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the attempt to exert an undue control over reason and conscience, tends to awaken a spirit of rebellion, which is liable not only to reject the yoke that is sought to be imposed, but with it, also, the verities of religion. The spectacle of superstitious beliefs and customs, retained in an enlightened era, has a like effect. Neither Protestantism nor Catholicism can afford an absolute guarantee against the incoming and spread of unbelief. But as far as phenomena of this sort can be traced to Protestantism, it is to a Protestantism which is disloyal to its own principles. Experience proves that coercion is not adapted to procure conviction. No sounder wisdom, respecting the treatment of dissent, has ever been discovered than that of Gamaliel: "Refrain from these men and let them alone; for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought."

German Rationalism has assumed two forms, a critical and a philosophical. On the one hand, in a movement that began with the Arminian scholars of Holland, but which dates in Germany from the theologian Semler, there has appeared an activity in Biblical and historical criticism without a parallel. Inquiries of this nature, which have to do with the origin of the several books of the Bible, their date and authorship, and their true interpretation, with the history of the canon, and with the nature of Inspiration, and of the authority conferred by it, are consonant with the spirit of Protestantism, and are even required by its principles. Ecclesiastical tradition cannot be blindly accepted, but must be subjected to examination. Luther set the example of such criticism in the judgments whatever exceptions may be justly taken to their soundness-which he passed upon canonical books, and in his comments upon various portions of Scripture; although, at the same time, his mind was imbued with the deepest reverence for the Word of God. The investigations of German scholarship for the last century, whatever

amount of error and groundless hypothesis may have been incidental to them, have added vastly to our knowledge of the Bible and of Christian antiquity. In the philosophical direction, Rationalism was at first Deistic; it adopted for its creed the three facts of God, free-will, and immortality, which Kant derived from the practical reason. In the successors of Kant, the influence of Spinoza was mingled with that of the philosopher of Königsberg. Pantheistic speculation supplanted Deism, and gave rise to a new phase in Biblical and historical criticism. Eichhorn and Paulus were succeeded by Strauss and Baur. In the field of philosophy, the school of materialism has also had its adherents. It is far from being true that German science has been uniformly allied to scepticism and unbelief. In Schleiermacher, deep religious feeling appeared in union with the highest degree of critical and philosophical acumen. He communicated an impulse to many who dissent from his opinions. Through him there has arisen a great body of scholars, who respect the claims both of science and of the Christian faith, and have undertaken, in a free and unbiased spirit, which Protestantism demands, to explore the past and to investigate the documents of the Christian faith, at the same time that they have recognized the indestructible foundations of religion, which are laid in the intuitions and necessities of the soul, and in the facts of history. The origin of Rationalism, and its relation to the Reformation, have been thus described by Neander: "The first living development of Protestantism was succeeded, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, by a stagnation. The Catholic Church lay benumbed in its external ecclesiasticism; the Protestant in its one-sided engrossment in doctrinal abstractions. Since the ruling form of doctrine was stiffly held, in opposition to all free development, such as the principle of Protestantism demands, reactions of this original principle were called forth in the Lutheran and

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Reformed Churches. This reactionary tendency, in the form of an emancipation from a dogmatic yoke, was carried, in the eighteenth century, far beyond its original aim. The reformatory movement, being negative, became revolutionary. With this there was connected a new epoch in the general progress, of nations. The culture which had grown up under the rule of the Church, sought to make itself independent. Reason, striving after emancipation from the thraldom in which it had been held by the despotical power of the Church, revolted; and Christian doctrine was obliged to enter into a new conflict with this opposing element; but, inasmuch as Christian doctrine was possessed of a more powerful principle, it could successfully withstand the danger. The conflict served to purify it from the disturbing admixture of human elements, and to bring to view the harmony of everything purely human with that which is divine. Thus there arose, especially in Germany, a period, which began with Semler, of the breaking up of previous beliefs; but this critical process was a sifting and a preparation for a new creation, which emanated predominantly from Schleiermacher. This, also, could develop itself only in a renewed conflict with Rationalism: and in this conflict we at the present time are engaged."1

The multiplying of sects under Protestantism has frequently formed the matter of a grave objection to it. In the first generation of the Reformers, the hope of a restoration of ecclesiastical unity, by means of a general council, was not given up. For a considerable period, Protestants aimed to reform the national churches, with the aim and expectation of preserving their integrity. The design was to abolish abuses and to reconstitute the creed, polity, and ritual, in conformity with their own. ideas. But in some countries—in France, for example they found themselves in a minority, and unable to ac

1 Dogmengeschichte, i. 23, 24.

complish their end. Liberty for them to exist, and mutual toleration between the two great divisions of the sundered Church, was the most that could be hoped for. But in Protestant countries, divisions arose which proved irreconcilable. Thus in England, the difference as to the form which the Reformation ought to take, separated Protestants into two opposing camps. Then other parties appeared, who were convinced of the unrighteousness or impolicy of establishments, whatever might be the ecclesiastical system which it was proposed to render national by a connection with the State. Sects have multiplied in Protestant countries in a manner which the early Reformers did not anticipate. On this subject of denominational or sectarian divisions, it may be said with truth, that disunion of this sort is better than a leaden uniformity, the effect of blind obedience to ecclesiastical superiors, of the stagnation of religious thought, or of coercion. Disagreement in opinion is a penalty of intellectual activity, to which it is well to submit where the alternative is either of the evils just mentioned. It may also be said with truth, that within the pale of the Church of Rome there have been conflicts of parties and a wrangling of disputants, which are scarcely less conspicuous than the like phenomena on the Protestant side. The vehement and prolonged warfare of dogmatic schools and of religious orders, of Scotists and Thomists, of Jansenists and Jesuits, of Dominicans and Molinists, make the annals of Catholicism resound with the din of controversy. That these debates, often pushed to the point of angry contention, have been prejudicial to the interests. of Christian piety, will not be questioned. At the same time, it must be conceded that the Protestant faith has been weakened within Protestant lands, and in the presence of Roman Catholics, and of the heathen nations, by the manifestations of a sectarian spirit, and by the very existence of so many diverse, and often antagonistic, de

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nominations. The first great conflict between the Lutherans and the Zwinglians, operated to retard the progress of the Reformation. The impression was made, especially upon timid and cautious minds, that no certainty with regard to religious truth could be attained, if the authority of the Church of Rome were discarded. As other divisions followed, and in some cases, on minor questions of doctrine, which yet were made the occasion of new ecclesiastical organizations, this argument of the adversaries of Protestantism was urged with an increased effect. The "variations of Protestants" were depicted in such a way as to inspire the feeling, that to renounce the old Church was to embark on a tempestuous sea, with no star to guide one's path. When we consider, from a historic point of view, the sectarian divisions of Protestantism, we find that they arose generally from the spirit of intolerance, and the spirit of faction; two tempers of feeling which have an identical root, since both grow out of a disposition to push to an extreme, even to the point of exclusion and separation, religious opinions which may be the property of an individual or of a class, but are not fundamental to the Christian faith. Protestants, having rejected the external criteria of a true Church, on which Roman Catholics insist, have sometimes hastily inferred a moral right on the part of any number of Christians to found new Church associations at their pleasure. This has actually been done, with little insight into the design of the visible Church and into its nature as a counterpart of the Church invisible. Coupled with this propensity to divide and to establish new communions, there has appeared a tendency to overlook the proper function of the Church, and to stretch the jurisdiction of the several bodies thus formed over the individuals who belong to them, in matters both of opinion and practice, to an extent not warranted by the principles of Christianity. Protestantism has sometimes given rise to an ecclesiasti