1850.]

The True Test.

243

the world was filled with the glory of it. God, who commands light out of darkness, had shined into their hearts; and in the fulness of their knowledge, they were able to dispel the darkness of the world. What they saw clearly, they spoke plainly. They did not put a veil on their face, like Moses, but they told the whole truth of God. They were wσpópot, Light-bearers; and in this consisted their apostolic power.

But the Church which to-day claims most loudly to be apostolic, and whose Head claims to be in the place of Christ, which professes to be infallible, as the Apostles did not profess, hides its infallibility in a napkin, and, instead of showing us God's truth, requires of us even to receive its doctrines with closed eyes. Never did such magnificent pretension end in so small a result. An infallible Church is demanded on this ground, that we can be saved only by the belief of certain supernatural truths; and, after all, the infallible Church does not pretend to show us those truths, but merely requires submission to herself.

Finally, we say to Mr. Brownson, that our Saviour himself has given us the test by which to distinguish his prophets, and to know his Church. "By their fruits, ye shall know them." "Men do not gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles." We are not to know the fruit by the tree, but the tree by the fruit. We are not to say, “This church is orthodox, therefore its disciples are Christians"; or, "This church is in the line of apostolic succession, therefore those who belong to it are in the way of salvation." This method is the reverse of that of Christ. Christ teaches us to know the tree by the fruit. Mr. Brownson would have us know the fruit by the tree. Mr. Brownson virtually says, "These dissipated cardinals, these domineering popes, these crusading bishops, belonged to the true Church, and therefore are in the way of salvation." Christ says, "These little ones are pure, are humble, are loving, and therefore they belong to my kingdom. This man, though he follows not my Apostles, yet, because he is doing good in my name, belongs to me." We prefer, we confess, the method of Christ to that of Mr. Brownson. Tried by this test, we see little reason for admitting the claims of the Church of Rome to be the only channel of the Holy Ghost. We find

holy men, men of God, in all churches. Wesley and Baxter, Doddridge and Jeremy Taylor, Channing and Ware, and tens of thousands of others, whose lowly piety and large philanthropy have sweetened life, were certainly holy men. And if so, the Church of Rome is not the only true Church of Christ. And if we take a wider range of observation, and compare the condition of Roman Catholic and Protestant countries, we shall find that the tone of morals in Italy, Portugal, Spain, and South America is not so much superior to that in Prussia, England, Scotland, and New England, as to convince us that these Catholic countries alone are blessed with the presence of Christ. But if the claims of Rome are valid, and she be the only channel of the Holy Ghost, then the difference between the moral condition of Catholic and Protestant nations should be so marked that no one could mistake it. Each Catholic nation and people should be an oasis of purity, truthfulness, honesty, industry, and of every Christian virtue. Family ties should be all sacred, the sacrament of marriage never violated, female chastity touched by no stain. All should be order and peace, undisturbed by intestine dissensions, civil struggles, or domestic strife. All Protestant influences have been rooted out of Portugal, Spain, and Italy by the Inquisition, and kept out by the strong hand of law. Here, then, ought to be found the earthly paradise of purity, peace, and moral virtue. Does any one pretend that it is so?

We will not dwell on this argument, -we merely hint at it. We have not sought to bring together in our present article our reasons for denying the claims of Rome. We have only pointed out a few of the flaws in Mr. Brownson's argument. We feel a certain movement of compassion toward a strong mind laboring in a hopeless cause. It is not by argument, even as close and ingenious as that of Mr. Brownson, that the stream of time can be turned back, and the ideas of a past century grafted on our own. A man who, in the nineteenth century, devotes himself to the defence of the Papal and hierarchical Church of the Middle Ages, is like one who should attempt to garrison anew one of the ruined towers which overhang the Rhine, and to levy contributions on the steamers which pass by it every day. The time of

1850.]

Mr. Brownson's Proof- Texts.

245

the Church of Rome has gone, and gone for ever, for the past never comes back. It can never again become a universal church, unless we can abolish the work of the past three centuries. If there be a Divine Providence in the world, the great movements of history are not accidental nor the result of human will. It is a sort of impiety to ascribe the Reformation to Luther and his companions. It was the work of God, for no power but that of God could have enabled a poor monk to have accomplished it.

We mentioned that Mr. Brownson, having concluded his negative argument for the position that Christ must have commissioned a body of teachers with authority to teach infallibly, attempts to prove this also positively, by quotations from the New Testament. The passages quoted by him he maintains to be clear, distinct, and express. Let us see what they are.

The first is Matt. xxviii. 18-20,-"All power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations,. . . . . teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you always ["all days" says Mr. Brownson] unto the consummation of the world." Also Mark xvi. 15,-"Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel unto every creature"; and Eph. iv. 11,—“ And some indeed he gave to be apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and others pastors and teachers."

We should suppose that Mr. Brownson was in sport in quoting such passages as these, were not the subject so serious. The first one fails in the very point attempted to be proved by it; namely, that it was addressed to the Apostles and their successors as a corporate body. We assert that it was addressed to all Christians in all time, and that all Christians are successors of the Apostles and bound to preach the Gospel. The Apostle says, "We believe, therefore have we spoken." The same reason for speaking applies to every believer.

Mr. Brownson argues that this commission could not be to the Apostles in their personal character, for the Apostles did not and could not fulfil it in their personal character. It must therefore have been to a body identical with them as a corporation, i. e. to the infallible Church. But we reply, that his argument proves too much; for

his infallible Church did not and could not fulfil this command. The Church has never had the power to preach the Gospel to every creature. In all ages, since Christ died, thousands and millions have lived and died where Mr. Brownson's infallible Church had no access to them.

We reply, again, that whatever means of fulfilling this command the Roman bishops have had, even far more means the universal Church, truly catholic, has had,for that has included the Roman Church and all other Christians beside.

Mr. Brownson says that this commission must be addressed to a body identical with the Apostles. True, and all Christians, as members of Christ's body, are identical with the Apostles. For Paul addresses not the bishops, but the people, when he says, "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members one of another."

Again, Mr. Brownson quotes 1 Cor. xii. 28,-" God has set some in the church; first, apostles, secondly, proph ets," &c. Hence he argues that pastors and teachers, &c., are of Divine appointment. So most Congregationalists believe, but it bears very slightly on his argument. For if God has set a body of teachers in the Church to continue through all time, as proved by this text, then he has also set a body equally permanent of apostles and proph ets, with miracles, healers, kinds of tongues, and interpretations of tongues,- for what is said of the teachers is said also of these.

We do not think that Mr. Brownson shines in exegesis, and we advise him not to meddle with Scripture proofs. The Romanist had better let Scripture alone, it is likely to do his cause more harm than good.

Here, for the present at least, we leave our friend. His strenuous and laborious efforts to support the Church of Rome remind us of nothing so much as of Captain Parry's attempt to reach the north pole. Captain Parry sailed till he reached an immense mass of ice, north of Spitzbergen, and then began to travel north upon it, on foot. With immense labor, he would accomplish some thirty miles a day over this rough and broken surface; but on taking an observation at night, he found, to his surprise, that he was farther south than he had been in the morning. After this had occurred for several days, he discovered

1850.]

Dana's Poems and Prose Writings.

247

the reason. While he was travelling north, on the ice, the current was taking the whole mass of ice south faster than he could travel north. He was therefore obliged at last to desist from the attempt. So it is with Mr. Brownson. He is laboring manfully to reach the north pole of a frozen and arctic religion, a religion in which all life is checked, all free movement of the human mind stifled, -a religion which has thrown a lethargy upon the minds of nations wherever it has rested during the last three hundred years. But, meantime, the currents of thought are all moving the other way, and carry him with them, whether he chooses it or not. The whole life of the age is moving in the direction of free thought and free action. The Church of the Priests must give place to the Church of the People; and Rome, if it refuses to reform itself, must at last go down before this onward tide of Christian sentiment. Christ to-day preaches to the common people, and they hear him gladly, and the scribes and doctors shake their heads in vain. The conversions to Romanism are mere eddies in the stream, dimples of water turning backward, and showing thereby the power with which the main current is setting forward. For all reaction merely proves the strength of the action. It is the wave falling back a little, that it may return again farther up the shore.

J. F. C.

ART. V.-DANA'S POEMS AND PROSE WRITINGS.*

THIS Collection of the writings of one of our deepest and most suggestive thinkers ought to have been made before, although, from the Preface, we should judge that the author had undertaken a somewhat unwilling duty in making it even now. It contains all of Mr. Dana's poems and prose writings formerly published, together with a large addition, in the shape of reviews and essays originally contributed to various periodicals, and now for

*Poems and Prose Writings. By RICHARD HENRY DANA. New York: Baker and Scribner. 1850. 2 vols. 12mo. pp. 443, 440.