BEQUEST OF

KEV. CANON SCABBING, B. D.

TORONTO, 1901.

SATAN:

OR,

INTELLECT WITHOUT GOD. Tenth Edition.

" ' He was the perfection of intellect without moral principle'— an expression of the Uov. Robert Montgomery, who has unconsciously but graphically por- trayed, in the character of the Prince of Darkness, in his noble poem of ' S \ , \ - ; on, INTELLECT WITHOUT Gon,' much of what historic truth must ascribe to the ruling principles and leading characters of the Revolution." — Alison's His- tory of Europe, vol. ix. p. 284.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

WOMAN:

WITH OTHER POEMS. Fifth Edition.

THE OMNIPRESENCE OF THE DEITY.

Twenty-first Edition.

ALSO, BY THE SAME,

BISHOP SANDERSON'S SERMONS;

WITH INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

" It in impossible to peruse the works of Sanderson without feelings of great respect. Here is ponderous learning, profound reverence for truth, a mind of

amazing penetration, a singular freedom from passion, in an age- of violence.

Altogether, Mr. Montgomery has conferred a valuable service on the Church of England by the publication of these Sermons."— The Times, Dec. 22nd, 1840.

LUTHER

-Bonn.

ROBERT MONTGOMERY, M.A,

AUTHOR 01'

ETC. ETC.

' The solitary Monk that shook the world."

LONDON:

FRANCIS BAISLER, 124, OXFORD STREET ;

HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO., 33, PATERNOSTER ROW;

TILT AND BOGUE, 86, FLEET STREET.

M DCCC XLII.

PR

iSpttapljtum

THEOD. BEZM IN MARTINUM LUTHERUM.

Roma orbem domuit, Romam sibi Papa subegit Viribus ilia suis, fraudibus iste suis

Quanto isto major LuTHEaus,jnajor et ilia Istum, illamque uno qui domuit calamo !

I, nunc ! Alciden memorato, Grsecia Mendax : LUTHERI ad calamum ferrea clava nihil !"

Rome once subdued the world by war ;

By art the Pope crushed her again : One monk excel:? them both by far,

For both were vanquished by his pen ! Go, now, thou fabling Greece, and boast no longer

Alcides' club,— for Luther's pen is stronger!"

TO

MERLE D'AUBIGNE,

AUTHOR OF

THE HISTORY OF THE GREAT REFORMATION OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY,"

THE FOLLOWING ATTEMPT IS GRATEFULLY

Jnscvtfcelr,

BY THE AUTHOR.

Glasgow, 1842.

PHILIPP MELANCTHON.

OCCIDIT omnigend vencrandus laude Lutherus Qui Christum docuit non dubitante fide. Ereptum deflet vero, hunc ecclesia lactu Cujus erat doctor, verius, imo pater. Occidit Israel prsestans auriga Lutherus, Quern mecum sanus lugeat omnis homo. Nunc luctumque suum lacrymoso carmine prodat, Hoc etenim orbatos fiere, dolore decet.

S C II E M E.

PACK

INTRODUCTION ix

CHRIST THE CENTRE AND CIRCUMFERENCE OF TRUTH, 1

THE MYSTICAL BODY OF THE CHURCH ..... 11

MAN'S NEED AND GOD'S SUPPLY 22

THE DIVINE PROLOGUE 28

CHARACTERISTICS 40

CHILDHOOD 58

THE UNIVERSITY . . ... . 69

MAN'S RELIGION 71

How THE DAY-STAR RISES IN THE HEART OF FAITH, 77

GOD'S AMBASSADORS 79

THE METROPOLIS OF THE MAN OF SIN 83

SATAN'S THEOLOGY 86

THE REFORMATION'S DAWN 90

ITS MASTER PRINCIPLE . . . , 92

Vlll SCHEME.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MAN, IN PAGE

(1) THE SUPREMACY 96

(2) THE MYSTERY 99

(3) THE MORAL ROOT 110

INSPIRATION OF THE IDEAL 121

THE COVENANT OF HEARTS 129

THE UNIQUE OF HISTORY 146

THE INTERLUDE 156

PATMOS 171

THE CRISIS 185

MENTAL RESURRECTION 192

THE AFFECTIONS BY THE TRUTH MADE FREE . . 201

A LANDSCAPE OF DOMESTIC LIFE 215

THE CATECHISM 228

CONFLICT WITH THE GOD OF THIS WORLD . . . 233

THE DESTINIES OF ROME 263

FAREWELL TO TIME 308

A POET'S RETROSPECT AND PATRIOT'S CONCLUSION, 328

NOTES 381

INTRODUCTION.

" My fixed principle is, that a Christianity without a church exer- cising spiritual authority is vanity and dissolution. And my belief is, that when Popery is rushing in on us like an inundation, the nation will find it so. I say, Popery ; for this, too, I hold for a delusion, that Romanism, or Roman Catholicism, is separable from Popery. Al- most as readily could I suppose a circle without a centre."— Aids to Reflection, p. 224. Fourth ed.

" Among the dogmas, or articles of belief, that contradistinguish the Roman from the Reformed churches, the most important, and, in their practical effects and consequences, the most pernicious, I cannot but regard as refracted and distorted truths, profound ideas sensualized into idols, or, at the lowest rate, lofty and affecting imaginations, safe while they remained general and indefinite, but debased and rendered noxious by their application in detail. ****** When I contemplate the whole system as it affects the great funda- mental principles of morality, the terra firma, as it were, of our hu- manity ; then trace its operation in the sources and conditions of national strength and well-being ; and, lastly, consider its woful in- fluences on the innocence and sanctity of the female mind and imagina- tion, on the faith and happiness, the gentle fragrancy and unnoticed ever-present verdure of domestic life, I can with difficulty avoid apply- ing to it what the rabbins fable of the fratricide Cain— that the firm earth trembled wherever he strode, and the grass turned black beneath his feet."— Coleridge on the Idea, &c. &c., p. 131, 132.

THE following pages are an attempt to reflect in a poetical form, by a series of mental tableaux, some of the prominent features and prevailing expressions

X INTRODUCTION.

in the life, character, and work, of the fearless Luther. Though each view be divided and distinct, yet it is hoped, that in the spirit of its resulting effect, the poem will be found combined into the unity of a moral whole. How far, or not, the writer may have succeeded, in a style of thought and structure of plan somewhat out of the popular track, — must be left to the candour and criticism of others to decide. Whatever may be the reception of these pages, they are at least submitted to the public eye with unaffected deference; and with the entire con- viction that, if proved to be meritless, their failure must be ascribed to the incapacity of the author, and not to any deficiency of interest in the subject.

Luther, in the lion-hearted daring of his con- duct, and in the robust and rugged grandeur of his faith, may well be considered as the Elijah of the Reformation; while his life, by the stern and solemn realities of its experiences, and the almost ideal evolutions of events by which it was accompanied, — constitutes, indeed, the embodied poem of European Protestantism. But, as with others who make or move the history of mankind, Luther must be con- templated under that twofold aspect, which is answerable to the twofold region, where the moral features of manhood are expressed, or betrayed. In the one, we meet those external palpabilities which

INTRODUCTION. XI

stand forth feelingly and conspicuously on the broad surface of biography and history; in the other, we are presented with those latencies of character which appertain more to the chronicles of the soul, and are to be detected chiefly in the delightful egotisms wherewith Luther has sprinkled his comments; or in the play and sparkle of his colloquial excitement; but above all, in his Correspondence, — more especially in the Letters written from the Wartburg, and those in which he uncurtains the darkness, doubt, and despondency by which his stormy nature was so often haunted and perturbed. Luther the REFORMER is, after all, but the outward and visible index to the inward and invisible characteristics of Luther the MAN; yet is the connexion between both at once interesting and profoundly instructive. And if, in the open light of history, we are struck with the al- most miraculous consequences which a lonely monk, from the depths of an Augustinian convent, put in motion; and if, while we yet experience the thrill of that scriptural blow with which he smote the " baseless fabric" of papal superstition; — not less are we affected to perceive, how wonderfully and wisely the trials and experiences of his inner nature were providentially overruled, and wrought into experi- mental connexion with those gigantic achievements which have made the name of Martin Luther im-

Xll INTRODUCTION.

mortal. Indeed, to those who love to enter the penetralia of the human spirit, and to be led by the torchlight of a candid guidance into the inmost shrine of moral consciousness, — the German monk, as he appears behind the scene of public life, beyond most men is an attraction. His letters are the very man, dashed into headlong language: there is no disguise, no concealment, no timidity! At one time he is all elate, high-wrought, and far-soaring, — mounting upward and heavenward in the golden light of hope and joy; at another, he wails and weeps from the very dust of depression and anguish, — uttering either truths of self-exposure, which startle you like thunder-claps heard at midnight; or else, sighing forth his restless mind with broken murmurs, faint and mournful as the cadence of some distant sea. He dipped his pen at all times in the heart-blood of sincerity; and wrote HIMSELF out in a genuine copy, without seeming, for one instant, to care what might be concluded touching the original. In this respect, perhaps, no man has ever unveiled himself with more truthful audacity than he has done; and thus, in his correspondence and confessions, we have an apocalypse of the " hidden man of the heart" un- shrouded to the very core; and are invited to look into the surging depths of a spirit, adown which the deep eye of Dante would have loved to gaze.

INTRODUCTION. Xlll

Let us, then, in the first place, dedicate a few pages to some remarks on Luther, in the pro- minences of his history; and then, venture to add some illustrations of his more secret experiences, — which are related to certain principles and points which could not be so well introduced into the framework of poetry.

" Known unto God are ALL his works, from the beginning of the world," and therefore chance, in the absolute meaning of the term, cannot be predi- cated of the Deity, without involving a libel on the divine prescience. And thus, connecting our belief in the ordaining counsels of heaven with the events of this world, we read with no common feeling the simple record of Luther's birth — " Martin Luther was born at eleven o'clock at night, on the 10th of November, 1483, at Eisleben, whither his parents had come from their native village Mohra, for the purpose of attending the annual fair." " My parents were originally indigent; my father was a poor miner, and my mother has borne her firewood on her back." So speaketh of his humble origin the now famous Monk of Wittemberg. In his case, as in that of many others who have acquainted the world with the historic childhood of their spirit, — Luther was indebted to the pious simplicities of his parents for much that in after life manifested itself b2

xiv INTRODUCTION.

in deeds of worth, and darings of sublimest import; for it is recorded, that his father "often prayed loudly and fervently at the bedside of his child, that the Lord God would make him partaker of his grace." But preeminently was the Reformer in- debted to the piety of his mother. Melancthon* describes her as a kind of pattern-mother, in the glass of whose character were mirrored all those features which give sacredness to womanhood and worth. — Ah! Christian mothers, the apathetic heart of History has never yet done justice to you! — you, in the cradle of whose maternal virtues and excel- lences have been rocked and reared so much of what the trumpet-voice of time and praise has eulogized, and admired. No ! never, perchance, till the explaining light of eternity be shed upon the pains and paradoxes, and the scenes and circum- stances of time, will a millionth part of the moral debt the souls of the great and good owe ye be un- derstood. Meanwhile, — blessed agents in the hands of the Divine Parent for nursing and training the oracular spirits of this world for their high and stately career! — not unremembered are ye in the

* In matre Margareta conjuge Jo. Lutheri, cum cseterse erant virtutes, turn vero prsecipue lucebat, pudicitia, timor Dei et invocatio ; intuebanturque in earn cseterse mulieres, ut in exemplar virtutum.— Mel Vit. Luther Seckendorf, p. 20.

INTRODUCTION. XV

Biographies which are written and read round the Throne. And HE, who in the noontide of his un- utterable passion looked down from His cross, and cried, "Behold thy MOTHER !" — will hereafter put the crown of His approval upon your temples, in the sight of angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect. Yet, with all the devout earnestness of his parents, Luther in after years regretted that so much of stern discipline was blent with his home education. " My parents," he says, " treated me with so much strictness that I became spirit broken, ran away to a monastery, and became a monk." But, notwithstanding this, may we not presume that, (harsh and severe as this training was,) in the way of moral instrumentality, it helped to impart to the future man that inflexible hardihood and resolute magnanimity which distinguished both his writings and conduct ?

Such, in brief, were the earliest years of Luther; and when we compare his after destiny with his original obscurity, and lowly rank, and aidless cir- cumstances,— we are forcibly reminded of a passage, in an essay on Cromwell, by the pensive Cowley: — " I have often observed, (with all submission and resignation of spirit to the inscrutable mysteries of Providence,) that when the fulness and maturity of time is come that produces the great confusions and

XVI INTRODUCTION.

changes in the world, it usually pleases God to make it appear •, by the manner of them, that they are not the effects of human force or policy, but of the divine justice and predestination ; and though we see a man like that we call Jack of the clock-house, striking, as it were, the hour of that fulness of time, yet our reason must needs be convinced that his hand is moved by some secret, and to us who stand without, invisible, direction." (Essays, p. 76.)

The spirit of this is eminently applicable to the comparative disproportions between the agent and the work of the German Reformation; but still, in our passion for analogies, we may carry ourselves a little beyond the truth; it is well, therefore, to re- member, that though it can only be said in a remote and indirect sense, that Luther's mind was at all formed by the age in which he appeared, — yet had there been slow, but certain, influences at work, which seasoned the intellect and conscience of man- kind for the reception of his truths and doctrines. His own parents had caught the educational feeling that was then beginning to stir the humblest rank; commerce and wealth were adding to the capacities, both social and political, of the principal towns; and Pfizer tells us, that " the imperial cities, of which there were at that time many, became the chief sup- port, and sometimes even the nursery, of the Re-

INTRODUCTION.

formation; while the ducal cities also asserted their rights, and stood forth as free and independent cor- porations." In addition to this we must add, that God had raised up, from time to time, direct witnesses for THE TRUTH, and doctrinal pioneers, who cried aloud in the papal wilderness, and helped to make straight a highway for the coming Gospel. Of these we may name the writer of the Sentences, Peter Lombard, who became popular -in England; and also helped to educate the reforming spirit of Wickliffe.*

* My venerated friend, Sharon Turner, who unites the candour of a Christian with the philosophy of the historian, — in the fifth volume of his " History of England," has wisely discriminated between a wholesale abuse of the scholastic divinity and a due contempt for its barren logomachies and sophistical jargon. Those who appeal to Luther as to the worth of the scholastic divines, cannot forget that, with all their pedantries, he himself was not unbenefited by perusing some of them, and thereby equipping his powers for nobler and more edifying employment. The following passage is from Sharon Turner, who has also appended to his remarks a most interest- ing analysis of Lombard's " Sentences," quoted by Wickliffe in his " Trialogus," which was perused by Huss, and which finally assisted the mind of Luther himself in the dawn of his inquiries : —

" But although the popular religion, as taught and practised in the middle ages, was full of those gross superstitions which make the unbeliever believe his ii fidelity to be his virtue, yet it must be allowed, that they were chosen by voluntary pre- ference, and without any necessity, by all who either incul- cated or adopted them. The doctrine of the catholic church,

XV111 INTRODUCTION.

In the year 1501, Luther enters the University of Erfurt; and from that period until what may be termed the great crisis of his life, and the very hinge of destiny on which the intellectual and moral history of Europe turned, — his appearance at the diet of Worms, — a devout believer in the superintendences of Providence will trace with profound instruction, how admirably the discipline of Luther was preparing him for the transcendant vocation to which he was hereafter to be called. And everywhere, throughout all the varied trials,

and of the stream of the mighty minds which have upheld it, have been full of better things, and was always presenting better things to the contemplation and use both of themselves and of the public. If Calixtus II. wrote a book to recom- mend the shrine and fabled body of St. James of Compostella, yet this same pope, in the same work, also urged these highly spiritual feelings, unconnected with either saints or legends. * By the love of Christ man is approximated to God, and hu- man things are united with heavenly. Oh ! how precious, and even glorious, brethren, it is, to love our Redeemer — to love him whom the Father loves. As the affection of the bride- groom to his bride, so does the love of our Father benignly blend us with him in his Son. For when we attach ourselves to him with a dignified regard, we become associated with God. By the sin of the first man we became alienated from the Deity ; but by love to our Saviour we are reunited with it. As long as our affection continues to our Lord, so long the Divine Father is with us and we \vith him.' * The most celebrated works of the catholic doctors abound with the

" * Sermoncs Jacob. 20 Maxim. Bib. Tat., p. 12Q3.

INTRODUCTION. XIX

experiences, and circumstances through which the earnest-hearted monk was led, to his indignant defiance of Tetzel and his lying atrocities, — there is a perfect oneness of integrity, candour, and intense adherence to his own convictions, as maintained and manifested throughout his whole progress into the meridian light of liberty and truth. At this period of his life, too, we find that groundwork of melancholy, arising from the felt inadequacy of mere scholastic philosophy, begins to be laid. And touching indeed is the anecdote which informs us how, in

purest sentiments of affectionate piety. Thomas a Kempis is but one amid a numerous society of congenial minds, among which none more clearly shew the good that was taught, or will more gratify the spirit that loves and cultivates the higher degrees of devout feeling, than the little volume on the union of the mind with the Deity, by the celebrated Franciscan and philosopher, Albertus Magnus.* If, then, the world of the middle ages chose the debasing and the fantastic instead of the true, the sympathetic, the pious, the holy, and the reasonable, it was the wilful and self-degrading selection of their own bad taste, corrupt feeling, and deteriorating habits. The better and the wiser were always before them, and they sank down to folly, debility, and bondage, and drew their teachers after them, as the swine prefers its dunghill, and the crow its carrion carcase.

" Nothing can more satisfactorily prove this to our con- viction, than that book on which our countrymen, in the

" * The edition I have is an Italian translation from the original Latin, and was printed at Rome, October, 1525. There is nothing in it but what a Protestant might have written.

XX INTRODUCTION.

one of his sicknesses, an old priest comforted him by words which the grateful Reformer never forgot: — " Be of good cheer! this sickness is not unto death; our God will make of you a great man for the consolation of many of his people. Those whom the Lord loveth he bringeth early under the cross, which is so profitable when borne with meekness." In 1505, we find Luther, with all the rushing decision of his character, entering the Augustinian convent at Erfurt ; and here, in the struggles of his bursting heart and bleeding conscience, we

twelfth and thirteenth, centuries, -wrote more commentaries than on any other works, except those of Aristotle — I mean, the Sentences of Peter Lombard.* This is and was meant to be an epitome of popular divinity. It discusses some of those useless and puerile points which the schoolmen were as fond of agitating as schoolboys of blowing their saponaceous bub- bles. But the great body of its instruction is reasonable,

" * He died in 11 64. The object which he accomplished was to give the whole doctrine of Christianity in a concise form, with illustrating quotations from the principal fathers. It was commented upon in this country by the following persons, among very many others :—

Adamus, 1170. Cardinalis, 1325.

Brixius, 1222. Catton, 1343.

Castriconens, 1270. Bedeucus, 1380.

Borstal, 1290. Bewfu, 1390.

Blunt, 1296. Bokingham, 1398.

Bever ley, 1294. Boteler, 1401.

Brinkelacus, 1310. N. Cantolupe, 1441.

Acton, 1320. Barningham, 1448.

Adam Hibern. 1320. J. Capgrave, 1464.

Buckingham, 1324. J. Canon, 1482.

Alienantius, 1340. Beeth, 1498.

INTRODUCTION. XXI

behold the commencement of that mysterious spi- ritual training wherewith God was especially edu- cating him for his apostolic work hereafter. But over this part of his life we need not linger; its principal features are well known. His sense of sin, — going down like a wasting, withering fire to the very roots of an upbraiding conscience; his trembling apprehension of the Infinite Jehovah; his dim, melancholy, and remote views of the riches of compassion in the heart of Christ; his ignorance of justifying righteousness, according to

sincere, and moral Christianity, without any of the tinsel, corruptions, falsehoods, and superstitions, which brought the papal hierarchy into irretrievable disgrace as our country be- came enlightened. A succinct account of it will be given in the note at the end of the chapter, in order that it may be seen and felt, that as this book was one of the great and au- thorized and recommended foundations of the Christian edu- cation of every academical student, and was highly prized among ourselves, it was in the power of all to have trained their minds to a more intelligent profession of Christianity than the multitude of all classes decided to prefer and would only pursue. In adding superstition to superstition and trick to trick, I believe the catholic hierarchy has often acted like our licentious poets, novelists, and critics, who have made the immediate applause and profit of the day their governing principle : they lowered their compositions to the depraved taste of those whom they sought to interest and influence. The corruption of all the religions that have appeared has arisen from this cause. Mankind will not generally patronise the wise, the moral, and the restraining ; and the priesthood,

I

XX11 INTRODUCTION.

the jurisprudence of Heaven; and his terrible an- guish, arising from the blasting purity of a perfect and inflexible law; — all this is to be found in most of the popular histories of this wonderful and ori- ginal man. But what he thought of the monastic life, and the doctrines associated with its ascetic impostures, is, for many reasons, far too important not to be here introduced. " I tormented myself," he says, in one place, " to death, to procure peace with God, and to my agitated conscience ; but, sur- rounded with hideous darkness, nowhere did I find

rather than lose their power or their emolument, has too often submitted to be governed instead of governing, and to please, by identifying their tuition with the humours and appetites, which, if not then gratified, might have revolted from their preceptors.* Thus both the clergy and laity of the middle ages became reciprocally the corrupting and the corrupted. It seems strange to say, but every age has shewn that the human taste has no objection to absurdity, either for religion or against it. Anything is by many preferred to it, and any- thing can be associated with it ; and everything, however ad- verse, will be adopted to discredit or to disguise it, rather than

" * This tendency in many of his contemporaries Peter Lombard him- self saw, and thus complained of : — ' Who labour to adapt the words of wisdom to the things they dream ; not following the true, but the pleasing ; whose evil will does not incite to the understanding of the truth, but to the defence of what is agreeable ; not desiring the truth to be taught, but turning the ear from that to fables ; whose profession is to search out more what will please than what will instruct. Not de- siring what ought to be taught, they adapt their doctrines to what is desired, and hold the subject of wisdom in superstition." — Sentent. Prolog., p. 2.

INTRODUCTION. XX111

peace." — " I confessed every day, but that availed me nothing. ' See/ I cried, ' behold me still envious, still irascible!' " At this period his friend Staupitz was far beyond $ Luther in clear insight into the essential verities of the gospel. " It is vain," cries the Reformer to him, " that I make promises to God; sin always gains the upper hand!" And to this, what nobler answer could a preacher of the gospel return now ? — " LOOK to the wounds of Jesus Christ: confide in him, in the justice of his life, in the expiation of his death."

In allusion to this part of his life, Luther after- wards wrote — " If ever a man passed the portals of heaven by monachism, I should also have gained admittance; that testimonial all the holy brother- hood to whom I have been known give me." From

to cultivate that meek and lowly heart, that disinterested and unambitious temper, that active philanthropy, that enlightened docility, that sacred and undeviating faith, that noble confi- dence in its Divine Master, that cheerful resignation, that obedient fidelity, and that affectionate veneration, which when harmoniously combined and habitually naturalized within us, constitute the true sublime and beautiful of the human soul and character. But all this requires a continuing self-govern- ment, a firmness of purpose, and a patient perseverance of life, for which all classes and ages have found it more agree- able to substitute either technical credulity or a contemptuous incredulity — the legend or the objection, the most enslaving submission or the most absolute hostility ; nor will this con- trasted tragi-comedy now end till human nature expires."

XXIV INTRODUCTION.

this period, then, until after his call to the chair at Wittemberg, by the Elector, until his return from his official journey to Rome, it is apparent that Luther was nursing no rebellious tendencies against the church of Rome. On the contrary, in the preface to one of his works, with all the bare honesty and blunt eccentricity which are so cha- racteristic, he writes, — " I beg leave to assure the reader, that, when I assailed indulgences, I was a true monk and one of the most absurdly devoted papists; so intoxicated, nay, even so drenched was I with the infallibility of the pope, that I was almost prepared, if I had had it in my power, to kill, or assist in killing, any one who should, even by a syllable, refuse obedience to his will" ! We quit this portion of the subject with one remark : that a most eloquent contrast between two moral states, as experienced by the same mind, is af- forded by the aspect of Luther as a pale, ema- ciate, and spirit-broken monk, groping after God in the pages of a chained Bible found in his convent ; and a view of the same man when he was able to say, — not only that "the Holy Ghost is greater than Aristotle," (see his work on Babylonian Captivity?) but with a fearlessness, not unworthy the soul of St. Paul, — " If they were to make a fire between Wittemberg and Worms, which should

INTRODUCTION, XXV

reach to heaven, I would still appear in the name of the Lord, and enter the jaws of Behemoth, and, treading between his teeth, confess Christ, and leave him to do all his pleasure" ! — Or, at a later period, when, on his return from the castle of the Wartburgh, he writes from Borna to the Elector, that he would not hesitate to go to Leipsic itself, though he were assured it would rain Duke Georges for nine days running.* His future braveries proved that this was no empty boast. And surely, if ever appli- cable to any man, Racine's sublime description of one of his heroes may be safely engraven over the head and heart of Luther : —

" HE FEARED GOD, AND HE FEARED NONE BESIDES."

In 1510, Luther receives his commission to Rome, touching some disputed points between the convents of his order and the vicar-general. And those who delight to recognise God in history, as well as man in action, cannot but admire the wonder-working hand of the Almighty, in so or- dering the monk's experience, that he who was 'hereafter to make Rome feel him, should first of

* " Sperni Duels iras debere, eoque se esse animo, ut Lip- siam quoque intraturus esset — idque facturum etsi novera diebus non nisi GeorgiasDuces plueret, quorum singuli hunc uovies sscvitiu superarunt." — Seckendorf, e. 119, p. 195.

c2

XXVi INTRODUCTION.

all feel Rome, — in all her deep and dense sensuality, sin, and shame. What were the feelings which agitated his tempestuous heart in his approach to, — the Capital of the Faith! the Metropolis of Chris- tianity! the Shrine of Apostles! the Seat of Mar- tyrs! the Palace of Infallibility! and the august Mistress and Mother of all the Faithful! — those who remember the man's electrical enthusiasm, will easily imagine. Surely, never dreaming Moslem took his pilgrimage to Mecca with more impassioned earnestness, or gazed on the embroidered towers of the sacred Kaba, — than he did on the dome of St. Peter's, and the temples and towers of everlasting Rome; or pressed the black stone of Gabriel there, with more venerating lip than he saluted the feet of the then pontiff, Julius the Second. Notwith- standing the old Latin Bible had somewhat quenched the spiritual thirstiness of his parched and fiery soul, — yet, alas ! was he in the very bondage of papal darkness and uncertainty. Still unto him was the POPE a talismanic name, at the sound of which all the chivalries of a blind but sincere devotion were at once awakened. " When I first beheld Rome, I fell prostrate to the earth, and, raising my hands, exclaimed, " God save thee, Rome, thou seat of the Holy One! yea, thrice holy, from the blood of the sainted martyrs which has been shed within thy

INTRODUCTION. XXV11

walls!" Such was then the salute he gave the nursing-mother of priestly simulations. — What a scene to the angels Luther's entrance into that mystic Babel must have been! And if Julius could have foreseen the consequences hereafter de- veloped from this visit, would he not have dropped the goblet from his jewelled hand? And would not all the Epicurean monks and Laodicean cardinals round him have grown aghast, while their fancy saw a spectral hand inscribing on the wall, " Ye are weighed in the balance, and found wanting"?

How important this pilgrimage to Rome was, Luther's own words well declare: — " Since God has seen fit to engage me in all this detestable traffic, I would not now, for a hundred thousand guilders have omitted seeing Rome; for, otherwise, I should always have feared that I did violence and injustice to the pope."

But notwithstanting the shock of surprise which the black and brutal abominations which then pre- vailed both in the court and church of Rome must have occasioned him; and in spite of the recoil of disgust with which his genuine -nature shrunk from the profanities and buffooneries which he witnessed on the part of the Italian priesthood, even when pretending to celebrate the tremendous mysteries of

XXVili INTRODUCTION.

the altar; notwithstanding all this, the bandage did not drop from the monk's eyes; and he returned to Wittemberg fully persuaded, amid all the coun- teracting evidence, that the pontiff was the head of infallibility and the heaven-appointed centre of unity and truth! As to his spiritual estate at this time, he thus unveils it: —

" Though I was," he says, " a holy and irreproachable monk, my conscience was yet full of disturbance and torments. I could not bear the phrase, God's justice. I did not love that just and holy God who punishes sinners : I was filled with a secret wrath against him : I hated him, because, not content with terrifying with the law and with the miseries of life us wretched creatures, already lost through original sin, he still more aug- mented our torment through the Gospel. . . . But when, by the Spirit of God, I comprehended these words, when I learned how the sinner's justification proceeds from the pure mercy of

the Lord by means of faith then I felt as it were a

new man born within me, and I entered through wide-spread doors into the very paradise of God. I looked, too, thence- forth with quite other eyes on the beloved and Holy Scrip- tures ; I read through the whole Bible, and collected a great number of passages that taught me it was the Work of God. And whereas I had before heartily hated the phrase, God's justice, I now began to esteem and love it as the dearest and most consoling of expressions. In truth, this text of Paul's was for me the true gate of paradise."

" I swear manfully to defend the gospel of truth,"* was the oath which the Reformer took on being a licen- tiate in theology, in 1 5 1 2. And right peacefuUy would

* " Juro me veritatem, viriliter defensurum."

INTRODUCTION. XXIX

he, and right manfully did he, stand to his oath — if he had been allowed. So far was he from then wishing to disturb the church, and to disorganize its func- tions,— that, till 1517, we find him tranquilly, but energetically, devoting himself to his duties, as lec- turer, and minister in Wittemberg. Popular declama- tions, academic instructions, &c., together with an evangelic crusade against Aristotle and Aquinas, absorbed him. It was in 1516, that the first dis- putation under his presiding sanction took place; and the propositions, or THESES, which one of his hearers, Bernhard, then supported in the hall of the university, may be said to contain the doctrinal results of the Reformation, in germ. Let the reader waft himself back to the distance of three centuries, and then decide, — what was the cleaving energy and spiritual force of that mind, that even then forced its way over heaps of scholastic jargon and piles of priestly sophistry, — to the pure glory and perfect simplicity of the gospel, as exhibited in the following, among other propositions; we take them from the first volume of his works in Latin, p. 1. (Ed. Jen.) : —

" Homo vetus, vanitas vanitatum, universaque vanitas, reliquas quoque creaturas, alioque bonas, efficit vanas."

" Carnis nomine dicitur homo vetus, non tantum quid sen- suali concupiscentia ducitur, sed, (etiamsi est castus, sapiens, Justus) quid non ex Deo per spiritum renascitur."

XXX INTRODUCTION.

" Voluntas hominis sine gratia non est libera, sed servit, licet non invita."

" Christus Jesus virtus nostra, justicia nostra, cordium et renum Scrutator, solus est cognitor meritorum nostrorura, ac judex."

" Cum credent! omnia sint, autore Christo, possibilia, super- sticiosum est, humano arbitrio, aliis sanctis, alia deputari auxilia."*

It was at this juncture that an ecclesiastical buffoon of the Dominican order, named John Tetzel, who was appointed by Albrecht of Mayence, the spiritual Elector, — made his appearance in Germany, to market indulgences, for the sakes of the pope's coffers and the prince's pockets. And now, they have roused the lion at length! — " By God's will," cries Luther, " I will make a hole in his drum!" and verily, Luther, a large one you made ! The contro-

* " The old man is vanity of vanities ; he is the universal vanity ; and renders the other creatures vain, how good soever they be.

" The old man is called the Jlesh, not only because he is led by the lusts of the senses, but still more because, even though he were chaste, prudent, and just, he is not born anew of God by the Spirit.

" The will of the man without grace is not free, but it is a slave, and is so of its own accord.

" Jesus Christ our strength, our justice, he who tries the hearts and the reins, is the sole searcher and judge of our merits.

" Since all is possible through Christ to him who believes, it is superstition to seek other succour, whether in human will or in the saiuts."

D

:

INTRODUCTION. XXXI

versy that followed all this, the interviews and argumentations with Cajetan, Miltitz, and Eckius, are too well known to be introduced here. And yet, we would wish in this part of our review, to direct the attention of those who are tempted to believe that Luther was a mere ecclesiastical chartist, reckless innovator, a hot-headed, headlong, and lawless monk, who rushed forward with the toma- hawk of rebellion in his hand, against orders, de- grees, and disciplines — to the fact that even now, (with all the infuriating yells of the base and hired Dominican sounding in his ears) — LUTHER WAS NO REBEL; nor had he the slightest intention of inno- vating on the order and peace of the church. Part of the following letter is quoted by Du Pin (vol. iii. p. 1 56) ; it was addressed to Leo the Tenth, who at first said, " ' Brother Martin is a man of very fine genius, and these squabbles are the mere effusions of monastic envy;' but who afterwards (when he felt his ponti- fical chair grow rather uncomfortable under his ele- gant ' Holiness') altered his tune to — * A drunken German has written them (the Theses) ; when he becomes sober, he will be of a different opinion.' — Methinks it would have been a fine thing for you, pampered Leo! had you set the example; for drunk you then assuredly were, with the fermenting vani-

XXXii INTRODUCTION.

ties of pontifical assumption." But let us have an extract from the said letter: —

" What can I now do ? I cannot recal my assertions, and yet I see that I have excited a great prejudice against myself by this publication. I would willingly retire from this con- flict, as I am compelled, against my will, to hear the danger- ous opinions of mankind, and more especially, because I am unlearned and inexperienced, and am too mean for such high affairs, particularly in this golden age, when the number of men of letters daily increases, so that, were Cicero still alive, he would quickly seek a corner in which to hide his head. But necessity impels me to come forward, who am but as a goose among the swans, that I may in some degree be recon- ciled to my opponents, and fulfil the wishes and demands of many of my friends in publishing my thoughts respecting indulgences. Therefore, most Holy Father, I cast myself at the feet of your Highness, and submit myself and all I pos- sess, to your disposal. Your Highness will do with me ac- cording to your pleasure ; for to you it belongs to accept or to reject my cause, to pronounce me right or wrong, to give or to take my life. Whatever may be the result, I shall still esteem the voice of your Highness, the voice of Christ, acting and speaking through you. If I have merited death, I do not refuse to die, ' for the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof;' praised be his name for ever and for ever. Amen."

At a later period of his life, this act of obedience was quoted against him, as a proof of truckling sub- serviency. His own reference to this portion of his public history is very interesting, and occurs in a Latin preface written to vol. i. of his works, 1545: —

INTRODUCTION. XXX111

" There were, however, and are now, others, -who appear to me to adhere to the pope on the principles of Epicurus, that is, for the sake of indulging their appetites ; when se- cretly they even deride him, and are as cold as ice if called upon to defend the papacy. I was never one of these : I was always a sincere believer ; I was always earnest in defending the doctrines I professed ; I went seriously to work as one who had a horrible dread of the day of judgment, and who from his inmost soul, was anxious for salvation.

" You will find, therefore, in my earlier writings, with how much humility, on many occasions, I gave up very con- siderable points to the pope which I now detest as blasphe- mous and abominable in the highest degree. This ERROR my slanderers call INCONSISTENCY; but you, pious reader, will have the kindness to make some allowance on account of the times and my inexperience. I stood absolutely alone at first, and certainly I was very unlearned and very unfit to undertake matters of such vast importance. It was by acci- dent, not willingly or by design, that I fell into these violent disputes : I call God witness.

" In the year 1517, when I was a young preacher, and dis- suaded the people from purchasing indulgences, telling them they might employ their time much better than in listening to the greedy proclaimers of that scandalous article of sale, I felt assured I should have the pope on my side ; for he him- self, in his public decrees, had condemned the excesses of his agents in that business.

" My next step was to complain to my own ordinary, and also to the Archbishop of Mentz ; but I knew not at that time that half of the money went to this lastmentioned pre- late, and the other half to the pope. The remonstrances of a low, mean, poor brother in Christ had no weight. Thus despised, I published a brief account of the dispute, along •with a sermon in the German language on the subject of in- dulgences ; and very soon after I published also explanations of my sentiments, in which, for the honour of the pope, I con-

XXXIV INTRODUCTION.

tended that the indulgences were not entirely to be con- demned, but that real works of charity were of FAR MORE

CONSEQUENCE.

" This was to set the world on fire, and disturb the whole order of the universe. At once and against me single, the whole popedom rose !"

After the manful simplicity and deep -hearted honesty of this avowal, we need not waste remarks on the fiction invented by Luther's foes, after his death — that, forsooth, it was only the jealousy which Luther bore against the rival order of the Dominican, as employed in the impious jugglery of " Indulgences," which prompted his attacks on the system!*

" Everything, I doubt not, would have been settled in the most peaceable and affectionate manner,

* After the lapse of three centuries, and the manifold evidence given both by Papal and Protestant writers to the integrity and purity of Luther, it is scarcely credible how completely the lower class of the Romish priests have succeeded in pre- occupying the imaginations and minds of the ignorant and superstitious, against the character of Luther. Bayle, in his dictionary, (and who will accuse him of sympathy with the spirituality of Luther's mind ?) has devoted his whole article on Luther to a refutation of all the monstrous falsehoods which have been invented against him. In allusion to the charge of " ATHEISM," made against him by a French slan- derer, most truly does this brilliant infidel observe, " There is no need to observe here that all this is to be understood by the rule of contraries ; the thing speaks for itself, and I am

„

INTRODUCTION. XXXV

if I would but have written down six letters, EEVOCO, I recant." But thank God ! Luther, you were made of different metal to this; for rather would you have been blasted into cinders by the curse of the Pope's Bull, than have done so; and if you had, — who can say, but on the ground of human foresight, you would have caused every letter in that recreant word to have been an adamantine link in a ruthless chain which might have bound the European world to the Pope's toe, for as many cen- turies as there were letters in that recantation! — Again we say, God be praised you did no such thing! — not you.

But the war is raging ; on the one side, stands the Miner's son, firm and unflinching as granite, for the truth; and on the other, — the Pope, the Devil,

certain there is no honest man, whatever religion he is of, but will detest or pity the extravagance of such a slanderer." Among other polite insinuations with which poor Martin was favoured, was one that gave him the devil for his father ! Yes, reader, he was gravely denounced as not a very man, but the mysterious incubus of a black spirit, hatched in the depths of Satanic darkness ! We may call this, if we please, PECULIAR to the age; yet, in this very year of boasted illumination, a missionary writes home to say, — that the poor people had been persuaded to avoid him, as the devil in disguise, and that they always looked at his feet suspiciously and tremblingly, till one day he took off his shoes and stockings to prove to them that he had not cloven feet ! I never heard that Luther did the same.

XXXVI INTRODUCTION.

and the world, with all their pomps and braveries and threats, and arts, against him ! And yet, listen ! — how the monk will keep them all at bay ; shaking them off from him, like a stormful Boanerges, with in- dignant, but not ungraceful, determination. " The glory of the Pontificate is departed. The wrath of God is come upon it for ever." To every man I am prepared to give way in all things, BUT THE WORD OF

GOD I DARE NEITHER ABANDON NOR DENY." Now

this prepares us for the scene that shortly foUowed. The infinitely miserable and detestable Bull of the Pope, having been at last promulgated by Eckius, and Luther's writing being actually burnt in various towns, — the brave Martin is determined to have a bonfire too; and as noble a one it shall be as ever sent up its flaming appeal to the skies! — On the 10th of December an invitation is affixed to a black board for the students at Wittemberg to attend this Lutheran firework. And, lo ! at nine in the morning, just as the chime is sounding, forth cometh Luther, from the Elster Gate, encircled by a goodly number of Doctors, Masters of Arts, and Students, and there ! — hark to the rejoicing crackle of the flames as they demolish with burning rapidity (as if they loved their work) Canon Law, Decretals, Clementines, the Extravagants, and parts of Eckius and Emser's work. As soon as these are annihilated,

INTRODUCTION. XXXV11

forth steps Doctor Martin, holding the infamous Bull in his hand, and exclaiming aloud, — " Because thou hast grieved the saints of the Lord, so mayest thou be grieved and condemned by the everlasting fire." It must have been a heart-shaking spectacle, this egregious bonfire : one may be excused a desire to have warmed one's hands in the reflection of its blaze; or to have taken a look at the fine, craggy, and open-fronted visage of the redoubtable Doctor, when his great black eyes were glittering with fearless light, while his voice rolled its solemn intonations over the mute and admiring assembly. But that suspended breath was soon un- loosed; and what a shout went up at the conclusion of this moral jubilee ! — The world is haunted with its echoes still.

Now, if any head mathematically nice, or any heart prudentially frigid, be inclined to question the propriety of this unborrowed proceeding, Martin himself, in his own sinewy, strong, and healthful style, is quite ready with his answer: —

" I Martin Luther, Doctor of the Holy Scriptures, an Au- gustine Monk at Wittemberg, hereby declare to all whom it may concern, that by my will, counsel, and assistance, were burnt, on the Monday after St. Nicholas, sundry books of the Pope of Rome and his adherents. Should any one feel sur- prise, and be disposed to inquire for what cause, and by d 2

XXXV111 INTRODUCTION.

•whose authority I have thus acted, let him herewith receive an answer. In the first place, it is an ancient, and a very useful custom, to burn wicked and poisonous books."

Indeed it is a very "useful custom;" — and, bold monk! were you alive now, we should like you to encore the burning scene in front of a certain Popish college, and to consume into ashes PETER DENS and his fraternity of noisome authors, in the very first blaze. — Such garbage is too bad even for this bad world.

But let us hasten to the last and loftiest in the train of those extraordinary events which belong to the public life of our immortal " Heresiarch." " Ye shall be brought before GOVERNORS AND KINGS for my sake," — is about to receive a new illustration, in the fact that the son of a Saxon miner is about to stand front to front, with cheek unblanched, with brow unfallen, and with eye unquailing, in all the fearlessness of a free and genuine Man, before Charles the Fifth and his myrmidons and his court, — in the imperial hall of Worms. In vain do boding voices and entreating solicitudes of friend- ship strive to prevent Luther's obedience to the Emperor's summons. " The will of God be done ! Christ will give me his spirit to overcome these ministers pf Satan. I despise them while I live. I will triumph over them in death. They are striving

INTRODUCTION. XXXIX

hard at Worms to force me to recant. My recan- tation shall be this ! — I said formerly that the Pope was Christ's Vicar; now I say that he is the Adversary of the Lord, and the Apostle of the Devil!" There's a recantation for you! — Framed according to the energies of as dauntless a spirit as ever glowed in the bosom of man for the cause almighty. But, Luther, what will they do with you when they catch you at Worms? They will burn you into silence, though they cannot beseech you into submission! — what then? " Mini VERO, Q.UI VOCATUS SUM, DECRE- TUM EST, ET CERTUM INGREDI URBEM IN NOMINE JESU CHRISTI ETIAMSI SCIREM TOT DIABOLOS

MIHI OPPOSITOS, QUOT SUNT TEGUL^ IN OM- NIBUS TOTIUS ORBIS TECTIS."*

And now hearken to the spirit of the chivalrous soldier of Christ, Ulric Hutten : — " THE LORD

HEAR THEE IN THE DAY OF TROUBLE ! " Oh,

beloved Luther, my venerated father, fear not! Stand firm — fight valiantly the battle of Christ!"— You need not fear that, Hutten; for Luther is a right proper man for the conflict before him! The

* "I am resolved and determined to obey the summons, and enter the city in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ ; though I were confronted by as many devils as there be roof-tiles on all the houses of the whole world." — Luth. Op., vol. ii., Ed. Jen., p. 436.

xl INTRODUCTION.

result is known, — and felt, too, as far almost as the tides of scriptural truth have since circulated. Amid the excited homage of thousands lining the streets, crowding the gardens, and covering the house-tops, — Luther is led to the imperial hall of the Diet; and towards evening there stood forth, like another Paul before another Agrippa, and uttered words, whose undying majesty and truth have affected more than three hundred years with their consequences and charm. Here they are : — " Quando ergo Serenissima Majestas vestra, domi- nationes qucB vestrce, simplex responsum petunt, dabo illud neque cornutum, neque dentatum, in liunc modum. Nisi convictus fuero testimoniis Scripturarum, aut ratione evidente (nam neque papoe, neque conciliis solis credo, cum constat eos errasse ssepius, et sibipsis contra dixisse) victus sum Scripturis a me adductis, capta que est con- scientia in verbis Dei, revocare neque possum neque volo quidquam, cum contra conscientiam agere, neque tutum sit neque integrum. — Hier stehe ich : Ich kan nicht anders : Gott helfe mir! Amen."*

* " Since your Imperial Majesty and their lordships, require a plain answer, I will give one, which shall neither have horns nor teeth ; and that is, that unless I am con- vinced and overpowered by the testimony of Scripture, or by open, plain, and clear grounds and reasons, (for I will not pin my faith to either popes or councils alone, it being mani-

INTRODUCTION. xli

To retract, or not to retract — that was then thy question, Luther. And we, who are now the intel- lectual and moral inheritors of all that thy negative then bequeathed mankind, — may well describe thy bearing in this hour of magnificent trial, as the finest specimen of full-toned Manhood since the apostolic times. It was, indeed, the history of ages epitomized into a single breath; and over the coro- nation of Principle which was then performed, the angels might again have awakened their song of enhancement — " Good will to man"! Then was the world virtually advanced for centuries of moral freedom and intellectual expansion; above all, then was the inviolable Ark of the human conscience enshrined in the reverence of centuries to come; — for he who is a Helot in conscience, is a machine, and not a Man; he has lost his spiritual personality, and henceforth may take his place upon the dung- hill of all degeneracy and contempt.

Perhaps the compound results of this memorable Diet cannot be better stated than by accommodating

fest as day that they have often erred, and contradicted themselves,) so that in the sentiments and dogmas which I have taught, I shall be convicted and set fast in my own con- science and by the word of God, I can and will retract nothing ; because it is neither safe nor wise to do anything contrary to conscience. Here I stand ; I cannot do other- wise ; so may God help me. Amen !"

Xlii INTRODUCTION.

to them the following passage from Viller's " Essay on the Spirit &c. of the Reformation," p. 296 — 298:

" It is, therefore, under this point of view, that the Refor- mation must be considered as a necessary product of a new age, as a manifestation of a new spirit. What Dante and Petrarch were to poetry, Michael Angelo and Raphael to the arts of drawing, Bacon and Descartes to philosophy, Coper- nicus and Galileo to astronomy, Columbus and Gama to the science of the earth, such was Luther to religion. Organs of the universal mind, these eminent men expressed correctly what was lurking in a great number of their contemporaries, and at one stroke satisfied the wants of their time. As soon as the spark flashed from their genius, the flame, ready to appear, spread in all directions. What was only a prescience, a vague idea, insulated in a number of heads, acquired a consistence, a fixed direction, appeared externally, was com- municated from individual to individual, and a continued chain connected all thinking minds. Such is the natural mode of the tacit conspiration which governs all reformations. Those effected in the dominion of the arts and of the major part of the sciences, being foreign to the passions and to the volcanic commotions of the mass of the people, are generally accompanied by peace, and are accomplished without causing the tears of humanity to flow. It could not be thus with that provoked by Luther. Religion was not then a simple opinion, a simple moral being; it had an immense body, which oppressed all the political bodies, which laid claim to all thrones, to all the possessions of the earth. At the first wound it felt, the colossus shuddered, and the world was shaken ; princes and nations flew to arms and engaged in a dreadful struggle — a struggle of opinions and interests, the results of which were so varied and so important.

" I have only sought to prove that, everything being ba- lanced, and the definitive account closed, this revolution offers a surplus of good to humanity ; and, finally, that it must be ranked in the number of the major events which have contri-

INTRODUCTION. xliii

bated most powerfully to the progress of civilization and knowledge, not only in Europe, but in every part of the earth where Europeans have carried their culture."

Let us now take another and more internal view of this Martin Luther, and endeavour to trace a native harmony between the guiding principle and the manifested character of the man. The first trait that strikes us in perusing his Life and Letters jgj — the SIMPLE GRANDEUR OF HIS FAITH. There is a noble simplicity, a deep, intense, and over- powering earnestness and truthfulness about it, whereby you perceive at once that he was not merely an intellectual theologian, conversant with terms ABOUT God; — but a hearty, genuine, confiding realizer and appropriator of the revealed Godhead in Christ, to his individual consciousness, and creed. He did, as it were, substantiate Divinity to his own experience; and felt, that though in himself he was dust, and ashes, and iniquity; yet, in mystical one- ness with the Divine Head of the Body, he was an object of personal regard and providence, in the counsels of Heaven. Hence (quaint as it is) who is surprised to hear him say, " If I rightly under- stood, and did believe only these few words, ' OUR Father which art in heaven,' then should I cer- tainly conclude with myself that I am (in a manner) n lord of heaven and earth, that Christ is my bro-

Xliv INTRODUCTION.

tlier, that Gabriel is my servant, and Raphael my coachman; (!) that all the angels, in my necessities, are my attendants, for they are given unto me of my heavenly Father, to keep me in all my ways; in short, it must needs follow that everything is mine" ( Colloquia MensaL) And still more character- istic of his persuasion that God individuated him for His own high purposes, is the following passage from his will, dated 1542 : — " Lastly, I request, that as I have in this my will (not without a par- ticular reason) dispensed with the usual forms of law, that I may still be considered the person who in truth I am, one well known in heaven, and earth, and hell." And if we wish to know the secret of this sacred boldness in thus attaching himself to the throne of the Eternal, Yert Dietrich, his amanu- ensis, will inform us, who was with him in the castle of Coburg, while the Diet of Augsburg was sitting ; and who speaks thus of Luther in a letter to Me- lancthon : — " I was once so fortunate as to hear him pray. But, God help me, what a spirit! what FAITH! was in his words! He prayed so devoutly as one who addressed God, and so full of hope and confidence as one who converses with his father" — My heart burned within me for joy that he could speak so devoutly and yet so familiarly with God; but especially that he so urged the promises in the

INTRODUCTION. xlv

Psalms, as if assured that all must come to pass that he desired." In short, it appears that Luther did not make his religion his God, but made God his religion. With him, it was a Life, a Substance, a Reality, and a Truth. He acted as a man under the eye-beam of an observing God and ever-loving Parent; and thus incarnated the glorious text of the chief among the apostles — " I can do ALL THINGS, through Christ that strengthens me!" And yet, we are bound to remember, that this intense realization of Divinity and Eternity by faith, never led to fanatic lawlessness, or dreaming mysticism; for while, on the one hand, he was firmly convinced, that on the sovereign WILL of the unaccountable Jehovah de- pended all the Possibilities and all the principles of " things, — he never forgot," that He who has pre- destinated events has also predestinated means; and that while the one appertains to the " secret things" above, and beyond our intelligence to reach; the other is revealed openly and plainly under the Throne, and brought into contact with duty and care. And, therefore, with all his reverential be- lief in the absolute pre-ordinations of God, you never find him rushing into reckless fanaticism, or mystical presumptions. His mind was too mus- cular, his heart too healthy, and his creed too orthodox, for such imbecile conduct. " When

Xlvi INTRODUCTION.

they persecute you in1 this city, flee ye into another." The Reformer assuredly acted with the spirit of our Lord's precept. In himself he had no taste for persecution and prisons; there were no sickly vapours in his constitution; the man was too honest to pretend he desired martyrdom; and yet, if a " need-be" had come before him in no question- able shape, as the appointment of God, — assuredly, he possessed an heroic sturdiness, and a spiritual invinci- bility of temperament, which would have enabled him to face it. Paul and he, in this respect, are counter- parts, considered in their human capacity as private Christians. Events they knew to be God's — duties they believed to be man's; and their absolute confi- dence as to the certainty of the one, never allowed them to abstain from prompt and practical obedience to the other.

The next great principle which moulded the cha- racter of the Reformer is connected with the Scrip- tures, as containing the Rule of Faith. On this subject, Seckendorf says — " Duobus fundamentis omnia scripta Lutheri dogmatica innituntur ; affirmatut certas et credenda, qua ex Sacra Scrip - tura probari possunt ; negat articulos Jidei esse, qucB ex Scriptura pro talibus, non possunt demon- strari" Now, in the result of their meaning, is not this in doctrinal consonance with the sixth article

INTRODUCTION. xlvii

of our branch of the Catholic church? — " Holy Scripture CONTAINETH all things necessary to SAL- VATION; so that whatsoever is not READ therein, nor may be PROVED THEREBY, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an ARTICLE OF THE FAITH, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation."

Concerning this Article and others in the glorious phalanx of the Thirty -nine, although it may be feared that in certain cases Coleridge's sarcasm may be quoted, (viz., that some " clergymen who find it more easy to hide their thoughts than to suppress think- ing, and treat the Thirty-nine Articles as the whale did Jonah — i. e., swallow, but not digest him;") yet, in the main there are few who will not, " ex animo" as dutiful sons and servants of our church, put their seal to its essential verity — viz., that the word of God is absolutely and entirely SUFFICIENT for the grand purpose for which it was revealed — to make men " wise unto salvation." But, while adopting (in all the glory of its simplicity) the principle, that the Scripture is a rule of faith in all essentials, — Luther is by no means responsible for the multiform perversions and exaggerations which have been de- duced from, or connected with, this great axiom of reason and revelation. It would be equally just to attribute to Lord Bacon a system of induction, as ap-

Xlviii INTRODUCTION.

plied to the interpretation of phenomena in the phy- sical world, — all the distorted scepticism which has arisen from a false application of his philosophy to the science of internal consciousness, or mind. Let us hear some of Luther's own sentiments on the Scrip- tures, and his view of the spirit and style in which they are to be consulted: — " Let us not lose the Bible, but with all diligence, and in GOD'S FEAR, read and preach the same ; for if that remaineth, flourisheth, and be taught, then all is safe ; she is the head and empress of all faculties and arts. If divinity falleth, then whatsoever remaineth besides, is nothing worth." Here we find no encouragement held out to a profane lawlessness in the reading of the Bible; but in another passage, still more guarded is he, in alluding to the position of the heart and intellect before the revealed Will of the Almighty. " Now we ought not to measure, censure, and understand Scripture ACCORDING TO OUR OWN NATURAL SENSE AND REASON, but we ought diligently, by PRAYER, to meditate therein, and search into the same." * * * Moreover, the Holy Ghost must be the only MASTER AND TUTOR, to teach us therein and search into the same ; and let youth and scholars not be ashamed to learn of this Tutor. Again; how vividly have the hearts of millions of the Priests and Kings in the mysteries of the sacred life, borne witness to the ex-

i

INTRODUCTION. xlix

perimental reality of the following : — " I did not learn my divinity all at once, but was constrained search deeper and deeper, to which my tempta- tions brought me ; FOB NO MAN WITHOUT TEMPTA- TIONS CAN ATTAIN TO THE TRUE UNDERSTANDING

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES." And that Luther did not so hold the sufficiency of Scripture as the Rule of Faith, as to despise all authoritative deductions from it in the shape of creeds, &c., is apparent from another remark of his, touching the Apostles' Creed, in harmony with which, the " Consent of the Fathers" is to be reverently esteemed : — " I believe that the words of our Christian belief were in such sort ordained by the apostles, who were together, and made this sweet symbolum so briefly and com- fortable. It is a work of the Holy Spirit to describe these great things with such strong, brief, and mighty words. No human creatures besides the Apostles, and the Holy Ghost, had been able to com- prehend them in such manner ; no, not although ten thousand worlds had studied to make them ; therefore the words therein ought to be well con- sidered. I cannot sufficiently admire the same."

From truths and sentiments like these (which

abound in the writings of Luther) an honest mind

will at once derive an eloquent answer wherewith to

refute the reckless assertion of the Romish assailants,

e2

1 INTRODUCTION.

who accuse Luther of being the great founder of self-willed fanaticism in the interpretation of Scrip- ture. This is far from being true ; for while on the one hand he strongly (severely at times) vindicates the inalienable prerogative of the human conscience in matters of essential faith; we do not find him at any one period of his life so asserting the indepen- dency of private judgment as to hold out a spirit of lawless gratification to all the vagaries of heretical vanity, or intellectual conceit. But we may advance a step beyond this vindication of Luther's guarded view of the liberties of individual judgment in ascer- taining the creed of the Bible, and prove that as the mad impetuosities of sectarians began to rage, and convulse the church, and threaten the entire struc- ture of the reformed religion, — Luther himself (at the expense of a minute consistency) had no objection to fall back on the veritable support of a " quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est" touching essentials in salvation. In the first place, we refer to a passage in the Augsburg Confession, which was based on the seventeen Articles drawn up by Luther. The following is in the conclusion of the first twenty-one Articles : — " This, then, is merely the sum of the doctrine which is taught and preached in our churches as genuine Christian in- struction, and a solid foundation for peace of con-

INTRODUCTION. 11

science, as well as for the edification of believers; and since it is plainly founded on Holy Writ, and neither the universal, nor even the Romish church, so far as can be gathered from the writings of the Fathers, is opposed to it" &c. But as an irrefrag- able proof that, so FAR as it can be fairly ascer- tained, the unanimous consent of a Christian an- tiquity was revered and respected by Luther ; we direct attention to a passage in reference to the sacramental dispute, after the death of Zuinglius, and written on the field of Kappal. " Moreover, this doctrine is not an article or thesis, beyond the Scriptures, the invention of man ; but established in the gospel by the clear and undoubted words of Christ, and UNANIMOUSLY BELIEVED AND HELD IN

ALL THE WORLD, FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE

CHRISTIAN CHURCH TO THIS HOUR, AS is SHEWN

IN THE WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS, IN BOTH THE

GREEK AND LATIN LANGUAGES," &c. * * * * which testimony of the entire holy Catholic church, even if we had nothing more, would alone be suffi- cient to warrant an adherence to this article, lending no ear to wild fanatics. For it is terrible and dan- gerous to believe or listen to what is contrary to the united testimony or doctrine of the entire holy Catholic church, maintained and published through- out the world for fifteen hundred years. I had

I

Hi INTRODUCTION.

rather have against me the testimony of all fanatics, and all the wisdom of emperors, kings, and princes, than one Iota, or tittle, of the entire holy Catholic church : for articles of faith thus unanimously and universally maintained, may not be trifled with, like papal bulls or imperial decrees, or even human tra- dition of councils, or the Fathers" The APPLICATION of this principle of reference to catholic testimony, is a distinct question from the RECOGNITION of it as an element in controversy. From the above, it is obvious that those who appeal to Luther, as a mere ecclesiastical anarch, do so with much injustice to his character, under a misapprehension of his real views.*

» The attention of the reader is directed to the following extracts from the Fathers, which have been adduced by Tillot- son in his Vindication of the " Rule of Faith." Pertinent as they are, they constitute but a very minute portion of the patristic evidence for the confirmation of Luther's views re- garding the adequacy of Revelation, as a guide to eternal life:—

" The Romans were not content with the doctrine preached, unless it were also committed to writing ; and therefore did earnestly beg of Mark, Peter's companion, that he would leave them a monument in writing of that doctrine which had been delivered to them by word of mouth. And this was the oc- casion of the writing of St. Mark's gospel. And when Peter did understand that this work was published (being suggested by the divine revelation of the Holy Spirit), it is said he was very much pleased with the ready and earnest desire of those persons; and that by his authority he confirmed this writing,

INTRODUCTION. liii

The disasters, heresies, and corruptions arising from the liberty of " private judgment," form a darling theme for the Romish controversialist. But, even if we were inclined to admit his argument, and acknowledge his inferences, it would not tend in the slightest manner to alleviate the criminality of the Roman Dissent in its treatment of the Scriptures. For, under the pretence and cloak of honouring them with intellectual reverence and spiritual homage, Rome has contrived to do more for dethroning the Bible from the heart of mankind, than all the un- veiled blasphemies and undisguised attacks of the infidel and sensualist. For (if reduced into their expressive results) the Trentine doctrines seem to

to the end that it might be everywhere read in the church. As for St. Matthew and St. John, he tells us,* that of all the disciples, they two only have left monuments in writing, of whom it is also reported that they betook themselves to write, being drawn thereto by necessity. Matthew, after he had preached the word of God to the Jews, and was resolved to go to other nations, wrote his gospel in the language of his country, and thus by the diligence and pains of writing, did abundantly supply the want of his presence to those whom he left. And when Mark and Luke had published their gospel, it is reported that John (who had always used to preach the word without writing it) being at length wrought upon by the same reason, did betake himself to write." From this account, it is clear that the apostles thought it necessary, for the preservation and secure conveyance of the Christian

* Histor. Eccles. 1. iii. c. 18.

Hv INTRODUCTION.

amount to this — not only that she alone is the infal- lible expositor of Almighty truth; but that God's utterances require to pass through the revising channel of the church, before they can be adapted to the minds of the people, — thus involving the stu- pendous falsehood, that the Church (which is a mere

doctrine, that it should be put into writing ; and that they judged this a better way to supply the want of their presence than oral tradition. Therefore the same author tells us,* " that the disciples, who immediately succeeded the apostles, as they travelled to preach the gospel to those who had not yet heard the word of faith, did with great care also deliver to them the writings of the holy evangelists. Again,f that Ignatius, as he travelled towards Rome, where he was to suffer, exhorted the churches of every city to hold fast the tradition of the apostles, which, as also by writing he testi- fieth, for the greater security he held necessary to be copied in writing."

§ 4. That the heretics of old made the same pretence which the papists make now of oral tradition in opposition to Scripture, the same Eusebius tells us : and withal, that books are a suffi- cient confutation of this pretence.J " Those," says he, " who were of the heresy of Artemon said that all their forefathers, and the apostles themselves, had received and taught the same things which they also did, and had preserved the true teach- ing unto the time of Victor, Bishop of Rome, whose succes- sor, Zephyrinus, corrupted it" " And this," saith he, " would have great probability, were it not first of all contradicted by the Scripture ; and next, if there did not remain the writings of other brethren much more ancient than Victor's time, &c., in the books of all whom Christ's divinity is acknowledged. And afterwards, he tells us that these heretics did change and

* Histor. Eccles. 1. iii. c. 31 . t Ibid. c. 30. J Ibid. 1. 5.

INTRODUCTION. v

creature) has been more solicitous for the INTERPRE- TATION of Scripture, than God himself has been for the REVELATION of the same ! However, this is not the place to discuss the great distinction between the Catholic soundness of the Church of England, in contrast with the ww-Catholic sophistries of

corrupt the Scriptures, to bring them to their opinions ; so Mr. S. tells us, " that the outward letter of scripture ought to be corrected by tradition and sense written in men's hearts."

St. Hierom also tells us* " that the heretics were wont to say, we are the sons of the wise, who did from the beginning deliver down to us the apostolical doctrine ;" but he adds, " that the true sons of Judah adhere to the Scripture."

§ 4. That Scripture is sufficiently plain in all things ne- cessary.

St. Chrysostom :f " All things in the divine Scriptures are plain and straight. Whatsoever things are necessary are manifest."

St. Austin having spoken of the profoundness of Scrip- ture, adds, J " Not that those things which are necessary to sal- vation are so hard to be come at : but, saith he, when one hath there attained faith, without which there is no pious and right living, there are besides many dark and mysterious things," &c. Again, §" The manner of speech in Scripture, how easy is it to all, though few can penetrate to the bottom of it ? Those things which it plainly contains, it speaks without dis- guise, like a familiar friend, to the heart of the learned and unlearned." How will Mr. S. reconcile this with his great exception against Scripture ? And what these things are, which are plainly contained in Scripture, the same father tells us elsewhere in these words : " Among those things which are

* Com. in Isa. c. 19. t In 2 Thess. c. 2, horn. 4.

t Epist. 3. § Ibid.

Ivi INTRODUCTION.

Rome, concerning the free circulation of the Bible, as far as the pulsations of the human spirit extend. Nor need we comment on the gross paralogism of her endeavours to uphold the most fulsome of all lying impostures, " Infallibility," by appealing, in the same breath, TO reason — in order to justify her

plainly set down in Scripture, all those things are to be found which comprehend faith and good manners."* The same St. Austin (as also Clement, in the book which Mr. White quoted, for the understanding of obscure texts of Scripture, (directs us not to tradition, but to the plain text, without which he ex- pressly says, " there would be no way to understand them."f

§ 5. That Scripture is so plain as to be fit to determine controversies.

Justin, sure, thought so when disputing with Trypho con- cerning a point wherein the Jew had tradition on his side. He told him he would bring such proofs, to the contrary, as no man could gainsay. " Attend," says he, " to what I shall recite out of the holy Scriptures, proofs which need not to be ex- plained, but only to be heard. Mr. White might have found likewise much to this purpose in his Clement.

But not to tire my reader in a point which the ancients abound with, I shall only produce the judgment of Constan- tinej in that solemn oration of his to the council of Nice, wherein he bewails their " mutual oppositions, especially in divine things," concerning which, they had the doctrine of the Holy Spirit recorded in writing ; "for," says he, " the books of the evangelists and apostles, and the oracles of the old prophets, do evidently teach us what we ought to think of the Divine Majesty. Therefore, laying aside all seditious contention, let us determine the matters in question by testi-

* De Doctr. Christ. 1. 3, c. 9. t De Unitate Eccles. c. 5.

t Theodoret. Hist. 1. i. c. 7.

INTRODUCTION. Ivii

pretensions; and AGAINST it, to protect her doctrines ! In other words, she argues with our fallibility to convince us of her infallibility, and denies Scripture to be the rule of faith, while at the same time she directs us to that same Scripture as a reasonable proof for herself as a guide, against itself as a rule! —

monies out of the Divine writings." Not a word of any other tradition but Scripture, which was held evident enough in those days, though now Mr. S. tells us it is not sufficient to decide that controversy about the divinity of Christ.

§ 6. Lastly, that Scripture is the rule of faith.

IrencEus :* " The method of our salvation we have not known by any other but those men by whom the gospel came to us, which then they preached, but afterwards by the will of God delivered it to us in the Scriptures, to be for the future the foundation and pillar of our faith."

St. Cyprian, the church hath ever held a good catholic ; yet Mr. S.f takes notice that he erred in a point of faith ; and perhaps the rather, because Mr. RushworthJ had told him that he was not theirs in this controversy. " For," says he, " St. Cyprian seems to think that the resolution of faith was to be made into Scripture, and not into tradition." But that we may not seem to accept of this courtesy from him, nor yet wholly to despise it, I shall offer this one testimony instead of many out of that father, who, being opposed with an argu- ment from tradition, demands, " Whence have you that tradi- tion ? Comes it from the authority of the Lord, and of the gospel, or from the epistles of the apostles ? For God testi- fies that we are to do those things which are written, &c. If it be commanded in the gospel, or contained in the Epistles or

* 1. Hi. c. 1. f P. 314. J Dial. 3, sect. 13.

Iviii INTRODUCTION.

But we will just venture to remind the reader, that so far from having designed to protect Scripture, by her system of reserve and priestly limitation, — the church of Rome has only avoided the Bible on the same principle as the thief flies from the police, — > to escape detection. Secondly, in reference to her

Acts of the Apostles, then let us observe it as a divine and holy tradition."*

Hilary^ commends Constantius the emperor for regula- ting the faith only according to those things which are written. And to oblige him to deserve this commendation, he adds, " He who refuses this is antichrist, and who dissembles in it is anathema."

Optatus^ concerning the controversy with the Donatists, asks who shall be judge? and answers himself, " The Scriptures :" which he illustrates by the similitude of a father who deli- vered his will orally to his children while he was living, but when he was dying, caused it to be written in lasting tables to decide all controversies that might happen among them after his death. The passage is large, and it is obvious to apply it.

Basil, maintaining the doxology as it was used in his days, says, " Thus we received it from our fathers ;" but adds imme- diately, " This is not enough for us, that it is the tradition of the fathers, for they followed the authority of the Scriptures, making its testimonies the principles upon which they built.§ He has, indeed, in the same book|| a passage much insisted on by the papists concerning unwritten traditions ; but withal, he says those traditions were secretly conveyed, which makes all the rest of no use to Mr. S.

Chrysostom,^ having mentioned several heresies, directs how they may be avoided, — viz., by attending to the faith

* Epist. 74. f Ad Constant. t Lib. 5, de Schism. Donat.

§ De Sp. Sancto, c. 7. || Ibid. c. 27. f Horn. 8, in Ep. ad Heb. c. 5.

INTRODUCTION. lix

ng the authorized interpreter of the Holy Volume, — either she has, or she has not, an infallible interpre- tation:— if she has, then is she a robber, in keeping the richest of all blessings from the hearts and con- sciences of her people; if she has not such an inter- pretation,— then may we adopt the fearless language

delivered, and looking upon all that disagrees from that as adulterate. " For," says he, " as those who give rules do not put men upon a curious inquiry after any measures, but bid them keep to the rule given ; so it is in opinions. But nobody will attend to the Scriptures ; if we did, we should not only not fall into errors ourselves, but also rescue those that are deceived." Again :* " If we would be throughly conversant in the Scriptures, we should be instructed both in right opinions and a good life. Again, among the many sects of Christiansf it will be easy to judge of the right, if we believe the Scrip- tures, because they are plain and true : if any one agree with these, he is a Christian ; if he contradicts them, he is far from this rule."

St. Austin calls the Scripture,^ the divine balance for the weighing of doctrines. Again : " The holy scripture," says he, " fixeth the rule of our doctrine." And accordingly himself uses it both in his dispute with Maximinus, to whom he says,§ " Neither ought I now to allege the Nicene council, nor thou that of Ariminum ; for neither am I bound to the authority of the one, nor thou of the other. Let us both contest with the authorities of Scripture, which are witnesses common to us both." And also against the Donatists in these words : " Let them, if they can, demonstrate their church, not by the talk and rumours (or oral tradition) of the Africans, not by the councils of their own bishops, not by the books of

I

* Horn. 52, in Johan. t Horn. 33, in Act. Apost.

t De Bapt. Cont. Donat. 1. 2, c. 6. § Contr. Max. 1. 3.

Ix INTRODUCTION.

of Scripture, — and say, she "lies, and the truth is not in her." Thirdly, we are bound to remember, that the heresies which have infected the church arose, NOT from the perversion of a circulated Scripture in the hands of the people; but rather, from the ambition, pride, envy, and rancour of wily monks, schismatic deacons, envious presbyters, and in some cases, of rival bishops. Fourthly, the whole spirit of pure Catholicism implies, that the REAL

WAY TO PROTECT THE BlBLE IS TO CIRCULATE IT;

their disputers, not by deceitful miracles, &c., but by the pre- script of the law, prophets, &c. — i. e., by all the canonical au- thorities of the holy books."*

Hierom saith.f " Of those things, which without the au- thorities and testimonies of the Scripture, men invent of their own heads as from apostolical tradition, they are smitten with the sword of God."

Theophilus Alexander, whom Hierom hath translated, calls Scripture more than onoej the rule, and the testimonies of it the firm foundations of doctrine. And again saith, " It comes from a demoniacal spirit that men follow the sophisms of human minds, and think anything divine that wants the authority of Scripture."

Theodoret charges all heresies upon the not following of Scripture, which he calls the inflexible rule of truth. Again : " We have learned the rule of opinion from the divine Scrip- ture."

After the fathers, I shall produce the testimonies of two eminent persons of latter times, Gerson and Lyra.

Gerson, in his book of the Trial of Doctrines, hath this re-

* De Unitat. Eccles. c. 16. f Comment, in Agg. c. l.

% Paschal. 1. 3.

INTRODUCTION. Ixi

and that the true victory over heresy, is to be main- tained not by keeping the Scriptures from contact with the popular mind, but rather, by imbuing the heart of the empire more vitally, radically, and expe- rimentally with their divine influence, doctrine, and verity. " The ENTRANCE of Thy Word giveth LIGHT, it giveth understanding to the SIMPLE." Thus saith a coronation hymn, chanted by Inspiration to the glory of Revelation; and there is more than enough in this canon of the Almighty to answer all the sophistries urged against the darkness, difficulty, and

markable passage : " In the trial of doctrines, that which is first and principally to be considered, is, whether a doctrine be conformable to the holy Scripture, &c. The reason of this is, because the Scripture is delivered to us as a sufficient and infallible rule for the government of the whole ecclesiastical body and its members to the end of the world. So that it is such an art, such a rule or exemplar, that any other doctrine which is not conformable to it, is to be renounced as heretical, or to be accounted suspicious, or not at all appertaining to re- ligion." Again : " It is evident how pernicious the rejection of the holy Scripture is, and how certain a preparatory for the reception of antichrist." Once more : " What mischief, what danger, what confusion hath happened through contempt of the holy Scripture, which, sure, is sufficient for the government of the church (else Christ must have been an imperfect law- giver), let us ask experience," &c.

Lyra also writes thus : "As in philosophy truth is discovered by reducing things to their first and self-evident principles, so in the writings delivered by the holy doctors, truth is dis- covered, as to matters of faith, by reducing them to the canonical Scriptures."

lxii% INTRODUCTION.

danger of consulting the Bible. Fifthly, let the genuine Protestant remember, that there is a leading fallacy running through the entire argument of the Romish church on the " Rule of Faith." When the English Catholic pleads for the Bible, as the ground of his faith, he does not mean to assert the unfailing EFFICIENCY, but the universal SUFFICIENCY of the Scriptures, — his guide to salvation: that is, he does not confound Scripture as fallibly interpreted by the individual mind, with the same, as infallibly communicated by God. And this remark conducts us to the last we shall venture to offer on the sub- ject; namely — that unless we are to imagine the mind of man to be reduced into mere intellectual machinery, worked and wielded by a resistless im- pulse from above — a rule of faith, absolutely and universally incapable of abuse, cannot, in the very nature of the case, be given, even by the Supreme Himself. For it is not in moral, as in physical remedies; in the latter, the test of their adequacy lies in the positive harmony between the means and the result attained. For instance, the certain power of medicine can only be proved by a corresponding amount of cure; and in proportion as the cure is not effected, we may assert that the adequacy of the medicine in this respect is unproven. But in the former case (that of moral remedies), this reasoning

INTRODUCTION. Ixiii

is fallacious. Here, in order to prove that a remedy is sufficient, it is not necessary to shew that inva- riably it is successful; because, unless man is to be degraded into an automaton, there must always re- main in him, (even to the last,) in every remedial process, a positive amount of election, or moral responsibility; so that he can, if he will, — resist the evidence that is brought before him. And this holds in Scripture. We claim for it infallibility, as a rule of faith in all the essentials of salvation. But we do not mean by this, — that to all it will prove an EFFICIENT guidance: because we are aware that man, as a rational and accountable agent, must be allowed, even in the things of eternity, — to exer- cise his moral nature responsibly, or cease to exercise it at all. If, therefore, (which we are far from granting,) the Romish controversialists could shew that the principles of the Reformation, as main- tained by Luther, and held by the Church of Eng- land, concerning the right of reading the Scriptures, had been a thousand times more abused to heresy and schism than they have been, — they would still leave the whole argument for the sufficiency of Scripture as a Rule of Faith, un violated and unmoved. For the Bible's sufficiency depends not on the re- ception with which it is greeted by man; but rather, on the real suitability of its doctrines, promises,

Ixiv INTRODUCTION.

and principles, to the condition of our nature, as contemplated by God. And thus, while we plead for all the fulness of divine inspiration, we expect to the last, it will be perpetually frustrated by all the vileness of human perversion. We conclude this allusion to the Rule of Faith by an eloquent passage from one who, both as churchman and Chris- tian, is well entitled to be heard on this theme: —

" Its very presence, as a believed book, has rendered the nations emphatically a chosen race, and this, too, in exact proportion, as it is more or less generally known and studied. Of these nations, which in the highest degree enjoy its influ- ences, it is not too much to affirm that the differences, public and private, physical, moral, and intellectual, are only less than what might be expected from a diversity of species. Good and holy men, and the best and wisest of mankind, the kingly spirits of history, enthroned in the hearts of mighty nations, have borne witness to its influences, have declared it to be beyond compare the most perfect instrument, the only adequate organ, of humanity ; the organ and instrument of all the gifts, powers, and tendencies by which the individual is privileged to rise above himself — to leave behind and lose his dividual phantom self, in order to find his true self, in that distinctness where no division can be — in the eternal I AM, the everliving WORD, of whom all the elect, from the archangel before the throne to the poor wrestler with the Spirit, until the breaking of day, are but the fainter and still fainter echoes." — Coleridge's Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit, p. 72.

We now revert to another view of the man Luther, and are struck with the truth of a remark made by Coleridge, in the curious parallelism which he has

INTRODUCTION. xV

instituted between the Apostle of the French Revo- lution, and the Apostle of the German Reformation. " Each (i.e., Rousseau and Luther) referred all things to his own ideal. The ideal was indeed widely different in the one and in the other; and this was not the least of Luther's many advantages, or, to use a favourite phrase of his own, not one of his least favours of prevailing grace. Happily for him, he had derived his standard from a common measure already received by the good and wise; I mean, the inspired writings."* In other words, God's actual,

* Sir J. Mackintosh concurs with Coleridge in describing the intellectual idealism, that so mastered and moulded the whole of Luther's teaching and conduct. In reference to our great Reformer, he observes (History of England, chap. 5, on Re- formation)— " The ardour of his mind, the elevation of his genius, and the meditative character of his country, early led him to that contemplation of the vast and invisible, to that as- piring pursuit of the perfect and boundless, which lift the soul of man above the vulgar objects of sense and appetite, of fear and ambition." Aad afterwards, when alluding to the mo- mentous " THESES," which Luther published in opposition to Tetzel's doctrinal blasphemies concerning "Indulgences," he thus remarks — " It was fortunate, also, that the enormities of Tetzel found Luther busied in the contemplation of the prin- ciple which is the basis of all ethical judgment, and by • the power of which he struck a mortal blow at superstition :

' MEN ARE NOT MADE TRULY RIGHTEOUS BY PERFORMING CERTAIN ACTIONS WHICH ARE EXTERNALLY GOOD, BUT MEN MUST HAVE RIGHTEOUS PRINCIPLES IN THE FIRST PLACE, AND THEN THEY WILL NOT FAIL TO PERFORM VIRTUOUS ACTIONS.'

Whether Luther rightly understood the passages of the New

INTRODUCTION.

was Luther's ideal; or, we may assert that the sym- metries, splendors, and prerogatives of the Church of Christ, as realized in Scripture, in distinction from the mean, emasculate, and vitiated THING, which then presented itself to the scorn of the holy, and the sneer of the unbelieving, — gradually took possession of the Reformer's mind; and deepened more and more his spiritual yearnings, that what was described as a pure and perfect church in the letter of the Bible,

Testament on which he founded the peculiar doctrines for the sake of which he advanced this comprehensive principle, is a question of pure theology. But the general terms which are here used enunciate a proposition equally certain and sublime ; the basis of all pure ethics, the cement of the eternal alliance between morality and religion, and thebadgeofthe independence of both on the low motives and dim insight of human laws." — "He saw the pure moral principle in its religious form ; but his words evince it, as it exists in itself, independent of all application." And again, (p. 142,) — " To follow Luther through the perils that he braved and the sufferings that he endured, would lead us too far from our proper province : but in justice to him, the civil historian should never omit the benefits which accrued to the moral interests of society/root the principle on which totheend he founded his doctrine — that all rites and ceremonies, all forms of worship, nay, all outward acts, however conformable to morality, are only of value in the judgment of God, and in the estimate of conscience, when they flow from a pure heart, and manifest right dispositions of mind." — " Where these are wanting, outward acts can make no compensation for their absence ; because the mental qualities themselves, are the sole objects of moral approbation. — From the promulgation of this principle, therefore, may be dated the downfall of supersti- tion," &c.

INTRODUCTION.

should find its actual counterpart in the visible church. In addition to this, we perceive that as the doctrines of Reformation began to spread, and the hopes of the good to brighten, under their dif- fusion, a principle of sacred energy (almost amounting to enthusiasm) inspired the heart of Luther at times; till he rose to the style of a prophet, and spake like one who felt himself summoned to a lofty work, and whose mission was more and more consecrated by an impulse from above. " Luther," says one whom we have often quoted in this volume, " did not write, but acted Poems." And thus to him may be well applied a remark of Victor Cousin's (see "EX- POSITION OF ELECTICISM"), " Humanity is inspired. The divine breath which is in it, always and every- where reveals to it all truths under one form or another, according to the place and time. The soul of humanity is a poetical soul, which discovers in itself the secrets of beings, and gives utterance to them in prophetic chants which ring from age to age." As an illustration of this, read what the monk says of his Infernal Antagonist, and also of his felt predestination: —

" Satan seems to have anticipated in me, from ray infancy, some of those qualities which have since appeared ; and to pre- vent the progress of the cause in which they have heen instru- mental, he affected my mind to such a degree as to make me often wonder whether I was the only human creature whom he tormented.

Ixviii INTRODUCTION.

Now, however, I perceive that God directed that I should ac- quire, by personal experience, a knowledge of the constitution of universities and monasteries, that my opponents might have no handle to boast that I pretended to condemn things of which I was ignorant. IT WAS ORDAINED, THEREFORE, that I should pass part of my life in a monastery"

This strong belief in the predestinating ordinance of God, together with the innate poetry of his keen highly susceptible heart, will explain the oracular style in which Luther sometimes expresses himself. With little men, or with minds whose faculty was less gigantic, or whose feelings were less imaginative, this mode of expression would often seem inflated and arrogant. But in Luther's case, we do not feel thus. He wrote, spake, and acted, as " one well known in Earth, and Heaven, and Hell !"

But we must not dilate here; and therefore will just add, that when we analyse the character of the Reformer as a man, next to the Idealism of his na- ture,— we delight to recognise the exquisite sociality of his temperament, there was no ascetism, cant, or pharisaic airs and graces about him. He hated trick, pomposity, and pretension; and shook from him, with a hearty disdain, all those mean accom- paniments which appertain to the mere drama of ex- ternal piety, but have nothing to do with the healthful spirituality of the genuine Christian. At the fire- side, in the bosom of his family, or amid the circle

INTRODUCTION. Ixix

of attached friends, — Luther seems to have been the very fascination of companionship. He could laugh, and sing, and converse; utter his witticisms, and throw forth those gleams and sparkles of innocent mirth, which the hypocrite, or mere practiser of religious pantomime, can neither admire nor under- stand. And then, what bursts and outbreaks of thrilling pathos, and poetic feeling, and impassioned enthusiasm were blent with all this! Truly, it was worth a walk of some few hundred miles to have heard Doctor Martin hold his vivid conversations with those assembled round his family board; and there behold the same man, whose unquailing heart had faced and fronted all the batteries of Rome, subsiding into the laughing simplicity of childhood and mirth: — after all, he has lost one of the finest elements of a feeling manhood, both in faith and character, who retains none of the child about him.

But Luther's radiant happiness arose not only from the fervour and freshness of an elastic tempera- ment, but his very religion was the divinity of joy. He was a PARDONED man ; and felt himself to be so, on the intelligible basis of gospel truth, and there- fore had (with some intermissions} "joy and peace in believing." With him, Christianity was not an insulated act, a sacramental rite, or an observed in- stitute alone; it was far more than this, — it was a

1XX INTRODUCTION.

renewal of NATURE, evidenced by all the tangible experiences of a new life: it was " Christ within — the hope of glory." He lived up to what he believed; and thus, there is a spiritual ease, heartiness, and simplicity in all the motions of this man's religious character. Religion was not put on him by imita- tive effort, but put into him by efficient grace. And thus the sociality of the man was not checked or chilled by the sanctity of the Christian; but, on the contrary, expanded, purified, and ennobled by being brought into contact with it. All relations were re- deemed into him in Christ; and he had learned the blessed science of connecting every thing with the atoning purchase of the Saviour's blood. As to the honesty, unworldliness, and thorough-paced inte- grity of Luther, — even the bitterest of his Je- suitical foes have admitted this. He never defiled himself with the " Mammon of unrighteousness;" but lived, in the main, a poor man all his days, perpetually refusing imperial bounties and aid. But we must not omit to remark, in this glance at Luther's private character, — how strangely, and almost mysteriously, the chords of his whole spiritual and moral being vibrated to the appeals of me- lody. In fact, to him, music was almost the religion of sound; it hovered, and trembled, and played like a subtle and subduing magic over his fine imagi-

INTRODUCTION.

nation, and seemed to have an effect upon his wasted mind, — akin to that which the balm, and breeze, and beauty of a rustic walk in the May-time has upon a convalescent frame.*

And yet, it was not all cloudless ether with the experience of Luther. Towards the close of his eventful life, some of those dark melancholies and dreary pangs which preyed upon his youth, revived; and threw round his latter days shades of sadness beyond the sunbeams of this world to dissipate. Nor were his solicitudes reasonless. The political aspect of Germany, threatened with a rising war; the rabid animosities of the papal party; some doubts as to his own conduct in the Schmalcaldic league; the harassing vexations connected with the Sacramen- tarian controversy; together with the debilities attendant on exhausted health and shattered nerves; — all this will easily explain those bodements and complainings which characterized the few last years

* " Some idea may be formed of his state of mind, when we read that once, overpowered by despondency, he locked himself into his cell for several days, refusing to admit any one ; and at last, as he took no notice of repeated knock- ing, his door was broken open, and he was found in a state of insensibility, from which he was recovered by means of music, of which he was passionately fond, and which was his sole recre- ation. These severe trials which Luther endured and over- came, were as a preparatory school to the struggle in which he joyfully engaged with the," &c. &c. — Pfizer, &c. &c.

INTRODUCTION.

of his life. But this explanation does not alle- viate the keenness of our sympathy, when we listen to the wails of a heart, at times half-broken, and the pinings of a spirit wearied and worn almost to the roots, — when we connect them with the^former he- roism of his high career. Yet, be it remembered, Luther's melancholy was not the repining fretfulness of the mere sentimentalist; much less was it the sore rebellion of a spirit that was so wedded to this world as to be reluctant to pass into another. Far other- wise : he often devoutly wished to " depart, and be at peace;" and that, too, in the tranquil magnani- mity of one who knew " in WHOM he had trusted." Read, for instance, the last farewell he gave to his friend Pomeranus, for his beloved Ketha, when he apprehended his speedy death : —

" Tell her, that she must bear patiently our separation, and remember with gratitude that we have lived together for twelve years in peace and happiness. She has been to me," he con- tinued, " not alone a faithful wife, and nursed and attended me with constant fidelity, but she has shewn all the obedience of a willing servant. God will reward her in the great day, and enable her also to bring up our children as is suitable and proper. Take, also, my parting benediction to the ser- vants of God's word, and to the citizens of Wittemberg, whose kindness I have so often experienced ; take my respectful farewell to our right worshipful Elector, my gracious master, and to the Landgrave, and tell them not to despond, but be of good courage. I am ready to die, if it be the will of my Master ; yet I would gladly have lived till Whitsuntide, that I might have published once more my accusations of the Roman beast — the pope and his kingdom."

INTRODUCTION. Ixxiii

The anti-papal spirit in the closing paragraph of this quotation, brings us to a brief view of those imperfections which candour must allow to have sometimes shaded the lustre of Luther's mind, and to have occasionally darkened the brilliancy of his apostolic achievements. We do not, then, wish to insinuate, what common sense and historic justice instantaneously refute, — that the German monk always combined the wisdom of the serpent with the harmlessness of the dove; still less dare we assert that he ever maintained that intellectual meek- ness of tone, and exhibited that moral harmony of temper, which are to be admired and admitted among the consummate graces of the Christian hero. On the contrary, it comes within the limits of the warmest appreciation of the character of Luther, not to question (in the main) the justice of Robertson's view of the Reformer, in his " His- tory of Charles the Fifth:" — " His extraordinary qualities were alloyed with no inconsiderable mixture of human frailty and human passions." ..." His mind, forcible and vehement in all its operations, roused by great objects, or agitated by violent pas- sions, broke out, on many occasions, with an impe- tuosity which astonishes men of feebler spirits, or such as are placed in more tranquil situations." — " His confidence that his own opinions were well

INTRODUCTION.

founded approached to arrogance; his courage in asserting them, to rashness; his firmness in ad- hering to them, to obstinacy; and his zeal in con- futing his adversaries, to rage and scurrility."

This is a severe, but, on the whole, not an exag- gerated account of what was infirm and faulty in the great Reformer. In truth, there were moments when his whole nature seemed to boil over with a most outrageous orthodoxy. His natural temper was quick, fiery, headstrong, and impetuous; and when excited by the atrocities and perfidies of the Roman court and sycophantic priesthood; or when brought into sudden contact with a reasonless oppo- sition to what he firmly believed to be the ever- lasting cause both of God and Man; — then it is, that we find Doctor Martin, in a hurricane of theo- logic rage, carried along with immitigable fury over Princes, and Popes, and Priest, and Councils, and Canons! — now cleaving this man to the earth, with the sledge-hammer of indignant scorn; and then withering another with the most blasting irony which galling language can express. It was in moods like these, when blinded by a passionate trust in his own convictions, and assuming to himself the entire arbitration of questions which minds equally spiritual with his own hesitated to adopt, — that he often approached to the very brink of that assumed

INTRODUCTION. IxXV

infallibility, whose baseless pretensions he had done so much to overturn. In fact, Luther then becomes the Hildebrand of dogmatic Protestantism; and some- what justifies the sarcastic reflection of Victor Cousin, in his " Exposition of Electicism:" — " In- deed, we cannot but smile to see a Protestant sect, after having separated from the church in the name of the right of free inquiry, end with denying the authority of the faculty which inquires."* Neither is

* Protestants in general, as well as Luther in particular, must be content to come within the charge of this inconsistency. For in fact, if the ABSOLUTE extent of the term— Private judgment, is, in all matters ecclesiastical, to be admitted and revered, then assuredly it is difficult to imagine how the visibilities, and or- ders, and sacraments, and creeds, and institutes of a CHURCH can be maintained. It is here that one of the greatest diffi- culties arose in the arrangement of the church, as a visible constitution, which neither the fortitude of Luther nor the pru- dence of Melancthon could overcome. The latter, it is well known, while in perfect concord with his friend on all mat- ters essential to the salvation of the soul, differed with him in points connected with the ancient form of church government ; and also (in the close of his life) with his views on the pre- sence of Christ in the sacrament. In reference to the nice question, of church orders and discipline, Melancthon thus expresses himself, in a letter to a friend : — " To speak my own opinion, I could wish not only to confirm the power of the bishops but to re-establish their jurisdiction ; for I plainly perceive what church order will prevail when the constitution of the ancient church is dissolved ; I see that a much more intolerable tyranny will break forth than that under which we formerly groaned." And if the attainment of a formal

Ixxvi INTRODUCTION.

it wise or honest to conceal from our regret, that Luther's views concerning the relative importance of the apostolic commission, the witnessing character of the visible Church, and the spiritual presence of Christ in the blessed sacramant, were not more what the Word of God, as interpreted by our own Reformers, and as authenticated by Catholic anti- quity,— appears to authorize.

But perhaps the portion of Luther's life which awakens the most discomfort in the minds of his most impassioned admirers, is that which was occu- pied by his controversy with the Sacramentarians,and with Caroldstadt* in particular. The hero is often no hero here; and it is depressing, to a painful ex- unity is impossible, while individual opinion is permitted in all its lawlessness, so neither can articles, creeds, and insti- tutes be imposed on any member of a church, while NO sur- render of the individual liberty for the sake of collective order, — is required. For the mocker of Protestantism will be inclined to assert an absolutely free right to read the Word of God, and to educe from it an independent creed, as not in consistency with Articles and Confessions which antedate and decide the result of such perusal.

* It is right, however, to remember that the papists, in their harsh allusions to Luther's writings against this fanatical per- sonage, never have the candour to state the whole case. Their object is, to represent Luther as far more tyrannical than even the Pope himself, whom he so abused, in his treatment of his opponent, as if no other element but a difference of opinion on the Sacrament were at work. While the fact is, that Carold-

INTRODUCTION.

tent, to see Luther's noble heart, frank spirit, and ingenuous mind, often lacerated with temper, weakened with rage, and fretted and chafed into most unbecoming and unchristian exaggerations. " Cease ye from MAN ! whose breath is in his nostrils!" — is, perhaps, the most charitable comment every heart that knows itself, will here make.

But, with this candid avowal of Luther's occasional violence, arrogance, and asperity, we must never forget the language in which he wrote, the times in which he lived, the bad taste which prevailed, and the cast-iron corruptions which he had to oppose. Perhaps, after all, it may be a matter of fair discus- sion, how far the fury, and fierceness, and force of Luther's style were required by the peculiarities of opposition which were to be overcome. At all events, the subject is so interesting, and verges so closely on some of the finest principles of ethics, that we must allow the Reformer to plead his own apology; — -just premising, that Luther himself, in calmer hours, made the violence of his language and

stadt was opposed by Luther, not only as holding views con- trary to his own touching the Sacrament, but as a wild, haughty, and blustering fanatic, who had from the beginning, more or less, supported the mad views of Munzer and his lunatic disciples. The reader is referred to Seckendorf's " HISTORIA LUTHERANISMI," for a satisfactory elucidation of this.

Ixxviii INTRODUCTION.

the vengeance of his reproof, the express subject of prayer and penitence before God. To Spalatinus he thus remarks (Epist., lib. 1): —

" I own that I am more vehement than I ought to be. I have to do with men who blaspheme evangelical truth ; with wolves ; with those who condemn me unheard, without ad- monishing, without instructing me ; and who utter the most atrocious slanders against myself and the Word of God. Even the most senseless spirit might be moved to resistance by their unreasonable conduct, much more I, who am choleric by na- ture, am possessed of very irritable feelings, and of a temper easily apt to exceed the bounds of moderation. I cannot, however, but be surprised whence this novel taste arose, to call everything spoken against an adversary abusive language. What think ye of Christ ? Was he a reviler, when he calls the Jews an adulterous and perverse generation, a progeny of vipers, hypocrites, the children of the devil ? What think ye of Paul, who calls the enemies of the gospel dogs and seducers ; who, in the thirteenth chapter of the Acts, inveighs against a false prophet in this manner : — ' O full of all subtilty and all malice, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteous- ness ?' Why does not Paul gently soothe the impostor, rather than thunder at this rate ? A mind conscious of truth can- not with easy indifference endure the obstinate enemies of truth. I see that all persons demand of me moderation, and especially those of my adversaries who least of all exhibit it. If I am too warm, I am yet frank and open ; in which point I think that I excel those who always act with artifice and guile."

In another letter he thus vindicates himself: —

" I see clearly that Erasmus is very far from a right know- ledge of the nature of saving grace. In all his writings, his grand object is to avoid the cross, give no offence, and live at peace. Hence he thinks it proper, on all subjects, to display a sort of

INTRODUCTION.

civility, good nature, and good breeding ; but I say Behemoth will pay no regard to such treatment, nor ever be amended by it. Popery will never be reformed one tittle by writings that give no offence, that make no attack — in a word, that do not bite ; for the pontiffs consider these gentle and civil admoni- tions as a species of servile cringing : they are content to be feared, while they persevere in their wicked courses, as though they had an absolute right to remain incorrigible."

Let us also remember that, compared with the natural dialect and native accent of popery in its curses, bulls, and excommunications, — Luther's lan- guage (in its most masterless rage) is mild and merciful in the extreme. He is often angry, but never cruel; nor did he ever desire to burn the persons of men, in order to silence their arguments. But we will venture to quote one more passage on the style of Luther's writings, which occurs in a most in- teresting letter of his to Brentius, the Pastor of Halle:—

" Grace and peace to you in Christ Jesus our Lord. I re- turn you, my dear friend, your ' AMOS,' which you sent me long ago. It is not my fault that it has not been published sooner, but that of the person to whom you entrusted it. In the humility of your heart you submitted your work entirely to my judgment, that I should alter, add, expunge, at my pleasure ; but far be it from me to do anything of the kind. It is in no case very creditable to exercise one's ingenuity in working upon another man's foundation ; and, among Chris- tians, it would be intolerable for one man to set up for master over others who are taught by the same Spirit. It is enough ' to prove the spirits, whether they are of God ;' and that being

1XXX INTRODUCTION.

once ascertained, we ought instantly to shew reverence, to lay aside all magisterial airs, and humbly to sit down as scholars ; for it is impossible for the Holy Spirit to speak without de- livering truths before which every man should bow, and re- ceive them with childlike simplicity.

" But, beside this general deference to what the Spirit teaches, I declare to you that my own writings are.very mean in my eyes when compared with yours, and those of men like you. I do not here flatter you, or put on an assumed humility. I am not praising Brentius, but the spirit with which he is endued, and which shews itself in him much more mild, gentle, and calm than in me. Then, also, your compo- sition is much more skilful than mine ; your language flows much more pure, clear, and neat ; and thus is more attractive and more efficient. My manner is, to pour forth a torrent and chaos of words. Moreover, it is my destiny to be engaged in an endless succession of fierce conflicts with monsters thai bqffle description ; so that, if it be allowable to use such a comparison, I seem to resemble the fire and the blustering wind in Elijah's vision, while you and your associates are the ' still small voice,' a gentle air which refreshes, and softens, and unbinds. Your writings, therefore, please me ; and much more will they please others, better than my own. I comfort myself, however, with this thought, that the great heavenly Lord and Father, in the amplitude of his household, has work for servants of different descriptions, and some must be like hard wedges to cleave rugged blocks. God must appear in thunder, as well as in the gentle rain ; by his lightning and thunder he agitates and purifies the air, and thus prepares for rendering the earth more richly fruitful." *

* The Author cannot resist calling the reader's attention to the following passage from the oracular Milton, which is taken from his " Apology for Smectymnuus." The Author of " Para- dise Lost," be it remembered, was no gentle hitter in contro- versy. Thus, then, speaks the inspired old man : —

" But to the end that nothing may be omitted, which may

•

INTRODUCTION.

There now remain three subjects, on each of which, as emanating from, or connected with the character, principles, and sentiments of Luther, we

further satisfy any conscionable man, who, notwithstanding what I could explain before the animadversions, remains yet unsatisfied concerning that way of writing which I there de- fended, but this confuter, whom it pinches, utterly disapproves ; I shall essay once again, and perhaps with more success. If, therefore, the question were in oratory, whether a vehement vein throwing out indignation or scorn upon an object that merits it, were among the aptest ideas of speech to be allowed, it were my work, and that an easy one, to make it clear both by the rules of the best rhetoricians, and the famousest examples of the Greek and Roman orations. But since the religion of it is disputed, and not the art, I shall make use only of such reasons and authorities, as religion cannot except against. It will be harder to gainsay than for me to evince that in the teaching of men diversely tempered, different ways are to be tried. The Baptist, we know, was a strict man, remarkable for austerity and set order of life. Our Saviour, who had all gifts in him, was Lord to express his indoctrinating power in what sort him best seemed ; sometimes by a mild and familiar converse ; sometimes with plain and impartial home- speaking, regardless of those whom the auditors might think he should have had in more respect ; otherwhile, with bitter and ireful rebukes, if not teaching, yet leaving excuseless those his wilful impugners. What was all in him, was divided among many others the teachers of his church ; some to be severe and ever of a sad gravity, that they may win such, and check some- times those who be of nature over-confident and jocund ; others were sent more cheerful, free, and still, as it were, at large, in the midst of an untrespassing honesty ; that they who are so tempered, may have by whom they might be drawn to salvation, and they who are too scrupulous, and de- jected of spirit, might be often strengthened with wise conso-

Ixxxii INTRODUCTION.

will venture to offer a running comment. The first is, Satanic agency and personality. No one, then, we presume, can take even a rapid and superficial

lations and revivings : no man being forced wholly to dissolve that groundwork of nature which God created in him, the sanguine to empty out all his sociable liveliness, the choleric to expel quite the unsinning predominance of his anger ; but that each radical humour and passion, wrought upon and corrected as it ought, might be made the proper mould and foundation of every man's peculiar gifts and virtues. Some, also, were indued with a staid moderation and soundness of argument, to teach and convince the rational and sober-minded ; yet not therefore that to be thought the only expedient course of teaching, for in times of opposition, when either against new heresies arising, or old corruptions to be reformed, this cool unpassionate mildness of positive wisdom is not enough to damp and astonish the proud resistance of carnal and false doctors, then (that I may have leave to soar awhile as the poets use) Zeal, whose substance is ethereal, arming in com- plete diamond, ascends his fiery chariot drawn with two blazing meteors, figured like beasts, but of a higher breed than any the zodiac yields, resembling two of those four which Ezekiel and St. John saw ; the one visaged like a lion, to express power, high authority, and indignation ; the other of countenance like a man, to cast derision and scorn upon perverse and fraudulent seducers. With these, the invincible warrior, Zeal, shaking loosely the slack reins, drives over the heads of scarlet prelates, and such as are insolent to maintain traditions, bruising their stiff necks under his flaming wheels. Thus did the true prophets of old combat with the false ; thus Christ himself, the fountain of meekness, found acrimony enough to be still galling and vexing the prelatical pharisees. But ye will say. these had immediate warrant from God to be thus bitter ; and I say, so much the plainer is it proved, that there may be a sanctified bitterness against the enemies

INTRODUCTION. Ixxxiii

glance at the writings and letters of Luther, without being struck with the bold prominence and uncom- promising simplicity of statement with which the

of truth. Yet that ye may not think inspiration only the warrant thereof, but that it is as any other virtue of moral and general observation, the example of Luther may stand for all, whom God made choice of before others to be of highest eminence and power in reforming the church; who, not of revelation, but of judgment, writ so vehemently against the chief defenders of old untruths in the Romish church, that his own friends and favourers were many times offended with the fierceness of his spirit ; yet he being cited before Charles the Fifth to answer for his books, and having divided them into three sorts, whereof one was of those which he had sharply written, refused (though upon deliberation given him) to retract or unsay any word therein, as we may read in Sleidan. Yea ; he defends his eagerness, as being ' of an ardent spirit, and one who could not write a dull style :' and affirmed, ' he thought it God's will, to have the inventions of men thus laid open, seeing that matters quietly handled were quickly forgot.' And herewithal how useful and available God hath made his tart rhetoric in the church's cause, he often found by his own experience ; for when he betook himself to lenity and mode- ration, as they call it, he reaped nothing but contempt both from Cajetan and Erasmus, from Cocleus, from Ecchius, and others ; insomuch that blaming his friends, who had so coun- selled him, he resolved never to run into the like error: if at other times he seem to excuse his vehemence, as more than what was meet, I have not examined through his works, to know how far he gave way to his own fervent mind ; it shall suffice me to look to mine own. And this I shall easily aver, though it may seem a hard saying, that the Spirit of God, who is purity itself, when he would reprove any fault severely, or but relate things done or said with indignation by others, ab- stains not from some words not civil at other times to be spoken."

INTRODUCTION.

Reformer ever introduces his allusions to the Evil One.* For instance, in his Patmos, on hearing of the dissenting tumults and disorganizing heresies of Carolstadt, he writes thus to his royal defender: — " Other agents besides merely human are at work. Don't be afraid, but be prepared for more events of this sort. This is only the beginning of the busi- ness : Satan intends to carry matters much further yet. Believe me in what I now say; I am but a plain, simple man; however, I know something of the arts" &c. Almost countless, indeed, are the references made by Luther to Satanic temptation, guile, and dominion over the hearts and purposes of evil men. And here it is, that the majority of those who have written on Luther, have thought it right to say a great many soft things, and utter many apologetic tones about the dreaminess of the German mind, superstitions of a barbarous age, heats of ima- ginations, relics of popish darkness, &c. ; all of which,

* In allusion to these letters, so redolent of Luther's real heart and mind, Coleridge says (Friend, vol. i., p. 186,) — " I can scarcely conceive a more delightful volume than might be made, if they were translated in the simple, sinewy, idiomatic mother-tongue of the original." The Author is happy to say, that Coleridge's wish will shortly be accomplished. A translation of Luther's letters is commenced by one in every respect admirably fitted to the high task, both as an elegant scholar and profound theologian, — the Rev. Henry Christinas, of Sion College, the editor of the first volume of the Parker Society's works.

INTRODUCTION. IxXXV

if concentrated into a moral result, seem to amount to this — that though Luther was indeed a brave man and a great one, yet in all his ideas and creed con- cerning the devil there is much to be lamented, — savouring of that religious imbecility which borders on fanaticism and superstition. Now, with all deference to these writers, the question may fairly be asked, whether, on the whole, Luther is not justified by Scripture, as to his principal doctrines concerning the agency of Satan in the affairs of this fallen Creation? Let it be allowed (as, indeed, all sober Christians readily grant) that in his ideas of visible and personal MANIFESTATION of the Evil One, the Reformer was under the illusion of an over-heated brain;* yet, when we are assured by the infallible

* The occurrence to which this remark applies has "been made a theme for heartless irony and profane babbling among the papists and rationalists, down to our day. Yet, in contrast with this, let us hear how a man of consummate genius can treat a subject which in the hands of so many has awakened little else but " the loud laugh which shews the vacant mind."

" Methinks I see him — the heroic student, in his chamber in the Wartburg, — with his midnight lamp before him, seen by the late traveller in the distant plains of Bischofsroda, as a star on the mountain ! Below it lies the Hebrew Bible open, on which he gazes, his brow pressing on his palm, brooding over some obscure text, which he desires to make plain to the simple boor and to the humble artisan, and to transfer its whole force into their own natural and living tongue. And he himself does not understand it ! Thick darkness lies on the original text : he counts the letters, he calls up the roots of h2

IxXXVi INTRODUCTION.

Spirit of God — " for this PURPOSE, the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the WORKS OF THE DEVIL ;" when we call to mind that Christ

each separate word, and questions them as the familiar spirits of an oracle. In vain ; thick darkness continues to cover it — not a ray of meaning dawns through it. With sullen and angry hope he reaches for the Vulgate, his old and sworn enemy, the treacherous confederate of the Roman antichrist, which he so gladly, when he can, rebukes for idolatrous false- hoods, that had dared place

' Within the sanctuary itself their shrines,

Abominations !'

Now — O thought of humiliation ! — he must entreat its aid. See ! there has the sly spirit of apostasy worked in a phrase, which favours the doctrine of purgatory, the intercession of saints, or the efficacy of prayers for the dead ; and, what is worst of all, the interpretation is plausible. The original Hebrew might be forced into this meaning : and no other meaning seems to lie in it, none to hover above it in the heights of allegory, none to lurk beneath it even in the depths of cabala ! This is the work of the tempter ; it is a cloud of darkness conjured up between the truth of the sacred letters and the eyes of his understanding, by the malice of the evil one, and for a trial of his faith ! Must he, then, at length con- fess— must he subscribe the name of Luther to an exposition which consecrates a weapon for the hand of the idolatrous hierarchy ? Never ! never !

" There still remains one auxiliary in reserve, the translation of the Seventy. The Alexandrine Greeks, anterior to the Church itself, could intend no support to its corruptions — the Septuagint will have profaned the altar of truth with no in- cense for the nostrils of the universal bishop to snuff up. And here, again, his hopes are baffled ! Exactly at this perplexed passage had the Greek translator given his understanding a holiday, and made his pen supply its place. O honoured Luther! as easily mightest thou convert the whole city of

INTRODUCTION.

Himself was humanly placed in a perpetual antagonism with Satan, and warned a disciple that " Satan" had " DESIRED" to have him, that he might sift him " like

Rome, with the pope and the conclave of cardinals inclusively, as strike a spark of light from the words, and nothing but words, of the Alexandrine version. Disappointed, despondent, enraged ; ceasing to think, yet, continuing his brain on the stretch in solicitation of a thought ; and gradually giving himself up to angry fancies, to recollections of past persecu- tions, to uneasy fears and inward defiances, and floating images of the Evil Being, their supposed personal author ; he sinks, without perceiving it, into a trance of slumber ; during which his brain retains its waking energies, excepting that what would have been mere thoughts before, now (the action and counterweight of his senses and of their impressions being withdrawn) shape and condense themselves into things, into realities. Repeatedly half- wakening, and his eyelids as often reclosing, the objects which really surround him form the place and scenery of his dream. All at once, he sees the Arch- fiend coming forth on the wall of the room, from the very spot, perhaps, on which his eyes had been fixed vacantly during the perplexed moments of his former meditation ; the ink-stand which he had at the same time been using, becomes associated with it ; and in that struggle of rage, which in these distem- pered dreams almost constantly precedes the helpless terror by the pain of which we are finally awakened, he imagines that he hurls it at the intruder; or not improbably, in the first instant of awakening, while yet both his imagination and his eyes are possessed by the dream, he actually hurls it. Some weeks after, perhaps, during which interval he had often mused on the incident, undetermined whether to deem it a visitation of Satan to him in the body or out of the body, he discovers for the first time the dark spot on his wall, and re- ceives it as a sign and pledge vouchsafed to him of the event having actually taken place."

IxXXviii INTRODUCTION.

wheat. And finally, when we recollect the inspired teachings of one who in many respects (when regarded in his individual experience) resembled Luther, both before and after his conversion, — even those of St. Paul;* when we do this, and look fairly and honestly in the face of the matter, few Christians who take their entire theology from the revelation of God, and not from the reasoning of man, — will hesitate to admit that Luther is not an object of pity for his belief in the constant agency and actual personality of Satan. On the contrary, he will rather admire and reverence the glorious simplicity of a great Mind, that was enabled by divine grace to " watch and pray," that it entered not into temptation; and which was deeply convinced that if the Master was tempted, and tried, and

* The resemblance between the character and experience of the Apostle and Reformer has not escaped the German historian of the church, Neander, who remarks — " that he (viz., Paul) may be considered as the representative among the apostles of the Protestant principle ;" and that, " by the whole course of his previous development, he was formed for what he was to become, and for what he was to effect," &c. And most truly does this writer observe, in reference to the irritating energy of the law — " Paul could not have depicted this condition so strikingly and to the life, in the seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, if he had not gained the knowledge of it from personal experience." . . . " In his con- flict with himself, while a pharisee, Paul's experience resembles Luther's in the cloisters of Esprit "

INTRODUCTION.

wrung by the Evil One, it was not to be doubted that his disciple should be subjected to an experience like his own.

And who will deny (except those who consider God's solemnities to be man's frivolities) that a penetrating conviction that Satan is no theological Abstraction conjured up from the vasty depths of superstition; but an actual, living, intellectual PER- SONALITY, moving to and fro among the hearts and homes of mankind, curtained with immateriality; — who will deny, that such a conviction received into the public mind, would operate with power upon Christian vigilance and warfare? Surely it apper- tains to the infidelity of a professing Church, that while in Scripture we are perpetually warned to " RESIST THE DEVIL," — in the common experience of mankind, Satan is allegorized away into a terrible Nonentity; while (as might be expected) the entire subject of Hell is smiled down by the sneer of the sceptic, as the imbecility of a childish mind, or the bugbear of a weak and womanish heart. Yet amid all this, the truth of God touching Satanic agency remains unshaken; and albeit that agency be inex- plicable in the mystery of its principle, it is highly practicable in the doctrine of its application. Still is it a scriptural revelation, that this Creation is the haunt of Devils; and is especially tried and tempted

XC INTRODUCTION.

by a vast and immitigable ADVERSARY, moving in- audibly around us with a sleepless appetite for the ruin of souls, acting on us through sensible media, and in us by moral and mental delusion. And would to God the Devil were more preached, pro- claimed, and all his infernal wiles more scripturally and faithfully set before the people! Then, haply, would the Epicurean calm of the Church be rippled, and the Laodicean neutrality of the formalist would be disturbed, and our nation and Christianity (both public and private) would become not mere nominal distinction, but a felt contest; and instead of coolly resolving the doctrines of St. Paul, when speaking of the Evil One, into a metaphor, we should realize their counterpart in our own experience, and pro- nounce them — description. Most heartily, therefore, do we subscribe to the spirit of the following passage from Irving : —

" The influence of the Devil over human affairs is little discoursed of, and to combat with him is little undertaken ; yet is he the Prince of the Darkness of this world, the Spirit which now ruleth in the children of disobedience. With what levity do we mention his name who once had us all, and still hath myriads of our race, under his dominion. * * * One would think that Satan had gone to sleep, or that he was already bound, so little discourse is there of his wiles, so little apprehension of his presence. Truly, it is taken in the light of a slander, and mocked at as a folly, if you ever hint to the religious that Satan is as busy leavening them as ever he was with the primitive church. But, in the name of common

INTRODUCTION. XC1

sense, not to say religion, what protection hath England or Scotland against the activity of that spirit which hath sub- verted all the Protestant churches on the Continent ? Lutheran is no charm against Satan, nor is Calvinistic, nor is Arminian, as the churches of Saxony, Geneva, and Holland testify. And that Dissenter is not, the Huguenot churches do testify. But in the religious world of Britain there is such obstinate ignorance, that they will not believe that they are in danger from Satan, though an angel from heaven should come and tell it them. And this I take to be the first great cause of their present hypocrisy : THEY ARE IN LOVE WITH A LIE. The lie is, that all is safe, that all is well ; to this lie their writers and speakers minister unwittingly ; and a blind person may be easily led, for what can he say who seeth nothing ?"

I

need hardly say, that the wish to resolve the statements of the Bible concerning a Personal Satan into mere Orientalisms or poetical impersonations, is to be traced to the native dislike of the unrenewed heart to admit into its experience any principle that calls for " reasoning pride," to submit itself, and be dumb before God. But beyond this, no thoughtful watcher over the times can hesitate to allow, that for the last twenty years the habits, literature, science, and philosophy of this country have been gravitating with a fearful impetus towards the adop- tion of a SENSUAL HERESY; or towards the practical belief that the Real is bounded by the Visible; and that no evidence that does not thrill our mate- rialism (in some mode or other) can be admitted by a truly philosophic mind. Thus the hands, and eyes,

XCii INTRODUCTION.

and ears are lifted into a more than logical dominion over the Intellect; and Faith, or " the evidence of things not SEEN," ceases to be retained in the canons of our world's orthodoxy. For much of this infidel carnality we are indebted to that heartless libel on all that is spiritual in taste and pure in feeling, Utilitarianism — a system that concentrates within its grasp the elements of a most debasing grossness; adapted only to a world peopled with bodies out of which the soul has been evaporated; and which, if carried out in all the fearless enormity of its principle, would speedily transform the Empire into a mere national shop, Creation into a huge warehouse, and represent the UNCREATED MIND as little more than an Infinite Manufacturer! There is, how- ever, one encouragement derived even from the cultivation of the physical sciences themselves — viz., that true philosophy cannot enshrine a single prin- ciple into a system without authenticating the REALITY OF THE INVISIBLE; for, after all, what is electricity, chemical affinity, and galvanism, and gravitation, — but the expression of something that is UNSEEN, of which all the visible phenomena of matter and sensitive life are only the tokens and significances? Physical Science, therefore, if consistently faithful to the law of analogy, cannot reject the statements of Scripture with reference either to the Deity or the

I

INTRODUCTION. XC111

Devil, on the simple ground of invisibility ; inasmuch as science itself cannot exist without a belief in the unseen presidency of some master Principle. Well, therefore, does Victor Cousin observe, on this very subject: —

" What physical inquirer, since Euler, seeks anything in nature but forces and laws? Who now speaks of atoms, and even molecules, the old atoms revived ? Who defends them as anything but an hypothesis ?" — " If the fact be incontest- able, if modern physics be now employed only with forces and laws, I draw the rigorous conclusion from it, that the science of physics, whether it know it or not, is no longer material, and that it became spiritual when it rejected every other method than observation and induction, which can never lead to aught but forces and laws. Now what is there material in forces and laws? The physical sciences then, themselves, have entered into the broad path of an enlight- ened spiritualism ; and they have only to march with a firm step, and to gain a more and more profound knowledge of forces and laws, in order to arrive at more important gene- ralizations."*

We now revert to a second subject, which the reader will find frequently introduced in the follow -

* Lord Bacon is considered by Cousin as the Father of Sensual Philosophy, though he candidly states that it is only through a perverse application of this great man's principles that he can be said to stand in this relationship to much that his heart and head would equally have abhorred. Bacon's doctrines on experience were afterwards adopted by Hobbes, and Locke, and Hume, and Voltaire, and Condillac, and applied by them to the phenomena of human nature ; the central principle in all these writers being this— the EXCLUSIVE certainty of the senses,— and hence the conclusion that ALL the sources of

XC1V

INTRODUCTION.

ing pages, and in regard to which the sentiments of Luther are frequently set forth with masculine force and amazing beauty, — we mean, the sacramental meanings of this visible creation, in connexion with, and in subservience to, the Cross of our Divine Re- deemer. In other words, the author desires, with

human knowledge are two — sensation and reflection. But this is quite puerile, in comparison with the profound con- clusion to which Cabanis has arrived !— e. g., that the " Soul is not a separate principle in our nature, a real existence, but merely the product of the nervous system. Sensibi- lity is the property of the nerves ; and sensibility explains the moral faculties! — Man is a moral being, because he is capable of sensation. The brain secretes thought, as the liver secretes bile .'"

We cannot conclude this note without reminding the reader, that, in regard to the Personal Agency of Satan, the Church of England is in perfect consonance with the Bible. Among other attributes of that Prayer-book which is as perfect in its catholicity, as it is profound in its spirituality, — nothing is more striking than its perpetual recognition of the great Enemy of the Human Spirit, against whose wiles we are in- structed to pray with unceasing watchfulness. — Would that the chastened fervour, the calm devotion, the majestic purity, and apostolical soundness of this doctrinal bulwark to our beloved church, were made far less the subject of controversy, and far more the standard of personal experience in the divine life ! Far be it from the sound churchman, as well as the sincere Christian, to cry out " The Prayer-book !" merely as a shibboleth of a party demonstration ; still further be it from every reverential son and minister of our church to bring the Prayer-book into a mawkish rivalship with the pulpit ; and thus, by mean and miserable comparisons, endeavour to decry the usefulness of the one, by superstitious hosannahs to the glory

INTRODUCTION. XCV

unaffected reverence, to illustrate to others and to himself — the exceeding glory of Messiah, not only as the source of all spiritual good; but as the anointed King, and ever-present, ever-active, and ever-pre- vailing Adminstrator of all our mercies in Provi-

of the other ; as if, forsooth, the reading-desk and the pulpit were not (in an ecclesiastical sense) correlatives; and in- tended to act and react on each other in the way of mutual light and influence. Rather may we all strive, by God's as- sistance, to imbibe the spirit, embody the principles, and carry forth into our daily conduct and lives, the truths and motives, which this blessed volume everywhere inculcates. To laud the Prayer-book is an easy task, and may be done for the worst of purposes ; but to live the Prayer-book cannot be done, without a leaven of grace in our hearts, and the character of God in our lives. Even in the important matter of unity, let us adopt the exquisite pathos of that petition — " Fetch them HOME, blessed Lord ! to Thy flock, that they may be saved, and be made ONE fold under ONE Shepherd."

If, however, the mania of reformation is to reach even the pages and principles of that unrivalled book of primitive devotion, under the teachings and ritual of which the loftiest Intellects which England has ever produced, have been spiritually nur- tured, and some of the holiest in the " goodly army of saints and martyrs" have been trained for the bright Companies above ; — if, we say, this must be the case, to meet the exactions of in- dividual restlessness, and soothe the prejudices of narrow hearts and nervous minds, — then, with all humility, we do ven- ture to express a hope that our faithful Bishops will cause the following passage, which appeared originally in King Edward the Sixth's Litany, to be restored : —

" From all sedition and privy conspiracy, from THE TY- RANNY OF THE BISHOP OF ROME, AND ALL HIS DETESTABLE

ENORMITIES, &c., good Lord deliver us !"

XCV1 INTRODUCTION.

dence, and all our enjoyments in the august Theatre of nature. The meaning and importance of thus beholding and partaking ALL THINGS in the light and love of the Redemptive Economy, will be seen by the following extract from the Creed, or " Con- fession of Faith of Lord Bacon :" —

" I believe that God is so holy, pure, and jealous, as it is impossible for him to be pleased in any creature, though the work of his own hands ; so that neither angel, man, nor world could stand one moment in his eyes, WITHOUT BEHOLDING THE SAME IN THE FACE OF A MEDIATOR ; and, therefore, that before Him, with whom all things are present, the Lamb of God was slain before all worlds; without which eternal counsel of His, it was impossible for him to have descended to any work of creation." ..." He ordained, in his eternal counsel, that one Person of the Godhead should be united to one nature, and to one particular of his creatures, that so, in the person of the MEDIATOR, the true ladder might be fixed whereby God might descend to his creatures, and his creatures might ascend to God ; so that God, by the reconcilement of the Mediator, turning his countenance towards his creatures, though not in equal light and degree, made way unto the dispensation of his most holy and secret will." . . . "All with respect to the Mediator ; which is the great mystery and centre of all (jrod's ways with his creatures, and unto which all his other works and wonders do but serve and refer."

We consider, therefore, that those who realize the transcendent verity, (even that they are the blood- purchased property of a crucified Lord) will readily grant that both piety and poetry may find the elements of divinest beauty, pathos, and grandeur in the creed — that all things are INSTINCT WITH CHRIST; and that

INTRODUCTION. XCV11

all our mercies, in His merit, live, and move, and have their being. But especially with regard to the harmonies and sublimities of the natural creation, from which Religion, Philosophy, Science, and Poetry are wont to derive so much food for their high purposes, — may we not regret that the CHRIST- GOD is not more intelligibly and expressly referred to? — Are we not too apt to mistake the sounding or- thodoxy of the mere name of God, when we use it with as much cold apathy, or with as much blind negation of belief as that which an elegant Pagan would have done, when philosophizing -on a first cause? For let it be considered, 1. That the world was created by Christ. 2. That it was so created for Him. 3. That it is perpetually sustained by Him. 4. He endows it with all its powers and attributes; and then, the conclusion is natural — that its object is, — to be a visible medium for assisting the Senses into religion, and making even Matter preach lessons of Christianity to the regenerated Mind.* It is thus

* The theological reader will not require the abundant references which the Bible offers on this subject of Christ- ology. Nor need we remind him, how the most thoughtful and spiritual of the Fathers delight to regard the visible ma- terialism of earth and heaven as designed to illustrate the cross. We subjoin the beautiful comment which Chrysostom gives on Col. i. 17, by which it will appear the avowed belief of the primitive church: — Tovrtariv, tig avrov Kpt/iarai rj i2

XCV111 INTRODUCTION.

that we may reverence the whole Creation as an ex- pressive Emblem, and kind of sacramental Type of the marvels and mysteries and mercies of Redemp- tion. The earth is a huge PARABLE of hidden truth, of which the CROSS is the noblest expression. And even as a human face when cold and dead, or mind- less and meaningless, — may be contrasted with the same countenance when lighted up with all the living play of intellect, and radiant in every line with the lustre of the spirit; — so are the Forms of outward nature around us little else but a torpid mystery of matter, till the glory of Christ is reflected upon them, and with animating beauty quickens and transforms the whole. — Thanks be to the Gospel for this great discovery — that " All Things were created BY HIM and FOR HIM ! Why, there is more profound philosophy enshrined in these syllables than Plato ever dreamt, Socrates taught, or Newton discovered. " BY him and FOR him," — here both the origin and design of creation are magnificently unveiled. And moreover, we may doctrinally infer, that the " in- visible Things" of the Saviour are "clearly seen" by the Things which are made. The world of Matter

TravTwv vTroaraviQ' ov povov UVTOQ avra IK TOV fir] OVTOQ tig TO ttvai Trapqyayt?', aXXa /cat avrog avra avyKparti vvv' wort av airo<nraa9ri nj£ avrov irpovoiat;. aTroXoAe icai

INTRODUCTION. XC1X

becomes a typical counterpart to the world of mind; — but the relation between them is not one of metaphorical accident, but arises from a divinely established connexion between the two. In a word, if we surrender our hearts to this august philosophy of the Gospel, — both Christian and poet may alike so have the eye of their Faith unfilmed of earthly mist, as finally to perceive the entire creation transmuted into a mute Christianity, — a parable of eloquent Ma- terialism, where from the sun in the heavens to the insect on the earth, there is to be detected a DESIGNED ANALOGY between the outward sign which the Sense apprehends, and some inward significance which the Intellect is to receive.

And now, let us venture some final remarks on that fell IMPOSTURE which trades upon the agonies of the World beyond the grave, virtually sets up the Divine Attributes to auction, and coins Eternity itself into an income in order to enrich the church — even POPERY! — with all its apparatus, of infallibility, transubstantiation, celibacy, purgatory, and so forth. And truly, this is the right moment for the voice of Luther, and its echo, the Reformation, — to make themselves heard and influential. For, on all sides the Romish dissent is stirring; and (see Professor Sewell's article in the Quarterly Review) hundreds

C INTRODUCTION.

of Jesuits (the black Beetles of Romanism) are darkly, secretly, and silently scattering themselves over the united Empires. Chapels are raised, societies organized, periodicals established, news- papers enlisted, — and so we find ourselves, to use Dr. Croly's eloquent words, "in all the vaunted illumi- nation of the nineteenth century," with " Rome send- ing back among us the morals, the discipline, and the darkness of the thirteenth." And most justly does the same lofty writer remark in his sermon (entitled, THE REFORMATION A DIRECT GIFT OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE): —

" THIS is the true antagonist, the colossal challenger with the helmet of brass and the spear like a weaver's beam. . . . We must not fall into the capital danger of mistaking the dangers. Compared with this solid and progressive usurpation, Dissent is nothing. The true peril of the mariner is not in the ice-island, shaped in chill and obscurity, sure to break up into fragments by its nature, and vanishing as it meets the sun. The danger is in the shoal, growing beneath the sur- face, continually shifting its shape, yet continually advancing, till it spreads over the waters, and makes wreck inevitable and irretrievable."

Yes, never has the murderous fallacy, — that the cultivated intellect is in itself perfectly adequate to protect the Heart from religious delusion, — been more thoroughly refuted, than by the ecclesiastical events of the last twelve years. And yet, how were those

I

INTRODUCTION. Cl

Champions of the Reformation, who came forward, and warned us of the coming danger, reiterating again and again, that although Popery in ASPECT changes ever, in PRINCIPLE she changes never- — how were these Patriots of Truth, branded as fanatics, ranters, and insane prognosticators of im- possible things! "We (says Coleridge) are en- dangered by the twaddle of humid charity, which used to drizzle a something between mist and small rain from the higher region of our church atmo- sphere, . . . and once more the church of Rome, in contrast with Protestant dissenters, became a ' right dear though erring sister ! ' " And truly the " humid twaddle," we fear, continues to drizzle yet! For in the face of a warning History, in defiance of God's word, and with a suicidal oblivion of all that is high, holy, and great, in connexion with our Altar and Throne — we are once more beginning to tamper with the " scarlet Lady," and basely forget the glory of all our Forefathers gained, and the agony which our Martyrs suffered, as they waved the banner of the Bible over their heads, and shouted from their flames the battle-cry of the Reformation — " No PEACE WITH ROME!"

%* Dr. Croly has prefixed to his work on the Apocalypse, an invaluable historical analysis of our country's position

Cii INTRODUCTION.

during the ascendancy or the decline of Popery. Well known as it is, it is far too valuable to be omitted here : —

" There is the strongest reason to believe, that as Judaea was chosen for the especial guardianship of the original Re- velation ; England has been chosen for the especial guardian- ship of Christianity.

" The original Revelation declared the one true God ; Pa- ganism was its corruption, by substituting many false gods for the true. The second Revelation, Christianity, declared the one true Mediator ; Popery was its corruption, by substituting many false mediators for the true. Both Paganism and Popery adopted the same visible sign of corruption, the worship of images !

"The Jewish history reveals to us the conduct of Provi- dence with a people appointed to the express preservation of the faith of God. There every attempt to receive the sur- rounding idolatries into a participation of the honours of the true worship, even every idolatrous touch, was visited with punishment ; and that punishment not left to the remote working of the corruption, but immediate, and, by its direct- ness, evidently designed to make the nation feel the high importance of the trust, and the final ruin that must follow its betrayal.

" A glance at the British history since the Reformation shews how closely this Providential system has been exemplified in England. Every reign which attempted to bring back Popery, or even to give it that share of power which could in any degree prejudice Protestantism, has been marked by signal calamity. It is a memorable circumstance, that every reign of this Popish tendency has been followed by one purely Pro- testant ; and, as if to make the source of the national peril plain to all eyes, those alternate reigns have not offered a stronger contrast in their religious principles than in their public fortunes. Let the rank of England be what it might under the Protestant Sovereign, it always went down under the Popish ; let its loss of dignity, or of power, be what it

INTRODUCTION. Clll

might under the Popish Sovereign, it always recovered under the Protestant, and more than recovered ; was distinguished by sudden success, public renovation, and the increased sta- bility of the freedom and honours of the empire.

" Protestantism was first thoroughly established in England in the reign of Elizabeth.

" Mary had left a dilapidated kingdom ; the nation worn out by disaster and debt ; the national arms disgraced ; nothing in vigour but Popery. Elizabeth, at twenty-five, found her first steps surrounded with the most extraordinary embarrassments ; at home, the whole strength of a party, including the chief names of the kingdom, hostile to her succession and religion ; in Scotland, a rival title, supported by France ; in Ireland, a perpetual rebellion, inflamed by Rome ; on the Continent, the force of Spain roused against her by the double stimulant of ambition and bigotry, at a time when Spain commanded almost the whole strength of Europe.

" But the cause of Elizabeth was Protestantism, and in that sign she conquered. She shivered the Spanish sword ; she paralyzed the power of Rome ; she gave freedom to the Dutch ; she fought the battle of the French Protestants ; every eye of religious suffering throughout Europe was fixed on this magnanimous woman. At home, she elevated the habits and the hearts of her people. She even drained off the bitter waters of religious feud, and sowed in the vigorous soil, which they had so long made unwholesome, the seeds of every prin- ciple and institution that has since grown up into the strength of empire. But her great work was the establishment of Pro- testantism. Like the Jewish King, she found the Ark of God without a shelter ; and she built for it the noblest temple in the world ; she consecrated her country into its temple.

" She died in the fulness of years and honour ; the great Queen of Protestantism throughout the nations ; in the memory of England her name and her reign alike immortal.

" James the First inherited the principles, with the crown, of Elizabeth. His first act was, to declare his allegiance to Pro- testantism. From that moment Popery lost all power against

CIV INTRODUCTION.

him. It tried faction, and failed. It then tried conspiracy, and more than failed. Its conspiracy gave birth to the most memorable instance of national preservation, perhaps, in the annals of Europe. The gunpowder plot would have swept away the King, the Royal Family, the chief Nobles and Com- moners of England at a blow. The secret was kept for a year and a half. It was never betrayed, to the last. It was dis- covered by neither treachery, nor repentance, and but on the eve of execution. Yet its success must have been national ruin. A Popish Government was to have been set up. The country, in its state of distraction and destitution, must have lain ex- posed to the first invader. The consequences were incalcu- lable. The hand of God alone saved the throne and altar of England.

" Charles the First ascended a prosperous throne ; England in peace, faction feeble and extinct ; the nation prospering in the new spirit of commerce and manly adventure. No reign of an English King ever opened a longer or more undisturbed view of prosperity. But Charles betrayed the sacred trust of Pro- testantism. He had formed a Popish alliance, with the full knowledge that it established a Popish dynasty. He had lent himself to the intrigues of the French Minister, stained with Protestant blood ; for his first armament was a fleet against the Huguenots. If not a friend to Popery, he was madly re- gardless of its hazards to the Church and the Constitution.

" Ill-fortune suddenly gathered around him. Distracted councils, popular feuds met by alternate weakness and violence, the loss of the national respect, finally deepening into civil bloodshed, were the punishments of his betrayal of Protest- antism. The late discovery of his error, and the solemn repentance of his prison hours, painfully redeemed his memory.

" Cromwell's was the sceptre of a broken kingdom. He found the fame and force of England crushed ; utter humilia- tion abroad ; at home, the exhaustion of the civil war ; new and arrogant faction, and old, intractable partisanship, tearing the public strength in sunder.

I

INTRODUCTION. CV

" Cromwell was a murderer ; yet, in the high designs of Pro- vidence, the personal purity of the instrument is not always re- garded. The Jews were punished for their idolatry by idolaters, and restored by idolaters. But, whatever was in the heart of the Protector, the policy of his government was Protestantism. His treasures and his arms were openly devoted to the Pro- testant cause, in France, in Italy, throughout the world. He was the first who raised a public fund for the relief of the Vaudois churches. He sternly repelled the advances which Popery made to seduce him into the path of the late king.

" England was instantly lifted on her feet, as by miracle. All her battles were victories ; France and Spain bowed before her. All her adventures were conquests ; she laid the foun- dation of her colonial empire, and extended that still more illustrious commercial empire, to which the only limits in either space or time may be those of mankind. She rapidly became the most conspicuous power of Europe ; growing year by year in opulence, public knowledge, and foreign renown, until Cromwell could almost realize the splendid improba- bility, that ' before he died, he would make the name of an Englishman as much feared and honoured as ever was that of an ancient Roman.'

" Charles the Second ascended an eminently prosperous throne. Abroad, it held the foremost rank, the fruit of the vigour of the Protectorate. At home, all faction had been forgotten in the general joy of the Restoration.

" But Charles was a concealed Roman catholic.* He at- tempted to introduce his religion ; the star of England in- stantly darkened ; the country and the king alike became the scorn of the foreign courts ; the royal honour was scandalized by mercenary subserviency to France ; the national arms were humiliated by a disastrous war with Holland ; the capital was swept by the memorable inflictions of pestilence and conflagration !

" * He had solemnly professed Popery on the eve of the Restoration.

k

CV1 INTRODUCTION.

" James the Second still more openly violated the national trust. He publicly became a Roman catholic. This filled the cup. The Stuarts were cast out, they and their dynasty for ever ; that proud line of kings was sentenced to wither down into a monk, and that monk living on the alms of England, a stipendiary and an exile.

" William was called to the throne by Protestantism. He found it, as it was always found at the close of a Popish reign, surrounded by a host of difficulties ; at home, the kingdom in a ferment ; Popery and its ally, Jacobitism, girding them- selves for battle ; fierce disturbance in Scotland ; open war in Ireland, with the late king at its head ; abroad, the French king domineering over Europe, and threatening invasion. In the scale of nations, England nothing !

" But the principle of William's government was Protes- tantism ; he fought and legislated for it through life, and it was to him, as it had been to all before him, strength and victory. He silenced English faction ; he crushed the Irish war ; he next attacked the colossal strength of France on its own shore. This was the direct collision, not so much of the two kingdoms as of the two faiths ; the Protestant champion stood in the field against the Popish persecutor. Before that war closed, the fame of Louis was undone, and England rose to the highest military name. In a train of immortal victories she defended Protestantism throughout Europe, drove the enemy to his palace gates, and, before she sheathed the sword, broke the power of France for a hundred years.

" The Brunswick line were called to the throne by Protes- tantism. Their faith was their title. They were honourable men, and they kept their oaths to the religion of England. The country rose under each of those Protestant kings to a still higher rank ; every trivial reverse compensated by some magnificent addition of honour and power, until the throne of England stood on a height from which it looked down upon the world.

" Yet, in our immediate memory, there was one remarkable interruption of that progress ; which, if the most total con-

INTRODUCTION. Cvii

trast to the periods preceding and following can amount to proof, proves that every introduction of Popery into the legislature will be visited as a national crime.

" During the war with the French Republic, England had gone on from triumph to triumph. The crimes of the Popish Continent had delivered it over to be scourged by France ; but the war of England was naval ; and in 1805, she consum- mated that war by the greatest victory ever gained on the seas ;* at one blow she extinguished the navies of France and Spain. The death of her great statesman at length opened the door to a new admin istration.f They were men of acknowledged ability, some, of the highest ; and all accus- tomed to public affairs. But they came in under a pledge to the introduction of Popery, sooner or later, into the legislature. They were emphatically ' The Roman-catholic Administra- tion.'

" There never was in the memory of man so sudden a change from triumph to disaster. Disgrace came upon them in every shape in which it could assail a government ; in war, finance, negotiation. All their expeditions returned with shame. The British arms were tarnished in the four quarters of the globe.f And, as if to make the shame more conspi- cuous, they were baffled even in that service to which the national feeling was most keenly alive, and in which defeat seemed impossible. England saw, with astonishment, her fleet disgraced before a barbarian without a ship on the waters, and finally hunted out of his seas by the fire from batteries crumbling under the discharge of their own cannon.

" But the fair fame of the British empire was not to be thus cheaply wasted away. The ministry must perish ; al-

" * Trafalgar, Oct. 1805. « f February, 1806.

" { The retreat from Sweden, 1807. — Egypt invaded and evacuated, 1807. — Whitelock sent out to Buenos Ayres, 1807. — Duckworth's repulse at Constantinople, 1807. All these operations had originated in 1806, excepting Whitelock's* which was the final act of the ministry,

INTRODUCTION.

ready condemned by the voice of the country, it was to be its own executioner. It at length made its promised attempt upon the Constitution. A harmless measure* was proposed, notoriously but a cover for the deeper insults that were to follow. It was met with manly repulse ; and, in the midst of public indignation, perished the Popish ministry of one month and one year.f

" Its successors came in on the express title of resistance to Popery ; they were emphatically ' The Protestant Ad- ministration.' They had scarcely entered on office when the whole scene of disaster brightened, and the deliverance of Europe was begun with a vigour that never relaxed, a com- bination of unexpected means and circumstances, an effective and rapid renown, of which the very conjecture, but a month before, would have been laughed at as a dream. The scene and the success were equally extraordinary.

" Of all countries, Spain, sluggish, accustomed to the yoke of France, and with all its old energies melted away in the vices of its government, was the last to which Europe could have looked for defiance of the universal conqueror. But, if ever the battle was fought by the shepherd's staff and sling against the armed giant, it was then. England was there summoned to begin a new career of triumph. Irresistible on one element, she was now to be led step by step to the first place of glory on another ; and that protestant ministry saw what no human foresight could have hoped to see, Europe restored; the monarch of her monarchs a prisoner in its

" * The granting of commissions in the army. Mr. Perceval opposed this, as only a pretext ; he said, ' It was not so much the individual measure to which he objected, as the system of which it formed a part, and which was growing every day. From the arguments that he had heard, a man might be almost led to suppose that one religion was considered as good as another, and that the Reformation was only a measure of political convenience.'

" f March, 1807.

INTRODUCTION. C1X

hands ; and the mighty fabric of the French Atheistic em- pire, so long darkening and distending like an endless dun- geon over the earth, suddenly scattered with all its malignant pomps and ministers of evil into air.

" It is impossible to conceive that this regular interchange of punishment and preservation has been without a cause and without a purpose. Through almost three hundred years, through all varieties of public circumstance, all changes of men, all shades of general polity, we see one thing alone un- changed— the regular connexion of national misfortune with the introduction of Popish influence, and of national triumph with its exclusion."

" These remarks were originally published on the eve of the year 1829. The bill of that calamitous year replaced the Roman Catholic in the parliament from which he had been expelled a century before, by the united necessities of religion, freedom, and national safety. The whole experience of our Protestant history had pronounced that evil must follow. And it has followed.

" From that hour all has been changed. British legislation has lost its stability. England has lost alike her pre-eminence abroad, and her confidence at home. Every great institution of the state has tottered. Her governments have risen and passed away like shadows. The church in Ireland, bound hand and foot, has been flung into the furnace, and is disap- pearing from the eye. The church in England is haughtily threatened with her share of the fiery trial. Every remon- strance of the nation is insolently answered by pointing to rebellion, ready to seize its arms in Ireland. Democracy is openly proclaimed as a principle of the state. Popery is triumphantly predicted as the universal religion. To guide and embody all, a new shape of power has started up in the legislature, a new element at once of control and confu- sion— a central faction, which has both sides at its mercy, holding the country in contempt, while it fixes its heel on Cabinets trembling for existence, possessing all the influence k2

CX INTRODUCTION.

of office without its responsibility, and engrossing unlimited patronage for the purposes of unlimited domination. Yet those may be ' but the beginning of sorrows.'

" But if we give way to Popery we sin against the most solemn warnings of Scripture : we have the apostolic declara- tion,— ' Let no man deceive you by any means ; for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that MAN of SIN be revealed, the son of perdition, who op- poseth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped ; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God."

And now, as an appendix to this, let the admirer of national CONSISTENCY ponder over the startling facts contained in the following statement, as given by authority of parliament : —

Gibraltar

Cape of Good Hope ...

Mauritius

Lower Canada

Upper Canada

New Brunswick

Newfoundland

Jamaica

Trinidad

Demerara

Berbice

New South Wales ...

Van Dieman's Land ... 300 And besides all this, there is,

Maynooth 9000

Education Board (which is almost entirely in the hands of Romanists) ... 50,000

Board of Works ... 2,000 .

There, Englishmen, is more than £70,000, which your go- vernment is actually paying in your name, for the absolute cultivation of the Romish apostasy!

INTRODUCTION. Cxi

But, moreover, when we consider, from time to time, how the sacred Instincts of humanity have risen with indignant horror against the big and black outrage of Romish tyranny, — we can scarcely explain the seeming immutability of its strength, and the enduring pertinacity of its claims. Verily, there is a paradox of perpetuity, a mystery and a might of prevailing conjuration about it, not to be un- ravelled by an easy explanation. For let us look the matter in the front, and see how it stands. Here is a system of ecclesiastical assumption, a species of SATANIC JUDAISM, existent in the world, and opera- ting unblushingly among ourselves, the whole ten- dency of which is to evaporate the very design of Christianity,* and to incarcerate the Human Faculties in the fellest bondage of bigotry, blindness, and superstition: — yet Reason has often confronted it with triumphant exposure; Philosophy has hooted it with

* Donne has commented on the spiritual tyranny and chicanery of the church of Rome, with surpassing vigour, in one of his sermons preached on Whitsunday, — e. g., " About four hundred years since came out that famous in- famous book in the Roman church which they called * Evangelium Spiritus Sancti.' * * * By this gospel the gospel of Christ was absolutely abrogated ; for it was therein taught that only the literal sense of the gospel had been com- mitted to them, who had thus long governed in the name of the church ; but the spiritual and mystical sense was reserved to the Holy Ghost, and that now the Holy Ghost would set

CX11 . INTRODUCTION.

terrific sarcasm; and Science has anatomized it with the keenest ridicule; Conscience has shuddered back with frequent disgust from its claims; and often have the purity and power of the Affections recoiled from its polluting guile; and. in addition to all this, again and again have Law and Legislation, and Authority and Persecution, partially overcome its pretensions; yet, what is the truth, — but, that at this moment, here in the meridian light of this age of scientific acumen, and intellectual advance- ment, Popery, in all its native character, is as flourishing as ever! — How are we to account for this? A full answer could not be given in this rapid survey; but yet we may venture succinctly to assert, that if Popery be the Gospel according to man, and if Man (unless renewed by the divine Spirit) be always according to himself, — then need we not be surprised, that inasmuch as Romanism oscil-

that on foot. * * * Now when they could not advance that heresy, they are come to an heresy clean contrary to that heresy, — that is, to imprison the Holy Ghost; and since they could not make him king over Christ himself, they have made a slave to Christ's vicar, and shut him up there in scrinio pectoris (as they call it), in that close imprisonment in the breast and bosom of one man, the bishop ; and so the Holy Ghost is no longer a slave ; * * * but now in a bull, in bulls worse than Phalaris's bull, bulls of excommunication, bulls of rebellion and deposition, and assassinates Christian princes."— Donne's Works, vol. i. p. 545-6.

INTRODUCTION. cxiii

lates with responsive adaptation to all the require- ments of our restless and exacting Nature, — such a scheme involves a certain kind of perpetuity in its very essence. Let us add to this consideration, that there is a strange awfulness in the bare IDEAS of an eternity when brought (however falsely and feebly) to act on the pursuits and principles of time, — which will, more or less, wield an enslaving charm over the imaginations of even the haughtiest and the most profane, on some occasions. For —

" There is no man so wicked, but at some times his con- science will wring him with thoughts of another world, and the peril of his soul ; the trouble and melancholy, which he conceives of true repentance and amendment, he endures not, but inclines rather to some carnal superstition, which may pacify and lull his conscience with some more pleasing doc- trine. None more ready and officious to offer herself than the Romish, and opens wide her office, with all her faculties, to receive him; easy confession, easy absolution, pardons, indulgences, masses for him both quick and dead, Agnus Deis, relics, and the like : and he, instead of ' working out his salvation with fear and trembling,' straight thinks in his heart (like another kind of fool than he in the Psalms) to bribe God as a corrupt judge ; and by his proctor, some priest, or friar, to buy out his peace with money which he cannot with his repentance." — Milton, on Heresy, fyc.

To this may be added the imposture of a pre- tended antiquity, whereby the church of Rome wields over her victims the spell of association, operating through the medium of the past; and thus, while she is (in historic reality) herself a lying

CX1V INTRODUCTION.

NOVELTY of Trentine manufacture, which came to its full maturity at the close of the sixteenth century, — this feigned antiquity enables her to affix the stigma of an upstart recency on the churches of the Re- formation; and to repeat, with cuckoo monotony, the absurd cry — " Where was your church before Lu- ther ?" Connect with it, also, some other prin- ciples and elements which contribute to the marvel- lous influence of the Papal apostasy : such are — her impure dominion exercised by a Confessional; her assumed and actual forgiveness of sins, by virtue of priestly Absolution ; her emotional Cheats, addressed to the sensitive feelings of our nature; her recipro- cating system of Penance, in order to lull the con- science, and of Indulgence, in order to gratify the passions; — above all, her determination, if possible, to strangle the Bible, and gag, not only the mouth, but even the very mind of man itself. Recollect all this, in its combined and concentrated work, — and brought into operation by a machinery of mul- tiform and amazing adaptation, — and we can (in some measure at least) account for the sway of the Roman dissent over the baptized Gallios, and the benighted portion of mankind. Nor must we omit to observe, that Rome can never be rightly estimated, unless we remember the distinction between her OUT- WARD POLICY and her INWARD PRINCIPLE. Now,

I

INTRODUCTION. CXV

of the latter, we may boldly assert, it was, and is, and ever will be, one — viz., self- aggrandisement; but, as to the other, we have a specimen under our eyes, — that it is capable of assuming every aspect and expression which either the spirit of the age or the requirements of circumstance, may demand. Thus (as some writer has truly stated) Rome is an idolatress in China, an autocrat in Italy, republican in North America, despotic in South America, a rebel in Canada, and a radical in England; and yet, under all these conventional metamorphoses, she is at unity with herself in that one grand Prin- ciple which energizes throughout her whole cha- racter— even that of ILLIMITABLE SUPREMACY. By virtue of this adaptation of outward policy to every crisis and contingency, — the Roman church is now attempting to get up a species of artificial existence in the light of Protestant England; and thus, by a crafty process of external assimilation to the moral atmosphere around her, to deceive the World into the idea that she is conformably actuated from a changed principle within.*

* Ranke, (vol. ii. p. 20,) in allusion to the masterly skill of the Romish church, in antedating the movements of mankind, and in providing for the evolutions of circumstance and opinion, says, with profound accuracy and truth, " We may affirm, generally, that she was once more inspired with a fresh and living energy ; that she regenerated her creed in accord-

CXV1 INTRODUCTION.

Let us hear also the opinion of one, not less a Master of eloquence than a truthful Witness on all subjects connected with the actual workings of Romanism: —

" Nobody said, now-a-days, that the inquiry was unneces- sary because the subject was an insignificant one, or because the church of Rome is obscure or feeble in this country. From all sides accounts were heard of her increasing strength, of her enlarged resources, of her bolder spirit of enterprise ; and there was a class of persons who objected to inquiry, not in the spirit of scorn, but of fear. But if they would open their eyes, they would see far more to encourage than alarm them, provided they honestly did their duty. It was quite true, that to whatsoever part of the world we turned our eyes, we saw Romanism in a state of activity. He had alluded to the stages through which Romanism had already passed, and it was impossible to look to its present activity, without seeing that it was making preparation for some change more mo- mentous than any that had taken place yet. Romanism was now endeavouring to provide itself organs by which to exist in an atmosphere where there is freedom of thought and in- quiry ; and to prepare itself for such a state, it must cast away thought, and assimilate itself to the condition of the times. But would Romanism continue in such a state ? If she gain the power, will she not endeavour to impose heavier fetters than were ever imposed on human reason, when she sees it no longer necessary to accommodate herself to circum- stances ? Everywhere varied manifestations of activity, and

ance with the spirit of the age, and originated a reform which, on the whole, satisfied its demands. She did not allow the religious tendencies then existing in the South of Europe to grow into hostility ; on the contrary, she incorporated them with her own, and gained the absolute direction of them. This was the process by which she renewed her strength and repaired her disasters."

INTRODUCTION. CXvii

even of discrepancy were to be seen ; but in those manifes- tations of energy there was unity of purpose. In one region was to be found the grossest, the most childish, the most de- basing superstitions of the darkest ages repeated, and even surpassed ; in another region and society statements were put forth, from which it appeared that she was resolved to be judged at the tribunal of human reason. In one place she was aggregating multitudes into democratic masses, and dis- seminating and propagating democratic principles ; elsewhere, she was muffled up in the curtains that surround the throne, whispering counsels to monarchs, and describing how popular movements might be arrested. But everywhere she pursued the one great object of gathering the people to herself in masses, detaching them from all national feelings and inte- rests, marshalling and arraying them, and furnishing them with arms, moral or physical, and all for some vast enterprise not yet announced, and in which they would, according to their respective powers, be made to labour for her interests." — Sullivan.

The idea, therefore, of the church of Rome being changed in the positive essence of her principles, is baseless. She is now what she has ever been — the DEVIL'S LIE set up to imitate GOD'S TRUTH ; and so, designed to keep man FROM the Almighty, under the pretension of bringing him TO the Almighty. In short, we do not know that (looking at Popery as it now stands before us in all its Trentine ghast- liness) we can do better than apply to it Luther's own description of an image set up in the monas- tery at Isenach : —

" THE IMAGE WAS MADE HOLLOW WITHIN, AND

CXviii INTRODUCTION.

PREPARED WITH LOCKS, AND WIRES, AND SCREWS, AND BEHIND STOOD A KNAVE TO WORK THEM. IN SUCH SORT WERE THE PEOPLE MOCKED AND DE- CEIVED, WHO TOOK IT FOR A MIRACLE, AND THAT IT MOVED BY DlVINE PROVIDENCE."

What, therefore, certain writers mean when they talk about the re-union of the Church of England with the Church of Rome, is best known unto themselves. If they have such " bowels and mercies" for this Matricide of Souls — if these yearnings for their " dear sister" be sincere, why, probably, the really Catholic Church of England* can contrive to exist without them. " Miserable comforters are they all!" who, for the sake of a var- nished peace and vain unity, would propose such an adulterous connexion ; — for as long as the Church of

* The position of the Anglo Church, in reference to adherence to the catholic antiquity, is well put by Donne, in his " Sermon preached on Trinity Sunday ;" — " which day our church, according to that peaceful wisdom, wherewithal the God of peace, of unity, and concord had inspired her, did in the Reformation retain and continue, out of her general reli- gious tenderness and holy loathness, to innovate anything in these matters which might safely, and without superstition, be continued and entertained. For our church, in her Refor- mation, proposed not for her end how she might go from Rome, but how she might come to the truth ; nor to cast away all such things as Rome had depraved, but to purge away those depravations ; and conserve the things themselves, so restored, to their first good use." — Donne's Works, vol. ii. p. 248.

INTRODUCTION. CX1X

Rome allows all her Councils, maintains all her Canons, holds all her Decrees unrescinded, and her perse- cuting, heretical, and anti-social Doctrines unaltered, — the only way in which a friendship can possibly be struck between the Catholic church of England and the Roman dissent, is that by which Pilate and Herod one day contrived to become " friends" — i. e., by consenting to SACRIFICE the Saviour between them!"*

* The fine old writer, Thomas Fuller, with delightful quaintness and orthodox simplicity, thus ridicules the idea of a proposed alliance between the English and Roman churches, in his " HOLY STATE," (p. 50) : —

" Sure they light on a labour in vain, who seek to make a bridge of reconciliation over the /xeya %a(T/ia betwixt Papists and Protestants ; for though we go ninety -nine steps they (I mean their church) will not come one to give us a meeting. And as for the offers of Clara's and private men, besides that they seem to be more of the nature of baits than gifts, they may make large proffers, without any commission to treat, and so the Romish church is not bound to pay their promises. In Merionethshire in "Wales, there are high mountains, whose hanging tops come so close together that shepherds on the tops of several hills may audibly talk together, yet will it be a day's journey for their bodies to meet, so vast is the hollow- ness of the valleys betwixt them. Thus, upon sound search, shall we find a grand distance and remoteness betwixt Popish and Protestant tenets to reconcile them, which at the first view may seem near and tending to an accommodation."

And to confirm this, let us adduce the recent opinion of one, whom no candid man will accuse of exaggerating the inherent opposition between the Romish church and ourown

CXX INTRODUCTION.

There yet remains, however, another method of explaining much of the tremendous power which the church of Rome has exercised in past ages, and is still attempting to prolong and apply — even by that APPARENT UNITY which she maintains before the eyes of the world. Now that this unity is not that of spiritual life in the soul, but rather that of death — that it is " not a natural union produced by the active heat of the spirit, but a confusion arising from the want of it — not a knitting together, but a freez- ing together, as cold congregates all bodies, how

— even that of Dr. Pusey, who thus alludes to what he latterly witnessed in Ireland: —

" You may know, perhaps, that we have said that ' an union with Rome (i. e., as she now is) is impossible.' It is right to add, that while I acknowledge the great personal kindness with which my inquiries were answered at the several institu- tions I visited, and deeply respect individuals in them, the result of what I saw of the opinions of Romanists in Ireland, was a painful conviction that Rome had at present no disposi- tion to amend those things in her which make continued separation a duty. We must all long for the unity which our church prays for ; and if we earnestly pray for it, God may again restore a visible unity to his church in truth and holi- ness ; but until God gives to Rome grace to lay aside her corruptions, and to us to act up to the principles and standard of our church, it cannot be without a sacrifice of duty — we might even each become worse by an union. If we each grow in holiness, the spirit of Christ, which alone can give real unity, will pervade the church so as to knit it into one ; and for this we must long and labour."

INTRODUCTION. CXxi

heterogeneous soever, sticks, stones, and water," (Coleridge's AIDS TO REFLECTION, p. 73) is per- fectly true ;* but, notwithstanding this, the artificial cement has succeeded admirably well for all out- ward and aggressive movement ; and thus, in com- parison with our Babel-tongued and multiform Sec-

* On the boasted unity of Rome, the Rev. Edward Nangle says, when speaking of the Dublin Review : —

" But what we wish our readers to remark in the above ex- tract is the bold effrontery with which the writer charges the Protestant world with an imperfection most manifestly charge- able on his own sect. We allude to the want of unity displayed in the variety of denominations into which the Protestant world is divided. Are there no such divisions in Rome? — We need not go further than the Number of the Review from which we have made the above extract for an answer. Glancing over its pages, our eye is attracted by the following names: — Jesuits. Jansenists, Hermesians, Anticelibitaires, Ursulines, English Dames, Benedictines, Sons of Francis, Sisters of Charity, Christian Brothers, Daughters of the Good Shepherd, Capuchins, Piarists, Redemptorists ; to those might be added, Carmelites, Patricians, Brothers of the Sacred Heart, Augustinians, Josephites, Dominicans, &c. &c. All these birds of various plume, and some of them manifestly unclean and hateful, shelter themselves in great Babylon under the common title of Roman catholics. So that if diver- sity of denomination be a reproach to Protestantism, it is equally a reproach to Popery ; or if the pith of the reproach consist in the diversified peculiarity of opinion which charac- terizes the different denominations, we pledge ourselves to prove, by an examination of the peculiar tenets of the Pro- testant sects who are labouring to evangelize South Africa, and the Popish sects enumerated by the Reviewer, that in

CXX11 INTRODUCTION.

tarianism, the church of Rome has contrived to stand forth as the fairest Image of external unity which the world has witnessed ; and by this excellent TRICK, has managed to pass off her fictitious concord

this respect, too, the reproach preponderates to the side of Popery."

But on the subject of " DIVISIONS" in the Church of Rome we append an extract from a rare work of Stillingfleet : —

" As to matters of doctrine. The least thing any one could imagine by all the boasts of unity among them, and upbraiding others with their dissensions, is, that they are all of one mind in matters of doctrine ; but he must believe against common sense and experience that can believe this. For we know their divisions well enough, and that it is as easy a matter to compose all the differences among us as among them. We may as soon persuade the Quakers to uniformity, as reconcile the Dominicans and the Jesuits ; and all our sects will agree as soon as the factions of the Thomists and Scotists ; the Presbyterians and Independents will yield to episcopal jurisdiction, as soon as the monastic orders will quit their pri- vileges ; the Arminians and Calvinists will be all of a mind when the Jansenists and Molinis.ts are ; and we are apt to think that our controversies about ceremonies are not alto- gether of so great importance as theirs about infallibility. But it is a very pleasant thing to see by what arts they go about to persuade credulous people, that what would be called divisions anywhere else, is an admirable union among them ; they might as soon persuade them that the seven hills of Rome are the bottomless pit ; or that contradictions may be true. For either the Pope is infallible or he is not; either the supreme government of the church is committed to him alone as St. Peter's successor, or to the representative church in a council ; either he hath a temporal power to command princes, or he hath not ; either the Virgin Mary was conceived with original sin, or she was not ; either there is a predetermina-

INTRODUCTION. CXXlll

for that higher and holier (both visibly and invisibly contemplated) Union, in behalf of which the Re- deemer Himself petitioned. But we shall here avail ourselves of two writers, who, in allusion to this,

tion, or there is not ; either souls may be delivered out of purgatory, or they may not. Dare any of them say they are all of a mind in the church of Rome about these points ? I am sure they dare not. But what then? Do they not differ from one another? Do they not write, and preach, and rail against each other as much as any sectaries can do? Are there not factions of long continuance among them upon these differences? Where, then, lies their unity they boast of? Alas ! we speak like ignorant persons, and do not consider what artificial men we have to deal with ; who with some pretty tricks and sleights of hand make all that which seems to us shattered and broken in pieces, to appear sound and entire, without the least crack or flaw in it. It will be worth the while to find out these arts, for I do not question but by a discreet managing them, they may serve us as well as them, and our church will have (though not so much splendor) yet as much unity as theirs. They tell us, therefore, that it is true they are not all of a mind, and it is not necessary to the unity of the church that they should be ; but they have the only way of composing differences ; and they do not differ in matters of faith from each other ; and their differences lie only in their schools, and do not disturb the peace of the church. This is the utmost I can find their best wits plead for the unity of the Roman church ; and if these be sufficient, I be- lieve they and we will be proved to be as much at unity as they are among themselves.

" 1. They say the unity of the church doth not He in actual agreement of the members of it in matters of doctrine ; but in having the best means to compose differences, and to preserve consent ; which is, submission to the Pope's authority. So Gregory de Valentia explains the unity of their church ; for actual consent, he grants, may be in other churches as much'

CXX1V INTRODUCTION.

and some of its consequences and principles, — have thrown out thoughts worthy our deepest attention. The first is from a volume of " Essays," by the Rev. Henry Woodward : —

" The high claims of the Romish church have always ap- peared to me, not so much absurd in theory as in point of fact. That the church which the Son of God came down to establish upon earth, should possess such powers and preroga- tives as the papacy assumes, is what any man reasoning, a priori, would suppose." " If the church of Christ had, in her corporate and visible capacity, always kept herself undefiled and pure, she would have been arrayed in the very attributes which the church of Rome vainly and arrogantly pretends to. * * * * There is a secret charm in Popery, a con- trivance in the system, by which the machinery can work

as theirs, and there is nothing singular or peculiar attributed to their church, supposing they were all of a mind, which it is plain they are not ; but therein, saith he, lies the unity of their church, that they all acknowledge one Head, in whose judgment they acquiesce ; and therefore they have no more to do but to know what the Pope determines. If this be all their unity, we have greater than they, for we have a more certain way of ending controversies than they have, which I prove by an argument like to one in great request among them, when they go about to persuade weak persons to their religion — viz., that it must needs be safer to be in that religion wherein both parties agree a man may be saved, than in that where one side denies a possibility of salvation ; so say I here, that must be a safer way for unity which both parties agree in to be infallible, than that which one side absolutely denies to be so ; but both parties agree the Scriptures to be infallible, and all Protestants deny the Pope to be infallible ; therefore ours is the more certain way for unity. But this is not all, for it is far from being agreed among themselves that the Pope is infallible ; it being utterly denied by some among them, and

INTRODUCTION. CXXV

itself, in spite of the misconduct or mismanagement of its agents. This inherent power binds its votaries as by a magic spell. Whence, then, hath the church of Rome this wisdom, and these mighty works? My own belief is, that the foundations of her system are laid in the wisdom of God," (pp. 80, 85.) After analyzing the genius of Judaism, Mr. Woodward, from whose interesting and thoughtful " Essay" the above extracts are taken, the author, sums up his estimate of the necromancy of Romanism, by stating his belief that " the devil, as his last and best expedient, brought in Ju- daism again, under the name and title of the Catholic church."

Our second is from Edward Irving — a man of brave heart, mighty spirit, and splendid imagination ;

the asserting it accounted heresy, as is evident in some late books written to that purpose in France and England. What excellent means of. unity then is this among them ; which it is accounted by some no less than heresy to assert?

" But supposing they should yield the Pope that submission which they deny to be due to him, yet is his definition so much more certain way of ending controversies than the Scrip- tures ? Let them name one controversy that hath been ended in their church merely by the Pope's decrees, so as the oppo- site party hath declared, that they believed contrary to what they believed before, on the account of the Pope's definition. We have many instances to the contrary, wherein controversies have been heightened and increased by their interposing, but none concluded by them. Do they say the Scripture can be no means of unity, because of the various senses which have been put upon it ? and have they no ways to evade the Pope's definitions ? Yes ; so many, that his authority, in truth, signifies nothing, any further than they agree that the uphold- ing it tends to their common interest."— Stillingjleet, " Of the Divisions of the Church of Rome," p. 443 — 447.

CXXV1 INTRODUCTION.

and adorned, moreover, with powers of eloquence and thought of the highest order — a Being whom Martin Luther would have delighted to have embraced and welcomed; but one, unfortunately, whose fearful speculations on the " peccant hu- manity" of Christ, and whose insane parodies on the " Gift of Tongues," in his closing days, — abridged his usefulness, embittered his life, and have left a cloud on a Name, which, in many respects, deserves to be held in grateful remembrance by "all the churches." The passage is long, but assuredly it puts the sub- ject of Romish influence in somewhat a new and startling light : —

" The Popedom, if it had not been a usurpation, would have been the fullest and fairest model of the kingdom of Christ which hath been ever exhibited ; having in it the absoluteness of power, combined with the holiness of priesthood ; being the very form of our Melchizedek, a priest upon his throne ; who, without armies and without expenses, by nuncios and legates merely, did accomplish the same ends which the absolute kings did accomplish by force ; who did establish himself upon the earth, not only as the object of dread, but likewise as the object of reverence, bringing under his dominion the emperor who represented the last and most enlarged of the autocratic dominations ; and not only so, but he did make himself to be revered by all the people, insomuch that his pontifical word could dissolve allegiance and abolish natural ties. He even attained unto the claim of absolving from all guilt, of dispen- sing from all obligation ; and his word canonized saints, dis- pensed righteousness, changed laws and time, and otherwise usurped the office of Christ, the Ruler of the earth, and the Dispenser of the Divine will. And into his city flowed the

INTRODUCTION. CXXV11

riches of the Gentiles, and up to his city went the most holy of the people. Yet he himself removed not thence, neither shewed himself openly, save at the high solemnity, when the assembled myriads knelt before him, and he bestowed upon them his blessing, as the blessing of God. Time would fail me to explain, point by point, this full-length portraiture of our true Melchizedek ; which, had it been an idea written in a book, and held up unto the church as the great object of its hope, would have been the greatest, the noblest, the best per- formance of piety and wisdom ; but, being a reality embodied unto sense, a pageant contrived by the devil and informed by a man, is the fiend's arch-mock, the master-piece of delusion, the consummation of idolatry, the most daring attempt of men and devils to parody the purpose of God, and destroy the ex- pectation and desire of the whole earth. If idolatry before the coming of Christ was the great object of Divine hatred and prevention because it attempted to inculcate the great secret before the time, by giving form unto God before he had taken form in the seed of the woman, and so anticipating the glory set apart for his Son, as the Eikon, or statue, of the in- visible God ; so, after Christ, the image of the invisible God, had been manifested in humility, together with a promise of bringing him in the second time in glory, then it became the great act of sacrilege to attempt, by any device, to forestal, or upon any person to fix, that glory which God hath reserved for his Son ; whereof, indeed, every baptized man is consti- tuted a witness, having the Holy Ghost given unto him, as his earnest, that he himself shall in the like glory appear ; but if, instead of witnessing that the Priest-King, the Infallible, the Absolute, is not yet in the world ; we do give that honour to a man like unto ourselves, who is in the world, or oppose him not unto the death who claimeth it ; then, I say, are we guilty of a tenfold sacrilege and a tenfold idolatry, and are servants of Satan far beyond the most gross, crude, and cruel image-wor- shippers on the earth. There is no language, there are no similitudes, for expressing the abhorrence of an enlightened and pious Christian towards the Papacy ; and there is no such

CXXV111 INTRODUCTION.

sign of lukewarmness in the Christian church, as to have become so tolerant and so fair-spoken towards that abomina- tion. Nevertheless, while I thus speak, like the Fall, and the natural world under the Fall, and the constitution of universal absolute kingdoms, there is nothing so worthy the study of a wise and patient man, as that master-piece of Satan's inven- tion, the Papacy ; through which he hath inflicted such a blow upon Christendom, as that all the disciples of the Lord, saving a handful of stragglers here and there, have entirely for- gotten the Melchizedek kingdom of Christ which is to come. I will say it over again, for the use of Protestants, and espe- cially for the sister churches of Scotland and England, that the Papacy, as it formed itself in the times of Jerome and Augustine, and from an earlier time, did gradually abolish the primitive hope of the church concerning Christ's coming and kingdom : which hope hath never yet dawned again upon the spiritual heavens, though oft and oft it hath struggled in the midst of the clouds, and darkness, and mists of hell which that superstition brought over the face of heaven. We have had such a bout to maintain and keep the single point of justifica- tion by faith, that we have never got to the subject of our hopes at all. Oh, this Protestantism is become a beggarly thing ! — a poor, beggarly system of expediency ! Verily, it is like the last tatter of a beggar's outward garment, hanging shivering in the wind, without comfort and without shelter. It took too low an aim when it merely set itself to contradict the Pope ; it, should have studied him, it should have profited by him, it should have interpreted the wisdom of Satan, and turned it against himself ; then, instead of merely denying pur- gatory of the soul, Protestantism would have gone into the whole question of a Christian's hope, as they went into the whole question of a Christian's faith ; and then the primi- tive doctrine of the advent and kingdom of Christ would have come out in its fulness and its beauty. No religion can be founded upon negatives. The Protestant religion necessarily took up a negative, and it should have been more guarded against the peril which arose out of this singular prerogative."

INTRODUCTION. CXX1X

Tlie reader will of course form his own judgment on these sentiments; but assuredly it is a great truth, that no church can be maintained, and no creed secured, by merely a cold and negative theo- logy; and equally true, that our manifold dissensions, differences, and hostilities, do expose us most cruelly and dangerously to the taunts and sneers of the Roman " mock." Even Milton, with all his am- phibious churchmanship, writes thus in 1673: —

" It is written, that the coat of our Saviour was without seam ; whence some would infer that there should be no divi- sion in the church of Christ. It should be so indeed ; yet seams in the same cloth neither hurt the garment, nor misbe- come it ; and not only seams, but schisms will be while men are fallible : but if they who dissent in matters not essential to belief, while the common adversary is in the field, shall stand jarring and pelting at one another, they will be soon routed and subdued. The papist with open mouth makes much ad- vantage of our several opinions : not that he is able to confute the worst of them, but that we by our continual jangle among ourselves make them worse than they are indeed. To save ourselves, therefore, and resist the common enemy, it concerns us mainly to agree within ourselves, that with joint forces we may not only hold our own, but get ground"

And is there not something worthy our attention also in the following remark from one who loved our church with no common love, and died " looking unto Jesus" only, — the source of his salvation? —

" The papacy elevated the church to the virtual exclusion or suppression of the Scriptures: the modern church of Eng-- land, since Chillingworth, has so raised up the Scriptures as

CXXX INTRODUCTION.

to annul the church: both alike have quenched the Holy Spirit, as the MESOTHESIS, or indifference of the two, and substituted an alien compound for the genuine preacher, which should be the SYNTHESIS of the Scriptures, and the church, and the sensible voice of the Holy Spirit." — Coleridge's Lit. Hem., v. iii. p. 93.

But the important subject of a visible unity, in- volving, as it does, the entire argument connected with the platform and polity of a church considered as the " GROUND AND PILLAR" of the truth, is quite beyond the range of a Preface. We therefore hasten to wind up these remarks, which have ex- tended themselves far beyond the writer's original intention. He