BOOK I.

THE DOCTRINAL DIFFERENCES

AMONG CATHOLICS, LUTHERAN S,

AND THE REFORMED.

PART I.

DIFFERENCES IN DOCTRINE RESPECTING THE PRIMITIVE STATE OF MAN AND THE ORIGIN OF EVIL.

§ 1.-Primitive State of Man, according to the Catholic Doctrine. IN proportion as we consider the history of mankind, or even of individual man, from the Catholic or Protestant point of view, very different conclusions will in part be formed respecting our common progenitorconclusions which will affect the destinies of his whole race, even to their passage into the next life and even the first degrees of that life take a very different form, according as we regard them in the light either of Catholic or of Protestant doctrine.

The parties, indeed, originally were not conscious of the full extent of their divisions; for ecclesiastical, like political, revolutions, are not conducted according to a preconcerted, fully completed system : but, on the contrary, their fundamental principles are wont to be con

sistently unfolded only in and by practical life, and their heterogeneous parts to be thereby only gradually transformed. Hence, at the commencement of the ecclesiastical revolution of the sixteenth century, reflection was not immediately directed towards the origin of our kind, nor even to its passage into eternity; for a more minute explanation of these articles of doctrine appeared in part to possess but a very subordinate interest, and many points seemed only brought forward to fill up the breaches in the general system of belief. The great contest, which now engages our attention, had rather its rise in the inmost and deepest centre of human history, as it turned upon the mode whereby fallen man can regain fellowship with Christ, and become a partaker of the fruits of redemption. But from this centre the opposition spread backward and forward, and reached the two terms of human history, which were necessarily viewed in accordance with the changes introduced in the central point. The more consistently a system is carried out, and the more harmoniously it is framed, the more will any modification in its fundamental principle shake all its parts. Whoever, therefore, in its centre assailed Catholicism, whose doctrines are all most intimately intertwined, was forced by degrees to attack many other points, also, whose connection with those first combated, was in the beginning scarcely imagined.

We could now have started from the real centre of all these disputes, and have shown how all doctrines have been seized and drawn into its circle; and undoubtedly the commencement of our work would have much more excited the interest of the reader, had we immediately placed him in the midst of the contest, and enabled him to survey the entire field, which the

battle commands. But we conceive that the controverted doctrines may be stated in a simpler and more intelligible manner, when we pursue the contrary course, and, by following the clue presented by the natural progress of human history, bring under notice these doctrinal differences. Hence, we begin with the original state of man, speak next of his fall, and the consequences thereof, and then enter on the very central ground of the controversy, as we proceed to consider the doctrine of the restoration of man from his fall through Christ Jesus. We shall afterwards point out the influence of the conflicting doctrines, respecting the origin and nature of the internal life of those united with Christ, on their external union and communion with each other, and thus be led to enlarge on the theory and essence of this outward communion, according to the views of the different confessions; and we shall conclude with the passage of individuals from this communion, existing on earth, to that of the next world, as well as with the lasting mutual intercourse between the two.

The first point, accordingly, which will engage our attention, is the primitive state of man.

Fallen man, as such, is able, in no otherwise, save by the teaching of divine revelation, to attain to the true and pure knowledge of his original condition: for it was a portion of the destiny of man, when alienated from his God, to be likewise alienated from himself, and to know with certainty, neither what he originally was, nor what he became. In determining his original state, we must especially direct our view to the renewal of the fallen creature in Christ Jesus; because, as regeneration consists in the reestablishment of our primeval condition, and this transformation and renewal is only the primi

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tive creation restored, the insight into what Christ hath given us back affords us the desired knowledge of what in the origin was imparted to us.

This course has been at all times and by all parties pursued, when the original condition of man was to be traced.

As regards the Catholic dogma, this embraces the whole spiritual as well as corporeal existence of the Paradisaic man, extending not only to his preeminent endowments of soul and body, but to those gifts which he possessed in common with all men, so far at least as the doctrinal controversies of the sixteenth century required a special explanation, on this latter point. Accordingly, in the higher portion of his nature, he is described as the image of God, that is to say, as a spiritual being, endowed with freedom, capable of knowing and loving God, and of viewing every thing in him.* As Adam had this divine similitude in common with the whole human race, the distinction, which he enjoyed herein, consisted in his being what the simple expression of the Council of Trent denominates, just and holy; in other words, completely acceptable to God. Or as the school says, in language, however, not quite expressive enough," His inferior faculties of soul, and bodily impulses, acted unresistingly under the guidance of his reason, and therefore everything in him was in obedience

* Catechism. ex decret. Concil. Trident. ed. Col. 1565, p. 33. "Quod ad animam pertinet, eam ad imaginem et similitudinem suam formavit (Deus), liberumque ei tribuit arbitrium: omnes præterea motus animi atque appetitiones ita in eâ temperavit, ut rationis imperio nunquam non parerent. Tum originalis justitiæ admirabile donum addidit," etc.

† Concil. Trident. Sess. v. decret. de peccat. origin. The council says only, "Justitiam et sanctitatem, in quâ constitutus fuerat."

to reason, as his reason was in obedience to God;" and accordingly he lived in blessed harmony with himself and with his Maker. The action of the faculties and impulses of the body was in perfect accord with a reason devoted to God, and shunned all conflict with her: it was, moreover, coupled with the great gift of immortality, even in man's earthly part, as well as with an exemption from all the evils and all the maladies, which are now the ordinary preludes to death.*

The ideal moral state, in which Adam existed in paradise, the theologians of antiquity knew by the name of "original justice"; on the notion and nature whereof it will be proper to make some further remarks, partly of an historical kind, in order to explain the opposition, which, in this article of doctrine, the Catholic Church has had to encounter from the Protestants.

The essential and universal interest of the Christian religion, in determining the original condition of our common progenitor, is, by the above-stated brief doctrine of the Church amply satisfied. Herein consists the interest on one hand to guard against evil in the world being attributed to a Divine cause, and the dogma of the supreme holiness of God, the creator of the world, being disfigured ;-and on the other hand, to establish on a solid basis the principle of a totally unmerited redemption from the fall-that practical fundamental doctrine of Christianity-by most earnestly inculcating, that God had endowed the first man with the noblest gifts, and that thus it was only through his own deep

*Catechism. ex decret. Concil. Trident. p. 33. "Sic corpore effectum et constitutum effinxit, ut non quidem naturæ ipsius vi, sed divino beneficio immortalis esset et impassibilis." Very well, observes St. Augustine (de Genes. ad lit. vi. c. 25) " Aliud est, non posse mori, aliud posse non mori," etc.

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