The principles of Protestantism; an examination of the doctrinal differences between the Protestant churches and the church of Rome

Front matter

BX 4810 .L56 1898 Lilley, James Phillip, 1846 The principles of Protestantism

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

In crown 8uo, price 5s.,

Preface

This handbook has been prepared as a companion to Dr. T. M. Lindsay's on The Reformation. The aim of that volume was to set forth the historic origin of Protestantism in Europe : the present is designed to exhibit its leading doctrines as they took shape in the Reformed Churches in opposition to those of the Church of Rome.

Strictly speaking, Protestantism has but one great principle, [ namely, the right of direct access to God through Christ His Son. [ This is its ultimate idea. But when it came into conflict with the views of the Roman theologians, like all fundamental ideas, it threw out branches in various directions ; so that, as I have tried to show in the Introduction, it may now be said with truth that Protestantism has three master principles, leading to differences from the Church of Rome on the whole evangelic method of salvation, the / word of God and the fellowship of believers.

In endeavouring to e.xpound and illustrate these contrasts, I have, of course, used the authoritative sources of information on both sides.

The Decrees and Canons of the Council of Trent, its Catechism and the Creed of Pope Pius iv. are still acknowledged by the Church of Rome as her leading statements of doctrine. Constant reference has been made to these authorities. But it has also been found necessary for a complete view of her teaching to show how these are reflected in the expositions of eminent divines, like Bellarmin, Mohler, Perrone, and Newman. For this same purpose, frequent vill PREFACE use has been made of one of the most recent and candid expositions of Roman Cathohc doctrine issued in this country, namely, Tlie Outlines of Dogmatic Theology, by Father S. J. Hunter, the present Professor of Theology in Stonyhurst College (Stonyhurst Series, 3 vols., Longmans & Co., 1895-96).

The chief authorities on the Protestant side are the Confessions of the Refoi-med Churches ; and of these, the Augsburg Confession, the Westminster .Standards, and the Articles of the Church of England, have been most frequently referred to. But particular doctrines have been illustrated from the writings, not only of the Reformers, Luther, Melanchthon, Zwingli and Calvin, but also of prominent theologians of modern times. As a former student of the New College, Edinburgh, I could not avoid attaching great weight to the discussions of Protestant doctrine found in the works of Principal W. Cunningham. He is, perhaps, the only Scottish theologian that ever thoroughly mastered this field. I can conceive nothing more helpful to students than a thorough acquaintance with his supremely able lectures.

The limits of a handbook did not permit me to give all the references to other literature 1 have used. Special acknowledgment will be found in connection with quotations. For knowledge of the most recent German literature on Protestantism I have to express my indebtedness to Professor Carl Mirbt of Marburg. His own Quelleii ziir Geschichte dcs Pnpstiiims (Leipzig, 1895) has been constantly in my hands. It gives the original form of the Decrees and Canons of Trent, with much additional matter, and is invaluable to every student of the subject.

The method and spirit of the exposition will, 1 trust, be beneficial to teachers and students. It cannot be said that there is any lack of manuals on the Protestant controversy. The chief defect in them, so far as my judgment goes, is that they are for the most part merely negative or destructive in their aim. The majority of them seem designed simply to "expose" the errors of Romanism without exhibiting in any adequate fashion the corresponding truth. It is an additional fault that this work is often done in a spirit of narrowness and bitterness that does not appear perfectly consistent

PREFACE IX

with the ends of Christian controversy. In the present manual, I have sought to avoid these snares. While indicating plainly enough the origin and progress of what we believe to be the errors of the Church of Rome, I have endeavoured to make these the starting-point of a careful and complete statement of the evangelical Protestant position and the grounds on which it is based. I have also tried to couch the exposition in language that shall approve itself as alike accurate, impartial and temperate. If this method does not actually convert our opponents, it may at least conciliate them to give our Protestant Evangel a more patient and charitable hearing. With this result at the outset we may well be content. The truth will do the rest.

J. P. L.

Arbroath, June 1898.

Introduction

PAGE

THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF PROTESTANTISM .... I

Part I The Gospel Of Protestantism

DIFFERENCES CONCERNING THE EVANGELIC APPLICATION OF THE TRUTH— THE MATERIAL PRINCIPLE

CHAI'.

I. THE STATE OF MAN AS CREATED II

II. THE CONDITION OF MAN AS FALLEN — ORIGINAL SIN . . I7

III. THE INABILITY OF MAN THROUGH SIN — THE ST.^TE OF THE

UNREGENERATE 24

IV. SIN IN RELATION TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE .... 32 \. THE .METHOD OF CHRISTIANITY — REPENTANCE AND FAITH . 38

VI. THE PRIMARY BLESSINGS OF THE GOSPEL — FORGIVENESS —

JUSTIFICATION 4$

Vir. REGENERATION — THE -STATE OF THE REGENERATE — POST- BAPTISMAL SIN 57

VIII. THE HIGHER BLESSINGS OF THE GOSPEL 67

I.\. GOOD WORKS 74

X. THE STATE AFTER DEATH — PURG.\TORY 84

xi

Xll

CONTENTS

Part II The Charter Of Protestantism

DIFFERENCES CONCERNING THE SOURCE OF TRUTH— THE FORMAL PRINCIPLE

CHAI'. PAGE

I. THE CONTENTS AND USE Ol-' THE SCRIPTURES • • • 95

II. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIAN lOWARDS

THE SCRIPTURES I02

III. THE SOURCE OF CERTAINTY RESPIXTING THE AUTHORITY OF

THE SCRIPTURES Ill

IV. THE PERSPICUITY OF SCRIPTURE II9

V. THE PERFECTION OF SCRIPTURE 127

VI. THE PERFECTION OF SCRIPTURE — TRADITION {continuation) . 1 38 VII. THE DOCTRINAL STUDY OF SCRIl'TUKF. — THE THEORY OF DE- VELOPMENT 145

Part III The Polity Of Protestantism

DIFFERENCES CONCERNING THE ECCLESIASTICAL EMBODI- MENT OF THE TRUTH— THE SOCIAL PRINCIPLE

I. THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH

II. THE MINISTRY OF THE CHURCH

III. THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH

IV. THE SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH — THEIR NATURE AND

NUMBER

V. THE SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH— BAPTISM .

VI. THE SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH— IHK LORD'S SUPPER-

THE MASS

VII. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH — HIE ROMAN PRIMACY VIII. THE TEACHING OF THE CHURCH — PAPAL INFALLIBILIIY IX. THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH — PAPAL SUPREMACY . X. THE CHURCH IN RELATION TO THE UNSEEN WORLD

159 170 178

187 195

THE

PRINCIPLES OF PROTESTANTISM

INTRODUCTION

THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF PROTESTANTISM

It would be going in the face of historic f;ict to deny in any way the strong influence exercised on the Reformation of the sixteenth century by the intellectual and social forces of the time. There was then a great awakening in the mental life and political activity of Europe ; and the mo\ement initiated by Luther was largely moulded by it. But however much the Reformation may have been aided by these factors, its primary and dominant cause is to be found in the new religious convictions which then began to take such deep root in the hearts of men. It was above all a revival of spiritual life. The longing for a closer fellowship with God and a more assured peace that manifested itself with such intensity in the spiritual conflicts of Luther was present to a greater or less degree in thousands of souls all around him. Men began to see that the essence of religion lay in the soul's sense of obligation to God, not in mere compliance with the institutions of the Church. This feeling in turn brought upon the conscience a deeper conviction of the guilt and bondage of sin. Luther and his friends discovered what they believed to be the divinely-ordained method of becoming free from this awful burden, and embracing it themselves, they proclaimed it far and wide. By the practice of the mediaeval Church, Christianity had been reduced to the level of a barren law which left the soul under the yoke of a routine of extci-nal duties and thereby in bondage to the priesthood. Against this subjection Luther protested as an unjustifiable " Babylonish captivity." To him, as to its first preachers, Christianity was essentially a manifestation of the sovereign grace of God, drawing sinners into direct communion with Him ; and the Christian life was a life not of servitude but of freedom, not of gloom but of gladness, not of weakness but of power. It was the cordial acceptance of this new way of entering into close and loving fellowship with God that gave rise to the outburst of spiritual energy that carried forward the Reformation. Amid all the moral and political forces that came to its aid, it was a movement religious alike in its essence, its operation and its ultimate fruits. Even a historian so unsympathetic as Hallam is forced to make this admission : "Every solution of the conduct of the Reformers is nugatory except one, that they were absorbed by the conviction that they were fighting the battle of God."i

If religious conviction was the distinctive feature of the Reformation in its origin, it was no less manifestly the supreme characteristic of all its subsequent course. Throughout the whole conflict, it was the sense of obligation to God as the only source of salvation that enabled the Reformers to withstand the temptations and threats of the Church of Rome. To see how the Reformation assumed the character of Protestantism, however, as well as to understand the real nature of Protestantism itself, it is necessary for us to recall the first occasions on which the adherents of the new revival came into direct contact with the Papacy and the Empire.

The first of these was the Diet of Worms held in 1521. Here it was Luther alone that was the spokesman of the Reformation, though he had the manifest sympathy and protection of not a few of the princes. The attitude he took up and maintained so bravely is familiar to all. The direct obligation of man to God constrained him to appeal to the Scriptures as the only source of a decisive judgment on the question he had raised. " Unless therefore I am convinced by the testimony of Scripture or by the clearest reasoning, — unless I am persuaded by means of the passages I have quoted, — and unless they thus render my conscience bound by the word of God, I cannot and I will not retract, for it is unsafe for a Christian to speak against his conscience. Here I stand, I can do no other : May God help me. Amen."- The edict which the Emperor signed and caused to be promulgated is also well known. " We have therefore dismissed from our presence this Luther whom all pious and sensible men deem a madman or one possessed by the devil ; and we enjoin that, on the expiration of his safe conduct, immediate recourse be had to effectual measures to check his furious rage. . . . And if any person, whatever be his dignity, should dare to act in contradiction to the decree of our imperial majesty, we order him to be placed under the ban of the Empire."^ A decree like this plainly meant that the adherents of the Reformation were either to submit to the Pope or suffer the extreme form of persecution.

The next occasion was the Diet of Speier held in 1526. The professed intention of this meeting was to take steps for executing the Edict of Worms, which had been nullified by the protection

1 Literature of Europe, etc. vol. ii. p. 419.

2 D'Aubign6, vol. ii. p. 249. ^ D'Aubign^, ut sup. p. 274.

INTRODUCTION 3

extended to Luther in the Wartburg. Ferdinand of Austria, the brother of the Emperor Charles, then on his way to Rome to confer with Pope Clement vii., brought with him to the Diet imperial instructions reaffirming the Edict of Worms and ordering all the subjects of the Empire to carry it out. The knowledge of this fact imparted great boldness to the Papists and caused dismay to the princes and other adherents of the evangelical party. The political complications of the period, however, turned to their deliverance. Forming an alliance with France, Clement opposed the Emperor and took the field against him This convinced Charles that he might yet need the help of the evangelical princes and led him to relax his severity against the cause they represented. The result was that instead of being repressed, as the priests so earnestly desired, liberty of conscience was allowed in all the States that had already become favourable to the Reformation. Each State was to behave within its own domain so as to be able to render an account to God and the Emperor. Luther thought little of this issue ; but the historians of the Reformation all magnify it as a turning-point in the movement. "The Diet of 1526," says d'Aubigne, "forms an important epoch of histor}'. ... In this single step there is a complete victory : the cause of the reform is won."

After a peaceful period of three years, during which the evangelical movement strengthened and extended its grasp of Germany and neighbouring countries, the Reformers were called on to face another Diet which was convened again at Speier in 1529. It was a time of great anxiety for the Lutheran princes and their friends. For the Emperor and the Pope had once more joined hands in friendship and the supreme condition of its maintenance was that the Reformation in Germany should be suppressed without delay. To this aim, Ferdinand, who once more presided at the Diet, addressed himself at once. At an early meeting, the imperial commissioners announced that the last Edict of Speier having been the cause of much disorder, the Emperor had in the exercise of his sovereign authority resolved to annul it. This decree set the Papists free to demand the execution of the Edict of Worms. The evangelical members of the Diet on the other hand declared for the maintenance of the last Edict of Speier. It had been legally established in the country and not even the Emperor had the power to set it aside. Feeling the force of this contention, a majority of the Diet passed a resolution declaring that, while those who had embraced the Reformation might continue in the exercise of their freedom, no further attempts at extending the movement should be made either in those States where it had not been already introduced or in other places where it had already taken root. It was also stipulated that the jurisdiction of the Romish hierarchy was still everywhere to be acknowledged.

If the evangelical princes and other deputies had been in any degree under the influence of merely selfish motives, this compromise might have satisfied them. As it was, they were too loyal to the principles of civil and religious liberty they had espoused, ever to dream of submitting to it. They clearly foresaw that the only issue of such an agreement would be to put an effectual arrest on the whole work of Reformation and subject all its adherents to trouble and defeat. After various attempts at negotiation had proved fruitless, these deputies resolved to lay on the table of the Diet an appeal from the Emperor and the papal authorities to the heavenly jurisdiction of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Of this memorable Protest, the following are the essential statements :—

" We have heard and learnt that the decisions of the last Diet concerning our holy Christian faith are to be repealed, and that it is proposed to substitute for them certain restrictive and onerous resolutions. . . . We cannot consent to its repeal. . . . Because it concerns the glory of God and the salvation of our souls, and that in such matters we ought to have regard above all, to the commandment of God who is King of kings and Lord of lords ; each of us rendering Him account for himself, without caring the least in the world about majority or minority.

"What! we ratify this edict! We assert that when Almighty God calls a man to His knowledge, this man cannot, however, receive the knowledge of God ! Oh, of what deadly backslidings should we not thus become the accomplices, not only among our own subjects, but also among yours.

" Moreover the new edict declaring the ministers shall preach the gospel, explaining it according to the writings accepted by the holy Christian Church, we think that for this regulation to have any value, we should first agree on what is meant by the true and holy Church. Now, seeing that there is great diversity of opinion in this respect ; that there is no sure doctrine but such as is conformable to the word of God ; that the Lord forbids the teaching of any other doctrine ; that each text of the Holy Scriptures ou.^ht to be explained by other and clearer texts ; that this holy Book is in all things necessary for the Christian, easy of understanding and calculated to scatter the darkness : we are resolved, with the grace of God, to maintain the pure and exclusive preaching of His only word, such as it is contained in the Biblical books of the Old and New Testament, without adding anything thereto that may be contrary to it. This word is the only truth ; it is the sure rule of all doctrine and of all life and can never fail or deceive us. He who builds on this foundation shall stand against all the powers of hell, whilst all the human vanities that are set up against it shall fall before the face of God.

" For these reasons, we earnestly entreat you to weigh carefully our grievances and our motives. If you do not yield to our request, we Protest by these presents before God, our only Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, and Saviour, who will one day be our Judge, as well as before all men and all creatures, that we, for us and for our people, neither consent nor adhere in any manner whatsoever to the

INTRODUCTION 5

proposed decree in anything that is contrary to God, to His holy ' word, to our right conscience, to the salvation of our souls, and to the last decree of Speier." ^

After formally presenting this declaration and appeal, the evangelical princes and their adherents had it recorded in strictly legal form. The following significant explanation of their action was also then given : "Since there is a natural communion between ! all men, and since even persons condemned to death are permitted to unite and appeal against their condemnation ; how much more are we, who arc members of the same spiritual body, the Church of the Son of God, children of the same heavenly Father, and consequently brothers in the Spirit, authorised to unite, when our salvation and eternal condemnation are concerned." ^

It is well-nigh impossible to overrate the importance of this action on the part of the princes and the deputies of the fourteen evangelical cities that joined their side. The fact in connection with it best remembered by the ordinary student of history is that it gave to the Reformers the new name of Protestants, by which they were thenceforth to be known. In reality, this is the most superficial result of their procedure. The event itself was one of momentous interest and was fraught with issues of more transcendent importance than any of the actors in it or their friends could possibly see at the time. Melanchthon indeed said : "It is a great event that has just taken place at Speier"; but this was chiefly because it seemed to him fraught with "dangers, not only to the Empire, but to religion itself" Luther on the other hand fairly underestimated it. "The Diet," said he, " has come to an end almost without results." Modern historians have taken a quite different view, and one that is based on fact. The presentation of this noble document at Speier was nothing short of the formal establishment of Protestantism in (jermany. Up to that crisis, the Reformation was largely the expression of the convictions of individuals, especially Luther. But at Speier, even in Luiher's absence, there is seen a body of believingmen united in cherishing the same evangelical truths and enabled to publish them in a definite form in the face of all Christendom. They are not the representatives of a political party battling for a new policy, but living members of the Church of Christ cleaving to and contending for the faith once delivered to the saints. Who shall count it an exaggeration to say that the statement drawn up in the little room of the humble pastor of St. John's at Speier is but a reproduction, in a forui demanded by the sixteenth century, of the very convictions that had been burned into the heart of the apostles by the Spirit of God in the upper chamber at Jerusalem ? The very life and progress of Christianity at that time depended on the action of the evangelical princes and their friends. It stands to their everlasting honour that they listened to the voice of God and their own conscience and defied the threats of men.

1 D'AubigniJ, vol. iv. pp. 58-60. - D'Aubign^, ut sup. p. 65.

In this way also we are now in a position to appreciate the real nature of Protestantism. A historian of the Romish Church has no better description of Protestants than, "enemies of the Pope and Caisar." ^ Some modern writers are perhaps less disrespectful but hardly more judicious when they represent Protestantism as erssentially a negation, or as the mere watchword of a sect. Such a view rests on the mere literal significance of the word itself and takes no account of the richer meaning breathed into it by the principles of the docuinent in which it is found and the whole attitude it exhibits. The description is utterly inadequate. The Protestant Reformers had indeed to face the task of combating the errors of the Papacy. l')Ut this was only a part, and by no means the largest part of tb.eir conflict. The heaviest side of their responsibility lay behind and beneath all controversy, in the appropriation of the saving truth of the Scriptures. They would never have been able to undertake the work of refuting error, and far less have been sustained in the performance of it, if they had not entered on the possession of a new heritage of positive truth drawn from the word of God. The essence of Protestantism therefore lies in the fact that it is a reaffirmation in forms called forth by the errors of the Romish Church of all the great evangelical principles set forth by Christ and His apostles. The burden of its message is the sovereign grace of God. Viewed in its fulness. Protestantism is the reassertion of the power of apostolic Christianity, the formative principle of evangelical religion acting on the conscience, and mind and heart of men. It is the saving method of the Spirit of God, exhibited gradually from the beginning of redemption, manifested in the life and teaching of Christ, elaborated by Him more fully in the work of His apostles and now by their writings committed to the Church to be maintained by her ministers and members in every age, in conflict with the spirit of the world.

Accordingly no greater mistake could be made than to suppose that the advent of Protestantism was coincident with the use of the name. As there were reformers before the Reformation, so there were Christian Protestants in the Church many centuries before the Diet of Speier. That famous meeting was only a v-antage ground on which was displayed the effulgence of a light that had been burning more or less brightly in Christendom ever since the close of the apostolic age. Hence also Protestantism is a principle that has yet a great future before it. Bound up with the very life of the Church, itself constituting the very element of the whole Christian enterprise in the world. Protestantism must abide and grow in the world till the consunmiation of all things under the sway of Christ. The Reformation of the Church is not yet completed ; and evangelical Protestantism is yet to exhibit grander issues than the Christian society or the nations of the world have ever seen.

If this goal is to be obtained, however, it will only be by a wider

1 Cardinal ralkwicini.

INTRODUCTION 7

diffusion of the great principles which this movement involves. Moreover these truths must be still more carefully discriminated from the errors of the Papacy. Much help was afforded by the controversies into which the Reformers were drawn by the antagonism of Rome and the efforts frequently made for conciliation as well as by the doctrinal discussions amongst themselves conducted by Protestant theologians in different countries. The Confessions of the Reformation are an invaluable repository of evangelic truth for the Church in all time. But the " Decrees" put forth by the Council of Trent have long shown that all hope of reunion on the basis of doctrine must be for ever abandoned. The fact that this Symbol, with its Catechism and Creed, is not only adhered to without change to the present day but has been actually developed in directions still more characteristic of the peculiar system of the Papacy, lays upon the Protestant Churches the necessity of continually instructing the people of their communion in the great truths which Rome ignores and the errors she never ceases to propagate.

It is to this task that the following chapters are to be devoted. Examining carefully the terms of the Protest handed in at Speier, we find three main elements in its doctrinal position. There is a new recognition of the way in which men are to enter on the blessings of the gospel ; a new conception of the Scriptures as the source of divine teaching ; and a new view of the life and polity of the society of believers. We propose giving an exposition of the main differences betwixt the leading Protestant Churches and the Church of Rome on these lines. In which order we take these divisions is not of so much consequence. Some theologians prefer to start with the convictions entertained on the Scriptures, as Neander has done : others, like Hase, with the views held on the Church : others, like Nitzsch and F. C. Baur, with the truths that directly affect Christian experience, in this following the example of their great opponent J. A. Mohler. We prefer the last method as the most suitable for a systematic exposition and best fitted to exhibit the cumulative force of the Protestant argument.

Beginning then with the differences connected with the evangelic application of the truth, — the Gospel of Protestantism, — we shall compare in detail the teaching of the Churches on such points as the primitive state of man, the eftects of the Fall, and then the requisitions and blessings of the gospel from repentance and foith to justification sanctification and entrance into heaven. In this way we shall see the operation of what has been called the iiiaierial or life principle of Protestantism {priitcipiiaji essendi) from the fact that it asserts and vindicates the right of direct access to the grace of God in His Son Jesus Christ.

Taking next the differences on the Scriptures, — the source of truth, the charter of Protestantism, — we shall study the antagonistic views held of the contents and use of the Bible, the right of private judgment, the perspicuity, authority, and sufficiency of Scripture, and the Romish theory of the development of doctrine. This course will bring before us the /or?nal or knozulcdge principle of Protestantism {principium cognoscendi) which derives its name from the fact that it directs us to the written word of God as the only source and standard of all saving truth.

Last of all, we shall take up the differences connected with the social and ecclesiastical embodiment of the truth — the Polity of Protestantism. Here the main facts concerning the nature of the Church, the origin and functions of the ministry, the methods of worship, the constitution, authority, and heavenly relations of the Church will find a fitting place and close our study of the radical divergence of the two systems.

The dominant feature of this last section may be called the social principle of Protestantism.^ Though the leading truths that give expression to it have always been more or less insisted on, it has, unhappily, never received the full recognition it demands. Even so eminent a defender of Protestantism as Dorner has not exhibited the immense influence wielded by the idea of the new Christian fellowship which the Protestant evangel disseminated amongst the people. In the section of his great work on the History of Proicstatit T/it'oIogy, where, if anywhere, this truth should have been presented, — namely, " The exhibition of the Evangelical prijiciple in tJie formation of the Church"'^ — it is only barely alluded to. Some recent theologians, however, have begun to see that the first two principles are really stript of their force unless they are placed in vital union with the new social life in the Church to which they give rise. Amongst these, Schaff^ and Ritschl deserve special mention. The latter truly says: "It is perfectly unintelligible to me how a theologian, who is avowedly defending Church Protestantism and striving against any degradation of the Church to the level of a school, such as is carried out by the extreme left and the extreme right, can fail to comprehend, in his view of the leading principles of the Reformation, the evangelical idea of the Church. For that which is to be the chief thing in the final result must also be thought of in the first principle ; otherwise it cannot be recognised as an end, but, at most, as only an incidental phenomenon."* It is hoped that the following pages may be helpful in furthering this view. By showing how its gospel led to the recognition of the supreme authority of Scripture and the word of God received in its fulness influenced in turn the whole life and worship and activity of the Church, Protestantism must commend itself as characterised at once by simplicity, unity, and power.