when the author of the Confession
had for very shame omitted this falsehood in the published edition, the
passage was restored after his death. For its sake Luther deliberately
altered the sense of several passages in the Bible, especially in the
writings of St. Paul. To save this doctrine, which was unknown to all
Christian antiquity, the breach was made with all ecclesiastical
tradition, and the authority of the dogmatic testimony of the Church in
every age was rejected. While the contradiction between the Lutheran
doctrine and that of the first centuries was disguised before the laity,
it was no secret among the Reformers. Melanchthon confessed to Brenz
that in the Augsburg Confession he had lied. Luther admitted that his
theory was new, and sought in consequence to destroy the authority of
the early Fathers and Councils. Calvin declared that the system was
unknown to tradition. All these men and their disciples, and the whole
of the Lutheran and Calvinistic theology of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, professed to find their doctrine of imputation
laid down distinctly in the Bible. The whole modern scientific theology
of the Protestants rejects both the doctrine and the Lutheran exegesis
of the passages in question. But it is the supreme evangelical
principle, that the Scripture is perfectly clear and sufficient on all
fundamental points. Yet the point on which this great divergence
subsists is a doctrine which is decisive for the existence of the
Church, and most important in its practical influence on life. The whole
edifice of the Protestant Church and theology reposes therefore on two
principles, one material, the other formal--the doctrine of imputation,
and the sufficiency of the Bible. But the material principle is given up
by exegesis and by dogmatic theology; and as to the formal principle,
for the sufficiency of the Bible, or even for the inspiration of the
writings of the disciples of the Apostles, not the shadow of a
scriptural argument can be adduced. The significance of this great fact
is beginning to make its way. "Whilst Rationalism prevailed," says a
famous Lutheran divine, "we could impute to its action that our churches
were deserted and empty. But now that Christ crucified is everywhere
preached, and no serious effect is to be observed, it is necessary to
abandon this mistake, and not to conceal from ourselves that preaching
is unable to revive religious life."

The religious indifferenc