plainly, according to their respective authors, from the word of God. To pretend to state, or even enumerate them, would be absurd ;-more absurd than to attempt, on a day of tempest, or in the midst of a storm, to count up the clouds which obscure the sun.

XIX. The whole history of Protestantism is replete with inconsistencies. Thus, notwithstanding all the wide liberty of its maxims, and the freedom with which its members are allowed to apply them,-such, notwithstanding these circumstances, is the attachment, which men entertain for their own belief, or at least, such was the affection, which the reformers, some of them, entertained for their own opinions,united, it may have been, with a certain remaining, but expiring respect for unity,-that, although indignant at the condemnation which had been passed upon them by the church of Rome, they proceeded, very early, to condemn, and even anathematise, each other. Thus, we know, with what severity the arch apostle, Luther, reprobated many of the doctrines of his fellow apostle, Calvin,-whilst the latter, in like manner, with an equal degree of aversion, expressed his dislike to several of those of Luther. Again, how strikingly

1 It would be a very difficult task to show, why these two great leaders should thus mutually reprove each other; or what there is, in relation to their respective doctrines, that is the most deserving of condemnation. Luther, by denying free will, and declaring good works injurious to salvation, destroyed at once the whole system of moral virtue. Calvin, in the same way, by the doctrine of inamissable grace, did radically, and really, the self-same thing. For, according to this dogma, as explained by the heresiarch, provided that a man be once justified, he is, consequently, justified for ever: so that, although he continue to commit the most flagitious crimes, they are still no impediments to his salvation. Thus, they arrive, each of them, at the self-same point; that is, they, both of them, equally annihilate every obligation of morality, and of religious duties; contending, as they both do, that faith alone is the principle of future happiness, and the sole precept of Christian piety. It is true, they had not the boldness to declare, that faith delivers the believer from the obligation of obeying the civil laws, although, indeed, their maxims do, certainly, extend even to these. However, the successors of these apostles, and not an inconsiderable number of them,-like good logicians, and consistent reasoners, proceeded even thus far. Whence, one of their leading tenets was, to acknowledge no superior, either in religion, or in tho

do the punishments, which Calvin inflicted upon the unfortunate Servetus, evince the abhorrence, which he entertained for the tenets of the Unitarians! But, in fact, not only was such as this the conduct of those two great authors of the Reformation; it was, moreover, the general, and almost uniform case with their disciples, whenever, by the seductions of eloquence, the cant of piety, or the violence of declamation, they had contrived to draw after them a certain number of adherents, and obtained sufficient influence to institute a sect. On these occasions, they all, and each, reciprocally censured, and condemned each other. But, above all, such as this was uniformly their conduct, whenever supported by the state, and encouraged by the policy of the civil government, they had the good fortune to organise, and create, any great, or considerable establishment. Then, indeed, as if feeling the necessity of union,-or as if they were seriously alarmed at the dissolution of the truths of religion, which, under the operation of their own fundamental principles, they saw gradually melting away, and disappearing,―then, in imitation of the Catholic church, not only did they loudly reprobate all innovators, and condemn disunion, but they thought proper to bring back, and interpose, the still stronger checks of power, and the instruments of authority. They had recourse to oaths, tests, subscriptions, punishments, excommunications, &c. Fruitless and unavailing artifices! which, sapping the very foundations of the Reformation, served only to point out the despair, and inconsistency, of the churches which adopted them. They were mere bulrushes, cast into the ocean to allay a storm. Men laughed at the flimsy attempt; derided the inconsistency of its authors; and set at naught, both the decrees of their synods, and the terrors of

order of politics;—or at least, no superior, save the Great Being, who has redeemed us, the Saviour Jesus Christ;-maxims these, which, it is greatly to be apprehended, will not long, in the present unhappy times, remain fruitless, and without effect. Whensoever, by the frightful permission of God's justice, hell prepares a heavy calamity for the punishment of mankind, its first step, most frequently, is to suggest some error or other; to scatter it in the walks of life; and then leave it to the operation of time to ripen and complete it.

their excommunications. They went on, still reasoning, and dogmatising; and sects, and errors, and incredulity, continued to increase, precisely as they had done before.

XX. The voice of authority thus neglected,-recourse was now had to the expedient of conciliation. But, even this was attended with very little better success than the preceding. It produced, indeed, a few apparent unions; or rather, a few partial treaties of mutual toleration. But, the effects of these proved, altogether, more injurious, than beneficial, to the cause of truth. For, although they were undertaken upon the pretext of charity, and for the sake of peace,—yet, jumbling together all kinds of creeds, and systems, they, consequently, served only to teach, and accustom, the public to look upon the circumstance of doctrines as an object of indifference. Such negociations do, indeed, form, in the minds of the really enlightened, a just subject of public scandal. They are spectacles, such as had never before been seen, or heard of, in the annals of the Christian church. In them, we behold a set of religious negociators, pretending to establish peace by the mutual concession, and abandonment of dogmas;-giving up reciprocally, on each side, certain articles, and portions, of their faith, in the same way precisely as, after a ruinous war, a set of negociators, or princes, surrender to each other certain towns or territories; and stipulating, at the same time, for certain civil, and profane indemnities, in room of the truths, or opinions, which they have thus deserted, and renounced.'

1 Speaking of the reconciliation, which has recently taken place amongst the Protestant sects in Germany, Mr. Jacob remarks as follows: "That union is said to have spread still wider a spirit of indifference upon sacred subjects. The distinguishing tenet of the Lutherans, and that which is contained in their symbolic books, to which the clergy profess adherence, is the doctrine of the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the bread and wine, in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. This tenet, though it has been ever the profession of the Lutheran church, has been long abandoned by almost the whole of its ministers. The reformed, or Calvinistic ministers, had, like their brethren of the Lutheran party, little to give up. Their distinguishing tenets of predestination, election, perseverance, and impelling grace, were passed over in their public services, as obsolete dogmas, never to be introduced and it

XXI. Witnesses, therefore, of all these evils,-of all this instability and fluctuation,-the Catholics, who had long before foreseen and predicted them, now summoned the Protestant theologians to declare, where, or when, it was, that they proposed to stop. They called upon them to point out, where, amidst all this confusion of conflicting, and contradictory professions of their belief, it was possible to discover that striking characteristic of the true religion, which St. Paul declares is so essential to it," the unity of faith." "The religion of Jesus Christ,"-observed the Catholics to them,-"reposing upon revelation,-and revelation being always, and necessarily, unchangeable, the consequence must be, that, whensoever the doctrines of any church, or sect, are found to vary, such church, or sect, cannot, of course, be considered as the real religion of this holy Legislator." This is an argument, which Bossuet, in his History of the Protestant Variations, has developed with that force of reasoning, which is peculiarly the characteristic of that immortal writer.

was generally understood, that, for a century past, they have been scarcely entertained by any considerable number of the clergy. So that the union, that has been effected, is not imagined to have had any other practical effect, but that of making the common people think religious worship, under any form, as much a matter of indifference, as this union, thus easily effected, shows, that different opinions are to their teachers." He adds, that—" The church of Rome has, in consequence, received into her bosom several members from the Protestant religion, who are distinguished for their virtue, their talents, and their learning.”

"Men," says the British Critic, "may be brought to coalesce, and their religious animosities may be calmed. But, with them will perish their religion also. They will unite, because, bewildered and fatigued by their mutual contentions, they have taught each other to despise the very object of their dispute, or to give up the pursuit of it in despair. From such a downfall there is no recovery. It may, we fear, be regarded as the forerunner of that final state of apostacy, when faith will scarcely be found upon the earth."

It is hence, and after having contemplated that general indifference, which now pervades the Protestant mind in relation to the dogmas of religion, that an elegant French writer very justly remarks,-" Protest antism is, at present, little else than a mere sepulchral monument;—a tomb, which, as yet, a few men mistake for a living object, only because it is still adorned with certain images of life, and with a few emblems of immortality."

Struck, indeed, with the astonishing production, and unable to make any reasonable reply to it, the Protestants remained silent; or rather, they honestly acknowledged the variations imputed to them. They even appeared to wonder, that they had not varied more than they had done. So sensibly did they feel for their own instability, and for the obvious tendency of their own leading principles.

XXII. After an acknowledgment like the above, and it is what every well-informed,-if candid-Protestant will equally make, there remains only one form of defence, which the reformed churches can, with any kind of semblance of reasonableness, pretend to allege in their own support. It is this; To maintain, that the doctrines, upon which they have varied so much, and contradicted each other so very widely, are not, in themselves, essential doctrines; and that, therefore, men may admit, or reject them, without any violation of Christianity, or without any risk, or sacrifice, of their salvation. It was thus, that was first begotten, and introduced, that favourite, and now general, system of fundamentals;— a system, which reduces the necessity, and obligation, of faith to a certain, but small number of articles; and considers all the rest, or at least, tolerates all the rest,-as immaterial; or as objects, at all events, of very inferior, if not trifling consequence.

--

It is true, indeed, that the adoption of this unfortunate device is the necessary result, both of the character of the Protestant principles, and of the situation, and state, of the Protestant societies. The abettors of the Protestant cause were compelled-(they had no other resource) to come forward in its defence, from the nature of the controversy, which they had to maintain with the Catholics, concerning the divine authority of the Christian church. The expedient, however, although unavoidable, is desperate. It forms, again, a system, replete with absurdities; and even repugnant to the very maxims themselves of the Reformation;-a system even, which cannot possibly be true, unless Christianity itself be false. Its real, and direct effect, is the toleration, not only of every species of religious error, but of Socinianism, Deism, and in fact of every form of infidelity.

H