ALAN QUINTIN'S INQUIRIES. No. V. ARE YOU OUT OF DANGER? 66 ARE you out of danger? is a very important inquiry, for we are fearfully and wonderfully made." A thousand dangers are within us, and ten thousand are about us. Our pillow and our pathway are equally beset. At home and abroad we are in jeopardy; but my inquiry regards not the body but the soul. I know, and you know, or .ought to know, with regard to the body, That perils in our paths abound, the roof may fall upon our heads; the floor may give way beneath our feet; consumption may waste us by degrees, or the thunderbolt may smite us in a moment. We have no earthly shield to keep us safe from plague, pestilence, and famine; no buckler to defend us from battle, murder, and sudden death. We are ever in danger; we never can be out of danger. There is danger in the heat and the cold, in the wet and the dry, in the glare and the gloom, in the day and the night. But now leave the body; turn to the soul, and answer my question, Are you out of danger? There is great difference in dangers. Some move slowly-you may see them coming; others are upon you before you are aware. Some are quiet and soft in their tread, as the footfall of the tiger; others make a din like the roar of artillery. Some give notice of their approach by a handwriting on the wall; others, without notice, cry aloud, "Thou fool! this night thy soul shall be required of thee." It is necessary to know these things, to think of them, and to ponder them in our hearts. Do you know them, think of them, and ponder them? And do you believe that you are out of danger? You may be in danger from delay; you may be putting off instead of acting; but there is no time to spare-years are rolling forwards, months are passing on, hours are hurrying by, and moments are flying that lie between you and the grave. Time will not stay for us; not an hour, not a minute, not a second; you cannot bribe him, for gold is dross and diamonds are dust in his eyes. While fleeting moments onward roll, What dangers may beset the soul! Some are in danger without knowing it. This is a sad state, a fearful attitude, a perilous position. Fancy a man asleep in a house that is on fire; talking at his ease in the cabin of a sinking ship; walking in the dark where a draw-well is in his path; or resting his candle on a barrel of gunpowder. Your danger may be equally great. Look around you. Look every way. Try, inspect, challenge, and thoroughly examine your heart, your life, your hope, and your expectation. Some are in danger from riches; and truly their danger is great, very great. House must be added to house, field to field, vineyard to vineyard. Like swimmers bearing burdens in deep waters, their souls may sink beneath the weight of their possessions. What a millstone round the neck of the ungodly rich is that text of Holy Scripture, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven!" Wealth, mansions, equipages, and gay apparel, are the gewgaws of a vain world. As the idiot wastes his hours in gathering rubbish and pebble stones, so the unrighteous rich man sacrifices his soul for his treasures. If time does not rob him, eternity will strip him of them for ever. He that overvalues earthly things is ever in danger. Put them in the balances, give them their just weight, but no more not an ounce! not a drachm! not a grain! and never let temporal_things rank with those which are eternal. The oaks and cedars of the earth will fall, the very pyramids will crumble, and even the "everlasting hills" be destroyed. Nothing beneath the skies is to be trusted. Look up; seek heavenly aid; climber, and never rest satisfied till you are safe in heaven. be a Many are in danger through pursuing vanities, frivolous follies, airy nothings, and bursting bubbles. Some will have husks, and leave the fatted calf. Some will follow the butterflies of time, and neglect the treasures of eternity. Is it so with you? Can we wonder that they hunger in winter? that he who sows the who are idle in summer should suffer wind should reap the whirlwind? What are you laying up for the future-grain or chaff? gold or dross? joy or sorrow? Who makes his bed of brier and thorn you certain that your heart is not tenanted by envy, hatred, malice, or uncharitableness? If the strong man armed has got possession, it will not be easy to dislodge him. If your soul has set up a Dagon, it will be hard to break the idol in pieces. Ask yourself if you are out of danger. Do you know that your enemies are abroad, and that their name is "Legion?" that they are subtle, malicious, and implacable? quick, skilful, and deadly? Are you prepared for the surprises of deceit and temptation, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, the world, the flesh, and the devil? Are you aware that your arch adversary goeth about as "a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour?" Are you awake, up, armed, and ready? If not, you are not out of danger. Some think themselves right when they are wrong; wise when they are foolish; and strong when they are weak. How is it with you? Are you glorying in your wisdom and strength? or lamenting your folly and your weakness? If you feel your feebleness, you will seek for succour and cry aloud for strength. This is the way to be safe. Ask, petition, pray, and strive earnestly for heavenly aid; then will you be able to leap over a wall, then will you come off more than conqueror. Examine yourself; ask your heart what it loves and what it hates; and you will soon see if you are out of danger. Did you never read the words, "Love not the world, nor the things of the world." If you love riches, honours, pleasures, and your heart is taken up with them-have a care! Mischief is brewing! Danger is approaching! But if you love quietness, peace, faith, hope, charity, prayer, and praise, your feet are on a rock, your eyes are rightly directed, and you are on the highway to heaven. To sum up all the things of the earth may be excellent for time, and yet of no value for eternity. If you are trusting your health, your strength, your riches, your friends, or the world, you are in imminent peril. Escape for your life; walk, run-nay, fly from destruction! Again I ask you, Are you sure that you are out of danger? If you feel weak, go to the strong. If you are ignorant, go to the wise. If you are a sinner, hasten to the Saviour; know him, fear him, obey him, love him, and trust him. Who trusts the Lord of life shall perish neverHis soul is safe for ever and for ever! THE REFORMERS BEFORE THE REFORMATION. No. XIV. WICKLIFFE AND GERSON. THERE is an advantage in seeking to understand characters who have been conspicuous for their conduct or abilities in the contests of their day, when it is clearly manifest who were their guides, and their opponents. With this twofold inquiry, the melancholy figure of John Huss is inseparable in history from those of Wickliffe and Gerson; their names are inseparable from his. The one was his instructor, the other his accuser and his judge. Both had considerable influence in the portion of history now under consideration : Gerson by his life, by his zeal, in combating popes and heretics, in defending with Gallican catholicism the principles of morality, and in founding the church upon the authority of councils: Wickliffe by the memorial he has left, by his writings, which animated John Huss, which excited the emulation and admiration of succeeding reformers, and the anger and alarm of the Romish clergy. These two great men, who now appear to us as standing on opposite sides, really present more points of resemblance than of contrast in their character and conduct. In both their minds a pious and ardent fervour was united to a superior understanding. Both regarded the high and holy subject of religion as inseparable from reason and morality. Both were enemies of that scholastic system, which, in the discourses and writings of theologians, substitutes the vain refinements of a subtile logic, instead of the suggestions of a right mind and generous spirit. Both desired a living stream of knowledge which should influence the heart, instead of those idle dialectics, which, as Bacon says, taught the art of splitting a hair into four parts, and which Gerson compared to cobwebs, which could never be of any service in the cause of truth.* Both were equally indignant at the sinful lives of a priesthood that neglected spiritual worship for mere ceremonial observances, and who forgot or despised the teaching or preaching the gospel as the means of saving souls. Gerson wrote from Bruges to Pierre D'Ailly, in his first letter upon religious reformation, "I speak from ex* Gers. Sermo in die septua. A.D. 1388. III. p. 1029. Wickliffe. Of a feigned contemplative life. perience; I assert that in our cathedral churches and everywhere else the rites of worship are senseless, the remainders of sacrilegious ceremonies of pagans and idolaters. The word of God, which is doubtless the great remedy of all mental disorders, and the preaching of which is the chief duty of prelates, is neglected by them as useless, and derogatory to their grandeur." (Gers., op. 1., 121.) Both Wickliffe and Gerson endeavoured alike to restrain by the secular power the encroachments of the priesthood; both were supported, in circumstances of difficulty, by the princes for whose interests they contended: in later life, when this support failed them, they refused to sacrifice their principles to their interests, and after passing their lives in a courageous struggle against the intolerable assumptions of the papacy, both died-the one condemned, censured by the church, and disgraced by his king; the other suffering the rigours of voluntary exile. Both were accused of heresy by eager and implacable enemies, whom they had raised against themselves in their own order; and, in fact, when they contended for returning to the manners and discipline of the ancient church, when they condemned the abuse of ecclesiastical riches and power, by their allegations against the court of Rome, and the corruptions of both the regular and secular clergy, it would not be easy to say which of these men spoke with the most boldness or used the strongest and most severe language. As to the question of the respective jurisdiction of popes and kings in temporal matters, not only does Wickliffe oppose the claims of the pope over kingdoms, and over church property, but he discloses the vast abuse of the decretals, and settles as a principle, that priests should be subject to the laws of the land, and to magistrates, as to their property and personal conduct. What was the language of Gerson on the same subject, in his above-mentioned celebrated treatise on the means of reforming and uniting the church? He stated that the arrogance and pride of the Roman pontiffs alone, had produced the books so injurious to the rights of bishops and emperors, called, "The Sextines, the Clementines, and the Decretals. And yet,' he said, "the popes desire that they should be received as implicitly as the gospel itself." The same striking similarity between the statements of Wickliffe and Gerson, when they treat of discipline and manners, may also be traced on some doctrinal points, especially as to the authority of priests in the confessional. Nothing is more remarkable among the doctrines of Gerson, and nowhere does he advance farther on the boundary which separates popery from the protesting communions. The difference between Wickliffe and Gerson is rather in the inferences they drew from their principles, than in those principles themselves; it exists in their thoughts, not in their words. Gerson, in short, withdrew from the doctrines of Rome, and agreed with St. Augustine and with Wickliffe on the doctrines of election, and justification by faith without works, and perhaps his expressions are clearer and more decided than those of the English reformer. He says, "Man can, by his own will, do nothing to raise himself from the state in which he is fallen. He merits nothing by his own works; Jesus Christ is the only Saviour, and he saves only those who are predestinated from all eternity.' Gerson certainly understood that the Romish clergy considered that there was only a very short distance between him and the heretics; and at his own peril he sought to widen the small space that separated him from them. He thought himself near the port of safety, and trembled to think that one step farther, and there was a bottomless abyss, into which the church, such as he deemed it in his catholic thoughts, might fall and disappear. Hence arose his extreme harshness to those who invited others to pass this last barrier;—the narrower it seemed, the more necessary he thought it to heap up obstacles, and to secure it by terrors and punishments. His heart was governed by his mind; he thought to save the church by arming it with all its thunders against those whom he deemed infected with heresy. The manner in which he persecuted Wickliffe after his death, both in his disciples and in his memory, proves, that he would not have spared him had he still been living, and the approximation we have shown to exist between that great man and himself would have seemed to him the greatest possible offence. There are many reasons which explain why Gerson and Wickliffe came to such * Gers. de Consol. Theol. I. 137. different results, beginning from the like principles: among the chief may be noticed the great difference between their national churches. In France, the earliest remembrances of the establishment of episcopacy, were connected with all the great national recollections since the fall of the Roman empire. They recalled ideas of protection, independence, and patriotism. There the greatest abuses of the court of Rome had been rejected by the kings in unison with the clergy. The French church had preserved some liberties, some valued privileges. From all these causes, those in France, who desired reformation, were induced to put their trust in the bishops, and to hope for everything from them. It was not so in England. The remembrances of the Norman conquest were not yet effaced; the men of Saxon origin, who composed the great mass of the population, never forgot that England had been adjudged to William the Conqueror by the papal see, and that the bishops of their race had been dispossessed and replaced by the victors. The Norman prelates had subjected Saxon England to the requirements of the court of Rome; the whole episcopal order only recalled to the bulk of the nation remembrances of oppression and spoliation; and men who desired reformation, expected from their bishops neither aid nor sympathy. This double fact in some degree explains the different courses of Wickliffe and Gerson, under circumstances which were, in many respects, similar. Gerson, who was a member of a distinguished body, who filled a high station in the Gallican church, grounded all his hopes on the episcopal order and the universities. Wickliffe, seeing in the prelates strangers and masters rather than pastors, placed his hopes elsewhere; he distrusted the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and placed his confidence in the books of Scripture, the word of life, which he set before the people as their only infallible guide. Entering upon this course, each pursued it with the ardour natural to him, and was urged by the influences peculiar to bis character and circumstances. Gerson, a statesman, fitted for action, early accustomed to important business, thought in the first place of order and authority, and sought especially to reconcile moral reform with the institutions of the church, without endangering the latter. Wickliffe, more retired and reflecting, saw more in the church calling for condemnation, than requiring that it should be supported; he thought less of outward discipline than of inward cleansing, less of bodily coercion than of regeneration in spirit and in truth. He valued priests less than Christians, and thought less of conforming to the traditions of the church than to the rules of the gospel. Gerson said, "The papal see has been occupied by heretics and murderers; therefore infallible authority is not in the pope, it must be sought for in those general councils that represent the universal church." Wickliffe said, "God alone is he who has never deceived, and cannot be deceived by any." Both admitted that no man could be really absolved or excommunicated but by God himself. Gerson did not regard the word of the priest as useless for declaring and confirming the Divine sentence. Wickliffe did conclude that the word of God in heaven needed not to be ratified by a man upon earth. Gerson desired that the disposal of church property should be subject to such laws as would assure its employment for the service and advantage of Christianity. Wickliffe, convinced that the clergy could never be rich without being also corrupt, would have brought back the priests to the poverty of the first preachers of the gospel. He said that ministers had no right of their own to possess riches; that in the New Testament the tithes were purely alms; and that if the ecclesiastics did not employ their possessions according to the intentions of the donors, they ought to be deprived of them. Limiting his bold measures by ideas of outward order and spiritual authority, Gerson always saw in the priesthood men endued with powers bestowed by the Holy Spirit: Wickliffe thought, on the contrary, that inward regeneration, by the hope of eternal life, and union to God through faith in his divine Son, and conformity to the image of Christ, was all in all in religion, in true Christianity. He believed that God gave spiritual influences only to those in a state to receive them; he did not believe that words of excommunication or absolution, pronounced by a priest defiled with sin, could open or shut the gates of heaven or hell to any person, whatever he might be. He concluded logically that it was for man, aided by Divine grace, to work out his salvation, and he boldly stated the following pro positions, subversive of the ecclesiastical power, then commonly attributed to churchmen that it is of no use for a dying sinner to be furnished with bulls of indulgences and pardons, or enriched by a treasure of countless masses from monks and priests; that the prayers of a wicked priest avail nothing before God; that those only are true priests and bishops whose lives are conformed to the law of Christ, for by this law alone is such authority given to him. Gerson admitted most of the doctrines generally received by the Roman catholic world at this period. Wickliffe refused, among others, one that was imposed upon the English church after the Norman conquests. He rejected transubstantiation-the belief that Christ's body is actually present in the Lord's supper. All this tends to prove that there was more unity, more consistency, in the doctrines held by Wickliffe, and that he did not draw back from any of their consequences; while Gerson, less free, more unsettled, laid down propositions which terrified even himself. His inward life was a painful and continual struggle; if, on one side he was drawn towards what was new, by the workings of an ardent and generous mind, and by the indignation which the corruptions of the church excited within him; on the other, he was restrained, compelled by his filial regard for that church, and by not unfounded apprehensions of the results of individual judgment among a brutal and ignorant people, in a country destitute of government, and having scarcely any legal restraints. He not only stopped, as we have seen, before the bounds which Wickliffe ventured to pass, but he was often inconsistent with himself. He allowed that it was needful to refuse to obey a superior who was guilty, or in error. He gave, by his own conduct, the example of unconquerable resistance to a pope whom yet he owned as lawful. Yet we see him devoting himself, with indefatigable ardour, to prepare some celebrated treatises for promoting the re-establishment of the same ecclesiastical and hierarchical authority which he had, on other occasions, so severely attacked: "The universal church," he said, "is alone infallible; it consists of the clergy, and of all believers." But while he gave this popular definition to the church, he did not adhere to it. He dreaded the influence of the people, as well as that of the pope; he thought that there might be a representative body in the church, a double aristocracy of rank and science; namely, of prelates and teachers. He admitted that the people ought to be represented, but he would not allow them to choose their representatives. His views of church authority thus rested on grounds purely arbitrary. His decisions, supported by the civil power, might direct outward and temporal matters; but how could they bind the conscience, and regulate the inward intercourse of the heart of man with God? and what connexion can there be, between a degree marking certain attainments in knowledge, and sovereign power to regulate the faith of men? Gerson recommended meditation on the Divine word as a remedy for the worst of evils. He desired to pour it in floods into the hearts of men, yet he forbade the simple and unlearned to read this word, and condemned the translation of the Bible into the vulgar tongue. He laboured to promote a moral reformation in the church, and he called on those who throve by its abuses to unite with him. He was greatly mistaken; the reformation of the clergy by the clergy was the aim of his whole life-a noble and praiseworthy object, but one impossible to be attained, though he sought it with courage and constancy deserving admiration. We may follow him on the great field where he fought, and failed; and, perhaps, he alone, through his ardour and self-deception, felt not the horror inspired by the barbarous acts in which he took part. The blood of the martyrs was on his venerable head, but he felt not the stain. We enter into his struggles, his glorious defeats, and the ruin of his dearest hopes, and we own that he was greatest in the sight of God, when he was conquered, repulsed, and beaten down by his fellow-men. In conclusion, suffice it to say, that the end of Gerson was hastened by bitter treachery, and that Wickliffe was saved by death from the malice of his enemies. The former was ill supported in the noblest part of his work, by which he desired to effect the moral reformation of the clergy; but in his resistance to the encroachments of the Romish see, he was naturally sheltered by the bishops, at whose expense the popedom had arisen. Wickliffe, however, attacked not only the morals, but the authority assumed by the |