CONTENTS OF NO. XLIII. I. JUSTIFICATION-PAPAL, PUSEYITE, AND PRIMITIVE, Oxford Divinity, compared with that of the Romish and Anglican Churches: with a special view to the illustration of the Doctrine of Justification by Faith. By the Rt. Rev. CHARLES 1. Kühner's Elementary Grammar of the Greek Language. 2. Anthon's Grammar of the Greek Language. 3. A Universal and Critical Dictionary of the English Language. THE CHRISTIAN REVIEW. NO. XLIII....OCTOBER, 1846. ARTICLE I. JUSTIFICATION-PAPAL, PUSEYITE, AND PRIMITIVE. BY REV. JOHN DOWLING. Oxford Divinity, compared with that of the Romish and Anglican Churches: with a special view to the illustration of the Doctrine of Justification by Faith. By the Rt. Rev. CHARLES PETTIT M'ILVAINE, D. D., Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the diocese of Ohio. 546 pp. 8vo. THE reformers of the sixteenth century attached great importance to the doctrine of Justification by Faith. Luther regarded it as "the article which distinguished a standing from a falling church; "* and in a letter addressed to his friends at the diet of Augsburg in 1530, he says "The world, I know, is full of wranglers who obscure the doctrine of Justification by Faith, and of fanatics who persecute it. Do not be astonished at it, but continue to defend it with courage, for it is THE HEEL OF THE SEED OF THE WOMAN THAT SHALL BRUISE THE HEAD OF THE SERPENT."† Melancthon complained that he and his Protestant * Articulus stantis aut cadentis ecclesiæ. + Nam hic est ille unicus calcaneus seminis antiquo serpenti adversantis. Luth. Ep. IV, p. 144. Quoted by D'Aubigné, Book XIV. VOL. XI.—NO. XLIII. 27 brethren were brought in danger for the only reason that they denied the Romish doctrine of Justification; and Calvin asserted that if this point alone were yielded to Rome, "it would not pay the cost to make any great quarrel about other matters in controversy."* Nor was it without adequate reason that these great reformers considered this as the grand point in dispute,the hinge on which turned the whole controversy between them and Rome. Earlier reformers had attacked with vigor many of the corrupt doctrines and practices of Rome. Arnold de Brescia had protested against the union of temporal and spiritual sovereignty in the professed head of the church, and maintained his principles with his life. Papal supremacy, transubstantiation, relics, indulgences, penances, absolutions and other off-shoots from the tree of anti-Christian error had, in successive centuries, been assailed, with more or less success, by Waldo and De Bruys and Berenger, by Wickliffe and Jerome and Huss, and by many others who dared in the face of danger and of death to protest against the corruptions of Rome. Yet, notwithstanding these earlier reformers, in some instances, advocated the scriptural doctrine of justification by faith alone, they failed to discover that errors on this fundamental point constituted the root of that tree of papal corruption, upon which grew those apples of Sodom; while from its prolific branches distilled, as from the fabled upas, the poison of spiritual death, to the deluded millions who reposed beneath their shade. Luther engaged in this conflict, with the history of these efforts at reformation as his teacher; and aided by this light, it was HE who at length discovered that a war upon penances and pilgrimages, upon purgatory and the mass, upon relics and indulgences, was only attempting to lop off single branches; while, if he would lay the axe at the root of the tree, he must expose the errors of Rome on the article of JUSTIFICATION, and disseminate that glorious truth which had given such peace to his own wounded and struggling spirit-that truth which, when far from home, prostrated by disease at Bologna, had soothed his aching heart-that truth, which, sounding in * Bishop Hall's works, Vol. IX, pp. 44, 45. the depth of his soul, like a voice of thunder, while crawling up Peter's staircase at Rome on his knees to obtain a papal indulgence, had driven him to the foot of a Saviour's cross, to find pardon and acceptance there— the just shall live by faith. No wonder, after his experience of the preciousness of this truth, that Luther should call it "the only solid rock;"-that he should write, "This Christian article can never be handled and inculcated enough. If this doctrine fall and perish, the knowledge of every truth in religion will fall and perish with it. On the contrary, if this do but flourish, all good things will also flourish, namely, true religion, the true worship of God, the glory of God, and a right knowledge of every thing which it becomes a Christian to know."* No wonder that he should make that memorable protestation, characteristic indeed of his own impetuosity of spirit and bluntness of manner, yet worthy to be written in letters of gold, "I, Martin Luther, an unworthy preacher of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, thus profess and thus believe; that this article, that faith alone without works can justify before God, shall never be overthrown, neither by the Emperor, nor by the Turk, nor by the Tartar, nor by the Pope, with all his cardinals, bishops, sacrificers, monks, nuns, kings, princes, powers of the world, nor yet by all the devils in hell. This article shall stand fast, whether they will or no. This is the true gospel. Jesus Christ redeemed us from our sins, and he only. This most firm and certain truth is the voice of Scripture, though the world and all the devils rage and roar. If Christ alone take away our sins, we cannot do this with our works; and as it is impossible to embrace Christ but by faith, it is therefore equally impossible to apprehend him by works. If, then, faith must apprehend Christ, before works can follow, the conclusion is irrefragable, that faith alone apprehends him, before and without the consideration of works; and this is our justification and deliverance from sin. Then, and not till then, good works follow faith as its necessary and inseparable fruit. This is the doctrine I teach, and this the Holy Spirit and the * Milner's Church History, Vol. IV, p. 515. Scott's Continuation of Milner, Vol. I, p. 527. Cramp's Council of Trent, 112. |