neration, in order to obtain their assent to it. The explication he proposed was not indeed favourable to the doctrine of Christ's bodily presence in the eucharist, which he persisted in denying; he supposed however that a certain divine virtue or efficacy was communicated by Christ with the bread and wine, to those who approached this holy sacrament with a lively faith, and with upright hearts; and to render this notion still more satisfactory, he expressed it in almost the same terms which the Lutherans employed in inculcating their doctrine of Christ's real presence in the eucharist. For the great and common error of all those, who, from a desire of peace, assumed the character of arbitrators in this controversy, lay in this, that they aimed rather at a uniformity of terms than of sentiments; and seemed satisfied when they had engaged the contending parties to use the same words and phrases, though their real difference in opinion remained the same, and each explained these ambiguous or figurative terms in a manner agreeable to their respective systems. The concord so much desired did not however seem to advance much. Melancthon, who stood foremost in the rank of those who longed impatiently for it, had not courage enough to embark openly in the execution of such a perilous project. Beside, after the death of Luther, his enemies attacked him with redoubled fury, and gave him so much disagreeable occupation, that he had neither that leisure, nor that tranquillity of mind, that were necessary to prepare his measures properly for such an arduous undertaking. A new obstacle to the execution of this pacific project was also presented, by the intemperate zeal of Joachim Westphal, pastor at Hamburg, who, in the year 1552, renewed, with greater vehemence than ever, this deplorable controversy, which had been for some time suspended, and who, after Flacius, was the most obstinate defender of the opinions of Luther. This violent theologian attacked, with that spirit of acrimony and vehemence that was too remarkable in the polemic writings of Luther, the act of uniformity, by which the churches f Christ. Aug. Salig, Historia Aug. Confession. tom. ii. lib. vii. cap. iii. p. 1075. Ig Calvin went certainly too far in this matter; and, in his explication of the benefits that arise from a worthy commemoration of Christ's death in the eucharist, he dwelt too grossly upon the allegorical expressions of Scripture, which the Papists had so egregiously abused, and talked of really eating by faith the body, and drinking the blood of Christ. of Geneva and Zurich declared their agreement concerning the doctrine of the eucharist. In the book which he published with this view," he censured with the utmost severity, the variety of sentiments concerning the sacrament of the Lord's supper that was observable in the reformed church, and maintained, with his usual warmth and obstinacy, the opinion of Luther on that subject. This engaged Calvin to enter the lists with Westphal, whom he treated with as little lenity and forbearance as the rigid Lutheran had showed toward the Helvetic churches. The consequences of this debate were, that Calvin and Westphal had each their zealous defenders and patrons; hence the breach widened, the spirits were heated, and the flame of controversy was kindled anew with such violence and fury, that to extinguish it entirely seemed to be a task beyond the reach of human wisdom or human power.' versy con cerning predestination. VII. These disputes were unhappily augmented, in proThe contro- cess of time, by that famous controversy concerning the decrees of God, with respect to the eternal condition of men, which was set on foot by Calvin, and became an inexhaustible source of intricate researches, and abstruse, subtile, and inexplicable questions. The most ancient Helvetic doctors were far from adopting the doctrine of those, who represent the Deity as allotting, from all eternity, by an absolute, arbitrary, and unconditional decree, to some everlasting happiness, and to others endless misery, without any previous regard to the moral characters and circumstances of either, Their sentiments seemed to differ but very little from those of the Pelagians; nor did they hesitate in declaring, after the example of Zuingle, that the kingdom of heaven was open to all who lived according to the dictates of right reason. Calvin had adopted quite a different system k Ih This book, which abounds with senseless and extravagant tenets that Luther never so much as thought of, and breathes the most virulent spirit of persecution, is entitled "Farrago confusanearum et inter se dissidentium de S. Cœna opinionum ex Sacramentariorum Libris congesta." i Loscheri Historia Motuum, part ii. lib. iii. cap. viii. p. 83. Molleri Cimbria Literata, tom. iii. p. 642. Arn. Grevii Memoria. Joac. Westphali, p. 62, 106. k For the proof of this assertion, see Dallei Apologia pro duabus Ecclesiarum Gallicar. Synodis adversus Frid. Spanheim, part iv. p. 946. Jo. Alphons. Turretini Epistol. ad Antestitem Cantuariensem, which is inserted in the Bibliotheque Germanic. tom. xiii. p. 92. Simon Bibliotheque Critique, published under the fictitious name of Sainior, tom. iii. chap. xxviii. p. 292, 298, and also the author of a book, entitled Observationes Gallicæ in Formul. Consensus Helveticum, p. 52. The very learned Dr. Gerdes, instead of being persuaded by these testimonies, maintains, on the contrary, in his Miscellan. Groningens, tom. ii. p. 476, 477, that the sentiments of Calvin were the same with those of the an with respect to the divine decrees. He maintained, that the everlasting condition of mankind in a future world was determined from all eternity by the unchangeable order of the Deity, and that this absolute determination of his will and good pleasure was the only source of happiness or misery to every individual. This opinion was, in a very short time, propagated through all the reformed churches, by the writings of Calvin, and by the ministry of his disciples, and in some places was inserted in the national creeds and confessions; and thus made a public article of faith. The unhappy controversy, which took its rise from this doctrine, was opened at Strasburg, in the year 1560, by Jerome Zanchius, an Italian ecclesiastic, who was particularly attached to the sentiments of Calvin; and was afterward carried on by others with such zeal and assiduity, that it drew, in an extraordinary manner, the attention of the public, and tended as much to exasperate the passions, and foment the discord of the contending parties, as the dispute about the eucharist had already done.' The discord the greatest VIII. The Helvetic doctors had no prospect left of calming the troubled spirits, and tempering at least the vehemence of these deplorable feuds, but the is carried to moderation of the Saxon divines, who were the height. disciples of Melancthon, and who, breathing the pacific spirit of their master, seemed, after his death, to have nothing so much at heart as the restoration of concord and union in the protestant church. Their designs however were not carried on with that caution and circumspection, with that prudent foresight, or that wise attention to the nature of the times, which distinguished always the transactions of Melancthon, and which the critical nature of the cause they were engaged in indispensably required. And hence they had already taken a step, which was adapted to render ineffectual all the remedies they could apply to the healing of the present disorders. For, by dispersing every where artful and insidious writings, with a design to seduce the ministers of the church, and the studious youth, into the sentiments of the Swiss divines, cient Swiss doctors. But this excellent author may be refuted, even from his own account of the tumults that were occasioned in Switzerland by the opinion that Calvin had propagated in relation to the divine decrees. 1 Loscheri Historia Motuum, part iii. lib. v. cap. ii. p. 27, S. c. x. p. 227. Salig, Historia August. Confession, tom. i. lib. ii. cap. xiii. p. 441. or at least to engage them to treat these sentiments with toleration and forbearance, they drew upon themselves the indignation of their adversaries, and ruined the pacific cause in which they had embarked. It was this conduct of theirs that gave occasion to the composition of that famous Form of Concord, which condemned the sentiments of the reformed churches, in relation to the person of Christ, and the sacrament of the Lord's supper. And as this Form is received by the greatest part of the Lutherans, as one of the articles of their religion; hence arises an insuperable obstacle to all schemes of reconciliation and concord. What those things are that tion in the rise of the reform IX. So much did it seem necessary to premise concerning the causes, rise, and progress of the controare most wor- Versy, which formed that separation that still thy of observa- subsists between the Lutheran and reformed and progress churches. From thence it will be proper to proed church. ceed to an account of the internal state of the latter, and to the history of its progress and revolutions. The history of the reformed church, during this century, comprehends two distinct periods. The first commences with the year 1519, when Zuingle withdrew from the communion of Rome, and began to form a Christian church beyond the bounds of the pope's jurisdiction; and it extends to the time of Calvin's settlement at Geneva, where he acquired the greatest reputation and authority. The second period takes in the rest of this century. During the first of these periods, the Helvetic church, which assumed the title of reformed, after the example of the French protestants in their neighbourhood, who had chosen this denomination in order to distinguish themselves from the Roman catholics, was very inconsiderable in its extent, and was confined to the cantons of Switzerland. It was indeed augmented by the accession of some small states in Swabia and Alsace, such as the city of Strasburg, and some little republics. But in the year 1536, these petty states changed sides through the suggestions and influence of Bucer, returned to the communion of the Saxon church, and thus made their peace with Luther. The other religious communities, which abandoned the church of Rome, either openly embraced the doctrine of Luther, or consisted of persons who were not agreed in their theological opinions, and who really seemed to stand in a kind of neutrality between the contending parties. All things being duly considered, it appears probable enough that the church founded by Zuingle, would have remained still confined to the narrow limits which bounded it at first, had not Calvin arisen, to augment its extent, authority, and lustre. For the natural and political character of the Swiss, which is neither bent toward the lust of conquest, nor the grasping views of ambition, discovered itself in their religious transactions. And, as a spirit of contentment with what they had, prevented their aiming at an augmentation of their territory, so did a similar spirit hinder them from being extremely solicitous about enlarging the borders of their church. points that The religious divisions between the Lutherans. x. In this infant state of the reformed church, the only point that prevented its union with the followers of Luther was the doctrine they taught with respect to the sacrament of the Lord's supper. This first controversy indeed soon produced a second, relating to the person of Jesus Christ, which nevertheless concerned only a part of the Lutheran church." The Lutheran divines of Swabia, in the course of their debates with those of Switzerland, drew an argument in favour of the real presence of Christ's body and blood in the eucharist, from the following proposition; that "all the properties of the divine nature, and consequently its omnipresence, were communicated to the human nature of Christ by the hypostatic union.". The Swiss doctors, in order to destroy the force of this argument, denied this communication of the divine attributes to Christ's human nature, and denied, more especially, the ubiquity, or omnipresence of the man Jesus. And hence arose that most intricate and abstruse controversy concerning ubiquity and the communication of properties, that produced so many learned and unintelligible treatises, so many subtile disputes, and occasioned that multitude of invectives and accusations, that the contending parties threw out against each other with such liberality and profusion. Im It was only a certain number of those Lutherans, that were much more rigid in their doctrine than Luther himself, that believed the ubiquity or omnipresence of Christ's person, considered as man. By this we may see, that the Lutherans have their divisions as well as the reformed, of which several instances may be yet given in the course of this history. |