fast and sets forth these essential truths of the Gospel, or obscures and recedes from them; in the same degree real religion has flourished or declined. Luther then might justly call the doctrine of Justification by Faith, "Articulus Stantis vel Cadentis Ecclesiæ." The Word of God, which he was the honoured instrument of translating, and which rapidly and widely spread over Germany, was the mighty means of the subversion of Popery, and the triumph of the Reformation. "It is from Scripture and from faith, two sources which, closely considered, are but one, that the Gospel life sprang, and still diffuses itself through the world."

It has been alleged by some who regard the Reformation, to say the least, with but partial approbation, that Luther's doctrine of Justification by Faith was unfavourable to the growth and manifestation of Christian morality and subversive of good works. Such views of the tendency of this doctrine are contradicted by Holy Scripture, by the history of the Church, and by the lives of real Christians. The opinion to which we advert may be traced, in a great measure, to the mistaken views of the meaning and design of Luther in certain parts of his writings, in which he appears to express himself in strong terms against good works. The fact is overlooked, that he speaks against dependence on good works as the meritorious condition of man's salvation: that in those parts of his writings he has special reference to those supposed good works insisted on by the Church of Rome as meritorious for

salvation. Fastings, penances, pilgrimages, mortifications of the flesh and the spirit, enjoined by the Church of Rome as means to sanctification, and the meritorious conditions of pardon and eternal life, are the supposed good works condemned by Luther. On the other hand, he most strongly urges the necessity of good works, insisted on in Holy Scripture, as the necessary evidences of Christian character, and the fruits of that true and living faith, without which no man can be saved. But on this subject it is better to allow Luther to speak for himself:

"A true and lively faith is opposite to the feigned faith of the hypocrite; and a true faith incites a man to good works through love. He who would be a Christian must be a believer; but no man is a sound believer if works of charity do not follow his faith. Thus, on both hands, the apostle shuts hypocrites out of the Kingdom of God. On the left hand he shuts out all such as depend on their works for salvation when he says, Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision; ' that is, no kind of work, but faith alone, without any dependence on what we do, avails before God. On the right, he excludes all slothful, idle persons, who are disposed to say, If faith justifies us without works, then let us have no anxiety respecting good actions; let us only take care and believe, and we may do whatever we please. Not so, ye enemies of all godliness. It is true Paul tells you that faith alone without works justifies.

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However, he also tells you that a true faith, after it has justified, does not permit a man to slumber in indolence, but that it worketh by love. The liberty of the Gospel is an inestimable thing; but take care that ye use it not as an occasion to the flesh."

CHAPTER XVI.

THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND.

THE Reformation, in its particular development under Wycliffe in England, or Luther in Germany, was but the expression of the mind of Europe, which had for centuries been suppressed by pontifical and hierarchical tyranny. Religious, equally with civil, freedom was the growth of centuries and the result of struggles, which gradually, under the providential workings of the Almighty, led onward to the emancipation of many nations from civil and religious despotism. It has been justly remarked:-"The temporary suppression of the will of the people could not change the principles of liberty, nor prevent its eventual triumph. So it was with the Reformation. The mass of events which is comprehended under that name, some of which were most objectionable, was but the termination, in a large portion of Europe, of the continued and uniform resistance to the domination of the Bishop of Rome. That resistance was suppressed and burnt out in Spain, Italy, and many other places. It will, however, revive again in those countries; and Rome must change, in spite of

her own laws, or be deserted by the most strenuous advocates of her supremacy.”*

In the long interval between the days of Wycliffe and the outbreak of the Reformation in the sixteenth century -during which the cause of truth continued to advance with various degrees of discouragement and success—no event occurred of greater importance than the publication of the New Testament in Greek, with a new Latin translation, by the celebrated Erasmus (A.D. 1517). The revival of learning which had taken place, aided as it was by the invention of printing, may be said to have introduced a new era in the literary as well as theological history of Europe. The study of the Greek and Hebrew was revived. In vain the priesthood inveighed against this, urging that Greek was the parent of heresy, and that all who studied Hebrew became Jews. It was at such a time Erasmus published his Greek Testament. The importance of this work, and its influence on the Reformation, is best stated in the words of the historian :-"The great work of the sixteenth century was about to begin. A volume fresh from the presses of Basle had just crossed the Channel. Being transmitted to London, Oxford, and Cambridge, this book, the fruit of Erasmus's vigils, soon found its way wherever there were friends of learning. It was the New Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ, published for the first time in Greek, with a new Latin translation." "This book, in which

* Dr. Townsend.