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Untitled Article
against the interests of those whose rights our divine Founder had especially charged us to defend , we require you to preserve to us the possessions which have been the fruit of the apostolic labours of the church , and we desire to be maintained by you in the enjoyment of the honorary and pecuniary privileges which have been granted to us by your predecessors . ' This compact , which has not enough engaged the attention of philosophers , took place in
effect when Leo X . ascended the papal throne ; before this time indulgences had been granted as rewards for undertakings useful to society , such as the construction of bridges , roads , &c . Leo threw off the mask , and declared publicly that the produce of the plenary indulgences , which he charged the Dominicans to sell for the Holy See , should be appropriated to the toilette of his sister . Thus stood the only European religion when Luther began his
insurrection against the Court of Rome . Luther rendered an immense service to civilization ; but for him papacy had completely subdued the human mind to superstition , in extinguishing all morality . But , in his reforms , Luther left much to his successors . The Lutherans are accused of heresy , in having adopted a system of morals far below that which is suitable to Christians in their present state of civilization . To establish this our author examines four important questions .
What was the state of society when Jesus commissioned his apostles to reorganize the human race ? What was its state when Luther effected his reform ? What was the reform then necessary to restore the papal religion to that of Jesus and his apostles ? In what did the reform of Luther consist ?
These questions are discussed at considerable length , and the conclusion drawn is , that instead of adopting the measures tending to increase the social advantages of the Christian religion , Luther restored it to the points whence it started , —he rendered it independent of the social system , and recognized force as the power from which all others must emanate ; the clergy were reduced to the situation of humble suppliants of temporal authority , and the most pacific tendencies were rendered wholly dependent on men of violent
passions and warlike pursuits . The Protestants are then accused of adopting an inefficient form of worship . To attract and stimulate the attention of mankind , it is considered necessary to cultivate eloquence in the preachers ; the poets should second their efforts , by furnishing choice pieces for recital in chorus , so as to render all the worshipers preachers to each other . Musicians , painters , sculptors , and architects , should all lend their aid to excite in the soul sentiments of fear , hope , and joy ; whereas Luther reduced
worship to simple preaching , banished all ornament , suppressed music , and all that is calculated to affect the passions . An erroneous system of faith is then charged against Protestants , attributed to undue attention and regard to the Bible , without duly considering to what extent it was particularly adapted , and how far it was limited , to the initiatory state in which it was promulgated—the undue use of it is then charged with a tendency to
carry back the mind too much to a low state of civilization , instead of leading it forward , and adapting it to an improved state of society ; it is also accused of tending to foster desires of an equality in society absolutely impracticable , and of discouraging a system by which men of the highest ability in the arts , sciences , and industry , may best promote the interests of the lower classes . Towards the close of the first part , we have a declaration of the firmest conviction that the intelligence which brought forth so sublime a doctrine
Untitled Article
French Seel of Saint Simonites . 87
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1831, page 87, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2594/page/15/
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