LUTHERANS, so called from their founder, Martin Luther, an Augustine friar, and one of the earliest of the re formers. Some of the doctrines of the Lutherans, as they were originally taught by their founder, seem to have dif fered in but a very slight degree from those of the church of ItoMe, from whom Luther dissented. For that reformer held sacred, or at least connived at, many things which Calvin, Zuinglius, and the rest of the reformers, abhorred as so ma ny of the gaudy vestments and abomina tions of the Whore of Babylon. Con cerning transubstantiation, Luther seems to have differed more in word than in sub stance from the Church of Rome. He held that the body and blood of Christ were materially present in the Eucharist, though he professed his ignorance of the manner in which that presence was ac complished. It is true, he laid aside the offensive term transubstantiation, and sub stituted that of consubstantiation in the room of it ; but whether the bread and wine are, as the Catholics declare, tran substantiated into the real body and blood of Christ, or whether, as Luther asserted, the material elements are mystically con substantiated with the body and blood of the Saviour, by the consecration of the priest, it is clear the Catholics and the Lutherans both held the doctrine of the real presence.
Luther also tolerated the use of images, altars, wax tapers, the form of exorcism, and private confession. But the grand and leading doctrine of Lutheranism, and that on which the permanent foundation of the reformation was laid, is the right of private judgment in matters of religion. " To the defence of this proposition," says Mr. Roscoe, the candid and elegant biographer of Leo the Tenth, " Luther was at all times ready to devote his learn ing, his talents, his repose, his character, and his life ; and the great and imperish able merit of this reformer consists in his having demonstrated it by such argu ments, as neither the efforts of his adver saries, nor his own subsequent conduct, have been able either to confute or inva lidate." No sooner, however, had Luther suc ceeded in effecting a separation from the Church of Rome, than he set himself to establish another system of religious go vernment; in which he manifested, that, however he might abominate many of the doctrines and practices of the Papal go vernment, he still retained no small por tion of that spirit of domination by which the old church had so long been charac terized. The odium theologicum threaten ed to receive new strength with the re formation, and, under the auspices of Cal vin and Luther, the religious world seem ed likely to derive no other benefit from the reformation than that of a change of masters. It was more easy to change the head than the heart ; and the language of liberty afforded a ready but a miserable substitute for liberty itself: Nor, indeed, did Luther at all times even make use of such language as might have been ex. pected from one who had so ably main tained that great and leading truth, which inculcates the unfettered rights of pri vate judgment. The man who could stig matize the learned and mild Erasmus, who had defended the freedom of the hu man will, as "an exasperated viper ;" " a vain-glorious animal," seemed but ill qualified to emancipate the religious world from the fetters of spiritual tyran ny. Nor was it very flattering to the re formation, that one of its ablest defenders and founders could, in his zeal for the om nipotence of faith, declare that the Epis tle of in which the necessity of good works is stated and enforced, is, in comparison with the writings of Peter and Paul, a mere book of strait, ! These were but ill omens of the success of the reformation. Whilst Luther was engaged
in his opposition to the Church of Rome, he asserted the right of private judgment in matters of faith, with the confidence and courage of a martyr ; but no sooner had he freed himself and his followers from the ecclesiastical tyranny of the Pope, than he attempted to establish an other tyranny equally intolerable ; " and it was the employment of his latter years to counteract the effects produced by his former labours. The great example of freedom," continues Mr. Roscoe, " which he had exhibited, could not, however, be so soon forgotten ; and many who had thrown off the authority of the Romish see, refused to submit their consciences to the control of a monk, who had arro gated to himself the sole right of ex pounding those scriptures which he had contended were open to all." The re formation consequently gained ground, in spite of the opposition of both the Church of Rome, and the example of the Lutherans. Aided by the invention of printing, the genuine principles of rea son, philosophy, and revelation, began to make rapid progress. The doctrines of justification by faith alone, and of abso lute unconditional election and reproba tion, could no more prevent the spread of knowledge than the worship of images, or the invocation of saints. Luther had taught the religious world, that the mind of man cannot be subjected to the im perious decrees of fallible councils and human power, and the result was glo rious. The human mind, delivered from the external constraint imposed upon it by hierarchical despotisms, and from the internal constraint of the apathy in which it was kept by a blind superstition, soon found itself emancipated from guardian ship, and began to make a free, energe tic, and proper use of its faculties. The documents of religion were subjected to a profound criticism ; and, as the study of the fathers and of councils were connect ed with the decretals of antiquity, histo ry, and languages, the great objects of classical learning began to assume a new aspect, and to be illuminated by a new light. The scholastic philosophy found in the Lutherans most formidable adversa ries, who unveiled its vices, and attacked its weak sides. The torch of reason, which had too long smothered in the re cesses of the cloister, and glimmered in the cells of the monks, was no sooner ad mitted to the re-animating atmosphere of freedom and philosophy, than it began to shine forth in its native lustre. The empty science of the casuists vanished before the morality of the gospel. In short, thelm man mind, thus liberated from the fetters of priestcraft and tyranny, shook off the corruptions which it had gathered during the middle ages, and without fear of the inquisition here, or the terrors of eternal damnation hereafter, began to display its native activity, to probe the foundations of tottering societies, the rights of man kind, the laws of empires, and the go vernments of churches. May the happy influence of the reformation, thus brought into action by the fearless, though priest ly Luther, continue to spread itself till the whole world is freed from the shac kles of superstition, and the glorious em pire of truth, reason, and religion, shall be established in every country, and its mild laws be written On every heart !