The stubborn spirit of rebellious man!"
A Romish priest or a Russian pope depends for his influence chiefly upon his official
character, though he may be despised for his vices. A Protestant minister stands or falls with his
personal merits; and the fact of his high and honorable position and influence in every Protestant
country, as a Christian, a gentleman, a husband and father, is the best vindication of the wisdom
of the Reformers in abolishing clerical celibacy.
§ 80. Reformation of Public Worship.
I. Luther: Deutsches Taufbüchlein, 1523; Ordnung des Gottes-dienstes in der Gemeinde, 1523;
Vom Gräuel der Stillmesse, 1524; Deutsche Messe und Ordnung des Gottesdienstes, 1526; Das
Taufbüchlein verdeutscht, aufs neue zugerichtet, 1526. In Walch, X.; in Erl. ed., XXII. 151
sqq. Comp. the Augsburg confession, Pars II. art. 3 (De missa); Apol. of the Augsb. Conf. art.
XXIV. (De missa); the Lutheran liturgies or Kirchenagenden (also Kirchenordnungen) of the
16th century, collected in Daniel: Codex Liturgicus Ecclesiae Lutheranae, Lips. 1848 (Tom.
II. of his Cod. Lit.), and Höfling: Liturgisches Urkundenbuch (ed. by G. Thomasius and Theodos.
Harnack), Leipz. 1854.
II. Th. Kliefoth: Die ursprüngliche Gottesdienstordnung in den deutschen Kirchen luth. Reformation,
ihre Destruction und Reformation, Rostock, 1847. Grüneisen: Die evang. Gottesdienstordnung
in den oberdeutschen Landen, Stuttgart, 1856. Gottschick: Luthers Anschauungen vom christl.
Gottesdienst und seine thatsächliche Reform desselben, Freiburg i. B., 1887.
The reformation of doctrine led to a reconstruction of worship on the basis of Scripture and the
guidance of such passages as, God is spirit,"^618 and must be worshiped, in spirit and in truth" (John
4:24), and, Let all things be done decently and in order" (1 Cor. 14:40). Protestantism aims at a
rational or spiritual service,^619 as distinct from a mechanical service of mere forms. It acts upon the
heart through the intellect, rather than the senses, and through instruction, rather than ceremonies.
It brings the worshiper into direct communion with God in Christ, through the word of God and
prayer, without the obstruction of human mediators.
The Reformers first cleansed the sanctuary of gross abuses and superstitions, and cast out
the money-changers with a scourge of cords. They abhorred idolatry, which in a refined form had
found its way into the church. They abolished the sale of indulgences, the worship of saints, images,
and relics, processions and pilgrimages, the private masses, and masses for the dead in purgatory.^620
They rejected five of the seven sacraments (retaining only baptism and the eucharist), the doctrine
of transubstantiation, the priestly sacrifice, the adoration of the host, the withdrawal of the cup from
(^618) i e., all spirit, nothing but spirit, (without the article, as in the margin of the Revised Version), according to the Greek:
πνευ̑μα(emphatically put first) ὁΘεός, in opposition to all materialistic conceptions and local limitations. Compare the parallel expressions:
" God is love" (1 John 4:8), " God is light" (1 John 1:5), where neither the definite nor the indefinite article is admissible.
(^619) λογικὴ λατρεία, Rom. 12:1; comp. the "spiritual sacrifices" (πνευματικαὶ θυσίαι), 1 Pet. 2:5
(^620) Missae de sanctis, missae votivae missae pro defunctis. Melanchthon, in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, art. XXIV., says:
"The fact that we hold only public or common mass is no offense against the Catholic Church. For in the Greek churches even to-day
private masses are not held; but there is only a public mass, and that on the Lord’s Day and festivals." Masses for the dead, which date
from Pope Gregory I., imply, of course, the doctrine of purgatory, and were among the crying abuses of the church.