Protestantism in Sweden and Denmark - James Aitken Wylie

the question was not touching its antiquity, but
touching its utility. If we should make antiquity the
test or measure of benignity, what strange mistakes
should we commit! The power of Satan was most
ancient, it would hardly be maintained that it was
in an equal degree beneficent. Pious emperors had
nourished this Papal power with their gifts; it had
grown most rapidly in the times of greatest
ignorance; it had taken at last the whole Christian
world under its control; when consummated it
presented a perfect contrast to the gift of Christ to
St. Peter expressed in these words, "Feed my
sheep." The many secular affairs of the Pope did
not permit him to feed the sheep. He compelled
them to give him not only their milk and wool, but
even the fat and the blood. May God have mercy
upon his own Church.[8]
They came at length to the great question
touching works and grace, "Whether is man saved
'by his own merits, or solely by the grace of God?"
Doctor Gallus came as near to the Reformed
doctrine on this point as it was possible to do
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