Page:Swedenborg, Harbinger of the New Age of the Christian Church.djvu/25

 knowledge. Entering not into the kingdom themselves, them that would enter they hindered, all to their own worldly gain.

Luther and his associates revolted from this prostitution of the religion of our Lord, so graphically represented to John in vision as Babylon the great adulteress. And in two centuries they and their followers did much to restore a true conception of the life of the kingdom and of the duty of the Church. But in controverting the error that heaven could be merited by undergoing the penances and paying the tribute imposed by the Church of Rome, substituting therefor belief only in the saving grace of Jesus Christ, Luther went too far. To emphasize the distinction between his Reformed Church and the Roman Catholic, he declared charity and good works to be of no avail for salvation.

In the Protestant wing of the Church belief in the vicarious sacrifice of Jesus Christ was the only means of attaining heaven, and the condemnation of all who had not this grace was proclaimed with a severity equal to that of the anathemas of the Church of Rome. Either wing of the Lord's Church was ready to burn the