Development of Indulgences in the Church.
By D'Aubigne
This was the great principle of Christianity: its leading idea—that of grace, of pardon, and amnesty, and of the gift of eternal life. This idea supposed an alienation from God, and an inability in man to enter, by any power of his own, into communion with an infinitely holy being. The opposition of true and false doctrine cannot assuredly be entirely summed up in the question of salvation by faith or by works. Nevertheless, it is the most striking feature in the contrast. We may go farther: Salvation considered as derived from any power in man is the germinating principle of all errors and perversions. The scandals produced by this fundamental error brought on the Reformation, and the profession of the contrary principle was the means by which it was achieved. It is therefore indispensable that this truth should be prominent in an introduction to the history of that Reformation. Salvation by grace. Such, then, was the second peculiarity which was designed especially to distinguish the religion that came from God from all human systems. And what had become of this great and primordial thought? Had the church preserved it as a precious deposit? Let us follow its history. The inhabitants of Jerusalem, of Asia, of Greece, and of Rome, in the time of the Roman emperors, had heard this gospel. "For by grace are ye saved through faith;" "it is the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8), and at this voice of peace, at the sound of these good tidings, at this word of power, multitudes of sinners believed, and were attracted to Him who alone can give peace to the conscience, and numerous societies of believers were formed in the midst of the degenerate communities of that age. But erelong an important error began to prevail, as to the nature of saving faith. Faith (according to St. Paul) is the way through which the whole being of the believer—his understanding, his heart, and his will—enters upon present possession of the salvation purchased by the incarnation and death of the Son of God. Jesus Christ is apprehended by faith, and from that hour becomes all things to, and all things in, the believer. He communicates to the human nature a divine life; and the believer, renewed and set free from the power of self and of sin, feels new affections, and bears new fruits. Faith, says the theologian, laboring to express these thoughts, is the subjective appropriation of the objective work of Christ. If faith is not the appropriation of salvation, it is nothing—the whole economy of Christian doctrine is out of place; the fountains of the new life are sealed, and Christianity is overturned from its foundation. And this consequence did in fact ensue. By degrees this practical view of faith was forgotten, and erelong it was regarded, as it still is by many, as a bare act of the understanding, a mere submission to a commanding evidence. From this primary error a second necessarily resulted. When faith was robbed of its practical character, it could no longer be maintained that faith alone saved. Works no longer following in their places as its fruits, it seemed necessary to range them on one line with it; and the church was taught to believe that the sinner is justified by faith and by works. In place of that Christian unity in doctrine, which comprises in a single principle justification and works—grace and a rule of life—belief and responsibility, succeeded that melancholy quality which regards religion and moral duty as things altogether unconnected; a fatal delusion which brings in death, by separating the body from the spirit, whose continued union is the necessary condition of life itself. The word of the apostle heard across the interval of ages is, "Having begun in the spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh." Another error contributed to unsettle the doctrine of grace. This was Pelagianism. Pelagius asserted that man's nature was not fallen, that there is no such thing as hereditary evil, and that man having received power to do good has only to will in order to perform it. If the doing "good things" consists in certain external acts, Pelagius judged truly. But if regard is had to the motives whence these external acts proceed, or to the entire inward life of man (see Matt. 12:34), then we discern in all his works selfishness, forgetfulness of God, pollution, and weakness. This was the doctrine of St. Augustine. He proved that to entitle any action to approval, it was needful not merely that it should seem right when looked at by itself and from the outside, but above all that its real spring in the soul should be holy. The Pelagian doctrine rejected by St. Augustine from the church when it presented itself broadly for investigation, reappeared erelong with a side aspect as semi-Pelagian, and under forms of expression borrowed from St. Augustine's own writings. It was in vain that eminent father opposed its progress. He died soon after. The error spread with amazing rapidity throughout Christendom, passing from the west to the east, and even at this day it continues to disturb and harass the church. The danger of the doctrine appeared in this: That by placing goodness in the external act rather than in the inward affections, it led men to put a high value upon outward action, legal observances, and works of penance. The more of such works the greater the reputed sanctity—Heaven was to be obtained by means of them—and (extravagant as such a thought must appear to us) it was not long before certain persons were believed to have made attainments in holiness beyond that which was required of them. Thus did the proud heart of man refuse to give the glory to that God to whom all glory belongs. Thus did man claim to deserve what God had decreed to give freely! He essayed to find in himself the salvation which the gospel brought to him ready wrought out from Heaven. He spread a veil over the saving truths of salvation which cometh from God, and not from man—a salvation which God gives but barters not; and from that day all the other truths of religion were overclouded, darkness spread over the church, and from this deep and deplorable gloom were seen to arise innumerable errors. And in the first place we may observe that both great divisions of error converged to one effect. Pelagianism, while it corrupted the church's teaching, strengthened the hierarchy; by the same influence by which it hid the doctrine of grace, it exalted the authority of the church; for grace was God's part in the work; as the church was man's! As soon as salvation was taken out of the hands of God, it fell into the hands of the priests. The latter put themselves in the place of the Lord; and the souls of men thirsting for pardon were no longer taught to look to Heaven, but to the church, and especially to its pretended head. The Roman pontiff was in the place of God to the blinded minds of men. Hence all the grandeur and authority of the popes, and hence also unutterable abuses.—D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation.