us, and are even quite unconcerned as to all that passes under the Sun.* From this point of view, in which it is imagined, that the saints resemble the Gods of the Epicureans, and live joyous and contented in heaven, without being, in the least, concerned about our insignificant actions, or suffering themselves to be thereby disturbed in their enjoyments, the prohibition to solicit the suffrage of the saints, is alone tenable. Such an idea of blessed spirits, as only the most obtuse selfishness could imagine, possesses certainly nothing to invite

* Confess. Gall. Art. xxiv. p. 119. "Quidquid homines de mortuorum sanctorum intercessione commenti sunt, nihil aliud esse, quam fraudem et fallacias Satanæ, ut homines a rectâ precandi formâ abduceret." Remonstrant. Conf. C. xvi. § 3. "Quippe de quibus (sanctis) Scriptura passim affirmat (!) quod res nostras ignorent, et ea, quæ sub sole fiunt, minime curent." A deeper view into the connexion of ideas, which induced the ancient Protestants to hold, here also, a negative course, is afforded us by Theodore Beza, who says of the veneration of saints, that it destroys the unity of God. In his epistle to Andrew Dudith, in order to dispel his doubts, that in the end Catholics might yet be right, he observes, that these had not left a single article of religion unfalsified, and he continues: "Unum scilicet Deum reipsâ profitentur (verbo enim id eos profiteri ac etiam vociferari non inficior), qui quod unius Dei tam proprium est ac ákovávηrov, atque est ipsa Deitas, ad quoscunque suos, quos vocant sanctos, transferunt.”See his Epist. theol. lib. i. Geneva, 1573, n. 1, p. 15. Certainly; for Catholics, doubtless, assert that the saints have helped God to create the world! In his writing on Divine Providence, Zuinglius, as we have in a former part of the work observed, adduces among other things, this argument against human freedom, that thereby a sort of polytheism would be introduced, and the true God set aside, since the notion of freedom involves independence, and therefore, every one, to whom free-will was attributed, would be converted into a God. The same argument is now alleged against the veneration of saints; whence we may also see, how closely are interlinked all the doctrines of Pro

testants.

+

to a friendly intercourse with them; and God forbid, that in heaven a felicity should be reserved for us, to which the condition of any earthly being, in whose breast the spark of a loving sensibility is yet alive, would be infinitely to be preferred!

PART II.

THE SMALLER PROTESTANT SECTS.

§ LIV.-Introduction.

WE have, already, often had occasion to observe, that the principles of the German Reformation, were not on all points consistently carried out by the German Reformers; nay, that they frequently resisted, with their utmost energy, what comprised nothing more than a very natural inference from their own principles, or a continuance and developement of the views laid down by themselves. We here by no means allude to the socalled Rationalist theology, which, in modern times, has been often represented by Catholics as well as by Protestants, as a mere continuance and further prosecution of the work begun by Luther.* It is difficult to explain, how the notion could ever have obtained such easy, unqualified, and often implicit credence, that a doctrine, which denies the fall of the human race in

* We presume to suggest, that Catholic theologians, in asserting that the modern rationalism is a necessary consequence of the Reformation, mean not to deduce it from all the peculiar theological tenets professed by Luther and the first Reformers. They only, thereby, mean to assert, that the doctrine of the Supremacy of Reason in matters of religion proclaimed by Luther and other Reformers, more boldly and unequivocally than by all former heresiarchs, necessarily led to the introduction of rationalism. The doctrine of Private Judgment is the common parent of all, even the most discordant and opposite heresies. -Trans.

Adam, is to be looked upon as a farther developement of that, which asserts, that in Adam we are all become incurable; or that a system, which exalts human reason and freedom above all things, must be considered as an ulterior consequence of the doctrine, that human reason and freedom are a mere nothingness; in short, that a system, which stands in the most pointed, general contradiction with another, should be admired as its consummation. Regarded from one point of view, the modern Protestant theology must be acknowledged to be the most complete reaction against the elder one. In the modern theology, Reason took a fearful vengeance for the total system of repression, practised upon her by the Reformers, and did the work of a most thorough destruction of all the opinions put forth by the latter. There is, however, it cannot be denied, another point of view from which the matter may be considered (see § 27); but this we must here pass over unnoticed.

When, accordingly, we speak of an incomplete developement of the principles of primitive Protestantism; or, when we say that the consistent developement of the same was even rejected and assailed by the Reformers; we advert to those doctrines, which could and must be deduced from their one-sided supernaturalism; if we be justified in supposing, that a doctrine once put forth, being in itself pregnant and important, is sure to find some souls ready to devote themselves to it, with all their energy, and own its sway without reserve. The fundamental principle of the Reformers, was, that without any human co-operation, the Divine Spirit penetrates into the soul of the true Christian, and that the latter, in his relation to the former, is with respect to all religious feeling, thought, and will, perfectly passive. If this principle led the Reformers, in the first

instance only, to the rejection of Church authority and Tradition, and to the adoption of Scripture as the only source and rule of faith; it must, when rigidly followed up, be turned against the position and the importance of Holy Writ in the Protestant system itself. Is written tradition not in itself a human mean for propagating doctrines and precepts? For the understanding of the Bible, which has come down from ages long gone by, and from a people so utterly different from ourselves, is not very great human exertion requisite, such as the learning of languages, the study of antiquities, the investigation of history? In what connexion, therefore, stands the proposition, that Scripture is the only source of faith, with the other proposition, that independently of all human co-operation, the Divine Spirit conducts. to God? If such an overruling influence of the Deity on man really exist, wherefore doth God still need Scripture and the outward word, in order to reveal His will to man? In such a way, and by such an intermediate train of thought, men deduced, from the fundamental principle of the Reformation adverted to, the erroneous opinion, that independently of all human. forms of communication, the Deity by immediate interior revelations, makes himself known to each individual, and in such a shape communicates his will to man. From which it follows, that Holy Writ itself must be held as a subordinate source of knowledge for the Divine decrees, or as one that may be entirely dispensed with. If the Christian Religion, by the severance of Scripture from the Church, had been already menaced with an utter absorption into mere individual opinions; so now even the written Word, in the writings of the Evangelists and the Apostles, was no longer asserted to be the first and the only fountain of religious truth;