me captive under the law of sin then he exclaims unhappy man that I am am who

Shall deliver me from the body of this death and he replies the grace of God through Jesus Christ whoever pays attention to this law and the members and to our false relation to God will certainly not deny that man from his birth is sinful n he will clearly see that it is

Impossible to doubt the existence of original any more than of actual sin if philosophers and some Heretics have not acknowledged this it is because they had no notion of the rectitude of the soul of Justice nor how much the soul should turn to God thus all human

Nature is given up to corruption and not only because it has incurred a penalty but because it is in fact sinful unquote quote original sin as this great teacher of the church may be described as the want of original Justice whereby the perversity of Nature and evil concupiscence hath arisen

Unquote let us hear now St Thomas aquinus the head of another great School in the middle age he thus enlarges on the subject of original sin quote as between things opposite there is an opposite relation so from original Justice its opposite original sin may be explained but the whole order of

Original Justice consists therein that the will of man was obedient to God and obedience which in an imminent degree was practiced by the will for it is the Providence of the will to direct all other parts of the soul in Conformity to this its highest destination hence when the will fell

Away from God disorder and all other faculties of the Soul ensued thus in original sin the deprivation of original Justice is the formal part that is to say the Casual determining and essential part but every other disorder in the faculties of the soul is the material part of original

Sin that is to say the thing determined the consequence the manifestation of the essence the disorder of the other powers of the Soul shows itself in the perverted affection to transitory good a disorder which may be denoted by the well-known expression Wicked desire concupisent Tia thus in its Essence forma

Original sin is the want of original Justice in its manifestation Materia it is evil desire UN in another place he says all the faculties of the Soul have been to a certain degree displaced from their proper direction and destination a displacement which is called the wound

Of nature but there are four powers of the Soul which can become the conduits of virtue namely reason wherein is recognition the will wherein is Justice The Faculty of exertion wherein is courage The Faculty of Desire wherein is temperance and so far as reason has been diverted from its bearing towards the

Truth has arisen the wound of ignorance in as much as the will has been diverted from its bearing towards good has arisen the wound of wickedness in as much as the faculty of exertion has been diverted from its bearing towards the arduous has arisen the wound of

Frailty lastly in as much as the faculty of Desire has been diverted from its course as directed by reason towards the term of pleasure has arisen concupiscence unquote as original sin was represented by bonaventura in the more practical tone of eloquent complaint and by Thomas with more scientific accuracy and

Subtlety of Distinction so we find the same generally expounded in the ecclesiastical schools prior to the period of the apostasy from the church so that anyone who judges the matter with sobriety and with competent knowledge will be utterly unable to discover in them any even the slightest traces of

Pelagianism if we turn now to the differences of opinion which divide the schoolmen the most important will be found to consist in the representation of the mode wherein the sin of Adam was transmitted to his descendants it must be especially observed that for very weighty reasons the schoolmen rejected as erroneous the

Opinion that Souls were transmitted through Generation by the parents to their children trucian ismus and on the other hand held as alone true and Orthodox the doctrine that souls are ever created by God creationism if according to the first view the transmission of original sin from the principle that light comes from

Its like and so that a sinner will beget a sinner is apparently easy to explain so on the other hand the doctrine of successive creation of souls offers at first view great difficulties in the scientific treatment of the article of belief which now engages Our intention

For what happens to the soul created by God and created in all soundness purity and integrity that at the moment of its Union with the body it should be deprived not only of all Supernatural gifts but so deeply wounded in all its natural faculties and placed in so

Fearfully in congruous a relation to the deity the teachers of science have at all times found it a matter of difficulty to acknowledge their ignorance the expectation of Scholars to be able to comprehend everything is met by the presumptuous confidence of teachers to make all things comprehensible the proposition is indeed

Defended that in the True Religion there must be Mysteries there must be things incomprehensible but instead thereof it should be broadly maintained that for us in our present condition the true religion is itself a mystery that it is the mystery and that in consequence all its particular Parts must offer

Mysteries here is the whole mysterious therefore its parts not this or that only is mysterious but all is so yet there is within us an irrepressible longing after comprehension it is the same which in its excess leads to the denial of everything above comprehension this very longing to

Comprehend like the fact that we are surrounded by incomprehensible Mysteries points to the distraction which is convulsed our nature to the wound inflicted on our reason to a lost intuition and in so far to an unhappy past yet it betokens too a happy Futurity an intuition for which we are

Destined which beams Upon Us From Afar and for which even in this life we seek some sort of compensation this desire to comprehend is a meager Vital sign of a yet extent but deeply concealed germ of future intuition and a warranty that that intuition will be one day imparted to us

So a well-regulated development ought not to be refused to this inborn desire but full satisfaction here below we may rest assured it neither finds nor communicates shall then this very effort after comprehension which is so closely connected with the original convulsion of our nature with the night that has

Since spread over our spirit be crowned with success in the attempt to dispel this Darkness we may be permitted to entertain a doubt who comprehends evil in itself whose eye has ever penetrated into the deep connection between moral and physical evil who has ever explored the mysterious ties which unite the soul

And the body who knows the sexual relations and comprehends what is life and the generation of life some schoolmen taught that by the fall of Adam a destructive and infectious quality was introduced into the human body and that this quality propagated by generation contaminated the Soul at the moment of its Union with

The body the based it and communicated to it the disorder of the body but even overlooking the fact that the rise of a positive bad quality is itself an enigma nay is utterly inconceivable still this Theory takes a very material view of evil and although it may appear to offer

Some satisfactory explanations as to bodily diseases and as to death yet in the spiritual region it is utterly unavailing how could the infusion of such a corporeal poison convey to the soul the germ of all which in the most comprehensive sense constitutes self-seeking to it revolt against God

Arrogance and envy towards our fellow man vanity and complacency in regard to ourselves if so disordered a spiritual condition if so distempered a moral State could be engendered by the connection of the Soul with the body it would be then certainly very difficult to uphold the notion of moral

Evil this theory was in consequence rejected by most of the schoolmen and instead of this another was adopted namely that with the exception of this Heritage of guilt Fallen man is born exactly like Adam when considered without his Supernatural Graces that is to say with all the natural faculties powers and properties

Of the paradic man as well as without any quality evil in itself the conflict between reason and sensuality is caused by the two very heterogeneous Essences whereof man is composed and therefore without the divine principle imparted to him which held the inferior in subjection to the Superior part Adam would have gradually

Felt this combat within him bday Section 1 and indeed without incurring thereby the guilt of sin for it is the nature of sensuality to be irrational the conflict we speak of would have been a natural event the evil of that corrupt condition wherein man is now born consists in the

Fact that in Adam he has deserved to be deprived of the Justice conferred by Supernatural Grace that is to say to feel the rebellion of the flesh against the spirit what nature without Supernatural Grace would have been is now in consequence of the self-incurred loss of that Divine gift the penalty of

All born of Adam but as this Theory doth not explain and is unable to explain the perversity of the will wherewith we are born it is also insufficient it speaks only of a conflict between the sensual and rational principle which without the Divine Aid would have Arisen as a natural

Occurrence but the question before every other is to account for the wounds of the spirit especially for the perversity of the will with the spirit of man because it is in essence distinct from God when considered in itself that that is to say as void of the gift of

Supernatural Grace and as a bare finite being be found in that attitude of opposition to God and all things holy wherein man is now born then man as a finite being would be of himself disposed to sin and would not be so merely through abuse of his freedom the supernatural Divine

Principle can certainly not be destined merely to remove that inclination to opposition against his creator existing in man as a creature or rather only to prevent its outbreaking it is not by the absence of this Supernatural Grace without which all are now born that man is perverted

In his will he may become so and doubtless easily but he is not yet so at the moment of his creation the inadequacy of this Theory to an explanation of the subject has given rise to many objections against the cathol doctrine of original sin men went on the supposition suggested by

Excited passions that Catholic theologians would admit as Notions of original sin only what was really explained by the above stated Theory instead of accusing the weakness of speculation they impeached the principle itself end of section 14 section 15 of volume one of symbolism by Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Burton

Robertson this liox recording is in the public domain chapter 2 subheading 6 doctrine of the lutherans respecting original sin the osberg confession expresses itself in the following manner respecting original sin quote they the Protestants teach that after Adam’s fall all men who are engendered according to

Nature are born in sin that is to say without fear of God without confidence in him and with concupisent unquote this article describes original sin as something at once privative and positive as the deprivation of good and the establishment of evil it is our duty in the first instance to determine more

Accurately the nature of the good withdrawn the Catholic theologians at the diet of osper eek wimpin and cus who had prepared a reputation of the Lutheran confession there read remarked in their essay that the description of original sin men were born without fear of God and without confidence in him unquote

Was very unfitted and inadmissible because the fear of God and confidence in him consisted in a succession of intellectual acts which not anyone would think of demanding of the unconscious child hence they said the absence of such acts is by no means to be considered as constituting a sin in the

Newborn the non-existence of those virtues would establish guilt perpetrated without self-consciousness and without freedom and would not in consequence denote the essence of original sin because man is born therewith and this sin exists in him prior to all self-consciousness the author of the apology saw himself hereby forced to

Express himself on this subject with the scientific accuracy to be desired the Obscure meaning of the passage he elucidated with the remark that by it nothing more was signified than that man engendered in the course of nature wanted the capacity or the gifts for producing the fear of God and

Confidence in him hereby in fact the tenant of the Protestants was stated with the utmost Precision yet in a manner to be intelligible only to one who knew its connection with other doctrines the reader will remember that according to the views of Luther and his followers man was originally endowed

With only natural Powers an opinion which in the present matter exerts a very important influence for his Fallen man as such is evidently unable to exercise those virtues which were possible to him in his state of original Purity and as he is unable to do so because the powers fail him the

Reformers saw themselves in a situation to put forth the doctrine that certain natural Powers man no longer possessed but most insight into these lost natural Powers is afforded Us by the formulary of Concord in the synergistic controversies which agitated the Lutheran Church victorinus stal a leader of the heterodox party an acute

Well-informed thinker who was very familiar with the Catholic points of defense and convinced of the incontrovertible character of the dogma of Free Will asserted that even Fallen man possesses at least the faculty the capacity the aptitude to know God and to will what is Holy although this faculty

Is completely paralyzed and as it were Ben numbed and is not susceptible of any spontaneous exertion the formulas which he made use of are these Fallen man possesses still theote modum agend capacit audm un that is to say he still at least enjoys in reference to spiritual things the empty form of

Knowledge and of will void there that form be of all real and essential purport although victorinus considered the consequences of the sin of Adam in respect to his whole posterity as of a far more destructive character than Catholics by the decisions of Trent at least are immediately bound to regard

Them still his view did not satisfy the Orthodox party in his own church they called him a pelagian and asserted that even that bare faculty of knowledge and will that mere empty form in the soul of man had been utterly destroyed and here they doubtless spoke quite in the sense of

Luther the formulary of Concord likewise rejected the view of the synergist and declared that Fallen man no longer possessed even the mere natural faculty to understand God and His holy will and in Conformity to that knowledge to direct his own will in one word The Faculty of knowledge and will in as much

As it has reference to Divine things or if we prefer the expression the rational aptitude is denied to the mere natural man the man is born of Adam the truth of this mode of conceiving the Lutheran Doctrine on original sin is not done away with nay is confirmed by the

Declaration of the formulary of Concord that it was not thereby intended to hold Fallen man for an irrational creature for to that faculty of the human mind which it terms reason it assigns merely the finite world as the sphere of activity and thereby clearly shows that

In its opinion Adam rejected of God and all all his descendants considered merely as such have no longer preserved any spiritual aptitude for God and his kingdom we arrive at the same results by various ways the first presenting itself to our view is the following the Lutheran confessions as was proved above

C section two describe the image of God as the natural capacity in man to know God to fear Him and to confide in him but it is precisely this capacity which we especially Revere as rationality the rational disposition in man yet of this very Divine image the lutherans

Repeatedly assert that it has been utterly effaced by original sin and thereby plucked from the prosperity of Adam the second course which leads to the above mentioned result consists in the view entertained by the lutherans respecting Man’s Free Will subsequently to his fall they hold that he possesses

Only a certain external freedom but none at all in spiritual things and that in respect to the latter he is no more than a stone or a stock these are comparisons they frequently use in like manner the formulary of Concord observes that Fallen man can neither think believe nor

Will anything having reference to Divine and spiritual concerns that he is utterly dead to all good and no longer possesses any even the least spark of spiritual Powers the expression quote unquote spiritual Powers is here constantly employed as synonimous with the quote powers of Free Will un yet we need no

Further investigation for even plank admits quote Luther gave to the assertion that man no longer possesses any will for good so extensive a sense that it would then follow that man corrupted by original sin no longer possesses the power of will that is the faculty of will had plank only

Added and no longer possesses The Faculty of knowledge for the super mundane unquote for both are included in the liberum arbitrium he would then have stated with perfect accuracy the Lutheran Doctrine thus according to Lutheran Orthodoxy did man lose through Adam’s fall to express ourselves once more in comprehensive Gravity the most exalted

And the most subtle portion of this spiritual Essence the part of his substance Kindred to Divinity the implanted organ for God and for divine things inherent in his nature so that after its loss he sank down into a mere Earthly power having henceforth organs only for the finite world its laws its

Ordinances and its relations it is indeed absolutely inconceivable conable how out of the organism of the human mind a link could be plucked out and destroyed how any faculty of a simple essence uncompounded of Parts whose faculty science only separates and distinguishes for they in

Themselves are one in all and all in one should be loosed from the others and be annihilated but we have not yet done with the impenetrable obscurity of the Lutheran Theology of original sin of the positive part which supplied the place of the one withdrawn it is as difficult

To arrive at any sort of clear conception in his commentary on the third chapter of Genesis Luther institutes a comparison between original sin and original Justice and from the essential character of original sin draws conclusions as to the essential character of original Justice if accordingly with Luther

Original Justice be the faculty to love and discern God original sin must in his opinion be the faculty not to love God and not to discern him or rather to hate him and to be in a state of Darkness as to all things appertaining to him this

Is about the same as if a man were to say everyone possesses The Faculty not only to have no property but moreover to have debts to Luther it was not only perfectly clear that through Adam’s fall the whole human race had lost an integral portion of its spiritual

Existence but also that in man an opposite Essence had been substituted in its room and the latter occurrence he conceived to be so placed beyond the reach of doubt that without the least hesitation he inferred from it as a matter perfectly indisputable and as it were self-evident ulterior

Consequences if it is inconceivable how the image of God can be utterly eradicated from the human spirit it is still more inconceivable how a new Essence could be inserted into the soul and then evil was converted into something substantial such like opinions after Indescribable efforts on the part of the

Church had together with those of the gnostics and the manans almost entirely disappeared and now they again emerged full of vigor and lofty pretention the substance which Luther found in original sin was moreover according to him implanted alike in the soul and body of man the following passages which are found in different

Books composed by him may serve as proofs of what has been stated as well as set Beyond doubt the nature of his opinions on the subject his expressions are as follows quote it is the nature of man to Sin Sin constitutes the essence of man the nature of man since his fall

Has become quite changed original sin is that very thing which is born of father and mother unquote of like import are these forms of expression quote the clay out of which we are formed is damnable the fetus in the maternal womb is sin he likewise says man as he is

Born of his father and mother together with his whole nature and Essence is not only a sinner but sin itself unquote Malon also calls original sin an innate power and indeed the context would lead us to suppose that he ascribed to this power something substantial at last mathas flakus arose

And broadly asserted that original sin was the very substance of Fallen man error having now reached its highest pitch of extravagance a retrogressive movement necessarily took place the mere negative and primitive character of evil was a new understood and Men again more approximated towards the Catholic view of the subject without however rejecting

The notion that a positive evil power without however rejecting the notion that a quote unquote positive evil power accompanied with the inmost and deepest Corruption of all human nature particularly of the yet surviving higher energies of the Soul was transmitted by parents to their children the positive evil now the true image of

The devil which after the loss of the Divine image is to be propagated by generation through the whole human race constitutes the Lutheran notion of concupiscence which the reformers wish to enforce on the Christian world as the sole scriptural the sole just accurate and comprehensive view of original sin

They understand by concupiscence a complete rise and setting of all the impulses in inclinations and efforts of fallen and unregenerated man in evil and indeed in virtue of a wicked energy transmitted to him from Adam Luther it cannot be denied here touched on the borders of manism if he

Did not actually over step the frontier and we are bound gratefully to acknowledge the fact that his followers resisted with so much energy the intrusion of such monstrous errors yet the expression ever employed respecting original sin such as goena pra Vis pasiva qualitas betray the original stamp of their Master’s

Doctrine the Protestant beli too that so long as man lives here below original sin is not totally effaced from him even by regeneration even by the power of God presupposes that essential substance which Luther discovered in the inborn evil a belief which as we shall have occasion later to show constitutes an

Essential difference between Catholicism and protestantism moreover when the first glimpses of his new Theory respecting original sin flashed on his mind Luther must have been in the most singular disposition of mind it must have been agitated by the darkest the gloomiest and the most perplexed feelings for if he then taught with

Malon that God works evil in man how ascribe to it any sort of essence and speak of a sinful stuff out of which we are formed the establishment of such a relation between God and Evil to ITT that God is the author of the latter is not indeed in Conformity to manichan

Principles but would conduct us if we were to give the peculative notion of the Lutheran Doctrine respecting original sin to a quite special view which in the proper place we shall lay before our readers as soon as all the intermediate points which may furnish a complete insight into the subject shall have been

Stated here we shall only point out some of the consequences which the symbolical writings of the Lutheran deduce from the fundamental doctrines already set forth it is there taught that in Fallen man not the slightest good how poultry soever it may be conceived has survived that corrupt nature of itself

And by its own force can do not but sin before God that Fallen man is all evil after this we are nowise surprised at the opinion that all so-called actual or personal sins committed in the self-consciousness of Freedom are only the particular forms and manifestations of original

Sin the bows as it were and branches and Blossoms and fruits of the wicked stem and its fruit the Catholics on the other hand believe that in Fallen and unregenerated man the transition from original to actual sin is determined by Free Will which possesses the power to

Resist the carnal propensity in a manner not totally unsuccessful and not merely exterior although abandoned to itself it is unable to accomplish perfect actions in their inward Spirit morally good and consequently acceptable to God on this Lutheran doctrine of original sin we shall now take the liberty of indulging in the following

Remarks it is not to be denied that the feeling which called forth this article of belief was in itself very laudable it evidently sprang out of a deep sense of human misery of the universal sinfulness of mankind and their need of redemption and it would Fain keep that sentiment

Alive if we acknowledge this with pleasure it is yet equally certain that the doctrine in question attains this object only where thought does not exercise much Sway and we yield to the pressure of dark unconscious feelings it is forgotten that when God makes men the mere mechanical instruments of his activity when there

Occurs in man a violent obliteration so revolting to all rational and still more to all Christian minds of a natural spiritual faculty and indeed the moral and religious faculty the prerogative which solely and truly distinguishes him from The Brood sin then from Adam to Christ must be a thing

Unknown and all moral must be transformed into physical evil how should man sin when he has not even the faintest knowledge of God and of his own destination when he is not the faculty to will what is Holy when he is even devoid of Freedom he may Rave he may be

Furious he may destroy but his motive acting cannot be considered other than that of a Savage Beast the second consideration which presses itself Upon Our attention is this that Luther’s exaggeration so soon as it was recognized as untenable by his disciples necessarily led the way to another doctrinal

Excess from the one extreme opinion that through Adam’s fall all germs of good were utterly even to the last vestage eradicated from the whole human race men pass to The Other Extreme that even now man in every respect is as well conditioned and the universe wears as

Good an aspect for him as for the paradic man as soon as the dam of vigorous but unenlightened feelings was broken through nothing could prevent the whole doctrine of the Fall being swept away for this in fact was The Offspring of the most confused feelings and in its

Construction no scope had been conceited to the influence of the higher intellectual faculties thirdly when in the times of the Primitive Church the Heathen so often put the question wherefore did God send the Redeemer only after thousands of years which had elapsed since the fall and deny him to so many

Generations the holy Fathers as for instance the author of The epistle to dagnus and St irenaeus were want viewing the subject from the pedagogic point of view to make the following reply the almighty by a long and severe experience wished to teach the human race what when abandoned to itself it

Was capable of he designed to bring it thus to self- knowledge to consciousness of its sinfulness and guilt to a likely feeling of its disorders to a sense of humiliation before him in order to awaken within it a more intense desire after superal Aid and to cause that Aid

To be received with a clear insight as to its absolute necessity for Redemption the theologians of the Middle Ages also frequently gave the same reply but what reply could the Lutheran divines make that man without the faculty of knowledge and of will for divine things must remain far from God

And his kingdom is very conceivable it is as evident as that a man having no feet cannot walk but to what end is this act of violence that obliterated the soul of man all religious aptitude the very image of the Creator who would in such case Venture on a

Theodosia who even in the slightest degree would be bold enough to justify Providence in the drama of the world’s history the formulary of Concord attempts morever to extract from its Theory some grain of Solace it observes that if the Christian can discover in himself only a little spark of Desire

After eternal life he may by this feeling convince himself that God has commenced his operations within him and he may joyfully look forward to the moment when he will consummate the work begun from the opinion that in Fallen man all the higher spiritual faculties are utterly destroyed it follows of

Course that not the faintest or remotest longing after God could spring up in his bosom but if such a desire exist in the Christian than in the opinion of the authors of the above named symbolical writing such a desire is the shest proof that the work of regeneration is begun

But from the belief that in man after his fall there still survives the religious aptitude and that therefore the possibility of higher aspirations yet remains no such consolation according to these authors can possibly flow a dangerous self-d delusion for that even in the breast of the heathens

Such a Divine spark Beyond a doubt still glowed is evident from a contemplation of their history on which we shall now take the liberty of offering a few remarks end of section 15 section 16 of volume one of symbolism by Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Burton Robertson this LibriVox recording is in

The public domain chapter 2 subheading 7 considerations on heathenism in reference to the doctrines controverted between the two churches we said above that a very different representation would be formed of the entire history of mankind according as we contemplated it from the Catholic or from the Orthodox Lutheran

Point of view but before entering on the proof we wish to premise a few remarks for which we beg to claim the Indulgence of the reader as he will now meet with statements in part previously Advanced nothing more distressing for the church could possibly occur than to

See yourself called upon to set a limit to the idea of the magnitude of original sin for it becometh the Christian to give himself up with all his soul to an infinite grief at the alienation from God and at that misery wherein Fallen humanity is Sun and it is irksome amid feelings of

Sorrow which are boundless in themselves to be obliged to think of a limitation to an error that rushes with violence from an extraneous Source it is however consoling for the church that this limitation should be made in order to uphold the notion of moral evil and thereby to impart to the

Sense of pain and sorrow a true and a solid basis which as has been stated above is wanting in the system of her adversaries it is only so long as an irregular excitement of the feelings and the imagination endures that it can furnish any inurture to this sense of

Pain but so soon as this abolition of sentiment subsides and calm sober reflection awakes the utter groundlessness of such feelings is discovered and then they totally vanish along with their empty motives what man can grieve on perceiving that his existence is not consecrated to God so soon as he seriously reflects on the

Import of those words that God had deprived him of all power for doing so to recognize the evil in its true and entire magnitude it should not be represented in such exaggerated colors as we find it in the public formularies of the Lutheran Faith hence if in the following passages

We lay before our readers a sketch of the religious and ethical life of the Heathen Nations A Sketch either to rarely or never completed from the Catholic point of view we trust no one will imagine we are insensible to the enormity of that hereditary evil which afflicts our race and thereby to the

Fullness of the blessings conferred by the Redeemer it is precisely in order to give a firm basis to our feelings of thankfulness to him that we bring out the brighter side of the Heathen world and we can only regret to be obliged to give no more than a very imperfect account of the

Subject the extensive researches of our age in the ancient world and in the remotest parts of the new continent have brilliantly corroborated the truth of the Catholic Doctrine respecting Fallen man no people has been found without a belief in God and without sacrifices whereby it rendered its homage to the

Deity nowhere are the religious ideas found pure nay everywhere they are polluted with great errors yet in supposition faith lies concealed and this is the good element in the former even the grossest fetish worship the aspiration of the human soul towards God is not to be denied it proves that

Fallen man to speak the language of the Lutheran formularies is still in possession of spiritual Powers Malon appears to have had a perception of the weight which this back throws into the Catholic scale where he Endeavors to restore the equipoise by observing that these remnants of Faith are to be ascribed to primitive

Traditions without these traditions doubtless and this was ever the Catholic view Faith would have been lost but had they not likewise found in the breast of man a point of contact and a hold they could not possibly have been preserved as things merely extraneous to man they must have been entirely

Forgotten and have perished the union of men in social life and the formation of states were certainly not possible without religion and this truth is evidenced by the fact that Nations had their divinities to whose protection they committed their Commonwealth to whom they erected temples and sent up their supplications the Nations manifested

Thereby a sense of their dependence on a higher power which although it received no worthy adoration yet really guided and protected the suppliance this indestructible propensity in man to unite and to associate with his fellows is at bottom eminently religious and is an indelible proof of surviving faculties of a higher

Kind the man all evil totus malice would have felt no such social inclinations and he and his fellows must have annihilated each other in the Savage conflict had even under such circumstances a plurality of men by possibility come into existence when Calvin imagined these societies these types of the future Church to have

Been formed without religion and without faith and to have sprung up solely out of the existence of men’s lower faculties he proved himself utterly unacquainted with their nature this is especially exemplified in China that Empire of the medium which according to the spirit of its primitive Constitution was destined to be a real

Theocracy the emperor was to hearken to the voice of God and be his organ in respect to the people who formed the family of the prince all evils and calamities which Afflicted the citizens of this paternal Empire are according to this principle considered as divinely inflicted chastisements for Disobedience

To the invisible ruler and moral Improvement and recurrence to Pious ancestral Simplicity are looked upon as the condition for the renewal of the country’s prosperity who could suppose the spiritual powers of man to be obliterated here where the religious view of all existence is so consumate and is interwoven with the inmost vitals

Of the Constitution and administration of the state who has ever read any fragments of the writings of the Chinese sages without admiring the earnest view of Life the excellent ethical precepts and the often profound wisdom which they frequently exhibit doubtless Malton would have passed on the virtues of Lau Confucius

And mangu the same sentence he pronounced on the fortitude of Socrates the continence of xenocrates and the temperance of Zeno to it that only selfish motives were at the bottom of these qualities and that hence they should be accounted vices we undoubtedly are not disposed to rever these Chinese or Greek sages as

Pure patterns of virtue who as far as they rested on themselves could stand before the judgment con seat of God or to assert that all their Endeavors flowed from a source acceptable to God but the question is not whether anyone who knows neither Christ nor is penetrated by his light nor strengthened

By his divine grace be in and by himself pure and just in the eyes of God but the question is whether Fallen men be entirely corrupted whether all which he does and thinks be sin and be damnable whether he have lost all moral and religious qualities whether those

Virtues ought to be considered as things merely extraneous and in no more intimate relation to man than wealth and Corporal Beauty this we deny and deny at the risk not indeed very great in our times of this being imputed to us as a crime and of our being held up as bad

Theologians in the same way as Philip Malton reproached our Noble ancestors for having introduced into the schools philosophic studies and recommended the reading of Plato and Aristotle the former full of presumption which he easily communicates to his admirers and the latter in fact teaching only the art of

Contention that those venerable men were yet capable of better conceptions and higher moral exertions the Catholic deems a proof of the surviving faculties for good in the human breast that those conceptions were not pure and those exertions not perfect nay very imperfect and for the most part positively evil he

Holds to be a necessary consequence of the Fall let us now turn from the Chinese to the Hindus the feeling of estrangement from God and the Deep degradation of humanity was so intense among the latter that they conceived the infantine and when we take into consideration the intellectual

Modes of conception in the youthful World which in order to preserve the pure Eternal idea of man and God ever imparted to it a concrete reality in time they conceive the no less infantine and amiable than Earnest doctrine of the pre-existence of spirits who on account of their sins had been by

God cast out on the earth hence they look on all human existence as a period graciously vou saved by God for purification and foration as this is so clearly and vividly expressed in the well-known fragment of hoel and is generally believed not only in Hindustan but in Tibet in the Kingdom of Burmese

By the Siamese Etc this idea is also stamped on the Civil Life of the Hindus and is particularly perceptible in the mutual relations of the several casts who can possibly we ask be so painfully alive to this alienation from God without retaining in his bosom something Kindred to Divinity the image

Of the godhead were the means employed to attain to the reunion with the deity mistaken they were so only because no other name is given to us whereby we can be just before God save that of Christ Jesus alone but in these oft convulsive these most tragic efforts to be United again

To God lies the irrefragable evidence of the desire after eternal life never obliterated from the breast of man who can look at the temples of elephant Fanta and CET and deny the Hindus the capability of religious feeling who has ever reflected on their doctrine of the present period of

Humanity the caluga in its relation to anterior ages and can refuse to acknowledge the Deep sense of the ever growing degeneracy of mankind which this people hereby evinces who has ever examined their doctrines on the Divine incarnations and can fail to recognize in them the remote desire at least least for a Divine

Deliverance from the fall a desire indeed which is to be found in all Antiquity if the earlier Indian theism often degenerated into pantheism we must seek the cause of this and the finite reason of man more and more debilitated by the progress of sinfulness but that no atheism no

Consumate impiety was openly avowed we must ascribe to the indelible image of God stamped on the human soul what would a Luther and mongan msus and wigon a flashius and hesus have replied to anyone who had pointed to them the doctrine of the pares who were so deeply

Impressed with the sense of the monstrosity of evil that they were at a loss how to explain its existence in the good creation otherwise than by supposing some self-existent Wicked principle who eternally counteracted the good one do not a tenderer religious feeling lie here concealed then in the

Above stated opinion of mongan Calvin and Bea that the good holy God himself instigates to evil and needs the same for the execution of his designs if the pares confounded moral and physical evil if they did not at least duly separate them this by no means justifies an objection against the

Judgment we have pronounced for we would have only invited the reformers to reflect whether their Doctrine were better than that of the parsees who were so very differently circumstanced for they were ignorant of the Christian doctrine while the reformers contended against the truth which Shone beside them in all its

Luster in the whole ancient world we discern a seeking after truth let us but consider what that signifies if none by their own faculties were unable to discover it for to Every Creature must it be communicated s it was the object of Desire the man all evil the man who hath been despoiled

Of all spiritual powers in whom the likeness of God hath been utterly effaced strives not after truth and cannot so strive undoubtedly truth was but too frequently sought for in the world of creatures and it was only rarely that man could persuade himself to raise a look of Joy upwards to heaven

But if we discover one such example only it can then be no longer a matter of doubt that man could do so when he wished and the freedom even of the Fallen creature is then fully established history makes us acquainted with endless gradations of moral character and religious forms from the

Most hideous depravity up to an affected piety we find living examples in countless grades and in all these do we find no evidence of moral freedom but merely an outward civil liberty why was one individual in exactly the same relations other than his fellow man in a

Moral and religious point of view in truth if everything be conditionally referred to God everything considered as his deed and evil as well as good ascribed to him as the primary cause then assuredly we find no evidence of the truth that man even in his fall has

Retained his freedom and is endowed with moral and religious faculties the use whereof is left to himself then we must seek to speak of good and of evil and must class the opinion of an all holy God and of moral capabilities among the dreams of fancy hisory accordingly confirms the

Catholic doctrine of original sin and incontrovertibly demonstrates that deep as his fall might have been man lost not his freedom nor was despoiled of the image of God that not all that he thought and did was necessarily sinful and damnable and that he possessed something more than quote the mere

Liberty to sin unquote as the Lutheran symbolical books assure us moreover It Is by no means astonishing when we consider the extravagance of the view as to the world before Christ expressed in the Lutheran formularies that in the course of time it should have been opposed by another opinion equally extravagant an opinion

Which regards the Prof EST doctrines of the Gospel as mere heirlooms of heathenism or even in the mildest view holds Christianity to be a natural result of the progress of our species and consequently reveres paganism independently of man’s fall as a stage necessary in itself of human civilization end of section

16 second 17 of volume one of symbolism by Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Burton Robertson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain chapter 2 subheading 8 doctrine of the Calvinists own original sin in their account of original sin and its consequences the Calvinists do not

Proceed to near such lengths as the Lutheran it may certainly be asserted in more than one respect that the reformed system of Doctrine as invented or arranged by Calvin derived on many points undeniable advantages from the mistakes and errors of the earlier reformers hence the more learned and

Scientific Calvin chose himself here and there more Equitable towards the Catholics presents their Doctrine at times in a form not quite so disfigured as his predecessors and on the whole proceeds with far more calmness and circumspection than Luther thus it happened that in the same way as Wiley’s

Cold and enan theory on the sacrament of the altar was by Calvin brought much nearer to the true Christian standard so in the doctrine which now engages our attention only a slight removal from the truth is perceptible but this retrograde movement when it occurred or did not often take place was almost always

Brought about at the cost of clearness and distinctness of ideas and if the mitigation of a too great severity afford pleasure the uncertainty and fluctuation of Notions that is substituted is but the more perplexing Even Calvin expresses himself in various ways respecting original sin and its consequences in some places he says the

Image of God has been utterly effaced from the soul of man in other passages he expresses the same thing to the following effect quote man says he has been so banished from the kingdom of God that all in him which Bears reference to the blessed life of the soul is extinct

Unquote and he asserts that man has received again organs for the Divine Kingdom only by the New Creation in Christ Jesus these assertions are however opposed by other passages in which it is asserted that the Divine image stamped on the human soul has never been totally destroyed and obliterated but only

Fearfully disfigured mutilated and deformed the same and the will bantus could not be eradicated from man for these faculties formed the characteristic distinction between man and the brute in the circle of social institutions of the liberal and mechanical Arts of logic dialectics and Mathematics he Accords to reason he

Had better said understanding the most glorious scope even among the heathens and takes occasion to indulge in a bitter Sally against the contempt of philosophy so prevalent among the Protestants of his day but when he comes to describe the religious and moral faculties of man then the most singular indistinctness

Appears as regards the knowledge of God he by no means calls in question that some truths were found scattered even among the nations unfavored with the special divine revelation and he seems on that account not to approve the opinion of a total Destruction of the spiritual powers but then he destroys

The Hope which this concession offers by adding that the almighty had granted such glimpses in the depth of night in order to be able to condemn out of their own mouth the men whom they had been imparted to or rather forced on for then they could not excuse themselves as

Having been unacquainted with the ways of the Lord accordingly he appears again indisposed to regard those traces of the true knowledge of God as the result and property of higher human faculties cooperating with God nay he seems to look upon them as a consequence of some strange and marvelous influence of the

Deity upon certain men for certain purposes and this is the more remarkable as he elsewhere deduces the anxiety for a good reputation from the feeling of Shame and this again from the innate sense of justice and virtue wherein The Germ of religion is already involved thus we see throughout a sound

Excellent mind struggling for the victory with disordered feelings but after a short vigorous onset for the Mastery compelled to succumb nearly in the same way he treats the moral phenomena of the ancient world the Catholics were want at time to refer to men like Chamis and from their lives

To demonstrate the moral Freedom enjoyed even by the heathens and the remnants of good to be found among them they defended moreover the proposition that God’s special Grace communicated for the sake of Christ’s merits worked retrospectively and confirming the better surviving sentiments in the human breast is undeniably to be traced in many

Phenomena what course does Calvin now pursue to explain such phenomena he observes that it is very easy to let ourselves be deceived by the saint as to the true nature of corruption and he does not precise L deny the finer traces of a moral Spirit but he says we should remember that

Divine grace here and there works as an impediment not by its Aid to strengthen and purify the interior of man but mechanically to prevent the otherwise infallible outbreaks of evil the conduct of the good chamus he accordingly explains by the assumption that it might have been pure exterior

And hypocritical or the result of the above mentioned Grace mechanically repressing evil in his breast but in no wise rendering him better than his fellows by such more than mechanical attempts at explanation Calvin shows Beyond doubt that when he speaks of reason and the will as undestroyed and indestructible faculties of the Soul

Distinguishing man from The Brute he is far from thinking that man has preserved out of his unhappy catastrophe any moral and religious Powers whatever extravagant however as the Judgment might be which Calvin formed of unregenerated man he yet did not forget himself so far as the lutherans when he teaches that the will

And the reason exist even after the fall he means thereby The Faculty of faith and of the higher will there’s passages wherein he seems to deny this faculty to Fallen man and of these there are very many must be corrected by others wherein he expressly asserts that when he speaks

Of a d ction of the will he understands only the really good will and not the mere faculty of will so that the opinion of victorinus strle which was rejected by the lutherans appears to be precisely that of Calvin of concupiscence moreover as is evident from the preceding account

Calvin entertains nearly the same notion as Lutheran formul Aries profess only that he is unwilling to use this technical word and hence we can understand why in the confession of the calvinistic churches it is but very rarely employed as regards the calvinistic formularies they may be divided into

Several classes since those who were framed under the immediate or remoter influence of zwingle are clearly distinguishable from those wherein the spirit of Calvin breathes in the tetrol the doctrine of original sin is not specifically treated but is only incidentally touched on under the article of justification a fact for the explanation

Whereof we shall have occasion to notice later the doctrine of zwingley on original sin the most ancient helvetic confessions 2 and three Express themselves on this head with much caution and circumspection and could we be only assured of their spirit that is to say were we but certain that this their

Boasted peculiarity did not proceed from the same motive which induced the tetrol to take no special notice of original sin they might call forth from the Catholic expressions of perfect satisfaction to the helvetic confessions we may add that of the Anglican Church which on every Point Endeavors to avoid a tone of

Exaggeration the first helvetic confession which however is not the most ancient the GAC Belgian and Scottish confessions on the other hand unequivocally Express Calvin’s doctrine that man is Thoroughly and entirely corrupted however in these as in the writings of Calvin we meet with many indeterminate and wavering Expressions it is worthy of observation

More however that the first helvetic formulary pronounces the Lutheran opinion that Fallen man no longer possesses The Faculty of Will and knowledge for the kingdom of God to be manichan the following fact is worthy of our attention even the confessions of the reformed consider actual sins as only

The manifestations of original sin as the gradual revelation of the same and special determinant phenomena according to them also Adam’s sin is the unique the only source when all sin flows without ever exhausting it the Infinite Source ever active and stirring to find an outlet and when that

Outlet is found impatient to find a new one with reason Catholics were able to reply that according to this view all sins would be necessarily equal since according to the maxims of a false realism the person is considered as absorbed in nature the individual and Universal being and the fact that not

All the unconverted are in a like degree Rogues and villains not all fratricidal Calvinists can by no means explain by the different use of Freedom since according to their Doctrine no one possesses it thus observe the Catholics the Primitive evil according to the maxims of Calvin progresses with a blind

Necessity and finds in every man a ready a servile instrument for the perpetration of its most horrible Deeds it can therefore be regarded only as an accident when one appears as a frightful criminal the other as a moral man the latter at bottom is as bad as the former

The sinfulness alike in each and repressible by none manifests itself sometimes here sometimes there in more violent explosions the first helvetic confession guards itself against these and such like consequences and condemns the jovians pagans and the stoics who taught the equality of all sins but it can establish no other difference of sins

Than that of external manifestation According to which truly not one sin perhaps is like to the other however we honor in this cautiousness a sound feeling a welcome perception of that deep Indescribable abyss of error out of which the Reformation sprang the doctrine of the reformed confessions respecting Wicked lust

Concubus sentia we shall not set forth at length since since it does not materially differ from the view of the Orthodox Lutheran in respect to the bodily death this is regarded as in the Catholic church to be a consequence of original sin subheading nine Wily’s view of original sin to explain some phenomena

In the formularies of the reformed churches we Annex the doctrine of zwingley on original sin this reformer Ventures on the attempt not merely to determine according to scriptural evidence the nature of man’s hereditary evil but to give a psychological explanation of the sin of Adam an attempt for which he is utterly

Incompetent and which is very inferior to preceding efforts for the illustration of this very obscure mystery nay in reality explains absolutely nothing and presupposes original sin in the first place zwingley troubles the serious reader with a very untimely Gest when he says that it was a bad prognostic for the future married

Man that Eve should have been formed out of a rib of the sleeping Adam for from observing that her husband during this operation was not awakened nor brought to Consciousness the thought naturally arose in her mind that her mate might be easily deceived and circumvented Satan now observed Eve’s

Growing Spirit of Enterprise and with all her total inexperience in all intrigues aiding therefore her internal desire to play a trick and her utter impotence to accomplish her purpose he pointed out to her the way for deceiving her husband and the result was the first sin this man sporting over sin seriously

Observes that from this whole process of satanic seduction and especially from the enticements offered it is easy to conclude that the self-love of Adam was the cause of his sin and that consequently from self-love flows all human misery but then as according to all the laws of the outward world the

Light can only proceed from its like so since Adam’s fall all men were born with this self-love The Germ of all moral evil zwingle then proceeds to describe original sin which in itself is not sin but only a natural disposition to sin a leaning propensity to sin and Endeavors

To illustrate his meaning by the following comparison a young wolf has in all respects the natural qualities of a wolf that is to say it is one that in virtue of its innate ferocity would attack and devour the Sheep though yet it is not actually done so and Huntsmen on discovering it

Will treat it in the same manner as the old ones for they feel convinced that on its growing up it will like the others of its species fall upon the flocks and commit ravages the natural disposition is the hereditary sin or the hereditary fault the special robbery is the actual

Sin growing out of the former the latter is sin in the strict sense of the word while the former ought not to be considered either as a sin or as a debt this account while it explains nothing is with all of a genuine Protestant stamp that it explains

Nothing is evident from its representing self-love as the cause of Adam’s sin which accordingly before his fall they concealed in him and by the mediation of Satan was only introduced into the outward world this self-love is represented as the effect of Adam’s sin extending to all his posterity as the

Natural disposition of all his sons so that original sin appears as a corruption already in eight in Adam and it must be considered not so much as inherited of Adam but as implanted by God himself but this explanation is also a genuine Protestant one since it frankly and

Undisguisedly holds up God as the author of sin and looks upon all particular actual sins as the necessary results the outward manifestations of a natural disposition a disposition which is well illustrated by that of the young wolf that devoid of freedom is totally unable to resist the impulse of

Instinct hence also swingly with reason regards original sin not as Sin but only as an evil clinging to human nature he is however chargeable with an inconsistency in considering actual sins to be sins for they are only the necessary growth of a natural disposition they would have been also

More in Conformity with his above mentioned principles as to the cause of evil to have considered no moral transgression as Contracting a debt and of section 17 section 18 of volume 1 of symbolism by Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Burton Robertson this liox recording is in the public

Domain chapter 3 opposite views on the doctrine of justification subheading 10 general statement of the mode in which according to the different confessions men become Justified the different views entertained respecting the fall of Man must necessarily exert the most decisive influence on the doctrine of his regeneration the treatment of this

Doctrine is of so much the more importance for us and claims so much the more our attention as it was in the pretended Improvement on the Catholic view of man’s justification according to the special observation of the smal articles that the reformers placed their princip ipal Merit they call this subject not only

The first and most important but that without the maintenance whereof the opponents of protestantism would have been completely in the right and have come Victorious out of the struggle in Conformity with this Luther says very pithy in his table talk quote if the doctrine fall it is all over with us

Unquote we shall in the first place State generally the various accounts which the opposite confessions give of the process of regeneration and then enter with the minutest accuracy into details according to the Council of Trent this course is as follows the sinner alienated from God without being

Able to show any Merit of his own without being able to put in any claim to Grace or to pardoning Mercy called back to the Divine Kingdom this Divine call sent to The Sinner for Christ’s sake is expressed not only in an outward invitation through the preaching of the Gospel but

Also in an internal action of the Holy Spirit which Rouses the slumbering energies of man more or less sunk in the sleep of spiritual death and urges him to unite himself with the power from above in order to enter upon a new course of life and in order to renew the

Communion with God preventative Grace if the sinner hearkens to this call then faith in God’s word is the first effect of divine and human activity cooperating in the way described The Sinner perceives the existence of a higher order of things and with entire until then unimagined certainty possesses the conviction of

The same the higher truths and Promises which he hears especially the tidings that God has so loved the world as to give up his only begotten son for it and offer to all forgiveness of sins for the sake of Christ’s merits shake the sinner while he Compares what he is with what

According to the revealed will of God he ought to be while he learns that so Grievous is sin and the world’s corruption that it is only through the mediation of the Son of God he can be extrated he attains to true self- knowledge and is filled with the fear of

God’s judgment he now turns to the Divine compassion in Christ Jesus and conceives the confiding hope that for the sake of his redeemer’s merits God May graciously vouch saap to him the Forgiveness of his sins from this contemplation of God’s love for man a spark of divine Love is enkindled in the

Human breast hatred and detestation for sin arise and man doth Penance thus by the mutual inner workings of the Holy Spirit and of the creature freely cooperating justification really commences if man remains faithful to the holy work thus begun the Divine Spirit at once sanctifying and forgiving sins

Communicates all the fullness of his gifts pours into the heart of man the love of God so that he becomes disentangled from the inmost roots of sin and inwardly renewed leads a new and virtuous life that is to say becometh really just in the sight of God performeth truly good works the fruits

Of a renovation of spirit and sanctification of feeling goeth from righteousness onto righteousness and in consequence of his religious and moral qualities acquired through the infinite merits of Christ and His holy spirit he is rewarded with Celestial happiness however without a special Revelation the just man possesses not

The uniring certainty that he belongs to the number of elect the Lutheran view on the other hand is as follows when the sinner has been intimidated by the preaching of the law which he is conscious of not having fulfilled and hath been brought to the brink of Despair the gospel is announced

To him and with it the Solace administered that Christ is the Lamb of God that taketh upon him the sins of the world with a heart stricken with fear and Terror he grasps at the redeemer’s merits through faith which alone justifieth God on account of Christ’s merits declares the believer just

Without his being so in fact they released from debt and Punishment he is not delivered from sin original sin the inborn sinfulness still Cleaves to the just though no longer in its ancient virulence if it be reserved to faith alone to justify us before God yet faith is not alone on the contrary

Satisfaction is annexed to justification and Faith manifests itself in Good Works which are its fruits justification before God and sanctification must not by any means however in despite of their close connection be considered as one and the same thing because this would render impossible the certainty of the

Forgiveness of sins and of Salvation which is an essential property of Christian faith lastly the whole work of regeneration is God’s doing alone and man acts a purely passive part therein God’s Act not only precede the workings of man as if this could or ought to follow as if the latter cooperated with

The former and so both together but the holy spirit is exclusively active in order that to God Alone the glory May acre and all pretensions of human Merit be rendered impossible the calvinist though with some differences agree in the main with the Disciples of Luther Calvin is dissatisfied with the

Reformers of Wimber for having ascribed to the law alone the property of exciting a sense of sin and a consciousness of guilt he thinks on the contrary that the first place is due to the gospel and that it is by the enlargement of the Divine Mercy in

Christ Jesus that the sinner is made attentive to his reprobate state so that repentance follows on faith that the severe remark of Calvin at the passage where he States the relation between faith and repentance to it that those understood nothing of the essence of Faith who conceived this

Relation other than himself is not entirely destitute of foundation nor based on an empty Spirit of controversy we shall clearly prove later when it will be shown that with Calvin repentance Bears a very different signification from the terror caused by sin in the Lutheran system and that according to the former justification

And sanctification appear in a more vital connection ction more important still is the departure of the Calvinists from the Lutheran formularies by their assertion that it is only in those elected from all eternity that the deity worketh to justification and to Regeneration on the other hand the lutherans like the Catholics reject the

Doctrine of absolute predestination finally calvinist lay a still more violent stress on the certainty which the believer must have of his future happiness it follows accordingly that we must treat in succession first the distinctive doctrines in respect to the operation of God and of man in the affair of

Regeneration secondly the doctrine of predestination thirdly the differences in the notion of justification fourthly those respecting faith fifthly those touching works and sixthly those in resp ECT to the certainty of Salvation when these points shall have all been first gone through in detail then comprehensive Reflections on the

Nature and deeper signification of this opposition between the confessions in respect to the doctrine of justification will follow in a more intelligible as well as instructive form then he who after a general view would not have suspected any practical or theoretical differences important enough to occasion an ecclesiast IAL Schism will clearly

See that the Catholic Church could not possibly exchange for primitive Doctrine for the new opinion nay could not even by any possibility tolerate in her bosom the two opposite views the minute investigation of particulars will bring out in the clearest light those divergences of opinion which in a General survey may be

Easily overlooked and in the consideration which we have announced we will clearly establish the absolute incompatibility of the two doctrines in one and the same system and will point out the momentous interests which the Catholics defended in the maintenance of their Dogma end of section 18 section 19 of volume one of symbolism

By Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Burton Robert this LibriVox recording is in the public domain subheading 11 of the relation of the operation of God to that of man in the work of regeneration according to the Catholic and Lutheran systems according to Catholic principles in the Holy work of regeneration we find

Two operations concur the Divine and the human and when this work succeeds they mutually pervade each other so that this regeneration constitutes one theandric work God’s holy power predes Awakening exciting vivifying man the while being utterly unable to Merit call forth or even desire that divine grace yet he

Must let himself be excited and follow with freedom God offers his Aid to raise the sinner after his fall yet it is for the sinner to consent and to receive that Aid by accepting it he is accepted by the divine Divine spirit and through his faithful cooperation he is exalted again

Gradually though never completely in this life to that height from which he was precipitated the Divine Spirit worketh not by absolute necessity though he’s urgently active his omnipotence suffers human freedom to set to it a bound which it cannot break through because an unconditional interference with that freedom would bring about the

Annihilation of the moral order of the world which the Divine wisdom hath founded on Liberty with reason therefore and quite in Conformity with her inmost Essence hath the church rejected the Jenis proposition of quiz now that human Freedom must yield to the omnipotence of God this proposition involves as an

Immediate Consequence the doctrine of God’s absolute predestination and asserts of those who attain not unto regeneration that they are not the cause of their own reprobation but that they have been absolutely cast off by the deity himself for a mere inspiration of the Divine Spirit would have moved their

Free will to Faith and to Holy obedience it is not difficult to see that the above stated doctrine of the Catholic church is determined by her view of original sin for had she asserted that an utter extrap of all germs of good a complete annihilation of freedom in man had been the consequence

Of his fall she then could not have spoken of any cooperation on his part of any faculties in him that could be excited revived and supported man who in this case would have lost all Affinity all likeness unto God would no longer have been capable of receiving the Divine influences toward

The consummation of a second birth for the operation of God would then have found in him as little response as in the irrational brute on the other hand it is evident from the Lutheran representation of original sin that the lutherans could not admit the cooperation of man and the

Reason wherefore they could not is equally obvious namely because according to them the hereditary evil consists in an obliteration of the Divine image from the human breast and this is precisely The Faculty capable of cooperating with God accordingly they teach that man remains quite passive and God is

Exclusively active even so early as the celebrated disputation at leping Luther defended the doctrine against EC and compared man to a Saul that passively let itself be moved in the hand of the Workman afterwards he delighted in comparing Fallen man to a pillar of salt a block a plot of Earth incapable of

Working with God it may be conceed received that Not only was such a Doctrine necessarily revolting to Catholics but that even among Luther’s disciples who in the first unreflecting excitement of feelings had followed him a sound Christian sense rallying by degrees must offer resistance to such errors in malton’s school more

Enlightened opinions spread and his followers after Luther’s death had even the courage openly to defend them finger and after him the above Nam victorin stral arose but their power went no further than to occasion a struggle wherein they succumbed Luther’s spirit being so complete a victory that his

Views nay his very Expressions were adopted in the public formularies I shall take the liberty of citing a passage from plank which states the opinion of arnsdorf on the nature of God’s operation in respect to man an opinion which was put forth amid the synergestic controversies Nicholas Von arensdorf

Said quot by his will and speech God worketh all things with all creatures when God wills and speaks Stone and woods are carried he and laid how when and where he will thus if God wills and speaks man becomes converted Pious and just for as Stone and and wood are in

The hand and power of God so in like manner are the understanding and the will of man in the hand and power of God so that man can absolutely will and choose nothing but what God wills and speaks either in Grace or in Wrath unquote who will not here see the

Remarkable influence which Luther’s Theory touching the mutual relation between the Divine and the human operations considered in themselves and even in independently of the Fall as exerted on this article of belief God’s Wrath thought Nicholas Von arnsdorf forces one person to evil in the same way as his grace absolutely

Determines another to good so much do the human mind find itself constrained to reduce to general laws that special relation between God and man which was revealed by the Redemption of Christ Jesus remarkable is the subterfuge which the former formulary of Concord saw itself forced to adopt in order to

Prevail upon men to hear preaching a subterfuge which of itself could have convinced its authors how erroneous was the doctrine which they inculcated for as according to their view man on his part can contribute not towards justification as he possesses not even the faculty of receiving the Divine

Influences and thus in consequence of the loss of every trace of similitude to his maker is cut off from all possibility of Union with God what blame could be uttered and what reproaches made if anyone remained obdurate when it depended on God Alone to remove that obduracy what blame was yet possible

When anyone was disinclined to read the Bible or obstinately resisted hearing the Evangelical sermon which was laid down by the reformers as the condition for receiving the Divine Spirit to be asked to listen to a sermon must certainly seem to one devoid of all spiritual qualities and susceptibilities as the most singular

Demand not less singular than if he were asked to prepare for flying nay more singular for in the latter case he could understand the purport of the demand while in default of every spiritual organ for understanding the sermon he could not even comprehend what was the proposed design he might conject

Indeed that it was intended to pass a joke on him the formulary of Concord can say not else than that man has still the power to move from one place to another he still possesses outward though no inward ears his feet and his external ears he need only exert and the

Consequences he must attribute only to himself if he failed to do so so must the feet Supply the place of the will which which according to the Catholic Doctrine has yet survived the fall the ears discharge the functions of reason and the body undertake the responsibility of the

Mind in general the reformers were unable to succeed in finding in their system a tenable position for the idea of human responsibility an idea not to be effaced from the mind of man and whereon C established what he deemed the only possible proof of the existence of

God they observed indeed as we have seen that man can repel the Divine influence though he cannot cooperate with it whereby they think his guilt is sufficiently established but this solution of the difficulty in question is unsatisfactory because every man can only resist since all are in a likee degree

Devoid of freedom and of every vesage of spiritual faculties the explication of the fact that some become just and others remain obdurate can be sought for not in man but in God only whom it pleases to remove in one case and let stand in another the obstacle which is the same in

All at least we cannot all see how it would cost the almighty a great exertion of power to supply among some rather than among others the spiritual faculties that are wanting for all are herein equally passive in other words the doctrine of the non-cooperation of man which rests on the original theory

Of Luther and mongon touching the absolute passiveness of the created Spirit towards its creator finds only in this Theory its metaphysical basis and presupposes accordingly absolute predestination which in the course of the synergistic controversies was embraced by the most consistent Lutheran theologians flakus hus and others while

The formulary of conquer sacrificed to a better feeling the harmony of its own system proceeding now to the task of more nearly determining what is the work of regeneration which the exclusively active spirit of God hath to achieve we can discover not else but that the religious and moral qualities The

Faculty of faith and of will which had been lost through Adam’s fall must be inserted a new in the defective spiritual organization and accordingly the inward ears be replaced while therefore according to the Catholic system the first operation of God consists in the resuscitation excitement higher tuning strengthening

And glorification of these faculties it is according to the Lutheran system to exert itself in a new creation of the same in this way we can understand in some degree the remark and the formulary of Concord that in the further progress of regeneration man cooperates with God

Not indeed as to the Integrity of his being but only through his renovated Parts through the new Divine gift the remaining portion of his being the mere natural man who had come down from that earlier state of alienation from God being never active for the kingdom of God moreover by this Doctrine the

Intensity of consciousness is destroyed and we cannot see how the man newborn or newly created can recognize himself to be the same at least it is not easy for him to do so unless he stands before the mirror and perceives to his contentment that he has ever the same nose and

Consequently is the same person as here to for nor can we conceive how repentance can be possible for the new created faculties will have difficulty to repent what they have not perpetrated and the old cannot repent for the Divine is not within their competence here we may remark that by

The Lutheran Doctrine here stated the reproach which its professors so perpetually urge against the Catholic tenant to it that it is pelagian receives its explanation in truth we discover everywhere we might almost say an intentional misrepresentation of the Catholic Doctrine and Malon in this surpasses Luther himself want of solid

Historical information had an undoubted share in this charge and this becomes more evident when we see the toist called palagian they the views of Luther on the relation of Grace and nature represented as containing the true old Catholic Doctrine in opposition to paganism for never was it taught not even by St

Augustine that by original sin man was bere of the moral and religious faculties but in all this there evidently existed an internal obstacle to the full comprehension of the Catholic Doctrine an obstacle which we feel ourselves called upon to point out while it makes the Lutheran view appear

More pardonable since it shows that it sprang out of a true Christian Zeal which in this as in almost every instance was foolishly directed the Catholic dogma that even in Fallen man moral and religious faculties exist faculties which are not always sinful in themselves and must be exercised even in the work of

Regeneration LED some to believe that such an exercise of the faculties in question was the natural transition to Grace so as to suppose that according to Catholic principles a very good use of them was the medium of Grace or in other words merited it such an opinion were

Undoubtedly palagian and in that case not Christ but man would Merit Grace or rather Grace would cease to be grace to escape now the like errors reformers supposed man was unable to achieve anything and received only in regeneration itself those faculties which can be active in and for the

Kingdom of God but the fine and delicate sense of Catholic dogma which very carefully distinguishes between nature and Grace totally escape the perception of the reformers the finite even when conceived as without sin though it may stretch itself on every side can never attain to the infinite nor ever cling to it but

With an elusive grasp nature May honestly exert all her powers she will never over herself and by herself reach a supernatural Transfiguration the Human by no strain of power will become of itself the Divine there would remain an eternal Gap T the two if it were not filled up by

Grace the Divinity must stoop to humanity if humanity is to become Divine hence did the Son of God become man and not man become God in order to reconcile Humanity with the godhead the like must typically recur in every believer thus the church may look on the non-regenerated as endowed with

The fairest faculties of Nature and is turning them to the best account yet it is not by the use of such faculties that they acquire life and Grace either its beginning its middle or its end on the contrary divine grace must ever compassionately stoop to our loneliness and impart to our sin

Polluted faculties the first Heavenly consecration in order to prepare them for the kingdom of heaven in the receiving of Christ’s image here accordingly we see how important is the difference which divides the confessions in their view of man’s original state as in the finite though yet unstained faculties of a

Paradic man Catholics deem the aid of high Supernatural power who have been absolutely necessary to preserve him in a living intimate communion with God so they must necessarily look on the restoration of the Fallen man to that communion by means of his mere unated natural Powers as a thing utterly

Impossible or in other words as solely the result of Grace but while the Protestants on the other hand conceived that primeval man accomplished this Union with God through his finite faculties alone they necessarily considered the existence of a Divine similitude in the natural powers of Fallen man and still more the

Exercise and expansion of of such powers in the work of regeneration is quite incompatible with the notion of Grace and is very derogatory to if not utterly subversive of the merits of Christ that man should retain the possession of all his natural powers and faculties signifies according to the Protestant

System that he is able of himself to attain to the perfect knowledge and love of God thus if the Protestants wish to maintain the notion of Grace they were obliged to exhibit man as absolutely passive in the work of regeneration and as devoid of all powers acted on by

Grace it was far otherwise in the Catholic system which they were unwilling to probe when we Endeavor to trace the cause which led the reformers to the adoption of such a view we must search for it in another quarter they confounded as it appears to us what was objective and subjective in

The matter of justification in relation to the former man is completely and entirely passive but not so in respect to the latter Fallen man cannot be justified unless he confess before God and to himself that he is utterly incapable of discovering within him any means capable

Of reconciling him sinner as he is with his God he must with the most heartfelt confession of his own nothingness with perfect humility give himself up to God resign himself to his all gracious disposal acknowledging that he can only receive and thus is merely passive in this way only doth man fall

Back into the natural relation of creature to the Creator but should he wish to present to God anything be they works or ought else in order thereby to exhibit the almighty as his better and to demand his grace as his wages and in this manner to display his activity he

Would then be raising himself to an equality with God and if I may so speak be placing himself on the same footing with the deity and by such arrogance would throw himself out of the relative sphere of the creature to the Creator but when man rests on the merits

Of Christ alone and knows nothing of his own merits he is then passive and inactive letting God Alone work but when man coincides with these operations of God he then becomes himself active and cooperates with God and the free acknowledgement that in the sense above mentioned he can be in the relation only

Of a passive recipient forms the very highest activity whereof he is capable now the reformers did not accurately distinguish between these two things and in the excess of High Zeal rejected all exertion all energy in every sense of the word on the part of man the Catholic recognizes the

Necessity of a completely passive demeanor since he rejects all merits that could earn the Redemption but he insists on the necessity likewise of an active demeanor since he is convinced that it is only by his free and faithful cooperation that he can receive and appropriate to himself the work workings

Of God when man professes the first he gives the glory to God and when he declares the second he gives thanks to God for his ability to render glory to him and this without Freedom he were unable to do end of section 19 Section 20 of volume 1 of symbolism

By Johan Adam mhler translated by James Bon Robertson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain subheading 12 doctrine of the Calvinists on the relation of Grace to freedom and human cooperation predestination the doctrine of the calvinist respecting original sin which according to them commits fearful ravages on the human mind without

However eradicating the faculties of faith and will extends its influence to the matter in question they necessarily teach that Grace first determines and consequently goes before all the truly Pious Endeavors of man so that on this subject we meet with a gratifying General uniformity between all the Confessions on account of their milder

And Sounder view of original sin the Calvinists are enabled more however to uphold the doctrine of the active cooperation of man with God and herein they again coincide with the Catholics but oppose the lutherans by this power of cooperation however the Calvinists mean not to

Affirm that it is in the power of man to receive or to reject the action of God where divine grace knocks the door must be open it works quite invincibly and those who enter not into life are never touched by it here we immediately come to the doctrine of of

Predestination by the side of many very shallow and sterile conceptions they were ever agitated in the bosom of the Catholic Church the most manifold profound and speculative theories on Divine predestination and its relation to human Freedom philosophical talent and acuteness as well as the imagination a wide and according to the favorite term

Of speculation in every age a very enticing field is here open which constantly invites the hand of cultivation the church however has deemed it her duty to set limitation to this spirit for God can be represented in such relations to man as to make the latter entirely

Disappear or man again may be conceived in such a position relatively to God as to subvert the notion of the almighty as the dispenser of Grace according to the first View God Appears acting with a cruel Caprice which cannot be conceived by man according to the second so ruled by The

Caprice of man that he ceases to be he who is and through whom all goodness Springs accordingly the Catholic Church alike rejects an overruling of God on the part of man to impart sanctifying and saving grace and an overruling of man on the part of God to compel the

Former to become this or that on the contrary she teaches in the former case as is well known that divine grace is unmerited in the latter that it is offered to all men their condemnation depending on the free rejection of redeeming Aid the Lutheran formularies emancipated themselves in this respect from the

Authority of Luther and in accordance with the Catholics thought not indeed as we before observed subheading 11 without detriment to the internal consistency of their system that Christ died for all men that he calleth all Sinners to himself and earnestly willth that all men should come to him and receive his proferred

Aid it is otherwise with Calvin he assures us indeed that he will move cautiously between two Sholes one consisting in the tarity of the believer to scrutinize the unfathomable mysteries of God the second consisting in the studious avoidance of the subject of predestination speaking of it as a dangerous

Sandbank he finds for his own part a great practical interest in this Doctrine the sweet fruits suavissimus fructus which he discovered in the dogma of absolute predestination and which tended to confirm him in his opinion are thus noted by him in the first place men can have no firm and deep conviction of

The truth that it is only God’s mercy which hath ensured human salvation unless the believer be assured that not all are destined for happiness nay that God grants to one what he refuseth to another in the second place ignorance in this respect obscures the glory of God

Plucks humility up by the roots hip humil redim AIT renders a sense of internal gratitude towards God impossible and disturbs the quiet of conscious and the pious for the Consciousness that in respect to sins no difference exists between him and the reprobate and that faith alone establishes the difference comprises a

Source of the purest consolation Calvin has left a warning example to those who from any subjective practical motives think they are obliged to adopt any new or strange Doctrine an example that shows it to be the exclusive duty of the Theologian to seek out with humility what the doctrine of

The church prescribes for the promotion and excitement of religious and moral feelings since the truth and objectivity of the church doctrine imparts likewise to all the Practical precepts it sanctions the character of Truth and objectivity for the reasons above stated that is to say in order to call forth a

Deep Christian piety Calvin lays down the following notion of predestination we call predestination that Eternal decree of God whereby he hath determined what the fate of every man should be for not to the same Destiny are all created for the some is allotted eternal life to others Eternal

Damnation according as a man is made for one end or for the other we call him predestined to life life or to death unquote the same idea the reformer again Expresses in the following way quote we assert that by an eternal and unchangeable decree God hath determined

Whom he shall one day permit to have a share in Eternal Felicity and whom he shall Doom to destruction in respect to the elect this decree is founded in his unmar Mercy without any regard to human worthiness but those whom he delivers up to damnation are by a just and

Irreprehensible judgment excluded from all access to eternal life it is scarcely credible to what truly Blasphemous evasions Calvin resorts in order to impart to his Doctrine an air of solidity and to secure it against objections as Faith was considered by Calvin a gift of the Divine Mercy and

Yet as he was unable to and I that many are represented in the gospel to be Believers in whom Christ found no earnestness and no perseverance and whom consequently he did not recognize to be the elect Calvin asserts that God intentionally produced within them an apparent faith that he insinuated

Himself into the souls of the reprobate in order to render them more inexcusable instead of acknowledging in the above stated facts the Readiness of the almighty to confirm his grace on all who only wish it he explains them by the supposition of intentional deceit which he lays to the charge of the

Almighty equally strange is the reason assigned for the doctrine of predestination that God wishes to manifest his Mercy towards the elect and his Justice towards The Condemned as if the two Divine qualities were severed one from the other and were mutually ignorant of each other’s existence God will be at once just and

Merciful to all without exception not just merely toward these and merciful only towards those as the prejudiced judges of this world are want to be we must also bear in mind that the notion of justice considered in itself cannot even be upheld if no fault exists and no

Fault can be charged on the repr probate if without possessing the use of Freedom they are condemned nay have been condemned for from all eternity equally baseless would be the notion of Mercy as it has necessarily for its subject Sinners who by the free determination of their own will and not

By extraneous compulsion have transgressed the Divine moral law in order then again to receive pardon for in this case the whole process would be a mere absurd farce it was moreover only by the greatest efforts of Calvin and his disciples for particularly basa that this Doctrine was enabled to pervert the

Sound understanding of Christians burn especially resisted for a long time till the consensus tigerin norum was brought about the Galla confession immediately adopted this Doctrine and the belgic likewise that the Senate of Dort should sanction Calvin’s doctrine of predestination was to be expected however other reformed communities had from their very origin

Much softened the doctrines of Calvin among these we may notice the articles of the Anglican Church while the catechism of the platinate maintains silence upon the subject and the confession of the marches positively declares against the decree of absolute predestination end of section 20 section 21 of volume 1 of symbolism

By Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Bon Robertson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain subheading 13 of the Catholic notion of justification the want of a deeper acquaintance with the usages of antiquity particularly of a vivid insight into the spirit of its language gave the outward occasion at least to a

Confusion in the notion attached to justification in Christ Jesus and sered strongly to confirm the obstacle which existed in the interior of minds and prevented the entire appreciation and comprehensive understanding of this practical and fundamental doctrine of Christianity the Ancients were want to put the form in which the inward Essence

Outwardly manifests and reveals itself for the inward Spirit itself because the latter concealed in its form is thus brought out hence when in the Old Testament the justification of a man through and before God is represented in the form of a human and judicial act and consequently of a mere outward acquittal

And release it is the grossest error and a proof of entire ignorance of the ways of thinking and modes of speech among ancient Nations not to connect such expressions with the idea of an inward deliverance and discharge from Evil how much in the Protestant Church the style of the ancient world was

Misunderstood we may perhaps most clearly discern from a passage in geart where he says the whole Act of justification is described only by Expressions borrowed from judicial usage for example quote unquote judgment Psalm 93 quote unquote Judge John 5:27 quote unquote tribunal Romans 1410 quote unquote accused Romans 3:19 quot unquote accuser John

5:45 quot unquote witness Romans 215 quote unquote handwriting Colossians 2:14 quot unquote Advocate 1 John 21 quote unquote aquid Psalm 321 Etc even the multitude of these and similar Expressions should have inspired a certain caution and have encouraged the idea that they must have in part at least a figurative

Signification rarely even in the Catholic church was the Right View unfolded with perfect scientific exactness and brought back by means of an accurate philology to its first principles but though the true sense of the Ancients might not be explained with the clear scientific evidence yet it was

Adhered to in life the church being connected by her origin with the close of the ancient world the knowledge of the old modes of speech passed to her by a living and immediate contact although this knowledge did not rise through the medium of reflection to abstract science if St Augustine says with reason

That the old is but the New Testament still veiled and the new the Old Testament unveiled the true sense of the latter must evidently be better known to the church than to the synagogue itself the former imparted to the sense of the Old Testament in the matter before us a

More appropriate form and this is the case with all the religious ideas which the church and the synagogue have in common in order that an Unshackled Spirit may show itself purer and more transparent and that the form May correspond to the matter it is worthy of remark that the Protestants conceive

Justification to be a thing chiefly external and the church to be a thing chiefly internal so that in either respect they are unable to bring about a permeation of the Inward and the outward the one however determines the other for as they consider not justification to be internal the church

According to their system could not become external when justification is not the inmost property of man it is then too weak to possess the power to produce a complete effect and to throw out the invisible into the visible and consequently to make the inward Church simultaneously and indubitably an outward

One hence that painful oscillation between the invisible and the visible church because justification was not conceived to be an internal thing the Council of Trent describes justification to be an exaltation from the state of sinfulness to that of Grace and an adoption of of the children of

God that is to say an annihilation of the Union of the will with the sinful Adam a removal of original sin and every other sin committed before justification and the contradiction of the fellowship with Christ the holy and the just one a state which is in a

Negative sense that of remission of sin and in a positive sense that of sanctification the council further represented justif if ification as a renewal of the inward Man by means whereof we become really just in herens in The Believer and as a restoration of the Primeval state of Humanity on this

Account the same sinot observes that by the act of justification faith hope and charity are infused into the heart of man and that it is only in this way that he is truly United with Christ and becometh a Living member of his body in other words justification is considered to be sanctification and

Forgiveness of sins as the latter is involved in the former and the former in the latter it is considered an infusion of the love of God into our hearts through the Holy Spirit and the interior state of the Justified man is regarded as a holy feeling as a Sanctified inclination

Of the will as habitual pleasure and joy in the Divine Law as a decided and active disposition to fulfill the same in all the occurrences of life in short as a way of feeling which is in itself acceptable and well pleasing to God when God declares man to be just and well

Pleasing to him he really is so the scriptural word Grace has several significations but not rarely corresponding to it is the German expression ninden a gracious benevolent condescending feeling towards anyone this signification is the basis of all the others nay it is if we will the only

One but if the question be as to the application of divine grace towards men especially Sinners then this feeling is by no means a mere quintessence one but the condescending will become at once an act is life and engenders life so that the grace of God extended spiritually to

The dead calleth them back to life the grace of God is sanctifying as little can it be disputed that the words quote unquote justify quote unquote ref verigan un vun un justification signify also to acquit this signification is used when we speak of just or innocent men who

Have been acquitted by their judges of the charges brought against them who after inquiry instituted have been pronounced to be what they are Guiltless this sense in the matter under consideration is inadmissible because the question is not about just and innocent men who have been wickedly brought before the judicial tribunal but

About men really and truly guilty and unrighteous here we see the real signification of the Greek word above adduced and of the corresponding Hebrew and Latin words namely quote unquote to make just the absolving and acquitting word the word which forgives sin is a power truly emancipating dissolving the

Bonds of evil and extraa sin so that in the room of Darkness light is admitted death gives way before light and despair yields to Hope hence the Forgiveness of sins for Christ’s sake is undoubtedly a remission of the guilt and the punishment which he hath taken and borne upon himself but it

Is likewise the transfusion of his Spirit to us so that we enter into a full vital communion with the second Adam in like manner as we had with the first there can be no doubt that the transition from the life of the flesh to the life of the spirit as above

Described cannot ordinarily be sudden that on the contrary the substitution of the latter for the former must be represented as the final term of many preliminary stages in the history of the internal man the act of justification indeed fills up only one portion of time for the communication of a vital

Principle cannot be considered other than as consummated in a single moment however the development of the same may be subjected to a succession of periods susceptibility for the act of divine justification is dependent on a series of preliminary mutually qualifying emotions in the interior of man from the period wherein our

Faculties of discernment have clung with undoubting firmness to revealed truths the struggling Soul moves on through fear and hope through grief and intuitive love through struggle and victory up to that happy moment where all its better energies hither to dissipated unite under the impulse of a higher power for obtaining a decisive

Conquest where by the full infusion of the Holy Spirit the union with Christ is consummated and we belong wholly to him and he again joyfully recognizes himself in Us in other words in order that man may be completely adopted by God in the place of a child or be justified he

Requires on the part of man a gradually Preparatory susceptability hence we may clearly see how singular is the objection urged by the Protestants that the acts Preparatory to the Great ACT of justification indicate a pelagian tendency in the whole Catholics system because according to our Doctrine

So much must be endured and wrought so much must be consummated in the spirit a the one Great Divine act can ensue they think we must needs believe that by the preliminary spiritual action and suffering the fullness of God’s grace is merited it is however far otherwise the

History of regeneration forms one great whole most intimately United in all its parts so that the third and fourth grade cannot be made till the first and second have been passed as divine grace can alone impart the power for the execution of the first

Step and it is so with all the others as accordingly all parts of the great whole are determined by higher Aid and consequently are a work of divine favor it follows what holds Good of the parts must hold good of the whole whole without human exertion indeed the

First motion of our spirit cannot be made precisely because it must move itself it is so with the second and third Motion in other words without human agency God can produce in man no faith no fear no germ of love no hope no repentance and therefore not the real justification determined by them

But does it follow that because the Catholic believes this he must also believe that God communicates on this account his further manifestations of Grace because man has not refused his cooperation to the earlier ones the notion of a necessary preliminary condition to a thing is here confounded with the cause of that thing

Itself in order however to complete the Catholic theory of justification we must according to the Council of Trent subjoin two observations in the first place the Catholic church does not dispute that even in the Justified man not withstanding that original sin together with all actual sin has been forgiven

Him and has been obliterated from his soul there still subsists a perverse sensuality uncup entia yet it is taught that this in itself is no sin and that if it occurs in holy RIT under the denomination it is only because it appears as a consequence

Of sin and leads again to real Sin when the will hearkens to its suggestions the council saith quote God hateth not in the regenerated because nothing is damnable in those who have been truly buried with Christ in baptism who walk not according to the flesh but

Putting off the old man put on the new created after God and are become innocent Immaculate pure and pleasing unto God Hees indeed of God and coair with Christ so that nothing hindereth their entrance into heaven that however concupisent or the stimulus to sin remains in the baptized the holy Council

Aows and acknowledges but as this stimulus is left for our trial it is unable to injure those who will not consent but resist victoriously by the grace of Christ for he is not crowned except he strive lawfully un as the Catholic Church deduces original sin and with it all evil in the

World in the last degree from the abuse of free will it cannot find any further traces of sin in man so soon as his Spirit has been averted from the creature and hath turned to God so soon as his will hath been again healed and his inmost feelings been

Sanctified by the inborn evil and by that habit of sin which hath grown out of it and hath become more or less inveterate more or less confirmed a mechanical Readiness to Incline towards sin hath been engendered in the body and the inferior faculties of the soul the

New bent of will therefore did not immediately draw into its orbit the movements of the soul and the body but since to those Regen erated in spirit such emotions are alien and even an Abomination since the spirit and the flesh are completely severed one from the other since they are involved in a

Decisive and for the former a Victorious struggle so most certainly a carnal emotion in conflict with the will yet Mastered by it cannot contaminate it and therefore cannot convict it of sin if the will give not in to the desires of the flesh or the desires of the flesh

Reach not the will if accordingly there be no consent then there be no sin thus evil and in the strict sense of the word the sinfulness and concupiscence is removed as it is driven back from the inward to the outward man in whom it survives as a consequence and

The chastisement of sin and with all as a Temptation which may conduce either to the more exalted glor ification of the Soul or to its relapse into the deepest fall in the former case it summons us to struggle and to Victory and to the confirmation and expansion of virtue in

The latter it can easily surprise the in attentive and draw him into his toils or penetrate into his inmost soul but that gap which in consequence of regeneration is established between the interior now San ified man and the outward man is by no means a fixed immutable Separation on the contrary in The

Believer Faithfully cooperating with sanctifying Grace it is in a state of constant decrease and gradual declension for the continued exercise of virtue and the ever more and more powerful development of the Divine principle of Life thereby occasioned restore the harmony of all the parts of man in his new course

With a constant though not always perceptible increase although without the extraordinary interposition of a higher power that Harmony in this life is never perfect so that man’s inferior faculties learn to move in Progressive Unison with the Sanctified spirit and have a share in its glorification as

They had before moved in accord with the Unholy spirit and participated in its dissonance however the regenerated man looks anxiously for deliverance from the body not in order to be then only freed from any sinful inclination of the will but to be delivered from trial and the fear of

Trial the second observation which we have to make is that according to the doctrine of the Catholic Church the just man can never hold himself quite free from the so-called venial sins and transgresses in diverse ways and therefore it is not without reason that he daily in the Lord’s Prayer prays for

Forgiveness of sins as the will of the regenerated however is not thereby alienated from God and His holy law which he loves and as such transgressions proceed more from the infirmity of the new man than from any remnant of perverseness in the will sins of this nature occasion No

Interruption in the newly established relations with God and internal justification therefore for according to B’s expression appear not untrue though it be not perfect but this infirmity requires Us in every instance to observe constant self- watchfulness and to practice uninterrupted prayer for obtaining divine grace and increase of sanctification end of section

21 section 22 of volume 1 of symbolism by Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Burton Robertson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain subheading 14 doctrine of the Protestants on justification and sanctification the notion which the Protestants form of justification is thus briefly defined in the formulary of

Concord the word quote unquote justification signifies the declaring anyone just and acquitting him of sins and the Eternal chastisement of sins on account of the justice of Christ which is by God imputed to Faith unquote and it expressly says our Justice is not of us with these declarations Calvin perfectly

Coincides justification in the Protestant sense is a Judicial Act of God whereby the believing sinner is delivered from the punishment of sin but not from sin itself while Catholics teach that on one hand the remission of sin the debt as well as the penalty and on the other hand positive sanctification follows in

A like way through the Divine Act of justification the great difference between the confessions consists accordingly in this that according to the Catholic Doctrine the justice of Christ and the act of justification is immediately appropriated by the believer becoming part of his inward self and changing his whole moral

Existence while according to the Protestant system Justice remains in Christ passes not into the inward life of the believer and remains in a purely outward relation to him covering his Injustice not only past but still outstanding since by justification the will is not healed we therefore may say according to

Catholic princip principles Christ by justification stamps inwardly and outwardly his living impress on the believer so that the latter though a feeble and imperfect becometh yet a real copy of the type on the other hand according to the Protestant Doctrine Christ casts on the believer his shadow only under which his

Continued sinfulness is merely not observed by God hence the explicit remark of the formulary of conord that the faithful on account of The Obedience of Christ are looked upon as just although by virtue of corrupt nature they be truly Sinners and remain such even unto death these avows prove of themselves

That the Protestants have adopted those Notions of Grace and justification which we point out above subheading 13 as one-sided and erroneous but the opposition between the confessions in this matter deres a stronger illustration from considering the following points which show the wide practical consequences of this opposition concupiscence which as

Catholics avow Still Remains after justification the mere incitement to sin is represented by Protestants as Sin in itself and indeed as the yet subsisting original sin while the distinction between the mere feeling of that incitement to sin and the consent to the same is rejected by them as unessential

Nay as untrue it is precisely on this ground that they rest the assertion that justification consists in the mere Declaration of the remission of sin not in the purification from sin itself because original sin still subsists and adheres even to the will in like manner it is asserted that

Between venial and mortal sin there is no internal and essential difference for so the Protestants teach all sins in themselves whatever be their nature accuse man in a like degree before the tribunal of God all Merit Eternal death faith in the merits of Christ according to them constitutes the only

Decisive distinction between Sinners and the eyes of God when man believes and so long as he believes all his sins so they teach are M ven sins as on the other hand without this Faith none of his sins can be pardoned for in reality unbelief is the only

Sin these most astounding maxims involve in themselves the following consequences if the Justified man considered in himself be as much a sinner and as damnable as the unjust man then no internal and essential difference as to moral being is recognized between the converted and the unconverted the scriptural antithesis of

The old and the new man of the old and the new life of the new creation of the first birth and of regeneration lose not only their point but in a great degree their moral signification subheading 29 the notion of penance whereby the transition from the one state to the

Other is brought about must be conceived in a one-sided nay totally mistaken sense subheading 33 and the impressive language of holy RIT respecting the deliverance from sin rought through Christ and the mortification eradication of sin in Believers Romans chap 6 and CH 8: 1-4 is then nothing more than unmeaning

Bombast nay the occasion of the most deplorable and ridiculous self- delusion but the terior consequences of the doctrine that in those who believe in the merits of Christ all distinction between venial and mortal sin is effaced will in a subsequent part of this work subheading 16 be made fully

Manifest here we shall cite some passages that will show to what subversion of morality a system leads that will make no essential distinction between the feeling of the incitement to sin and the willful consent to the same as the former as long as we live is unavoidable so the latter is represented

To be simultaneous with it and from this point of view of moral worthiness the deed is made to be not more punishable than the most involuntary sensual enticement to the same thus Malon appeals to the testimony of every Christian conscience which saith to each one that even the Christian has nothing

Less in his power than his own heart who whose entire emotions are unclean hence the same Malon proposes to Catholics the question do not the Saints seek their own interest and he is really of opinion that the Saint the man truly Justified before God remains necessarily enslaved

To Vain glory to avarice and the light Luther speaks of wicked lust avarice anger immodesty adding a significant Etc which are all to be found in the just man Calvin 2 makes us acquainted with Saints of this sort a singular saint for so who seeks his own interest and not

Christ’s Glory equally strange as the combination of ideas when we are required to conceive an immodest or avaricious Saint or according to the laws of logic the predicate destroys the subject yet what is the meaning of the words when men speak of the covetousness the avarice the collar and Dem modesty of

Saints do they mean thereby a stimulus inserted in the flesh which incites them indeed to works of the flesh but at last wees itself out in unsuccessful efforts then we cannot understand how such idle unsuccessful Temptations can be denominated covetousness avarice collar and IM modesty but if we imagine this stimulus

To be victorious over the will or its impulse to be consummated into an outward act how can the conquered be called Saints and just ones Romans 8 verses 1-9 and 13 such a confusion of language hath its grounds in the confusion of essentially different ideas and we must Marvel much

When the identifying of what is most distinct nay most opposite in notion and in language fails to produce in life also a corresponding identification having spoken thus far of the Protestant system of justification it remains for us to notice their view of sanctification for it would be in the

Highest degree unjust if we did not show that according to the Lutheran system the renovation of sinful man the moral change in a word sanctification must attach to the confiding reception of the Declaration of the Forgiveness of sins man conscious of so gracious so unmerited a remission of sin must in

Thankful return for so great a benefit earnestly strive to improve and to observe with ever greater Fidelity the Commandments of God in the Justified man according to the same system original sin by the communication of the Holy Spirit is weakened though not extrap and in proportion as it is weakened sanctification

Increases Calvin approximating to the Catholic view goes even so far as to confess that as Christ cannot be divided man in communion with him must partake at once of justification and sanctification thus whoever is received by God into his grace possesses thereby the the spirit of the sunship through

Whose power the transformation into the likeness of God ensues pleasing as it is to witness this Improvement in Doctrine and closely as it is connected with Calvin’s representation of original sin and his description of the process of regeneration yet an essential difference will ever be found between the two systems Catholic and Protestant

Including under the latter The calvinistic View for since a mere weakening not an extrap of original sin is admitted no essential moral difference but a mere gradual one can then be maintained between the old and the new man but this is as much opposed to the

Doctrine of the Catholic Church as it is to the Dignity of Christianity to the notion of a new principle of Life communicated by it which in Consequence supersedes the old one and the most most explicit Declarations of scripture if the influence of Christ over man were merely confined to this

That the latter was a somewhat morally better not quite a morally different man from the Heathen then in a strict sense it were impossible to speak of sanctification for both the Heathen and the Christian would in their inward life be like and differ only in their degree of

Discipline the Catholic Church Above All Things insists on a radical internal change moreover the difference consists in this that with the Protestant the external relation to Christ is by far the most important thing so that at this point of his spiritual life he can calmly sit down and without advancing a

Step further be assured of Eternal Felicity since by what the reformers call justification his sins have been once forgiven and at the same time the Gates of Heaven open to him while the Catholic can obtain the Forgiveness of his sins only when he abandons them and

In his view the Justified man the man acceptable to God is identical in every respect with the Sanctified even with Calvin forgiveness of sins is quite abstractedly the only ground for Hope of Salvation And if he at length as penetration to perceive that justification and sanctification cannot be separated in the interior life

He yet divides them in his theory and deduces from one and the same thing different effects since he says that it is only by the Declaration of God remitting sins that righteousness is acquired and not by any sanctifying power which together with the consciousness of such a remission has been

Imparted hence it follows that even a minimum of real Improvement without which according to Calvin the certainty of being favored with Grace cannot take place would entirely suffice for salvation to this statement of Doctrine it will be well to subjoin some remarks directed toward a deeper scientific appreciation of the Lutheran

System the point to which we would he particularly direct attention is the fact how well the doctrine of original sin couples with that of justification how well the one prepares the way for the other the former was so deeply engraven in the essence of man that the latter cannot extend beyond his

Surface if original sin had been represented as so destructive to man in order thereby to exalt the power of Christianity so that it could be said quote behold though original sin is Su so deep in to the inmost core of human existence yet Christianity sinks still more deeply it penetrates into the

Lowest depths of the soul and works healing and creates a new if the power of the evil principle be great that of the good principle is still greater then this mistaken view of original sin ought to have been entirely excused as a theoretical error but now it is taught its ravages are so

Frightful that they remain in the will even of the regenerated the disease under which we labor is so malignant that we cannot be radically cured of it and as we cannot so we need not be hence Christ Our righteousness is out of us the unrighteousness in the old atom is

Within us the righteousness in the new Adam out of us moreover the essence of original sin according to Luther’s expression recurs very evidently here if Catholics teach that it is only in the case where the solicitation to sin proceeding from the flesh is with full Consciousness entertained and cons sended to by the

Will that the real character of sin appears so the Lutheran and Calvinists with unexampled obcy assert that the solicitation even when repelled with decided resistance is in itself sinful let us weigh this Doctrine well and inquire whether evil be not then considered as something existing apart independent of the will and extraneous

To it and be not regarded as an Essence what else can be meant when it is said something evil in itself remains in man and is yet evil even when the will resists and overcomes it here the sinfulness certainly lies no longer in a perverted bent of the will because the

Will in this instance cannot be perverted and yet sin that is to say original sin is still in man this is strikingly corroborated with the assertion that we can be then only liberated from sin when we have put off our dear quote unquote proposal this assuredly is to conceive sin as something very

Substantial and yet it is uncommonly difficult to conceive how Luther should have regarded sin as really something which in the strict sense of the word was an evil Essence perhaps the following considerations may enable us to understand Luther better than he understood himself two facts above all are very

Remarkable in the first place it is asserted of God that he conceals from his eye the sins of believers or regards these as just though they be not so now it is very difficult to imagine how God can view anything other than as it is in itself or how a really unjust

Man can be accepted as just by an omnicient deity if we would do justice to Divine omniscience no alternative remains but to suppose that what is looked upon by man as Sin is really none in the eyes of God and is a mere consequence of human finiteness and in this way we can

Comprehend the security which is felt in the faith in a mere outward justification that something of this sort lies concealed in the background of the minds of those who adopt this view of justification is strongly confirmed by the second fact to which we must now draw attention the act of justification

And the whole work of regeneration are represented as the doing of God Alone now it must afford ample matter for astonishment that God who is here the exclusive agent should not entirely pervade his own work and extrap the Very roots of sin and exert his Unshackled might in all its

Splendor man whose conduct is entirely passive during this process of justification could get be entirely transformed wherefore does not this change occur we are compelled to recur to the same thought which we expressed above though in a somewhat altered form to it that sin is an essential condition in

The original constitution of man and being thus necessary is therefore not imputed To Us by God for the observation of Calvin who seems to have felt the revolting nature of the theory that God is the exclusive agent in regeneration without being with all the thorough agent the observ of Calvin that this

Defective influence was grounded in the motive of God to be able to summon before his tribunal men at every moment of their lives canot seriously satisfy anyone Calvin should have called to his Aid his absolute necessity of all occurrences as an explanation ready at hand this necessity of sinning in the

Present stage of human existence is then the true ground of this Theory and of the possibility of that profound Tranquility in a state of continued sinfulness though such never entered into the minds of the reformers at least no other speculative notion of the Protestant account of original sin considered in connection

With the doctrine of justification and be established Luther accordingly did not express himself well when he said original sin is a part of man’s Essence he should have said said sin Cleaves necessarily to the essence of man thus did the dogmatic declen of Luther and Calvin against human Freedom meet the

Vengeance due to them and though they had so much enlarged on the magnitude of sin yet in consequence of the relation to man wherein they placed the deity they were at last compelled and despite of themselves to deny the very existence of sin what they taught as the or Orin of

Evil manifests itself again in this manner and even in the Lutheran system the consequences of that Doctrine remained though the doctrine itself the Lutheran rejected it is far otherwise as we have above said in the Catholic church because she clings so firmly and with such a bleeding heart to the truth

That it is only in Freedom that the ultimate cause of sin is to be sought for for this very reason she can she must likewise maintain a real Redemption from sin end of section 22 section 23 of volume one of symbolism by Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Burton Robertson this LibriVox recording

Is in the public domain on justifying faith subheading 15 Catholic view of this subject the doctrine of justifying faith experienced the same fate as all the other fundamental doctrines of Christianity for 1500 years Christians had lived in and by that Faith had formed many intellectual conceptions

Upon it and had laid down the same in numerous writings but had with all felt much deeper things than could be comprehended in Notions or defined by words yet in default of an erroneous view of that Faith decisively put forth and asserted by many men were as far

From arriving at a truly sifting point and at the highest degree of evidence upon the matter as before Aras upon the doctrine of Christ’s Divinity and before Pelagius upon that of Grace hence it happened that in the same way as in the above named articles of Faith much that was obsc

Much that was self-contradictory was found among Christian writers before the nyine council in the African and the GIC synods so it is proved in the various expositions of justifying faith prior to the general Council of Trent and it became the great and Earnest as well as astonishing task of its assembled

Fathers to define the pure truth and separated from the dross of error as Aras and Pelagius men widely different in character from Luther and far his inferiors did not draw their opinions from their own fancy but only embraced with warmth and developed to the fullest extent obscure conceptions

Here and there current so Luther merely adhered to some opinions that had previously been started as we learned from the celebrated confession delivered by him before the breaking out of the Reformation in opposition to his teaching the church exalted now to the highest degree of certainty what from

Her origin had been taught perpetually and universally established this in the form of a dogma and separated it from Mere individual opinions some of the theologians assembled at Trent applied themselves especially to determine the nature of the opposition which St Paul establishes between non- justifying works and justifying faith the Bishops of Agatha

And lanciano showed at Great length that Paul merely disputes the justifying power of those Works which preced faith and accordingly spring not out of it in Conformity with this opinion the Bishop Cornelius muus observed that the Apostle denies merely the value of the exterior part of the works for instance Abraham

Was not acceptable to God merely because he offered up his son in sacrifice or performed other like actions but he became so by the inward exercise of faith and other virtues connected with a Sanctified course of will proceeding from faith in manifesting itself actively in good

Works very rightly was it said that Paul had not in view the works of a man Sanctified in Christ and excluded these from consideration when he denied to Works in opposition to Faith the power of rendering us acceptable to God in other words they observed that Paul opposed to the

Old unsatisfactory legal order of things the new way of Salvation pointed out by God and attributed only to the living adherence to the same vishes the power of making us pleasing unto the deity these definitions were however of a more negative kind the following are more positive in their nature that faith

In Christ justifies observes another Theologian signifies as much as that faith in the necessary root from which all spiritual actions agreeable to God spring forth so that consumate righteousness is not conferred by faith immediately and in itself but only by its ulterior development and Claudius Jus added with

As much brevity is truth through faith is the grace given to us not to be absolutely acceptable to God but to enable us to become so in this observation Patronus illustrated by remarking that Paul did not say that man is justified by faith but through faith for our righteousness is not Faith

Itself but in the latter is the power given to us to acquire the same John 1:12 an expression of Bernard Diaz is also worthy of mention this Theologian observe that the justifying power is on this account ascribed to Faith because it raises us from our native loneliness our earthward views and consists in

Certain movements which transport us to a grade of spiritual life exalted above natural existence so that we may be considered by God as having entered on the way to acquire his approval by attachment to Christ all these definitions Express only in various ways one and the same

Thing which the Council of approves when it says quote faith is the beginning of all salvation the basis and the root of all justification for without it it is impossible to please God and to attain to his adoption unquote thus is Faith the beginning of salvation but yet not a beginning which

During this period of life can be again abandoned after important progress hath been made for it is likewise the permanent groundwork whereon the whole structure of Salvation is erected yet it is not a mere substratum standing in no immediate organic connection with the superincumbent parts for it is the root of

Justification to its power and activity is attributed the justifying Grace the new vital principle transforming man from an enemy into a friend of God Divine love in a word Bay imper justification say the schoolman although Faith does not Merit even this Grace a real definition of Faith however the Council of Trent is

Not given such a one is found in the Roman catechism when it says quote the word faith signifies not so much the act of thinking or opining but it has the sense of a firm obligation contracted in virtue of a free Act of submission whereby the Mind decisively and

Permanently ascends to the Mysteries revealed by God unquote Catholics consider Faith as the reunion with God in Christ especially by means of the faculties of knowledge illuminated and confirmed by Grace with which the excitement of various feelings is more or less connected it is in their estimation a

Divine Light whereby man discerns as well as recognizes the decrees of God and comprehend not only what God is to man but also what man should be to God as justification now in the Catholic sense consists in a total change of the whole inward man we can understand why

The Catholic church should so urgently insist that faith alone does not justify before God that it is rather only the first subjective indispensable condition to be justified the root from which God’s approval must spring the first title where on we can establish our claim of divine filiation but if Faith passes from the

Understanding and the feelings excited through the understanding to the will if it pervades vivifies and fructifies the will through the new vital principle imparted to the latter and engenders in this way the new Man created after God or to make use of the expression of sarandis at the Council of Trent if love

Is in kindled out of Faith as fire out of Brimstone then only after faith and love do regeneration or justification ensue hence the schools of the middle age recognized likewise a faith whereof they said that it alone Justified it is known by the designation of the FES formata under which the schoolman

Understood a faith that had love in itself as its Soul it’s vivifying its plastic principle Forma and on this account it is called f charate formata and imates Via V this is that higher Faith which brings man into a real vital communion with Christ fills him with an infinite

Devotion to God with the strongest confidence in him with the deepest humility and inmost love towards him liberates him from sin and causes All Creatures to be viewed and loved in God we shall take the liberty of quoting some passages extoling this Faith from writings composed prior as well as subsequent to the

Reformation Thomas aquinus in answer to the question whether we were delivered from sin through the sufferings of Christ says quote through faith we appropriate to ourselves the sufferings of Christ so that we become partakers of the fruits of the same Romans 3:25 but the faith through which we are

Cleansed from sin is not the unliving faith f days and foris which can coexist with sin but the faith living through love F days formata so that the sufferings of Christ not only by means of the understanding but by means of feeling become appropriated by us in this way are sins

Forgiven us through the power of Christ’s passion unquote Cardinal Nicholas of Kusa in one of his most intellectual writings that on religious peace wherein he lays down principles for the union of all religions in one observes faith alone justifies un but then he adds it must be full formed Faith be

Days for Matata for without works it is dead more fully he explains his meaning in one of his exhortations to the following effect quote it is love the vivifying principle a more pous Forma which consummates faith and confidence which seizes upholds and transforms the soul from Christ Redemption was desired

And he answered faith and confidence secure what is loved and wished for for nothing is anxiously desired save what we love love if thus the Redeemer be loved he then redeems love consequently redeems for it is the love of the Redeemer in love accordingly it is the Beloved object hence too the Beloved

Redeemer is in love for God is love and he who abideth in love abideth in God and God in him it is the consumate faith or the consumate confidence which we call the Faith vivified by love F Chate fora for the Savior saith that it maketh us well pleasing unto God thus

He who knoweth Christ and doth not approach him for he who goeth towards him but doth not enter into fellowship with him for he that goeth towards him and entereth into some fellowship with him but doth not Embrace him and knit the ties of the closest fellowship with

Him hath no part in Redemption un to the words of this Theologian we shall subjoin a passage from bellerine who flourished nearly about the same length of time after the rise of Luther as Nicholas of cusa did before him on that passage of Galatians 5:6 quote for in Jesus Christ neither circumcision

Availeth anything nor uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by charity unquote he observes in order that there may be no occasion for errors the same Apostle St Paul declares what sort of Faith he calls the justifying one when he says in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision that is to say neither

The law given to the Jews nor the works of the heathens can render men acceptable before God but only faith yet not every Faith but solely that quote which worketh by charity unquote to it the faith which is moved shaped for mat and vivified by charity if love accordingly be the vivifying

Principle Forma of Faith then say the Catholics with reason faith without Love Is Dead inous with love it is living or MAA to this we may add explanations which the celebrated Catholic exus at the commencement of the 17th century is given of the 22 verse of the third chapter of

Romans after the Apostle had said that by The Works of the law no one is Justified before God he adds A New Path of Salvation without the law has been now opened by God to it through faith in Christ so that all believers may become just on the words quote unquote

Believers Cornelius elapid now observes those are meant who are not contented with a mere naked empty Faith such as the demons possess but those who like friends have a faith matured by love f charitat for MAA who believe in Christ in such a way as to fulfill his

Commandments who possess a humble living and obedient faith in short believe not merely theoretically but practically we credent non specul said practi Christo unquote this view presents itself so naturally to The unprejudiced Inquirer that heinroth for example probably without ever having read a Catholic Theologian observed in his pist odia

Quote faith is the basis but love is the principle of a righteous life unquote end of section 23 section 24 of volume one of symbolism by Johan Adam Mohler translated by James foron Robertson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain subheading 16 Lutheran and calvinistic view of

Faith as we now proceed to unfold the Protestant view of faith it will be desirable in the first place in order to throw the clearest light on the Obscure point to make our reader acquainted with the possession wherein Luther and his followers plac themselves in relation to

The Catholic Doctrine we have just been stating above all we must observe that they combed the distinction between the two species of faith of which we spoke in the preceding section not to maintain one of the two as aone true and alone worthy of the name but to reject both

Had they only represented as inadequate that Faith which Catholics denote as insufficient for justification to it the dead Faith their conduct would have been at once intelligible and laudable but they disputed its very existence clearly and frequently as it is attested by holy writ the cause to this fact must be

Sought for in the opinion that faith is the result of the exclusive working of the Divinity in man an opinion which appeared incompatible with the other that it could show itself dead and ineffectual whereas the Catholic Doctrine explains the want of a progressive movement of faith not pervading and transforming the whole Man

By The Resistance which human Freedom everywhere cooperating or refusing its cooperation offers to what surprising interpretations of scripture the Protestant view leads into so far as it disputes the distinction between the two afores said species of faith we have already shown in the 12th section when we had occasion to speak of the

Calvinistic theory of predestination but even the notion of the faith which worketh by charity unquote described by Catholics as the one alone justifying is rejected by Protestants when in the year 1541 deputies of Catholics and lutherans assembled at ratsun in order to bring about if possible a Reconciliation of

Parties they agreed on the following exposition of the article on faith quote it is a settled and sound doctrine that sinful man is justified by living and active faith for by it are we rendered agreeable and well pleasing unto God for Christ’s sake Luther pronounced condemnation on

This article in these words quote it is a wretched botched note unquote we will now take the liberty of bringing before our readers the following passage from Luther’s commentary on the epistle to the Galatians quot our papists and sophists says he have taught the light to it that

We should believe in Christ and that Faith was the groundwork of salvation but nevertheless that this Faith could not justify a man unless it were the Fay fora that is to unless it first received Its Right form from charity now this is not the truth but an idle fictitious

Illusion and a false deceitful misrepresentation of the Gospel on this account what the senseless sophists have taught respecting the feed days fora that is to say the faith which should receive its true form and shape from charity is mere idle talk for that faith alone justifies which apprehends Christ by the word of

Scripture and which adorns or decorates itself with him and not the faith which Embraces in itself charity for if faith is to be certain and constant it should apprehend not else cling to not else save the one Christ for in the anguish of the conscience it hath no other stay but this precious

Pearl therefore should the law aright a man and the weight of sin oppress him as much as they are able he can nevertheless when he hath apprehended Christ by faith ever boast that he is yet just and Pious but how cometh this to pass and by what is he rendered so

Just by that Noble treasure and pearl which is called Jesus Christ whom by faith he hath made his own unquote in the same work of the reformer we read on the same subject as follows but if man hears that he is to Believe In Christ and yet that such

Faith is of no avail and profiteth him nothing unless charity be added thero which giveth Force to Faith and renders it capable of justifying a man then it must needs come to pass that a man will immediately fall away from the faith despare and think if this be so that

Faith without charity doth not justify then it is undoubtedly useless and nothing worth and charity alone can justify for a faith hath not charity by its side which impart to it the right form which constitutes it in such a manner that it can justify then it is

Not but if it be not how can it then justify the adversaries in support of this their pernicious and poisonous Doctrine aduce the text from the 13th chapter chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians quote if I spake with the tongues of men and of angels and if I

Should prophecy and should know all Mysteries and all knowledge and if I should have all Faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity I am nothing unquote this text the papist regard as their wall of iron but the dull stupid asses can neither understand nor

Perceive anything in the writings of St Paul and therefore with this their false interpretation they have not only done violence to the words of St Paul but they have moreover denied Christ and set All His blessings aside therefore we must be aware of this Doctrine and regarded as the very diabolical and

Hellish poison and conclude with St Paul that we be justified by faith only and not for feedom Forum chitate unquote what now is this justifying faith in the Protestant sense man believes when he trusts that he has been received by God into Grace and that for Christ’s sake who by his death has

Offered up atonement for our sins he receives forgiveness of the same bankton expresses himself still more clearly when he says quote faith is the unconditional acqu Essence in the Divine Mercy without regard to our good or evil Works unquote by these definitions is the essence of that Faith which the reformers require

By no means made clear we must more accurately point out the manner wherein Faith exhibits the property of justification negatively this is explained by the express observation that it is not the love connected with faith or faith in as far as it manifests its activity in Works which possesses

The power of justifying positively this is explained by the Declaration that it is the instrument and the mean which lays hold of the grace The Compassion of God and the promised merits of Christ if this more accurate explanation should not yet place in the fullest life the nature of the Protestant idea of

Faith this will be most certainly affected by considering the comparison which Calvin on a certain occasion employed for this object osiander a preacher in nurburg and afterwards in kingburg one of the most celebrated of Luther’s followers at the commencement of the Reformation had taken the Liberty to put forth A peculiar theory of

Justification which if we duy elucidate his obscure phraseology and the want of precision in his ideas was quite Catholic a circumstance which was often urged as a matter of reproach against him he taught among other things that the justifying power lies not in faith considered in itself but only in as much

As it essentially Embraces Christ that is to say according to Catholic language in as much as by the real communication of Christ’s righteousness it places man in a real communion with him to this Calvin replies doubtless he is of opinion that Faith by no means just ifies through its

Intrinsic energy for as it is always weak and imperfect it could produce only a defective justification faith is the only mean organ through which Christ is offered up to God thus it blesses man in the same way as an earn vessel in which a treasure is found makes a man happy

Although it possesses in itself no worth thus is justifying faith regarding not as a morally renovating and vital principle flowing from the spirit of Christ but as standing in the same relation to Christ as the earn vessel to the treasure in the same way as the two

Become not one The Vessel remains earn the treasure golden so the believer is not inwardly United with Christ by justifying faith they stand merely in an outward relation one to the other Christ is is pure man on the other hand although he believes in a way agreeable to God is inwardly

Impure Christ is offered up by man to God through faith the sacrificial vessel without man himself being a victim acceptable to God through Christ and as such being just and in consequence thereof obtaining Eternal Felicity the belief in an extraneous righteousness described in the 14th section required this notion of Faith

Jusia extra no A peculiar conception likewise of the appropriation of the merits and Obedience of Christ must accordingly be formed now this was precisely called appropriation of obedience whereby it is not appropriated by us not made our own in an inward living manner so that we may become obedient like unto the redeemed

It is in the same way with this new mode of appropriation as if anyone were to purchase a very learned book and instead of stamping its contents deeply on his mind and in this way appropriating it so that he might become a living book should hold himself very learned as the

Learned book was his outward property now the rejection of the above stated second Catholic view of Faith becomes perfectly intelligible moreover Calvin as it appears borrowed the simile in question from Luther’s writings in which it frequently occurs though not so fully carried out after these explanations we can

Understand the purport of passages like the following from Luther’s writings quote now thou seest how rich is the Christian or the baptized man for though he will he cannot lose his salvation how ever great his sins may be unless he refuse to believe no sin can damn him but unbelief alone when faith

In the Divine promise given in the baptism returns or is not effaced then all else will be made to vanish in a moment through faith or rather the veracity of God for he cannot Bell himself if thou confess him and acquest Faithfully in his promises but Contrition and confession of sins and

Even satisfaction and all those efforts invented by man will quickly leave thee but Contrition and confession of sins and even satisfaction of all those efforts invented by man will quickly leave thee and make thee unhappier if thou forgett us this Divine veracity and busiest thyself about those things

Vanity of vanities and vexation of spirit is all which we strive for beyond faith in God’s Fidelity unquote In this passage it is asserted that by the side of Faith the greatest sins can be committed but this certainly is not the faith which St Paul recommends to us although Luther is ever

Appealing to the authority of this Apostle but it is that earn vessel of Calvin on Whose surface indeed Christ as the Lamb of God is found but without the spirit of the Redeemer livingly pervading the whole man destroying sin and truly engendering a new life within

Us who that had ever reflected on the Pauline notion of Faith could have ever taken pleasure to defend the thesis that if in faith an adultery could be committed it were no sin unquote even in mongon we find similar passages of which we shall cite only onee whatever thou mayest do whether

Thou eatest drink workst with the hand teachest I may add shouldst thou even sin therewith look not to thy Works weigh the promise of God confide in it and doubt not that thou Hast no longer a judge in heaven but only a father who cherisheth thee in his heart as a parent

Doth his child in other words suppose thou should be a drunker or a glutton let not thy hair turn gray only forget not that God is a kind Elder who learn to forgive much sooner than thou did learn to sin however we have pointed out only one

Side of the Lutheran principle of Faith namely that whereby it works justification there is another whereby it becomes the source of love and of Good Works Luther in many plac places describes this in nearly the same terms as the Catholics depict the Divine love of the regenerated in this class of the

Reformers writings are included those on Christian freedom and on good works and who knows not the brilliant description of faith in his preface to St Paul’s epistle to the Romans quot faith says he is a Divine work within us which changes us makes us be born again out of God

Destroys the old Adam and transforms us as it were into other men in heart in feeling and in every faculty and communicates to us the holy spirit this faith is something living and efficacious so that it is impossible that it should not always work good faith does not first ask whether good

Works are to be done but before it inquires about the matter it hath already wrought many good works and is ever busied in working here is the most amiable contradiction with the Lutheran theory of justification a renovation and entire transformation of the whole inward man is taught Faith appears as the blossom

Springing out of the Union of all the powers constituting the interior man as an expression of their combined workings while a strong testimony is rendered to the power of the Savior over sin and Death In His commentary likewise on the epistle to the Galatians Luther calls faith quote the righteous heart the

Thoroughly Good Will and the newly created understanding or Reason unquote here also Luther means to say that faith is an effect of all the spiritual powers of man when they are purified and glorified by the Divine Spirit end of section 24 section 25 of volume one of symbolism by

Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Burton Robertson this LibriVox recording is in the public to me appreciation of the theoretic and practical grounds which the Protestants allege for their view of Faith subheading 17 appreciation of the theoretic grounds but why now do the reformers so much insist on the distinction of two

Principles in one and the same Faith to one whereof is reserved the power of working justification to the other that of evincing itself in charity in good works and in unfolding the fullness of all virtues Luther and his friends conceived they had very weighty theoretical and practical reasons for this

Separation the theoretical reasons will first engage our attention it is very useful with Luther and his friends to boast of Faith as the instrument embracing the mercy of God in Christ is not only the first and original but also the only pure ordinance of God in man unmixed and

Consequently untroubled with any human alloy whereas faith when it manifests itself in love and in the whole course of feelings to which it should give rise on the one hand do not appear itself but rather if we may so speak as the fruit of itself and on the other hand

Penetrates and pervades the human and the sinful element and consequently no longer exhibits its pristine Purity now it is the exclusive Act of God according to them which maketh men agreeable to him it is consequently the instrumental Faith only not the faith working by charity that justifieth before God and there therefore the

Distinction in question must be regarded as well founded nay as absolutely necessary the naive Simplicity of these theoretical errors which are entirely based on the doctrine of God’s exclusive operation in the work of Salvation is too evident to need any special comment Luther in one word wished to say in us

God believes in us God confides in himself and as everywhere he can Rejoice only in his own works so he rejoiceth solely in this his exclusive act evident as this is yet on account of the importance of the matter and for the sake of elucidating the Notions

Respecting it it behooves us not to pass over it with too much Haste The Lutheran describe the entire spiritual life of regenerated man as the act of God is it not therefore extremely singular and according to their theoretical doctrines utterly inconceivable that they should not likewise say God in Christ Jesus loveth

In us and should not attribute to the Creator as Lively a joy in this his work as that whereby he believeth in us if the one as well as the other be his work if both have been obtained for us through the merits of Christ what imaginable cause is there why God should

Look down graciously upon us in as much as he excites within us faith in the Redeemer but cannot love us in as much as he produces within us love for Christ the doubt that in love something human and therefore as they say something meager and insufficient exists The Peculiar theory of the Protestants

Cannot allege for what is weak and sinful in love that is to say what is not love itself they will not denominate God’s work but only love itself self the Exotic and impure elements in this love God could always separate and as to that which should be proved to be

His own work graciously accept and even as graciously as anything else which he hath ordained a very peculiar reason which have induced the lutherans to adopt this view for although as they conceive faith is the exclusive work of God yet it still frequently trembles becomes now and then even according to the

Symbolical books for example the apology extremely weak is scarcely able at times to cling to the staff of Divine Providence and forgets itself even as far as to doubt the existence of God and as regards Luther himself he was often unable to put off the doubt whether he had conceived justifying

Faith in a very believing spirit and dispelled Awakening Scruples not by the power of of Faith but after a very human fashion to it by resolving in such moments to invy instantaneously and energetically against the papacy and in this way to set aside disgust by Pleasure now this dismay and this

Doubting in Divine truths and divine promises are most assuredly no gracious work of God but in both we recognize the human alloy and in the sense of the reformers we must Saye in us God believes it is man on the contrary who trembles and who doubts in despite of this perturbation of the

Divine element within us God does not cease to look down graciously upon the seed he has sown in man un why should the deity then on account of the human alloy intermingled with Charity be induced to cast no friendly eye upon it and not graciously recognize

That portion of it which is his own work love then is an effect of faith and consequently not the first of the Divine workings within us whereas it is only Faith which with God’s Aid brings forth charity and certainly not any unbelief engrafted on faith love must in

Consequence be as Divine as Faith because it is the pure though as the Lutheran assert the later production of a Divine principle for whatever would be defective in charity would be as we remarked above not charity itself but only the effect of a deficiency in faith or to express ourselves more accurately

Or deficiency that is to say the absence of being can do nothing a smaller degree of Charity presupposes a small degree of Faith though the former be it even subsequent in its origin is as Divine as the latter a flame is not less fire than a spark though the spark preceded the

Flame it is the same with a little flame though it were only the effect of a little spark and both in the same way would be comprised in the notion of a little fire withs soever we turn our inquiring glance we can discover nothing which should have brought charity into such

Discredit that it were only by faith and not by love we can be acceptable to God holy RIT is not the slightest degree chargeable with the evil repute into which love is Fallen let us compare only John 14: 21 and 23 and 1 Corinthians 8:3 If the Savior saith in the former

Place quote he who loveth me shall be loved of my father and I will love him and will manifest myself to him unquote so we may be allowed to put the question what distinction can exist between receiving anyone into his grace un assuring anyone of his Good Will

Unquote declaring him just and quote unquote loving anyone it is also useful attentively to consider who it is according to this passage whom the father and the son love him it saith quote who loveth Christ unquote thus it would be faith in so far as it loves and his active in love

Wherein consists the righteousness that availeth before God and whereby we become well pleasing unto him to speak out plainly our own opinion it appears to us that in the Protestant mode of distinguishing between the instrumental faith and the faith working by charity there has been always wanting a clearness of

Conception this will be proved most evidently if we take the Pains of inquiring what is this faith considered in itself and what on the other hand it ought to be according to Protestants this Faith as we should premise being always understood in the Protestant sense of confidence in the

Savior as the forgiver of sins the discussion which we have just concluded leads us to a certain result let us once more place ourselves in the Protestant point of view which looks on charity as an effect or a fruit of faith faith if charity stands really in this relation

To Faith it is necessarily comprised in it for otherwise it could not proceed from it it would be therefore most certainly only another form of Faith’s existence or faith in another shape and would determine its Essence in such a degree that it could not be conceived without

It and could only be through it what it is it would therefore be no error to assert that love were the essence of faith and so in a higher more developed and more distinct manner it would be the essence of the latter because it is the

Latter which is manifested in it as the cause and its effect the reason and its Consequence the root in the tree love would be Faith even in a more consumate form because Faith only after a gradual growth hath become love Faith in so far as it Embraces

Christ and the Forgiveness of sins in him is consequently love itself although as until more accurate definitions be given we are willing for argument sake to concede it be at first only love in its infancy love is thus without doubt the organ which rests with confidence in

Christ and the efficacious faith is the instrumental one only as we said in a more mature and a more confirmed Med shape the truth of what has been stated and consequently the due relation in which Faith stands to charity May in various ways be made evident the first is as follows to the

Abstract idea of God as a being infinitely just corresponds the sentiment of fear if on the other hand God be conceived as the all loving merciful and forgiving father this is most assured ly Possible only by a kindred sentiment in our souls corresponding to the Divine love that is

To say by a love germinating within us it is Awakening love only that can embrace the loving hardening compassionate God and surrender itself up entirely to him as even the Redeemer saith quote he who loveth me shall be loved of my father and I will love him and will manifest myself to him

Unquote thus it would not be Faith confidence which would be first in the order of time and love in the next place but Faith would be an effect of Love which after she had engendered Faith his confidence supported by her own self- begotten helpmate would come forward more vigorously and

Efficaciously this at least holy writ teaches very clearly compare Romans 5:5 with ch 88: 15 and 16 the second mode wherein what we have said may be made evident is as follows confidence in the Redeemer for this we repeat it again reformers denominate Faith necessarily presupposes a secret

Hidden desire a longing after him for our whole being having received the impulse from God forces and urges us to apply to ourselves what is offered through the medi cre ation of Christ and our deepest Necessities whereof we have attained the Consciousness through his Spirit are satisfied only in him but

What is now this longing this desire other than love assuredly this aspiring of our whole being towards Christ this effort to Repose in him to be United with him to find in him only our Salvation is not else than love it follows then that love even according to this view of things

Constitutes the foundation and internal condition of confidence nay its very essence for in every internal Consequence the essence is again manifested it was only a very singular confusion of the manner wherein the gospel is announced to us with the interior living acceptance of the same in our own Souls that could ever have

Given rise to a different opinion the Redeemer doubtless announces himself to us from without jusia Nostra extra no as him for the sake of whose merits the Forgiveness of sins is offered to us with the view of restoring us to communion with God but when we have once clearly apprehended and recognized this

Righteousness which is without then first awakes within us the feeling Kindred to Divinity we find ourselves to be beings Des designed and created for God we feel ourselves attracted toward him this is the first germ of love we find Even in our sins no further obstacle we pass them by and move

Consoled onward toward God in Christ this is confidence in the latter and by the progressive development of such feelings we at last disengage ourselves from the world and live entirely in God justia intran inherent infusa thus the recognition of the truths revealed in Christ and especially

Of the Forgiveness of sins in him this is Faith in the ordinary Catholic sense is undoubtedly the primary thing proceeding all others the groundwork and the root of justification radc at fundamentum justification Onis so that from this sort of Faith love emanates but but if Faith be taken in

The sense confidence fedua then it is far from the truth to assert that it is only followed by love and still more that separated from love or conceived without it it is capable of justifying this confidence is itself only one phase in the history of Love accordingly our sins are not in the

First place forgiven us so that in consequence of this consciousness we love but because we confidingly love and lovingly confide they are forgiven in our interior life forgiveness of sins and sanctification are simultaneous or as St Thomas aquinus excellently expresses it quote the infusion of grace and the remission of

Sin like the illumination of any space in the dispersion of Darkness are one and the same thing unquote but according to the apology and the formulary of Concord it is Faith exclusively alone wherein the appropriation of the merits of Christ and justification consist and consequently neither charity nor any

Other virtue that is to say no holy feelings on the part of men have any share in this work accordingly Faith or confidence in Christ in so far as it justifies is something quite distinct from from every holy sentiment especially charity which is the one expressly named whether this Doctrine can be in

Any way Justified whether it offer any sense whatever the discussion which we have just been engaged May suffice to show end of section 25 section 26 of volume one of symbolism by Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Burton Robertson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain subheading 18 appreciation of the Practical

Grounds let us now Endeavor to comprehend the meaning of those practical reasons which the Protestants allege in their cause these reasons are the following one the first is that this way only quote unquote troubled consciences can receive a powerful and adequate Solace for so say the Protestants if instrumental Faith which clings to

Christ Alone who hath offered up satisfaction for us possess the power of justifying Hearts sorely grieved on account of their sins will then enjoy a steady interior peace but this they never can attain to if only the faith which is manifested in love Faith evidenced in Holiness of sentiment

Be considered as the test of the children of God for who is conscious of possessing the true love of God and Holiness of feeling two in the second place the Protestants contend that if the instrumental Faith be regarded as the one conferring justification everything is then referred to the Divine Mercy In Christ

And all glory rendered to the Redeemer but so soon as faith in as much as that comprises a circle of holy feelings is to earn for us the approbation of heaven then the glory due to the Savior alone is divided between him and us or rather

Withdrawn from him in a word by this way only can the merits of Christ and their entire magnitude be gratefully acknowledged three the reason first assigned offers us in fact a very beautiful and very pleasing motive and we see at once that the sentiment which it is intended to cherish in the breast

Of men this sentiment is humility which with an honest self-denial refers all good to God as its primary source and ascribes nothing good to man as such and humility therefore must be regarded in fact as the motive of the third ground for this distinction between the two kinds of

Faith let us now examine the intrinsic worth of the first reason it is certainly a great task for the true church to administer solid consolation to consciences sorely troubled and deeply agitated on account of their sins but the Solace so extended should be no false one and that such an epithet must

Attach to the Protestant consolation we have already on account of the distinction between the instrumental and the efficacious Faith full and just cause to apprehend and why so let us hear the following dialogue Luther and a heart seeking consolation quot thou sayest I have done

No good work I am for this too weak and frail such a treasure thou Willl not acquire by thy works but thou sh hear the joyous message which the Holy Ghost proclaims to thee through the mouth of the Prophet for he saith to thee be joyous thou Barren that bearest not that

Is to say that art not active in charity as if he would say why art thou anxious and art so troubled for thou Hast no cause to be anxious and to be troubled but I am Barren and lonely and bear no children although thou buildest not on

The righteousness of the law nor bearest children like Hagar it matters not thy righteousness is far higher and better to it Christ who is able to defend thee against the Terrors and the curses of the law for he became an anathema to thee that he might redeem thee from the anath of the

Law what an utterly false and dangerous application of the 27th verse of Galatians 4 is not this replacing one part of Faith by the other and distinguishing the efficacious from the instrumental faith in order that not merely in the defective condition but in the utter absence of the former the latter may be

Made to represent it here we find no Solace but the encouragement of a false security and the doctrine that it is only the faith working by charity which justifies is reproached with being unable to rise above the low level of a mere legal justice and what contradictions too we find here above as

We have seen Luther termed Faith a thoroughly Good Will and here we find Faith destitute of all will above Faith was described as an eternal active principle and here it appears before us as indolence itself above it was a Fresh Living power which does not first ask whether and what it

Should do but before the question is put is already prepared here it appears a thing that can only sigh and lament and can never make progress in which still however Remains the true Faith should the distinction accordingly between the active and the instrumental Faith be meant undoubtedly to express the idea

That Faith justifies yet it not so much as it is active still it would convey the sense that it justifies even when it is not active let us attentively consider once more some passages previously cited from Luther’s writings see subheading 16 passages which only now perhaps will be completely

Understood let us especially weigh the words quote but if a man heareth that he should not believe in Christ and yet that this belief availeth him not nothing nor is of use unless love be added thereto which imparts Vigor to Faith and renders it capable of justifying man then without doubt he

Will fall away from Faith Despair and think that if it be really so that faith without love does not justify then it is undoubtedly profitless and nothing worth unquote Luther’s already cited description of the riches which flow to us from baptism is well Worthy of our repeated attention all these passages furnish so

Much evidence of the opinion which we have advanced respecting the real practical importance of the here alleged distinction between the two forms of one and the same faith it is not to be denied that according to Luther the form of Faith efficacious to Holiness cannot appear without the other which consists in the

Cessing apprehension to Christ’s merits but the latter can exist with without the former and indeed in such a way that according to Luther’s opinion the faith and the Forgiveness of sins through Christ would lose all value and all importance if such were not the case this now is not the doctrine of St

Paul who consoles us in a very different manner compare Romans 5: 1-6 chapter 8 veres 1-16 Galatians 5 verses 6-22 in the holy spirit let us cry out quote Abba dear father but the fruits of the spirit are charity joy peace patience benignity goodness longanimity mildness Faith modesty continency Chastity

Unquote peace and joy in the Holy Spirit are accordingly not to be gained without love and all other holy sentiments and this the soul whose Scruples are silenced by Luther clearly proves because it possessed no loving gentle and meek Faith therefore joy and peace were not its portion and never would it

Obtain these alone unless it were seduced into a culpable levity or sought at satisfaction in carnal Pleasures the nature of that consolation which the Catholic church had ministers we shall later have occasion more accurately to Define two let us now proceed to the appreciation of the second of the

Practical grounds which in the opinion of the reformers so strongly enforced their view of Faith as to render it not only laudable but even commanded by the spirit of Christianity to such an extent that they characterized the opposite opinion as absolutely Wicked it would have been in truth a noble struggle

Between the different confessions if they had striven in an enlightened manner to surpass each other in the glorification of him whom they mutually rever as the source of all salvation but the Sovereign rule According to which judgment should be given in this Strife is this when we

Praise the holiest let there be nothing Unholy let us Endeavor clearly to apprehend the meaning of the reformers assertion they think that the doctrine of the Catholics that only the Sanctified is the Justified man only the lover of God is the Beloved of God God has nothing above the level of vulgar

And everyday maxims for to love him who loves us is not rare even among men thus if we would be agreeable to God only in so far as the power of Christ really transforms us put aside sin and make us in fact worthy of becoming children of

God this is not a sufficient honor of the Redeemer the conception of Christ and the value of his sufferings before God are not estimated sufficiently high but if the Merit of the sufferings of the Son of God be so exalted that its power can introduce us into heaven without its

Costing him or ourselves any effort for a preparatory purification then what hath he achieved for us and what is he able to achieve with his father appears in all its luster the reformers conceiv that the case was nearly the same as if a gentleman were to testify his favor to a

Friend by letting him introduce guests in their soiled traveling clothes without giving them on that account a less gracious welcome but here the question is not about forms of decorum and ceremonial frivolity it is about the inward adornment that nupal garment which under pain of removal from the banquet

According to the sentence of the Lord of Grace who is also the Holy One ought not to be wanting even the gentleman in the case refer to would suppose that the guests introduced to him in the manner described would entertain the same kindly feelings towards himself as the

Friend under whose offices they were admitted having thus formed clear Notions of the mode which the confessions deem most fitting for showing forth the glory of the Redeemer it can no longer be a matter of Doubt which of them renders the tribute most worthy of that Redeemer and now let us

Inquire into the misunderstandings that have led to a condemnation of the Catholic Doctrine it is scarcely possible perhaps to conceive any objection less Cent against the peculiar doctrines of the Catholic Church than the assertion that it considers the reconciliation of man with God partly as the work of Christ

Partly as the work of man or what is the same that it divides between the Savior and the believer the glory of bringing the latter back to God and this forth because Catholics represent the faith animated by love as agreeable to God if the doctrine of Catholics were this that

The holy sentiments required of the Christian were obtained independently of Christ and in this Independence were acceptable to God or even that Christ supplied only those virtues wherein we were deficient then the above objection would doubtless be well founded but as the church expressly teaches that the

Entire spiritual life of the faithful in so far as it is agreeable to God flows absolutely from the source which is called Christ How can there be here any question of a division of Glory or a thankless conduct towards the Redeemer and a want of Pious feeling undoubtedly the church urgently

Demands of everyone to appropriate in a complete and Vivid manner the power preferred in the Redeemer undoubtedly she teaches that it is only by this this living appropriation by stamping Christ on our souls we can become pleasing unto God namely when all our feelings all our thoughts and Will are filled with his

Vital breath but to call this a dividing of Glory with Christ is tanamal to asserting that a man exposed to danger of death from Hunger divides the honor of his Deliverance with him who benevolently offers him food and drink because the unhappy man makes use of the strengthening nurture and by that

Participation appropriates it to his own substance and does not merely content himself with turning up a look of Hope and confidence towards his benefactor with this case in fact may it may be aptly compared the theory of Protestants in respect to the relation of the Believers to Christ but whoever

Is entangled in this error will perish in his sins like the starving men whom he would take for his model while he fancies he is rendering glory to the Savior alone he will not be comprised in the number of those who exclaim Lord Lord be thou alone praised but who do not the

Will of the heavenly father but this whole error is based on a confusion of the objective consummation of the atonement with its subjective approbation see subheading 11 and the love which must first germinate from the faith in the grace and the love of God in Christ though in a living

Faith it is already ripened into Blossom and fruit is so understood as if God remitted our sins on account of our love whereas it is his voluntary gift a misunderstanding of scripture has had great share in producing this error in the Bible God is represented as loving men before they love him see

First John 4:10 that is to say as loving them without their love whereas the Catholic Church teaches that he only who loves God is beloved of God hereby the free unmerited grace of God in Christ seems totally rejected as if only through our love the love of God deserved to be acquired what

Is to be said in reply to this in answering this question we connect with the first epistle of John 4: 10 numerous other passages which appear to contradict it passages wherein it is expressly said that God loves only those who love him in the verse referred to

The love of God embracing the human race dman and the Redeemer is announced and at the same time the Eternal mystery is unveiled that God through his son propers forgiveness to all but this Universal eternal love love of God is realized in the individual only at the

Moment where in he cooperates with the love of God revealed in the Redeemer and full of Faith stamps it on his heart and his will so that as this specific individual he is in effect beloved of God at the moment only when the love hath become Mutual John 14:

21-23 hence both forms of speech and holy Rit are equally true hence the truth of the Catholic Doctrine which in the article of justification wherein this personal approbation of God’s unmerited grace is the question at issue necessarily adheres to the words of the scriptural text last referred

To three let us now return to the relation which the distinction in question Bears to humility the principal virtue of the Pauline faith is doubtless humility the unconditional resignation to God in Christ self-renunciation on the part of man and his deep conviction of possessing no sentiment agreeable to God

Without Christ and it is not to be denied that a perception of this truth mainly influenced the reformers in their definition but as they asserted that it was not the intrinsic worth of faith that is to say it was not a circle of closely connected virtues involved in

Faith such as humility love self-denial and the rest which stamped on it the character of justification a method was found of dispensing with humility even in humility itself and in order to evince a true humility it was taught that it was not humility in faith which rendered us

Acceptable to God it is indeed a sign of true humility to be ignorant of itself and to conceal itself from its own view but never has a true humble man taught that humility do not render us agreeable to the deity were there any other means of Awakening in our souls a heartfelt Vivid

Persevering sense of the virtue of humility and faith in the merits of the Redeemer by the acknowledgement of which alone man is compelled to go out of himself to renounce without Reserve his own self-produced virtue in order to live entirely in and by God we should

Not then even stand in need of the merits of the Redeemer so much is humility the Cardinal Point on which everything hinges which must be called forth before everything else because in this negative all positive is comprised and this is not to make us acceptable to God because

For sooth no virtue can make us so and it is precisely in the avow that it is not humility but Faith only which possesses this property that true humility is to cons insist here the reformers were evidently misled by the most vague the most confused yet with all honorable

Feelings of the truly positive principle and the negative character of humility they had no clear conception still less did they pause to reflect that it is one thing to lay down the doctrine that a man can be thoroughly good and another to hold oneself as personally good the latter

Would be the destruction of all relig ious life while the former is its essential condition the inextricable condition in which this Doctrine involved the Protestants is well worthy of notice according to their teaching humility like every other virtue can be rightly found only where it is most urgently

Inculcated that the believer needs it not to render himself acceptable to God and yet it is taught at the same time that on that account a Christian needs it not as a holy sentiment to obtain the favor of the deity because like every other virtue it appears always impure

Man that is to say always marred by self-complacency and arrogance hence if it were exacted as necessary to justification man would never become just in the eyes of God thus for sooth true humility is to be engendered by a system of Faith which establishes that there is no true

Humility even in the newborn and true humility can acquire solid foundation only by the doctrine of its impossibility or at least its nonexistence in this system either the doctrine that there is no true humility is right and then such a Doctrine can never produce true humility because otherwise the doctrine itself would be

False or there is such a thing as true humility and then the doctrine is false I to this contradiction or rather identical with it though only in another form is the following in studying the writings of the reformers the thought has often involuntarily occurred to us that they entertain the opinion that it

Was something extremely dangerous to be really good nay that the principle of sanctity so soon as it was on the point of acquiring complete dominion over a man contain the germ of its own destruction as such a man must needs become arrogant fall into vain Glory liken himself to the Eternal and contend

With him for divine sovereignty hence the security of Believers seemed to require that they should ever keep within themselves a good germ of evil because in this state we are better off accordingly the matter was so handled as if real goodness were incompatible with humility and as if it

Were an evil only that this virtue flourished whereas it was not considered that wickedness was in itself the contrary of true humility and utterly excluded it in the following passage repete with wonderful naivity the impression which as we just said the reading of the reformers writings has produced on our

Mind has been recorded in felicitous Language by Luther himself quote Dr Jonas said to Dr Martin Luther at supper time he had that day in his lecture been commenting on the sentence of Paul in 2 Timothy 4 repita Corona Jus there is laid up for me a crown of

Justice oh how gloriously does St Paul speak of his death I cannot believe it whereupon Dr Martin replied I do not believe St Paul was able to have so strong a faith on this matter as he asserts in truth I cannot alas believe so firmly as I preach talk and write and

As other people think I believe and it would not be quite good for us to do all that God commands for he would thereby be deprived of his divinity and would become a liar and could not remain true the authority of St Paul too would be overturned for he says in Romans God

Hath concluded all things under sin in order that he might have mercy on all men unquote end of section 26 section 27 of volume one of symbolism by Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Burton Robertson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain subheading 19 survey of the differences in the doctrine of

Faith we will now Endeavor briefly to State the points of agreement and of Divergence in the Article of Faith they are as follows one if quote unquote Faith be taken in an objective sense that is to say as an establishment instituted by God in Jesus Christ in

Opposition to mosis or any human and arbitrary system of religion and the modes of thinking feeling and acting which such prescribe then the Catholic can without restriction assert It Is by faith alone man is able to acquire God’s favor there is no other name given to men whereby they may be saved save

Christ Jesus alone and it is only through the mercy of God we say this name is given consequently without any Merit on the part of mankind in general or of any individual man in particular two the Divergence commences only when the objective must be subjective when the question regards the

Conditions under under which the institution of Salvation is to conduce towards our personal salvation but here also each confession teaches that man should adhere to Christ and enter into a spiritual connection with him in order to partake of the blessings preferred through and in him but the Catholic says if this adherence

Be a mere connection of ideas an empty Union of feelings or fantasy with Christ a mere theoretical faith in him a mere recognition of Christian truths in opposition to Works wrought in the vital communion of the will with Christ as well as to the Love engendered by faith

And to all other virtues then this faith is in itself by no means sufficient to render men acceptable to God or to justify but if faith on the other hand be understood as a new Divine sentiment regulating the whole man as the New Living spirit FES formata then to this

Alone even according to the Catholic system is the power given to make us the children of God and Hees of Eternal happiness for in this sense faith alone Embraces everything but let it be observed that by the Catholic Church sacred charity is regarded as the substantial form of

Faith which alone justifies not as a consequence as a fruit and expectancy but which perhaps may never come forth love must already vivify faith before the Catholic Church will say that through it man is really pleasing unto God faith and love and love and faith justify they form here an Inseparable

Unity this justifying faith is not merely negative but positive with all not merely a confidence that for Christ’s sake the Forgiveness of sins will be obtained but a Sanctified feeling in itself agreeable to God charity is undou dedly according to Catholic Doctrine a fruit of Faith but

Faith justifies only when it has brought forth this fruit faith is also in our view a vivifying principle but it obtains for us the favor of God only when it has already unfolded its vivifying power three the justifying subjective faith in the Protestant sense is described not merely as a recognition of

The New Testament Revelation but has an assurance of the divine grace in Christ Jesus has confidence in the merits of the Redeemer by the power whereof sins are forgiven and this confidence is held up as being able abstractedly and entirely of itself to win for its possessor the favor and friendship of the

Almighty this consciousness of the Divine favor must see charity and good works in its train but as by their presence the latter contribute not towards justification so by their absence they take nothing from the state of the Justified here accordingly charity is not regarded as the substantial form of

The alone justifying faith man is already Justified so as soon as he confides in Christ the seed is swn for heaven and brings us thither even when under favorable circumstances as for instance the sluggishness of the will and the light it Bears absolutely no fruit thus the Protestant Doctrine excludes Works

Wrought before as well as after conversion to Christ and moreover all holy sentiments when it attributes to faith alone the power of saving a Doctrine which we may say in passing is not even the very slightest foundation in scripture of such an opposition between Faith charity and works Paul did

Not even once think and James is absolutely opposed to it see subheading 22 subheading 20 on the Assurance of justification and eternal Felicity the opinion that the believer must be perfectly convinced of his justification before God and of his future Felicity is so closely connected with the doctrine of faith in the

Protestant system that malanin says of the schoolmen who deny it quote we see clearly from this alone how utterly devoid of intellect this species of men are the close connection of this position with the whole Protestant system is undeniably clear we have before observed that from

The doctrine of the total exter of all seeds of good out of the human breast one advantage in regard to Christian Life might be gained that man so soon as he perceived any little Sparks of a higher life within him might be well assured that God had begun his work of

Redemption which would be as certainly consummated subheading sick secondly that theory of Faith According to which men are to direct their view towards God’s mercy and to turn it away from their own moral State necessarily involves the opinion we have advanced moreover this assurance of Salvation presupposes absolute predestination in the doctrine that

God’s grace Works only in the elect for if man can at any time repel the grace once felt then by the very idea of this Poss ability the sense of certitude is at once shaken hence it is only by the Calvinists this Doctrine have been carried out to its full extent while in

The part of the Lutheran it betrays that original adherence to the principles of predestination which in other matters also have left traces of their influence and the later rejection whereof has so materially impaired the internal Harmony of their system Catholics from opposite reasons believe not that a quite uniring

Certitude of Salvation can be acquired as they consider not Fallen man to be devoid of all moral and religious qualities and Signs of Life they are unable to discover a Criterion absolutely beyond the reach of Illusion whereby they can distinguish between the operations of grace and the effects of

Those feelings in man akin to the deity and un eradicated by his fall but even if they were fortunate enough possess such a criter hearing the confidence built thereon would be again damped by the remembrance of the doctrine of human and divine cooperation in the second birth and its

Consummation and be reduced to a more modest tone for together with the deepest confidence in God’s mercy Catholics are taught by reason of those humiliating experiences which we all make in the course of Our Lives to entertain a great distrust of human Fidelity and an absolute predestination that would bid

Them Overlook such Scruples is rejected by their Church thus the Catholic Christian without a false security Yet full of consolation calm and entirely resigned to the Divine Mercy awaits the day on which God shall pronounce his final award the avows of Calvin in this matter are very remarkable as well as the strenuous

Exertions he must have recourse to in order to awaken in the Souls of his disciples the desired Assurance he observes that no temptation of Satan is more dangerous than when he seduces Believers to doubt of the certainty of their salvation and tempts them to seek the same in evil

Ways to this he subjoins the remark that such Temptations are the more dangerous because To None are the generalities of men more inclined than to these rarely do we find a man whose soul is not at times Disturbed by the thought quote nowhere is the source of thy salvation

To be found but in the Divine election but in what Manner hath this election been revealed to thee unquote this train of thought Calvin concludes with a proposition drawn from his own experience quote when Once such doubts have become habitual in anyone then the unhappy man is either constantly tortured with Dreadful

Anxiety or entirely deprived of all consciousness quote by this rash Endeavor to obtain the Assurance of our future salvation various kinds of superstition as well as a distracting uncertainty were occasioned so that the very contrary to Calvin’s wishes occurred and it soon became manifest that the effects of an unnatural desire were ever

Pernicious with sin and the combat against sin came the restlessness of the spirit the latter never capable of being stilled till the former for had ceased to exist undoubtedly according to the sentence of the Apostle the spirit testifies to the spirit that we are the children of God

But this testimony is of so delicate a nature and must be handled with such tender care that the Christian in the feeling of his unworthiness and Frailty approaches the subject only with timidity and scarcely Ventures to take cognizance of it it is a holy Joy which would Fain conceal itself from its own

View and remain a mystery to itself and the more exalted the Christian stands the more humble is he and the less is he disposed without an extraordinary Revelation to bond of a certainty which so little Accords with the uncertainty and mutability of all Earthly things the higher the duties which the

Catholic Church imposes on man the more obvious the reason whereof she acknowledges no absolute certainty of Salvation and here in precisely we must look for the motive of her teaching that the believer can and must become worthy of Salvation while yet she denies the certainty thereof whereas the

Protestants who assert that man can in no wise become worthy of Heaven exert their utmost Endeavors to call forth such a sense of security moreover in many other cases of spiritual life it is the same as with the pointing question the Innocence that would become conscious of it itself is

Usually lost by that very Act and the reflection whether the ACT we are about to perform be really pure makes it not unfrequently impure hence the Savior saith quot let not thy right hand know what thy left doeth unquote joyful Yet full of Sorrow calm and without precipitancy the true Saints pursue

Their way they boast not on that account of being in the number of the El but resign their fate to God according to the Protestant Theory everyone should be asked what he thought of himself and he must in his own life be regarded as a saint the doubt of others as to the

Truth of his own declaration would invalidate the doctrine of the symbolical books as if in irony of their own Doctrine the Protestants would recognize no Saints I think that in the neighborhood of Any Man Who Would declare himself myself under all circumstances assured of his salvation I should feel very

Uncomfortable and should probably have some difficulty to put away the thought that something like diabolical influence was here at play but the truth which even this Protestant Doctrine Darkly Divine must not be overlooked it consists in the individualizing of Evangelical truths in pointing to the necessity of the

Personal application of them and of the relation of of the Divine promises to ourselves so that we should not regard them as undefined and as merely relative to others end of section 27 section 28 of volume one of symbolism by Johan Adam Mohler translated by James buron Robertson this LibriVox recording is in

The public domain of good works subheading 21 doctrine of Catholics respecting good works by Good Works the Catholic Church understands the whole moral action and suffering of the man justified in Christ are the fruits of holy feeling and believing love of the observance of certain ecclesiastical ceremonies

External rights and the like we have not here occasion to speak as the following Exposition will very clearly show as in the man truly Born Again from the spirit the Catholic Church recognizes a real Liberation from sin a direction of the spirit and the will truly Sanctified and

Acceptable to God it necessarily follows that she asserts the possibility and reality of truly good works and their consequent meritorious it is evident too that in consequence of this Doctrine she can and must exact the Fulfillment of the moral law as laid down by the Apostle Paul in r Romans 8: 3 and

4 thus we must especially observe that it is only on Works consummated in a real vital communion with Christ the church bestows the predicate quote unquote good and of a fulfillment of the law she speaks only in so far as the power of this effect hath been given in fellowship with

Christ the fathers of Trent Express themselves in the following manner quote as a constant power flows from Christ the head on the Justified who are his members is from the vine to its branches a power which precedes their good works accompanies the same and follows them a

Power without which they can be in no wise agreeable to God and meritorious so we are bound to believe that the Justified are enabled through Works performed in God to satisfy the Divine Law according to the condition of this present life and to marit eternal life when they depart in a state of

Grace from this we may at the same time clearly see how far works are called meritorious when we presuppose what must be here of course taken for granted the fundamental doctrine of all True Religion to it that it was out of pure love itself that God conferred on us

Life all our faculties and the destination for Eternal happiness and that the agent Express acknowledges these truths then we may briefly describe those works as meritorious which are freedom and without Freedom they were idle to talk of man’s moral relations hath wrought in the power of Christ hence the holy fathers of Trent

Observe at the same time quote so great is the goodness of the Lord towards all men that he considers his own gifts as their merits un this is the idea which the ancient Church attached to Merit and which is founded on holy RIT can heaven then be merited by Believers undoubtedly they

Must Merit it that is to say become worthy of it through Christ between them and Heaven there must be a homogeneity an internal relation that relation which by God’s Eternal ordinance and his expressed promises exists between sanctity and beatitude terms which are not only inp able but which stand also in the same

Relation to one another as cause and effect the Catholic Church as she maintains that the genuine Christian possesses in Christ an inward righteousness proper to himself and deeply rooted in his being Cann not do other than teach that salvation is to be derived from this Source a Heavenly seed

Having been swn in the soul of the just it must bear its fruits for heaven if Catholics teach that the divine grace which precedes the first beginnings of regeneration cannot be merited this is a far different case and this remark should serve to place in the strongest light our Doctrine respecting good

Works in the former instance nature yay Fallen nature and Grace stand opposed to one another Humanity thoroughly polluted with sin on one side and the deity on the other but in the latter instance this is by no means the case although the greatest effort of nature did not

Draw down to itself the supernatural power for this must condescend in the regenerated however exist qualities truly Divine and Supernatural a holy energy which stamps its impress on the whole inward life of the believer and contains as in a germ the beatitude which still however retains a supernatural and divine character

Thereby however the grace of beatitude doth not cease to be a Grace but it is already comprised in the grace of sanctification if God gave the latter then was the former too communicated hence also the council observes this Doctrine can give no occasion to self-confidence or to self-

Glory Bute he who glorieth must Glory only in the Lord unquote it is it is more scarcely necessary to observe that it is not to Works considered abstractedly but to works the Catholic Church as in connection with the feelings in which they have their source that salvation is awarded it is promised

To Works only in so far as they are the expression and the blossom the consummation and the proof of feeling or love and its outward and active manifestation by a metonym the outward is put for the inward thing which constitutes with the former an indivisible whole a one act and this two

In consequence of a Biblical usage of speech it is also self-evident that Sanctified feelings which remain unmanifested in Deeds because they fail of an outward occasion or even of the physical means possess as much worth as if they had been revealed in Works lastly it is taught that the

Performance of Good Works augments Grace exercising good the faithful cooperation with Grace renders the soul ever more susceptible to its influence the general Maxim that the exercise of any faculty serves to strengthen it holds good in this case also and that he who does not bury the talent he hath

Received but puts it out to interest or receive still more is the promise of our Lord but doth not this Doctrine promote mere outward Holiness its object is precisely to encourage Holiness in Deeds do it not produce self-righteousness this it should do namely cause that we ourselves become

Righteous yes indeed the church requires Works emanating from the Sanctified soul and knows well how to appreciate the mere exterior Works nay she urges us to become righteous in our own persons distinguishing this very accurately from the conceit that we can become righteous through ourselves but she calls on the

Protestants to learn this distinction not to hold the one as synonymous with the other and in consequence to reject both alike subheading 22 doctrine of the Protestants respecting good works let us now turn to the exposition of the Protestant Doctrine on Good Works above all we must describe what they are

In themselves according to the Lutheran and calvinistic writings next what is their Merit and whether and how far they be deemed necessary that this whole article of Doctrine must in every respect be a further development of the Protestant principles on justification and justifying faith is evident of itself

For the view which the Protestants have formed of the latter that it possesses no power of moral renovation no power for the experation of sin pervades their whole conception of Christian Works in a word the same relation which they as we have before shown established between justifying faith and charity recurs here

Applied to Good Works Luther asserting the continuance and operation of original sin even in the will of the Justified maintained immediately after the commencement of his performing career that no works could possibly be pure and acceptable to the deity and used the expression that even the best work is a venial

Sin this proposition was as may be supposed condemned in the papal centure of his opinions but the reformer went a step further and laid down the doctrine that every so-called good work that is to say Every Act of a Believer is when considered in itself a moral sin though

By reason of faith it is remitted to him Malton not only expressed full concurrence in the doctrine of his master but carried it out to an extreme by asserting that all our works all our endeavors are nothing but sin and Calvin though in more measured language corroborated the assertions of

Both it may not be Unworthy of our attention and at any rate it will conduce to the elucidation of the subject before for us to examine in a few words the course of argument pursued by Luther he says in the Saint two men are to be distinguished a slave of sin and a

Servant of God the former is Holy according to the flesh the latter according to the spirit accordingly the person of the just man is in part holy in part sinful and the entire personality being thus divided between sin and Holiness every good work partakes of the character of

Both for a holy and an Unholy sentiment coexist in the breast of the believer even bongon expressly affirms that the believer and despite of the spirit of Christ working within him is unable to exalt himself Above This dualism that two Natures ever survive in him the spirit and the

Flesh if we only recollect that by the word quote unquote flesh is understood not the body merely but the entire man independent of the new powers imparted to him through the Holy Ghost there can no longer remain it appears to us any obscurity in this article the spirit of Christ is too

Powerful to be able like a purifying fire totally to cleanse the nature of man and to produce in him pure charity and pure Works hence the assertion so often and so energetically repeated by the leaders of the Reformation at the outset of their career that even the regenerated

Cannot fulfill the law on this subject Luther expresses himself with great naivity in reply to the observation of the Catholics that God commands not impossibilities and that if we have only the will we have the power of loving him with our whole hearts and thereby of fulfilling the law he observes quote

Commanding and doing are two things command is soon given but it is not so easily executed it is therefore a wrong conclusion to say God has commanded me to love him therefore I can do so unquote the intrinsic inanity of this Doctrine its evident repugnance to scripture which only the most forced

Interpretation could conceal and the Very pernicious influence which it too evidently exercised over the morals of those professing it as well as the cogent objections of Catholics gradually brought about some ameliorations which passed into the later writings of munton and even into the public formularies but still fell

Very short of the standard which the Catholic Church deems herself authorized both by the spirit and the letter of the Gospel to propose to her children if now the question be asked what do good works or rather the sentiments prevail them the inward kernel of the regenerated the

Fulfillment of the law through charity what do good works Merit it is clear that this question must be answered in a sense very different from that of Catholics already the rejection of the cooperation of Free Will necessarily involved the denial of every species of Merit and rendered the very notion of

Such a thing utterly unintelligible as moreover no true sanctity was believed to exist in the Justified so no Felicity could be derived from it accordingly it was most zealously contended that when the question was about good works and the observance of the moral precepts the former should not be presented as having

Reference to the acquisition of Eternal happiness nor the latter as having any internal connection with works and the Fulfillment of the law and both should be stated as utterly independent one of the other in the same way as justification is something very different from sanctification to estimate the whole

Extent of that separation which in this article of Doctrine divides the Christian confessions we need only be reminded of George major a very esteemed Protestant who ventured to teach that good works are necessary to Salvation his motive in the introduction of this Innovation was very laudable he believed that a true Christian bearing

And deportment was most painfully neglected among the members of his church church and that the preaching of what was then called quote unquote the new obedience was not adequately discharged and under this impression he conceived that if the necessity of good works for ensuring salvation was generally recognized a salutary change

In this respect would take place by this step he Advanced scarcely a wit nearer to the Catholic Doctrine than the other lutherans for like them he did not uphold an internal connection between Holiness and salvation he only conceived that good works must be there outwardly present if

Eternal happiness was to be the reward of Faith nevertheless his Doctrine excited General opposition in Von amsdorf the old friend of Luther composed under these circumstances a work wherein he professed to show that good works were even hurtful to Salvation the formulary of Concord which among other things undertook to adjust

The controversies pending on this subject disapproves indeed of Amor’s Doctrine yet expresses that disapprobation in very mild terms while it rejects Major’s view is incompatible with the exclusive particles faith alone Saves by faith alone we are Justified without works un if good works according to the doctrine of the lutherans be not

Necessary to Salvation are they in any respect necessary this question was agitated among the lutherans and resolved in various senses but the very possibility of such a question in a doctrinal system presupposes a strange obliquity of all ideas the urg confession and the apology frequently employed the expression they are

Necessary then the formulary of Concord appeals to their Authority but what n after all we have set forth is to be connected with the word quote unquote necessary it were no easy matter to discover perhaps it was meant to be said we may take it as certain that faith will ever achieve

Something moreover Works go not entirely unrewarded the formulary of conord assures to them temporal advantages and to those who perform the most a greater recompense in heaven accordingly faith without works would absolutely Merit heaven but works would only contribute something theto and how much more enlightened a way have the schoolman explained the

Relation of Faith to works as conducive to Divine favor and eternal happiness what is the Living Faith other than the good work still silently shut up in the soul and what is the good Christian work other than Faith brought to light they are one and the same same

Only in a different form and hence Catholic theologians explain the fact why in scripture salvation is promise sometimes to works sometimes to Faith from this conception of the relation between faith and good works Luther in one place attempts to meet the objection against his Doctrine founded on the very numerous passages in holy

Writ that promis to a virtuous conduct Eternal Felicity he replies namely that faith and work works are quotee unquote one cake and therefore on account of that Inseparable Unity exchanged their predicates so that to works is ascribed what really belongs to Faith in the same way as the scripture refers to the

Divine nature in Christ the attributes of his humanity and vice versa but Luther did not perceive that by such a mode of explanation he placed himself on Catholic ground and utterly annihilated his doctrine that faith without works could justify for if works together with faith constitute any Unity

That is to say if Works be absolutely implied by faith in the same way as when no outward accidental hindrance occurs the inference is implied in the reason the effect and the cause how can it be asserted that faith without works justifies does it not then follow that

Faith is of value only so far quote as it worketh by char ity and thereby alone would not the whole Lutheran theory of justification be given up Luther became entangled in his own distinctions for here he ascribes to Faith as the moral vivifying sentiment the power of justification whereas according to the

Whole tenure of his system it is to Faith as the organ which clings to the merits of Christ that he must impute this power it was precisely from this point of view that Luther might have discovered how utterly erroneous was his whole system for never certainly would the scripture have promised eternal life

To Works nor that communicatio inum have been possible if Faith could justify merely as the instrument so often boasted of and not as involving an abundance of moral and religious virtues thus that in holy RIT Eternal Felicity should be promised to Works in so far as they emanate from faith

Unquestionably supposes that this faith is absolutely and without restriction the one which Catholic theologians are want to designate as the FES for Matata hence Luther abandons this mode of enfeebling the objection averted to and in all the plenitude of his power He commands his followers not once but a

Thousand times to observe silence on the subject of works when justifying faith was spoken of and consequ quently we consider both not as one but as two cakes of very different substances hence in defining the relation of Faith to works is conducive to Salvation the formulary of Concord

Very wisely shuns the illusion to a one cake but proposes to work temporal rewards and a sort of decoration in heaven we cannot however refrain from expressing our astonishment that men like Reinhardt and nap as we see from their manuals of dogmatic Theory could believe that by such a definition as

Those respecting the recompenses in question of Faith active in good works could be promoted and still more that in their capacity of exus they could find such a Doctrine reconcilable with scripture which in the most unqualified manner promises salvation to Good Works see for example Matthew 5:1 and 25:31 Romans 8:1

17 what especially confirmed the reformers in their errors was the explanation derived indeed from their own system of several passages of St Paul for instance of Romans 3: 28 where it is said that it is not through the works of the law but through faith that man is

Justified a passage in writing which the Apostle did not dream of the opposition existing between Catholics and Protestants St Paul here contends against the Jews of his own time who obstinately defend the Eternal duration of the Mosaic law and asserted that not needing a redeemer from sin they became

Righteous and acceptable before God by that law alone in opposition to this opinion St Paul lays down the maxim that it is not by The Works of the law that is to say not by a life Reg ated merely by the Mosaic precepts man is enabled to obtain

The favor of heaven but only through faith in Christ which has been imparted To Us by God for wisdom for sanctification for righteousness and for Redemption unbelief in the Redeemer and confidence in the Fulfillment of the law performed through natural power alone on the one hand and faith in the Redeemer

And the Justice to be conferred by God on the other Romans 1:1 17 and CH 10:3 Philippians 3:9 these and not faith in the Redeemer and the good works emanating from its power constitute the two points of opposition here contemplated by the Apostle The Works of the law St Paul accurately distinguishes

Everywhere from good works as indeed in their inmost Essence they are to be distinguished from one another for the former are wrought without faith in Christ and without his grace the latter with Grace and in the spirit of Christ hence St Paul never says that man is saved not through good

Works but through faith in Christ this marvelous opposition is a pure invention of the 16th century nay the doctrine that to Good Works Eternal Felicity will be allotted has been positively announced by this Apostle Romans 2: 7-10 end of section 28 section 29 of volume one of symbolism

By Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Bon Robertson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain subheading 23 the doctrine of purgatory and its connection with the Catholic doctrine of justification the doctrine of the possibility of the Fulfillment of the law touched on in the last section must now be treated more

Fully and minutely the conflicting doctrines are of such importance as to deserve a more precise statement of the arguments on either side Calvin says quote never hath a man not even one regenerated in the faith in Christ brought a morally good work a work which if it were strictly judged

Would not be damnable unquote admitting even this impossibility to be possible yet the author of such an action would still appear impure and polluted by reason of his other sins it is not the outward show of Works which perhaps in their external character May satisfy the moral

Law but it is the purity of the will which is regarded by God now if we but raise our eyes to the Judgment seat of the almighty who will venture to stand before it it is there therefore evident that the doctrine of an internal justification involving the necessity of

The Fulfillment of the law is reprehensible because it must precipitate troubled consciences into despair in reply to this the Catholic observes either it is possible for man strengthened and exalted by the Divine Aid to observe the moral law and its Spirit its true inward essence or it is

Impossible to do so if the former be the case then undoubtedly such observance cannot be too strongly urged and everyone may find proof for its possibility in the fact that on every transgression of the law he accuses himself as a sinner for every accusation of such a kind involves the supposition

That its fulfillment is possible and even with assistance from above not difficult but if the latter be the case then the case must be sought for only in God God and in such a way that either the almighty hath not framed human nature for the attainment of that moral

Standard which he proposes to it or he does not impart those higher Powers which are necessary to the pure and not merely outward but internal compliance with his laws in both cases the cause of the non-fulfillment lies in the Divine will that is to say God is represented is not

Willing that his will should be complied with which which is self-contradictory but in any case there could be no conceivable guilt in respect to this non- obedience to the law and accordingly there could be not withstanding the non-observance of the Divine precepts no obstacle to the attainment of Eternal

Felicity if it be urged that reference is had exclusively to man’s Fallen nature which is in a state of incapacity for the Fulfillment of the law we may reply that God in Christ Jesus hath raised us from this fall and it was justly observed by the Council of Trent

That in virtue of the power of Christ’s Spirit no precept was impracticable to man for to the heritage of corruption a Heritage of spiritual power in Christ hath been opposed and the latter can in every way be victorious over the former or do we believe the moral law to have

Been framed merely for the nature of Adam or for his brief Abode in paradise and not for the thousands of years that Humanity was to endure in modern times some men have endeavored to come to the aid of the old Orthodox Lutheran Doctrine by assuring

Us that the moral law proposes to men an ideal standard which like everything ideal necessarily remains unattained if such really be the case with the moral law then he who comes not up to it can as little incur responsibility as an epic poet for not equaling Homer’s

Iliad more intellectual at least is the theory that the higher a man stands on the scale of morality the more exalted are the claims which the moral law exacts of him so that they increase as it were to Infinity with the internal growth of man and leave him ever behind

Them when we contemplate the lives of the Saints the contrary phenomenon will rise to view the consciousness of being in The Possession of an alls sufficing infinite power ever discloses the tenderer and nobler relations of man to God and to his fellow creatures so that man Sanctified in Christ and filled with

His Spirit ever feels himself superior to the law it is the nature of heaven-born Love which stands so far so infinitely far above the claims of the mere law never to be content with its own doings and ever to be more ingenious and its devices so that Christians of this stamp

Not infrequently appear to Men of a lower grade of perfection as enthusiasts men of heated fancy and distempered mind it is only in this way that remarkable Doctrine can be satisfactorily explained which certainly like every other that have for centuries existed in the world and seriously engaged the human mind and

Sure to rest on some deep Foundation the doctrine namely that there can be Works which are more than sufficient Opera super aonis a Doctrine the tenderness and delicacy whereof eluded indeed the perception of the reformers for they could not even once rise above the idea that man could ever become free from

Immodesty unjust wrath avarice and the rest the doctrine in question indeed and which the Council of Trent does not enter into detail in proportion as the principle where on it is based is more exalted is on that account more open to gross misrepresentation especially if as the

Reformers were imprudent enough to do we look to the mere outward arbitrary actions quite untenable is the appeal to experience that no one can boast of having himself fulfilled the law with the assertion that the question is not as to the possibility but the reality of such a

Fulfillment in the first place no argument can be deduced from reality because we are not even capable of looking into it and we must not and cannot judge of the hearts of men we are not even capable of judging ourselves and therefore St Paul saith he is conscious to himself of

Nothing but he leaveth judgment to the Lord unquote accordingly the desire to determine the limits of our power in Christ by the reality of everyday life would lead to the worst conceivable system of ethics once regulate the practicable by the measure of ordinary experience and you

Will at once see the low reality sink down to a grade still lower lastly this view alleges no deeper reason for what it calls reality than we learn not why this hath been so and not otherwise so that we must either recur to the first or the second mode of

Defending the Orthodox Protestant view or seek out a new one cvin commands us to raise our eyes to the Judgment seat of God in truth nothing is more fit to avert The Sinner from himself than to turn him to Christ and calling to mind the general judgment

Not merely that which the history of the world pronounces but that which the all-wise holy and righteous God doth hold woe to him who hath not turned to Christ but woe likewise to him whom the blood of Christ hath not really cleansed Whom The Living communion with the God

Man himself hath not rendered Godly can our adversaries even imagine that the elect are still stained with sin before the Judgment seat of God and that Christ covers them over and under this covering conducts them into heaven it is the most consumate contradiction of talk of entering into

Heaven while stained with sin be it covered or uncovered hence the question recurs how shall man be finally delivered from sin and how shall holiness in him be restored to thorough life or in case we leave this Earthly world still bearing about us some stains of sin how shall we

Be purified from them shall It Be by the mechanical deliverance from the body where of the Protestant formularies speak so much but it is not easy to discover how when the body is laid aside sin is therefore Purge out from the sinful Spirit it is only one who rejects the

Principle of moral freedom in sin or who hath been LED astray by Gnostic or manichan errors that could look with favor Upon A doctrine of this kind or are we to imagine it to be some ort word of the Divinity or some violent mechanical process whereby purification ensues some sudden magical change the

Protestant Doctrine unconsciously presupposes and this phenomenon is not astonishing since it teaches that by original sin the Mind had been deprived of a certain proportion and that in regeneration man is completely passive but the Catholic who cannot regard man other than as a free independent agent must also recognize this free agency in

His final purification and repudiate such a sort of mechanical process is incompatible with the whole moral government of the world if God were to employ an economy of this nature then Christ came in vain therefore is our church forced to maintain such a doctrine of justification in Christ and

Of a moral conduct in this life regulated by it that Christ will at the day of judgment have fulfilled the claims of the law outwardly for us but on that account inwardly in us the Solace accordingly is to be found in the power of Christ which aaces as

Well as forgives sin yet in a two-fold way among some it consummates purification in this life among others it perfects it only in the life to come the latter are they who by faith love and a sincere penitential feeling have knit the bond of communion with

Christ but only in a partial degree and at the moment they quitted the regions of the living were not entirely pervaded by his Spirit to them will be communicated this saving power that at the day of judgment they may also be found pure in Christ thus the doctrine

Of a place of pure purification is closely connected with the Catholic theory of justification which without the former would doubtless be to many a discon tenant but this inward justification none can be dispensed from the Fulfillment of the law painful as it undoubtedly is can be remitted To

None on each one must the holy law be inwardly and outwardly stamped the Protestants on the other hand who with their wanted arrogance have rejected the dogma of purgatory so well founded as it is in Tradition saw themselves thereby compelled in order to afford Solace to man to speak of an

Impossibility of fulfilling the law a thought which is confuted in every page of scripture and involves the almighty in contradiction with himself they saw themselves compelled to put forth a theory of justifying faith which cannot even be clearly conceived lastly they saw themselves compelled to adopt tacitly at least the idea of a

Mechanical course of operations practiced on man after death new authoritative decrees of the deity and left unexplained how a deep rooted sinfulness even when forgiven could be at last totally eradicated from the spirit thus do both communions offer a Solace to man but in ways totally opposite and one in harmony with holy

RIT which everywhere presupposes the possibility of the observance of the law the other and most striking contradiction to it one in maintaining the whole rigor of the ethical code the other by a grievous violation of it one in accordance with the free and gradual development of the human mind which only

With a holy earnestness and by great exertions can bring forth and cultivate to maturity the Divine seed once received the other with without regard to the Eternal laws of the human spirit and by a very guilty encouragement to moral levity end of section 29 section 30 of volume one of symbolism

By Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Burton Robertson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain subheading 24 opposition between the communions and their General conception of Christianity in many an attentive reader the statements we have made may have already awakened the thought that the Catholic Church used the whole system of

Christianity and the immediate objects of the savior’s Advent in a manner essentially different from the Protestant communities that such a thought is not entirely unfounded the following investigations will show in proportion as they will at the same time shed the clearest light on all that has been hitherto Advanced dissipate many doubts

And confirm with more accuracy and vividness the views we have put forward as the nature of the Protestant doctrines according to the old Christian view the gospel is to be regarded as an institution of an all merciful god whereby through his son he raises Fallen man to the highest degree of religious

And moral knowledge which he is capable of attaining in this life offers to each one forgiveness of sins and with all an internal sanatory and sanctifying power but how now does Luther look upon the gospel one he asserts that Christ hath only in an accidental way discharged the

Office of teacher and that his real and sole object was to fulfill the law in our stead to satisfy its demands and to Die For Us hence he reproaches the papist with teaching that the gospel is a law of love and comprises a l easy

That is to say a Pur and more exalted morality than the Mosaic dispensation in his commentary on the epistle to the Galatians he says quote on this account principally hath Christ come upon the Earth not to teach the law but only to fulfill it that he occasionally teaches is merely

Accidental and foreign to his office in the same way as besides his real and proper Duty which was to to save Sinners he accidentally restored the sick to health UN in another place he makes a similar remark quote although this is as clear as the dear Sun at noon day yet the

Papists are so senseless and blind that out of the Gospel they have fashioned a law of love and out of Christ a lawgiver who hath imposed far more burdensome laws than Moses himself but let the fools go on in their blindness and learn ye from St Paul that the gospel teacheth

Christ hath come not to give a new law whereby we should walk but to offer himself up as a victim for the sins of the whole world unquote what a one-sided view did Luther here take of the mission of Christ his teaching office he calls something accidental and entirely forgets that in

Formal opposition to the Mosaic dispensation Christ proclaimed a new purer more exalted and therefore severer law of morality Matthew 5: 31-48 and uttered himself those words a new commandment I give you that ye love one another unquote John 13:34 the misconception moreover where on Luther’s complaint is founded that

The papus degrade Christ into a mere lawgiver and ethical teacher will shortly be more closely examined two yet Luther not only taught that Christ had not come to impart to men a pure ethical code but even maintained that he had come to abolish the moral law to liberate True Believers

From its curse both for the past and for the future and in this way to make them free the theory of Evangelical Liberty which Luther propounded announces that even the decalogue should not be brought into account against the believer nor its violation to be allowed to disturb

The conscience of the Christian for he is exalted above it and its contents Luther called attention to a two-fold use of the moral law the mosaic as well as the Evangelical to which somewhat later a third was added the first consists herein that it convinces the unconverted of their sinfulness and

By menacing its transgressors with the Divine judgments throws them into a state of Terror the second that it conducts those sufficiently shaken and intimidated unto Christ in order to obtain through him forgiveness of sins moreover the Saxon reformer maintained that the believer as such was

To make no use of the moral law when The Sinner hath come unto Christ the law ceases for him and the gospel begins he is free from the Terrors which the continued transgressions of the former produce and Christ unconditionally makes good all deficiencies hence Luther so often in

Insists on the necessity of separating most pointedly the law and the gospel of no longer molesting and tormenting the faithful with the former but only of cheering and solacing them with the latter he says quote it is a very great importance that we should rightly know and understand how the law hath been

Abolished for such a knowledge that the law is abolished and its office totally set aside that it can no longer be a ground of accusation and condemnation against the Believers in Christ confirms our Doctrine on faith from this our consciences May derive Solace especially in their moments of great fearful struggle and mental

Anguish I have before earnestly and frequently said and repeat it now again for this is a matter which can never be too often and too strongly urged that a Christian who grasps and lays Hold On Christ is subject to no manner of law but is free from the law so that it can

Neither terrify nor condemn him this Isaiah teaches in the text cited by St Paul give Glory thou Barren one that bearest not un when Thomas of Aquino and other schoolmen assert that the law hath been abolished they pretend that the Mosaic ordinance is respecting judicial Affairs and the other secular matters which they

Call Judes Alia and in like manner the laws respecting ceremonies and the services of the temple kch workin were after the death of Christ pernicious and on that account were set aside and abolished but when they say the Ten Commandments which they call moralia are not to be abrogated they themselves

Understand not what they assert and lay down but thou when thou speakest of the abolition of the law be mindful that thou speakest of the law as it really is and is rightly called to it the spiritual law and understand thereby the whole law making no distinction between civil laws ceremonies and Ten

Commandments for when St Paul saith that through Christ we are redeemed from the anathema of the law he speaketh certainly and properly of the whole law and especially of the Ten Commandments since these alone accuse the conscious before God and terrify it whereas the other two species of law that treat so

To speak of civil Affairs and ceremonies do not so therefore we say that even the Ten Commandments have no right to accuse nor to alarm the conscience wherein Christ Reigns by his grace since Christ hath abolished this right of the law when he became an anathema for us

Unquote in the writings of Malon Reigns in no less striking degree the same one-sided view which can neither neither satisfy human reason desirous in everything of unity of principle nor meet in all respects the Practical wants of man Malton at times defines very well the true Notions of Christian freedom

For instance when he says what undoubtedly is acknowledged on all sides that we are released from the obligation of observing the ritual law of Moses and when he adds that the believer being inwardly and freely moved by the Divine spirit practices the moral law and would

Fulfill it when even it did not make any outward claims the reformer here excellently describes Christian Freedom as a voluntary obedience to God and consequently as a release from the feds wherein evil held men in chain but immediately again he falls back into pure Lutheran definitions by distinguishing in the Christian Liberty

Just described two things the first is that by reason of this Freedom the decalogue condemns not Believers even though they be Sinners the second is that they fulfill the moral law of themselves lastly he expresses himself briefly and clearly to this effect quote the law is abrogated not that it should

Be fulfilled but that it may be fulfilled and may not condemn even when it is not fulfilled unquote here a multitude of questions presses themselves on our consideration for instance if the essence of Freedom consists in the fact that it can fulfill and really does fulfill the law how can

Those who fulfill it not be numbered among the free how can one in the same Freedom love and constancy to such a degree that it here proves itself obedient they disobedient and is only uniform in one thing that in either case it doth not condemn we may ask further whether the

Strange freedom of those who are free with respect to condemnation but are not free from Evil and Disobedience extends to every point of the decalog whether in general a limit can be traced down to which freedom from condemnation can render in noxious the servitude to evil coexisting with it we

Content ourselves with proposing these questions and shall now proceed in our inquiry stroble announced to the Learned world as a great novelty that already in the year 1524 thus 7 years after the commencement of the great revolution in the church Malton called The Gospel a preaching of penance for before that literary

Discovery it was believed that he had only much later risen to this idea what astonishment do we feel when we reflect on the notion which he attaches to the new vivification of the Christian by the gospel he constantly takes vivific Ado as the opposite to mortifica Ado and as by the

Latter he understands only the Mortal Terrors at the Vengeance which the law announces to all its transgressors so to his mind the former signifies merely the resuscitation the recovery from these Terrors brought about by the tidings that in Christ sins are remitted the inward resuscitation from the death of sin the immediate

Communication of a new higher vital energy which annihilates the earlier weakness transforming it into a Victorious all-conquering power over flesh bankton was unable to understand as the church had always done by the word vivifica Even Calvin took scandal at the opinion of mongans at least I am at a loss to know

To whom his counter statements and be applicable except to his witberg friend even in the apolog composed by Malon for the confession of osber the new resuscitation nay even the expression quote unquote regeneration are referred to this Solace alone as is remarked by the formulary of

Concord no one can call to mind that in the symbolical books of the Lutheran the believing sinner when disquieted on account of his moral conduct is ever consoled by the encouraging words thou can do all in him who strengthen thee not thou but Christ with thee unquote not to Christ the strengthener

And sanctifier do they refer him but exclusively to Christ the forgiver of sins this Solace they really impart in almost countless passages on this they constantly insist to make moral indolence attentive to itself would have appeared to them a reprehensible transmutation of the gospel into the

Law it must be obvious to every man that they could not urge to a moral exertion because such an act would have overthrown their leading doctrine that in the production of all good man is utterly passive most striking in this respect is the decision which the formulary of Concord pronounced in the antonian

Controversies which in themselves presuppose a strange aberration of the human mind it it is especially enjoined that the gospel should not be mixed up with the law for otherwise the merits of Christ would be Abridged and troubled consciences would be robbed of their sweetest Solace accordingly it is there said that

In a wider sense undoubtedly the gospel is the preaching of penance as well as the Forgiveness of sins but in its most proper sense it is only the latter only the announcement of the pardoning mercy of God if to one he recalls to mind the epistle to the Romans 1:

15-18 this opposition must appear singular enough so the fact is still more remarkable that under the grace to be announced Absolution from sin is alone understood and the truly sanctifying Grace is passed over in utter silence in one passage indeed the communication of the holy spirit is vaguely mentioned but should anyone wish

To refer to to the truly purifying and effectually sanctifying spirit he would most certainly he for the activity of the spirit is in this formulary expressly confined to consolation on which account he is termed the paraclete and his office to convince the world of sin aary de picato is represented as one

Not peculiar but foreign to him under the New Covenant if it be said however by way of excuse that in other parts the sanctifying spirit of Christ is spoken of let no one rest satisfied therewith for the article which undertakes to treat of the significance of the Gospel

Is certainly the place where such a subject must be handled in all its bearings what gross misconceptions what profound errors do we encounter here a feeling of infinite pain seizes on the Christian Observer at witnessing such doctrines at witnessing such Fierce divisions in one and the same Revelation

And most painful is the experience he makes that not even one man felt the necessity of seeing those divisions composed the controversies indeed which upon this matter were carried on in the Lutheran Church indicate a sense of uneasiness prevailing among many of its members an obscure perception that some

Prodigious mistakes have been committed but to reconcile effectually those feuds was a thing which occurred to no man this inward disqui it was which drove Agricola the isol bin into thorough antonian ISM a hidden impulse unknown to himself urged him to escape this turmoil of contradictions to pour

Out his insane blasphemies against Moses to demand that no further use should be made of the law to require that for the future Grace only should be preached up in the Christian churches and in this way to cut the gordian knot and to rush into the wildest

Extremes in this as in other matters the formulary of Concord has resorted no Inward and essential Harmony and without entirely giving up the Lutheran point of view it was out of its power so to do the life of the Savior constitutes in every relation an organic unity and

Everything in him his sufferings and his works his doctrines his conduct his death on the cross were in a like degree calculated for our Redemption it is the merits of the entire undivided God man the Son of God whereby we are one again to God his three offices the prophetic the high

Priestly the Royal are alike necessary take one away and the remaining immediately appear as unintelligible as devoid of consistency thus by the Advent of the Son of God into the world there were proferred to men not by accident but by necessity at once the highest degree of religious and ethical

Knowledge the ideal of a life agreeable to God forgiveness of sins and a sanctifying power and as in one life of the Savior we find all these United so they must in like manner be adopted by us it is undeniable and no Hearts can long conceal the fact that Christ

Proposed in the most emphatic manner to his followers the highest ethical ideal corresponding to a new theoretical religious knowledge and further developing the Old Testament precepts it is likewise equally certain that in his name are announced to all who believe in him Grace and forgiveness of

Sins that is to say pardon for every moral transgression these are two phenomenon which as they stand in direct opposition one to the other require in consequence some third principle which may mediate their Union this third conciliating Principle as it is to unite the two must

Be Akin alike to law and to Grace to the rigid exaction and to the merciful remission this is the sanctifying power which emanates from the living Union with Christ the gratuitous Grace of Holy Love which in justification he pours out upon his followers in this Grace all law is

Abolished because no outward claim is enforced and at the same time the law is confirmed because love is the Fulfillment of the law in love law and grace are become one this is the Deep sense of the Catholic dogma of justification According to which forgiveness of sins and sanctification

Are one and the same According to which justification consists in the reign of love in the soul hence the maxim which the ancient church after St Paul Romans 3:2 so frequently repeated that on entering into communion with Christ the sins committed before that event were forgiven but not future sins implying

That now Christ will fulfill the law in us and we in him in the Catholic Church therefore controversies could never be prolonged as to the relation between law and Grace because by its doctrine of justification such an opposition was essentially and eternally precluded while on the other hand reformers

Misapprehended the essence of love to such a degree that instead of recognizing in it whatever was most spiritual most vital most resuscitating and thereby in Consequence the Fulfillment of the law they looked on it as merely the law itself instead of raising themselves to the heights of Catholicism and then

Beholding how in love the entire undivided Christ becometh living within us and the moral teacher and forgiver of sins is a light glorified they urge it as a matter of reproach against the Catholic church that it buried Christ because in their onesided view they regarded the mediator only in his capacity of pardoner

End of section 30 section 31 of volume one of symbolism by Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Burton Robertson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain subheading 25 the culminating point of inquiry Luther maintains an Inward and essential opposition between religion religion and morality and

Assigns to the former an eternal to the latter a mere temporal value this so decided and unreconciled opposition between gospel and law leads to a total degradation of the latter so that all differences between Catholicism and protestantism in the article of justification May shortly be reduced to this namely that the Catholic Church

Considers religion and morality as inwardly one and the same and both equally Eternal while the Protestant Church represents the two as essentially distinct the former having an eternal the latter a temporal value Luther in numberless passages of his writings insists on keeping both principles the religious and the ethical as far apart

Nay further apart than Heaven and Earth on separating them like night and day like sunshine and darkness he teaches that we are not to let the moral law by any ways intrude on the conscience that in considering our relations to God we are not to look to our personal bearing

To that law and that in general we are to attend to it only in the conduct of our everyday Earthly existence when the question recurred to him wherefore then was the moral law given he could make no other reply than quote that it was given for the sake of

Civil order unquote or that it had so pleased God to establish such an ordinance the observance whereof as might be said of any mere legal institution afforded him pleasure the maintenance of the moral law accordingly he would leave to the justification of the state and not by any means include among real religious

Concerns it will be well however to hear Luther’s own words who if anywhere is in this matter his own best interpreter he says quote we must carefully distinguish between both placing the gospel in the Kingdom of Heaven above and the law on the earth below calling and holding the

Righteousness of the Gospel a Heavenly and godly righteousness and that of the law a human and Earthly one and thou must separate and distinguish the righteousness of the Gospel as peculiarly and carefully from the righteousness of the law as our Lord God hath suff separated and divided the

Heavens from the earth light from darkness and day from night so is the righteousness of the Gospel Light and day the righteousness of the law darkness and night and would to God we could divide them still further one from the other therefore as we have often to

Treat of and to deal with faith with Heavenly righteousness with conscience etc etc let us cut off the law and let it be confined to this this lower world but if the question be about works then let us enkindle the light which belongeth to the works of legal justice and to the

Night thus will the dear sun and the clear light of the gospel and of Grace shine and Illuminate by day the light of the law shine and Illuminate by night and so these two things must ever be separated one from the other in our minds and our hearts that the conscience

When it feels it sins and is terrified may say to itself now thou art on the earth therefore let the lazy ask their work and serve and ever carry the burden imposed upon it that is to say let the body with its members be ever subjected

To the law but when thou mest up to heaven leave the ass with its burden upon the Earth for the conscience must have nothing to do with the law works and Earthly righteousness so the ass remains in the Valley but the conscience ascends with Isaac up the mountain and knows nothing

Either of the law or of works but seeks and looks only for the Forgiveness of sins and the pure righteousness which is preferred and imparted to us in Christ on the other hand in civil government we must most rigidly exact and observe obedience to the law and in

That department we must know nothing either of gospel or conscience or Grace of forgiveness of of sins of heavenly righteousness or even of Christ himself but we must know only how to speak of Moses the law and works thus both things to it the law and

The gospel are to be severed as far as possible one from the other and each is to remain in the separate place to which It app pertains the law is to remain Out of Heaven that is to say out of the heart and the conscience on the other hand the

Freedom of the Gospel is to remain out of the world that is to say out of the body and its members on this account when law and sin shall come into heaven that is to say into the conscience we must immediately drive them out for the

Conscience must at no time know of law or sin but of Christ only and again when Grace and freedom come into the world that is to say into the body we must say to them hearken if become not ye to walk and dwell in the hogy and on the dung

Heaps of this Earthly life but upwards to Heaven ye shall Ascend unquote Luther cannot often enough occur to the idea of the internal and essential difference of the religious from the ethical Principle as in the case of such an excellent Discovery was to be expected elsewhere he says because it is

So hazardous and dangerous to have anything to do with the law and it may easily occur that herein we sustain a perilous and Grievous fall as if we were to be precipitated from Heaven into the very abyss of hell it is very necessary that every Christian should learn to

Separate the two things most carefully one from the other thus he can let the law rule and govern his body and its members but not his conscience for the same bride and queen must remain unspotted and unpolluted by the law and be preserved in all her integrity and

Purity for her only one and proper bridegroom Christ as St Paul saith in another place I’ve entrusted ye to a man that I may bring a pure virgin to Christ therefore must the conscience have its Bridal bed not in a deep valley but on a high mountain where Christ

Holds sway in jurisdiction who neither terrifies nor tortures poor Sinners but on the contrary consoles them forgives them and saves them un Luther’s reply to the question what need is there then of the moral law un is recorded in the following passages why do men keep the law if it do not

Justify they who are just observe it not because they are thereby Justified before God for through faith only doth this occur but for the sake of civil order and because they know that such obedience is well pleasing and agreeable to God and a good example and pattern

For improvement to others in order that they may believe in the gospel let the reader remember wile’s views on the same subject subheading 4 had Luther felt in a higher degree that we can discover in him the want of a more General completion and more consistent development of his views he

Would most certainly have embraced the opinion of a merely righteous Demi Eros as asserted by the gnostics laid claim to their heretical antimonium ISM in behalf of their Muny and like marcian have separated the old from the New Testament marcian 2 was unable to reconcile law and Grace the all good

Merciful god with The God Who imposes moral precepts and who chastises and proceeded so far as to hold the legislative god of the old Covenant to be essentially distinct from the god of the new this opinion absurd of as it is in itself possess however a certain

Consistency as did also the assertion of the valentinians that they were exempt from the law but the Catholics on the other hand could be saved only by its observance for they entertained the opinion that they were substantially different from the latter that they were pneumatic and the Catholics saiki beings

Belonging to an inferior grade of existence but in Luther we discover no cohesion nor her connection of ideas and his point of view is in itself utterly untenable to the moral law he assigned the destination of terrifying the conscience and yet the law and the conscience are to stand in no inward

Relation one to the other an association of ideas which is utterly inconceivable by holding up the moral law The Sinner is to be terrified into the conviction that for having violated it he had deserved the Eternal torments of hell and yet it is to possess a mere temporal

Worth and be destined for merely transitory relations how then are we to understand the mission of Christ and especially his atonement did not the latter take place in order to Deliver Us From The Eternal punishment that had been affixed to the transgression of the moral law but how

We must repeat it in the violation of a finite law merely adapted for this period of Earthly existence entail an eternal chastisement was it for the Fulfillment of so miserable an end that the Son of God was to become incarnate it might at least have occurred to Luther’s mind that if in the

Unconverted the consciousness of violating the law were accompanied with such deep sorrow and produced such Terrors of conscience he ought not to expel it from the conscience of the converted it might have been expected that he would at least be sensible that the law would lose all its efficacy on

The unbelieving if in relation to the regenerated he represented it as so ptry the law then is to lead to Christ strange conceit if the law stand in no essential intimate relation to Christ how can it conduct to him how can that which abideth not in him and hath not root in

Him smooth the way to him for so Luther teaches when the law hath brought the sinner to Christ it must be again banished from the interior of man his conscience and his heart and be confined to his body what does not belong essentially and eternally to the

Spiritual part of man can at no period of time and in no state of existence very strongly affected if thus the conscience of The Sinner is to be moved by the law and in order to rid himself of his own anguish he is to embrace the forgiver of sins

Then surely if the man justifies in Christ the law is not to be limited to this Earthly and transitory existence therefore hath Christ not abolished but fulfilled the law which was to conduct to him rightly hath it been represented as Israel’s distracting grief that her God Abode without her far

Removed from her and thundering forth Terror and despair but at the same time and in most intimate connection with this state of things the law of Israel was likewise as only extraneous and widely remote from her and therefore menacing on Stony tablets and not inscribed on the living

Heart for the law is God’s declared will and thus alienation from God involved also alienation from his law by the coming of the Son of God into the world and his reception into our souls this disunion between God and man terminated and Christ both are reconciled and are become one

Shall then the law which had been extraneous not penetrate also into the interior of man and there become living and consequently be fulfilled yay by reconciliation with God we are reconciled and become one with his law also by the living reception of God into our hearts through the means of

Faith we likewise and necessarily receive his law for the latter is God’s Eternal will and one with him so that where God is there also his law religiousness and virtue how intimately how vitally are they United and in the same degree therefore religion and morality faith and the law

Contemplate the immoral man see how fading how drooping too is all religious life within him how utterly incapable it is of putting forth blossoms how the the clear pure knowledge of divine things is obscured within him contemplate the history of Nations and ye will learn however immorality and unbelief of misbelief

Have gone hand in hand this truth the progress of heathenism as inscribed in frightful characters in the book of history on the other hand when the Savior would lay the foundations for Christian piety for faith in himself he commands us to observe in life what he hath taught

And this was the experience of all the saints that the more moral they became the more their piety increased that in proportion to the Fidelity and Purity wherewith the Divine Law was realized within them the deeper their religious knowledge became whence comes the fact that a genuine piety evaporates when a

Violation of the moral law occurs and again that to the observance of the latter the former is so easily annexed thus not this point incontrovertibly to an essential Unity of the two oh believe me who so sees himself forced in order to preserve in his heart and conscience a confiding Faith to

Banish then the moral law hath in his heart and conscience and erroneous faith for the true Living Faith not merely agrees with the moral law it is one with it again too whence the fact that the religious and moral elements cannot really exist as under that the one

Perpetually seeks the other nay Bears it in its own Blossom from the living sense and the clear acknowledgement of our dependence on the all gracious and merciful god humility and confidence first spring next the fullness of Love which already includes obedience and resignation to the will of Heaven

Whereby We tread immediately on ethical ground if the first virtues be more religious the last are more ethical but the distinction between them is absorbed in love their Living Center the point wherein religiousness and morality unite now only have we obtained a complete solution to the Protestant doctrine that faith in its abstract

Sense alone saves salvation the Catholic attaches only to the undivided interior life of the regenerated to Faith and love to the Fulfillment of the law or to the concurrence of the religious and ethical principles he places both in an equal relation to a future life for both alike

Possess an eternal value Luther on the other hand recognizes faith alone as the principle of Eternal Felicity because he ascribes to morality only an Earthly perishable worth the above alleged argument of the Protestants that works on account of the partly sinful faculty when they emanate have not a saving efficacy is in itself

Inadequate for from the same motive they should represent Faith as weak and defective and consequently denied the power of ensuring salvation but from the point of view which we have now reached we can survey the whole and all becomes perfectly clear and luminous hence it was quite in the

Spirit of Luther and even better than he understood himself that Andrew poach a writer who took part in the controversies raised by Major Advanced the proposition that even the perfect fulfillment of the law that is to say the purest morality had no claim to Eternal happiness now have we at last succeeded

In completely unfolding the speculative idea which lies at the bottom of the Protestant doctrine of justification we have before observed that the relation towards evil wherein the reformers place the almighty and their ulterior doctrine that it cannot even by divine power be rooted out from the regenerated are based upon the idea

That evil necessarily adheres to everything finite the same thought may be expressed in the following manner the sense of sin cannot be effaced from all finite Consciousness from the consciousness of man it constantly accompanies and tortures man because evil is inseparable from him as a limited being to this he is

Predestined but how does he obtain quiet by the lifting up of the mind to a higher point of view to the inward essence of things to the infinite in the consciousness of God in faith evil vanishes hence moral Freedom annihilated was converted into freedom from the moral law which has relation merely to

The temporal limited external world but has no kind of reference to that which is eternal and exalted above space and time but however we by no means intend to assert that the reform were conscious of this fundamental principle of their system on the contrary had they understood themselves had they conceived

With their doctrines LED they would have rejected them as unchristian yet we may also understand wherefore the Catholics if they wish to uphold the idea of the Holiness and Justice of God if they wish to maintain human Freedom ensure the Dignity of the moral law confirm the true notion of sin

And the debt of sin and not suffer the doctrine of redemption in Christ to be converted into a very Folly should with all their energy have opposed the Protestant theory of faith and justification subheading 26 analysis of the elements of Truth and of error in the Protestant doctrine of Faith as hitherto

Stated if we now take a retrospective view of all that has been Advanced and reduce all to a short summary it will follow that in protest antism the religious element formed the more luminous side and the ethical the darker and this of course was attended with the consequence that ultimately the

Religious element was regarded only as a very oblique and distorted view the religious Element no one will fail to notice in protestantism who only recalls to mind that notion of Divine Providence which Luther and malanin put forth at the commencement of the Reformation but which cvin defended to the end of his

Days the action of Providence the reformers by no means made to consist merely in the guidance of all things little and great in the wise and tender conduct of individuals as of the whole human race now according to them all the phenomena in the world of man are God’s

Own work and man is the mere instrument of God everything in the world’s history is God’s invisible act visibly realized by the agent of man who can here fail to recognize a religious contemplation of all things all is referred to God God is all in

All the same Pious view of the world and the world’s history extends to the more special circle of Christian doctrines the fundamental principles of Christian piety are doubtless rigidly maintained but only a perverse application of them is made for the same relation wherein as we have seen the the deity is

Represented to be in respect to man is established between Christ and the believer the Redeemer is in such a way all in all that he and his Spirit are alone efficacious and faith and regeneration are exclusively his act so that as according to Luther’s Doctrine man disappears before God so the

Christian likewise disappears before Christ the following passage will furnish us with the clearest insight into Luther’s feeling on this subject quote I can well remember he remarks that Dr stal pitz Who was provincial Vicor of the augustinians when the gospel first began to be preached said to me it affords me

The greatest consolation that this doctrine of the Gospel which is now coming to light gives all honor and praise to God alone and nothing to men now it is clear and evident that we can never ascribe too much honor goodness Etc to our Lord

God so then he consoled me and it is the truth that the doctrine of the Gospel takes from men all honor wisdom and Justice and ascribes them to the one just Creator who creates all things out of nothing now it is much safer to ascribe too much to our Lord God albeit however

We can never too much ascribe to him herein do I not he in sin for I give to both to it God and man what appertaineth to each unquote the feelings whereby Luther was guided are to judge from such appearances sound to their inmost core but as in feeling truth and error can

Lie enclosed and only in a higher grade of intellectual life are separated one from the other so this is here the case in Luther we imagine ourselves to be transported to the Primitive times of our race when before the mind of man yet giddy from his fall all forms pass into mly

Confusion God and man are no longer kept distinct and the acts of both are Blended together the principle of Freedom Luther did not apprehend since in it he abhor the destruction of all deeper religious feeling and true humility viewing in it an encroachment of the rights of the Divine Majesty nay the self-deification

Of man to be free and to be God was in his opinion synonymous but what was the consequence while he desired to oppose the self-will he annihilated the Free Will of man and in combating his self-seeking he assailed with all his self-existence and individuality it is a circumstance worthy of special consideration that

Luther so often as he will prove man to be no longer in possession of the higher Freedom that Freedom which truth piety and virtue ensure shows also involuntarily that he no longer possesses the freedom of election and compounds both species of Freedom which are yet so very distinct one from the

Other the freedom of election is for man the necessary condition to a higher freedom but not the same thus the reformer worked himself up to an incapacity to discover in the Catholic notion of humility any humility at all for humility according to him consists in the renunciation of an

Independent personality and of a personal dignity and is of an essentially physical nature whereas according to the genuine and old Christian view humility is of a moral Essence and must depend on a free homage a free oblation of oneself the reformer said quote see Thou Art not thyself free and yet thou would

Fain be free in this consists all thy perverseness the Catholic on the other hand said oh man thou art created free but if by thy Freedom thou becomes a bond slave to God thou wil receive thy Freedom glorified back un hereby it was possible for the Catholic to explain how a false Freedom

Could be sought after and his whole system became at once theoda a justification of of God on account of evil in the world which protestantism must absolutely renounce as it can never explain how man whom it believes to be absolutely devoid of Free Will could ever come to believe himself

A free agent and thereby become evil unless with the want of Freedom he be destined to this longing after freedom and in this way he be doomed to an annihilating contradiction of his own nature within itself and thereby all evil be referred to God in fact this course of reasoning the

Reformers fearlessly pursued misapprehended together with free will the essence of the moral law and morality which without Free Will is inconceivable and yet ventured with all to accuse Catholics of want of humility Catholics according to whose doctrine that word can alone possess a rational sense and who when they say of

A man that he confesses himself a sinner before God and this is the principle of all humility and Fallen creatures are alone consistent these Grievous perplexities necessarily required a theory of justifying faith such as the new church gave reduced to a rational expression this Faith accordingly signifies the

Giving ourselves back full of confidence to God as at our birth and through the course of Our Lives he hath constituted us a well- grounded expect ation that he will grant us a favorable issue out of the enigmatic Labyrinth of evil which he hath himself prepared and into which he

Hath conducted Us by such a method undoubtedly no glory accurs to man but whether any Glory Be thereby rendered to God the enlightened Observer will be able to judge and of section 31 section 32 of volume one of symbolism by Johan Adam Mohler translated by James Burton Robertson this LibriVox recording is in

The public domain subheading 27 Affinity of protestantism with gnosticism and some pantheistic systems of the middle age more accurate determination of the difference between zwingle and Luther’s principles there is no religious phenomena to which the system of the reformers offers more resemblance than gnosticism to which we have already had

Now and then occasion to advert in the first place the latter sprang out of the glowing desire after eternal life and the deepest sense of human misery in general and of the misery of sin in particular so deep a horror for evil filled its disciples that they deemed it absolutely incompatible with the

Creation of the good God and then proceeded even to uphold a dualism of principles from the present form of human existence which arose out of the mysterious concurrence of these principles evil according to them was quite Inseparable it could though combed never be overcome down to the 14th and 15th

Centuries we find gnosticism continuing and broken and detached systems the reformers in the 16th century embraced it under a or form it is not to be doubted but that they were deeply moved by the like things that they were deeply impressed with the sinfulness of the world and on that account represented

Human nature as so thoroughly corrupted that the disease was in this life absolutely incurable secondly this sense of sin Pious doubtless but confused and distempered in itself tended among the Protestants as well as the gnostics for W its own destruction and as it did not comprehend and thereby maintain itself it became utterly

Extinct the higher degree of objective sinfulness is considered wherein the subject sees himself involved without personal guilt the more the magnitude of subjective self-committed evil disappears and human nature is then charged with the debt which the individual had contracted how much the gnostics sought to excuse themselves El by means of

Their theory of evil is well known in like manner the Protestants represent Adam who is accounted the only sinner as succeeded by Christ who alone worketh good and if by the former all personal guilt is made impossible so through the latter all personal Merit is rendered unnecessary if the former hath bed man

Of all moral freedom and consequently of all capacity for good the latter is so constituted that all Liberty all independent working of good on the part of man becomes a necessary and the more unavoidable necessity of sinning is represented to have been in the first atom the more easily obtained is

Forgiveness through the second atom described to be the error here is precisely the same as if one were to believe that a deep sense of guilt was possible only under the condition of a prodigious magnitude of evil Deeds committed by us for on the contrary experience shows that when the amount of

Evil objectively considered is small it is always most deeply felt and most strongly detested in fact no blood guiltiness no perjury no adultery is necessary in order to make one weep out his whole life in penitential tears in like manner it is quite unnecessary that through Adam men should

Have been bereaved of all reason and their every fiber infected in order to inspire them with a deep sense of the misery under which they languished and to make them hail a redeemer with joy in Adam we were wounded but not killed the wound causes a pain to be

Felt and the physician to be welcomed and admits of a perfect cure but in death all pain is extinguished and no life returns thirdly gnosticism desired of its followers the Consciousness the knowledge noes that they were the sons of the good God that they could not be

Lost that they were quite certain of Salvation and with this claim was Associated the doctrine that some men are by birth H Ben men of the spirit others men of the soul and others again Bo hoo men of clay in protestantism we find as parallels Faith which comprises

The absolute Assurance of eternal life and the doctrine that some are from eternity predestined to happiness others to damnation and this is merely another mode of expressing the Gnostic classification of men even the Gnostic doctrine of the paty contains a principle that incited to the highest moral enthusiasm the most perseverant

Struggle against all evil but it is well known how horribly this Doctrine was abused in life it is the same with the Protestant certitude of eternal life and of absolute predestination the conviction that through God’s mercy and without any moral obligation on my part I shall infallibly have a share in Eternal

Happiness can inspire me with gratitude the warmest and the most capable of producing the fairest fruits in life and this it was which Luther expected to be the result of his Doctrine but the notion that heaven will not be lost to the believer or to him who firmly

Confides and that no merit that is to say no personal worth Bears any inward relation to Salvation could as easily produce the opposite effects in practice and that these did not fail to ensue Luther himself often enough complains and the course of our investigations will furnish us with numerous proofs we

Do not contend that such an assurance in Noble tender and sensitive Souls if such can vaun of this assurance is not capable of bearing the most abundant fruits but how do the view which the reformers entertain of human sinfulness entitle them to reckon upon Souls of

Such a stamp if to this it be objected that every Doctrine can be abused we admit the fact but maintain that truth of itself never gives occasion to abuse that on the contrary abuse Springs only from the false position wherein anyone sets himself in relation to the truth

Whereas with an erroneous Doctrine abuse is necessarily intertwined and it is a mere matter of chance whether it cond does to anyone’s spiritual welfare this is the case with the doctrine that without fulfilling any moral obligations we become by faith alone partakers of divine grace this this is the case with the

Gnostic and Protestant feeling of assurance and with the doctrine of predestination which it presupposes fourthly marcion was so impressed with the loftiness of the New Testament Revelation with the revelation of God as a gracious loving and merciful father that on that account he held the Divinity in Christ to be essentially

Different from the one that created the world filled with evils of every kind gave in the old Covenant such severe laws and so strictly according to them meted out rewards and punishments into what contradictions Luther brought nature and Grace law and gospel we have already seen and not less

So how in the Redeemer he saw exclusively the merciful forgiver of sins marcian the most Pious of gnostics but who evinced scarcely any trace of a scientific Spirit supposed that the good God in Christ took compassion on men without incurring any obligation to concern himself as to their Destiny

Since they belonged to a creation to which he was a stranger but he forgot that it was inconceivable how men could even understand him and enter into communion with him because as beings created by the demiurges a spirit independent of God they possess nothing akin to God no

Manner of likeness unto God in his folly he thought he more highly exalted the mercy of God by representing him as redeeming creatures not only estranged from him by sin but in their very essence alien to him in like manner Luther Fallen man according to him was

Nothing but sin entirely bereft of the Divine image a Doctrine by which he thought to exalt the glory of the Savior without considering that he who was no longer anything to be redeemed cannot possibly be susceptible of redemption yet these parallels must now be closed especially as we should be

Thrown into no small embarrassment were we to compare Luther’s aesthetic exercises with those of marcian such very opposite practical results flowed from theories which have the closest Affinity with each other but even pricus the most libertine enemy of the law and the canites profess theoretical IAL maxims similar to those of

Marcian another Doctrine to which protestantism Bears undeniable relationship is the ideal pantheism whose adherence through the whole course of the middle age were arrayed against the church and no less violent opposition than that which she encountered with the Gnostic manichan Duelists to the former class belong Amal

Of chartre and his disciple David of denant with their followers various classes of the Fratelli lards and burgarts the brothers and sisters of quote unquote the free spirit together with several others they held the doctrine of the one and all of things of the absolute necessity of everything

Which occurs and consequently of evil in the creation of the want of Free Will in man and yet of the utmost latitude of Freedom which he can enforce against the dictates of the moral law of the certainty of salvation that is to say the return to the deity or absorption in his bosom

Which indeed forms a necessary part of pantheism and of every doctrine that ascribes a Divine Essence to man to this class Whitecliff belongs who only further expanded the fatalistic doctrines more hesitatingly taught by Thomas brand wardine ascribed in his trial logus evil to God and with the denial freedom of election in man

Admitted in his system an absolute predestination and on this account was censured by an English sinod Luther and swingley to a certain extent diverged into these opposite courses and here in consists if we judge rightly the real difference between them Luther approximates more to the Gnostic manichan view of the world swingly to

The pantheistic in the first period of his opposition against the church Luther and his peculiar humility wished to refuse the Fallen man only every species of freedom in what concerned Holiness but in the course of his hostility he thought to give a further support to his notion of humility by

Representing man as in himself the void of Freedom a proof of his unscientific spirit for by this second Doctrine he entirely took away all weight from the first it is however evident from numerous passages in his writings that his principal object was to inspire men with humility and piety by consideration

Of their deep guilt in Adam and that in the course of the struggle he evinced a disposition to cling only to this groundwork of his system which we may call the wouldbe Christian and to give up the other which we may characterize as the speculative one swingly on the other hand leaned

Almost exclusively on the latter for what he alleged respecting original sin and evil in general is scarce worthy of attention he pretty openly declared for pantheism and thereby attached himself to the principles of that second party described above which in the middle age unfurled the banner of opposition against the

Church the following statement will furnish the reader with more detailed explanations the leading principles in his writing on Providence are as follows all power is either created or uncreated if it be uncreated it is God himself if it be created it must needs be created by God but to be created by

God signifies not else than to be an emanation of his power for whatever is is from him and in him nay is himself thus created Power is ever a phenomenon of Universal Power in a new subject and a new individual the notion of a power peculiar to a created being is as

Incompatible with the notion of the deity as with the notion of a created being since this would thereby be conceived as uncreated the wish to be free is accordingly identical with wishing to be one’s own God and the doctrine of Freedom leads at once to self-deification and a polytheism the predicate quote unquote

Freedom and the subject quote unquote creature are mutually incompatible and the expression quote unquote a free creature involves a contradiction he continues Freedom as a self-power being inconsistent with the omnipotence of God the notion of a creature living according to his own design is evidently subversive of the

Wisdom of God for this is as much as to suppose that God would alter his decree which can only be Eternal and consequently immutable according to human Caprices and actions the result of human Prudence the notion of Divine Providence is therefore according to zwingle in every respect one and the same with that

Of the inevitable necessity of all occurrences and quite consistently therefore he rejects with the idea of free will all freedom of thinking also his thoughts on the essence of created energies swingly discloses further when he says the being of all things is the being of God and God

Himself for should we assert the contrary then the notion of the infinite which app pertains to God is destroyed since anything which is not himself is placed beside him and out of him to render his ideas more intelligible to the land grave of hes he makes use of the following

Comparison as plants and animals grow out of the earth and when their individual life is extinct dissolve again into its bosom so it is with the universe in respect to God and he adds in passing the consoling observation that from then the immortality of man is very apparent since we see that not

Which has ever been can quite cease to be as it only returns to the universal being he even cannot refrain from a digression to the effect that the Pythagorean doctrine of the transmigration of souls is not quite groundless and presents one very favorable side from all this wingly infers that

There can be but one cause and that the so-called secondary causes should not be regarded as causes but only as means and instruments of the first which is at once the only cause by this he utterly denies that man can be the free principle of causation in a series of actions and represents

Him as a completely passive instrument a living machine which never acts from itself which is only set in motion and is alike incapable either of good or of evil so far as wingley who only reduces to its first principles Luther’s doctrine of the servitude of the human will

We have often wondered at the so-called Orthodox Protestant theologians of our day when they opposed modern theological and philosophical systems which more consistently carried out the principles of the reformers so little did Protestant Orthodoxy understand itself with all his deviations on particular points leacher is in my opinion the only genuine

Disciple of the reformers end of section 32