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 Vindication of Luther against his re 
 
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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029250342 
 
VINDICATION OF LUTHEE 
 
 AGAINST 
 
 HIS RECENT ENGLISH ASSAILANTS. 
 
 SECOND EDITIOIT, 
 
 REPRINTED AND ENLARGED FROM THE NOTES TO 
 
 THE MISSION OF THE COMFORTER. 
 
 BY JULIUS CHARLES HARE, MA., 
 
 RECTOR OP HEKSTMOKOEDX, 
 AKOnDEACOH OJ LISWBg, CHAPLAIN IN ORBINAKY TO THE QUEEN. 
 
 LONDON: 
 JOHN W. PARKER AND SON, WEST STRAND. 
 
 1855- - 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 This Essay, which appeared in its original form as a 
 Note to the Sermons on the Mission of the Com- 
 forter, was re-written, enlarged and revised with 
 great care by the Author as far as page 288. He 
 left in MS. the Note A, and a few pages containing 
 the heads of the Notes which he had intended to 
 write. 
 
 The pages between 288 and the end of the text 
 are reprinted from the former Edition. 
 
 It has been thought best to publish the imperfect 
 Notes, as they contain references which are of value. 
 To insert the passages which the author intended to 
 quote would scarcely in any case be possible; for 
 he might have introduced a line where an Editor 
 would transcribe a page or vice versa. In some in- 
 stances, as the reader will perceive, the references are 
 
too general even to warrant a guess as to the special 
 points of which he had wished to take notice. It 
 has been thought safer therefore to publish them just 
 as they are, in the belief that some students will be 
 able to make use of them. They will, at least, show 
 with what care Archdeacon Hare arranged his mate- 
 rials, and how many authorities he thought it his duty 
 to consult before he ventured to make any assertions 
 affecting the characters of men or the facts of His- 
 tory. 
 
VINDICATION OF LUTHER. 
 
 Impartiality is an attribute which, men have ever 
 felt, they cannot claim for themselves with regard to 
 their contemporaries, to whom they are united, or from 
 whom they are severed, by manifold relations of ac- 
 tion and feehng and opinion : but they have been only 
 the more ready in ascribing it to posterity, far readier 
 than we have any warrant for doing in the bygone ex- 
 perience of the world. When death has withdrawn a 
 person from our immediate contact, all the prejudices and 
 prepossessions attacht to him, it would seem to be sup- 
 posed, must die away ; and he rises above the mists and 
 vapours of the earth into the clear, cold sky, where 
 people see him as he is. Yet there are divers causes and 
 motives which retard the formation of such a right judge- 
 ment, it may be for centuries. When a man has taken a 
 leading part in the conflicts of his age, it will often 
 happen that, as those conflicts may themselves be pro- 
 longed from generation to generation, the feelings with 
 which he was regarded during his life, will cluster around 
 him after his death. In fact, if his name chances to be 
 exalted into the symbol of a party, his postiunous repu- 
 tation may become far more unlike his real character, 
 than that which he bore in his lifetime ; as we see in the 
 
 B 
 
2 VINDICATION OF LUTHER. 
 
 case of so many among the most renowned of the ancient 
 patriots. Nor is it to be wondered at if the Romans, 
 even in the Augustan age, were incapable of doing justice 
 to Hannibal. For how many are there in these days who 
 have ever bethought themselves that they are under a 
 grave moral obligation of doing justice to Cromwell ? 
 
 Now perhaps there is no one in the whole history of 
 the world, against whom such a host of implacable pre- 
 judices and antipathies have been permanently arrayed, 
 as against Luther. For the contest in which he engaged, 
 is the most momentous ever waged by a single man : it 
 had been secretly preparing for centuries ; and its issue 
 is still pending. Even in our days the dark, terrible 
 power, which Luther assailed and cast down, has been 
 lifting itself up in renewed vigour : Dagon has been set 
 up again in the very presence of the ark of God ; and all 
 they who are fighting for Dagon, who are upholding the 
 cause attackt by Luther, cannot possibly be just to 
 Luther, whose whole life and character, his heart and 
 soul and mind, are identified and one vnth his great 
 work, in a manner very different from what we see in 
 other men. Melanchthon, for instance, may easily be 
 conceived apart from the Reformation, as an emi- 
 nent divine, living in other ages of the Church, as the 
 friend of Augustin, or the companion of Fenelon. Even 
 Calvin may be separated in thought from the age of the 
 Reformation, and may be set among the Schoolmen, or in 
 the Council-chamber of Hildebrand or of Innocent, or 
 at the Synod of Dort, or among Cromwell's chaplains. 
 Hence it is easier to form an independent, candid judge- 
 ment on their characters. But Luther, apart from the 
 Reformation, would cease to be Luther. His work was 
 not something external to him, like Saturn's ring, on 
 which he shone, and within which he revolved : it was 
 
VINDICATION OF LUTHER. 3 
 
 his own very self, that grew out of him, while he grew 
 out of his work. Wherefore they who do not rightly 
 estimate and feel thankful for the Reformation, cannot 
 rightly understand Luther, or attain to that insight into 
 his heart and spirit, which is never granted except to 
 love. 
 
 It is not merely that the Romanists, and such persons 
 as cling to the Romish notion of the Church and of 
 the Priesthood, must needs feel a strong repugnance to 
 Luther. Even among those who profess a high admira- 
 tion for what they deem the principles and purpose of 
 the Reformation, many are scarcely less incapable of 
 appreciating him. They who espouse the negative side 
 of the Reformation, but reject its positive side, — they 
 who regard it as the first act in the emancipation of the 
 human mind from all authority, as the prelude to that 
 ideal elysium in which everybody is to do as he pleases, 
 and to think as he chooses, — can feel no sympathy with 
 Luther's strong positive faith ; and being unable to dis- 
 cern the unity of his character, as it manifests itself when 
 we look at it from its living centre, they complain of a 
 jarring inconsistency between his denials and his asser- 
 tions. The very intensity of Luther's convictions, the 
 vehemence with which he contended for them, cannot 
 but seem utterly extravagant to those who do not par- 
 ticipate in them, or feel what questions of weal or woe, 
 of life or death, for the whole race of man were at stake. 
 There are many moreover, to whom that vehemence in 
 itself is. repulsive, persons who like the spectacle of 
 rhetorical or scholastic exercises, better than the strife 
 and tug of the forum, who look complacently on the 
 summer lightning, but shrink from the flash and thunder- 
 bolt of the real storm. These people, — and they are 
 numerous in an age when literature has diluted men's 
 
 B 2 
 
4 VINDICATION OF LUTHER. 
 
 hearts, and brought them to conceive that the main end 
 of life is to furnish matter for speculation, — will find 
 amusement and take pleasure in Erasmus, but are startled 
 and shockt by Luther (a). 
 
 Besides, as St Paul himself was slanderously reported 
 to be a preacher of Antinomian doctrines, a like accu- 
 sation has been brought age after age against all such 
 preachers as have been most earnest in proclaiming 
 those highths and depths of Christian truth, which it 
 was St Paul's special mission to vraite on the hearts 
 and consciences of mankind. For these doctrines are 
 still, as ever, a stumbling-block to the Jew, and foolish- 
 ness to the Greek, — a stumbling-block to the man ,of 
 action, and foolishness to the man of speculation. The 
 whole tribe of the children of this world, — they who 
 are accustomed to act, and who like to see the results 
 of their actions, deeming that this is man's business 
 upon earth, and that by this everything is to be eifected, 
 — and they on the other hand whose main concern is 
 to heap up a pile, greater or less, of knowledge, who 
 dote upon knowledge, and regard it as man's highest 
 province, without the conviction of any intimate rela- 
 tion between knowledge and action, — the mere moralist, 
 the dreamer and talker about human virtue, he who 
 fancies that man has the springs of all power and good- 
 ness in himself, and he who looks upon him as a ma- 
 chine to be set and kept a going by continual impulses 
 from without, — he who has no worthier notion of heaven 
 than as an incentive and reward of abstinence from vice, 
 and who values religion as a make-weight to turn the 
 scale in the otherwise wavering balance of good and 
 evil, — all these persons, as their minds are forclosed 
 against the reception, and even against the intelligent 
 apprehension of spiritual religion, and as they have no 
 
VINDICATION OF LUTHER. 6 
 
 conception of Faith except as an act of the understand- 
 ing, are surprised and oifended when they are told 
 that Faith is the ground of our justification. How can 
 it matter, they say, what a man thinks or believes, pro- 
 vided he lives an honest, virtuous life. If they can modify 
 the proposition by slipping in works, and asserting that 
 we are to be justified hy faith and works conjointly, 
 they may perhaps assent to it : for then Faith dwindles 
 into an evanescent quantity ; and Works come forward 
 as the Babel by which man is to mount into heaven. 
 But when Works are any way excluded, when a person 
 is strenuous in preaching with St Paul, that man is 
 not justified hy the works of the law, hut hy faith in 
 Jesus Christ, — when this doctrine is inculcated with 
 the earnest reiteration which is requisite, not only on 
 account of its primary vital importance, but also of its 
 repugnance to human pride and self-sufficiency, he is 
 sure to be charged with depreciating moraKty and making 
 void the Law, by those who have lowered the key of 
 religion, in order to bring it into accord with the voice 
 of their own hearts and of the world : and it will be very 
 difficult to convince them that the doctrine of Justi- 
 fication by Faith, when rightly taught, does not make 
 void, but, as St Paul says (Rom. iii. 31), establishes the 
 Law, Hence it is not to be wondered at that Luther, 
 as he was sent to reproclaim St Paul's doctrine, which 
 had been distorted for century after century by mani- 
 fold sophistications, and which practically was almost 
 forgotten and set aside, and often grossly outraged, by 
 the teaching of the fallen Church, should have been 
 assailed by similar reproaches. The oblivion into which 
 that doctrine had fallen, the mass of corruptions whereby 
 it was overlaid and hidden, imprest him with the ne- 
 cessity of setting it forth continually in its naked power: 
 
6 VINDICATION OF LUTHER. 
 
 and thougli he also followed his great master and pro- 
 totype in continually enforcing every moral duty, not 
 indeed as the ground of justification, but as its fruit 
 and evidence, yet, as this did not save St Paul from 
 such slanderous reports, neither did it avail to save 
 Luther, 
 
 For all these and other reasons, it is no way sur- 
 prising that Luther should have been the object of 
 various censures and invectives from divers quarters, 
 in the present state of the English literary and religious 
 mind. For though it may be hoped that we have risen 
 above the dreary shallowness of Hume, who, in intro- 
 ducing his account of the Reformation, lays it down, 
 that an establisht Church is a political benefit, because 
 it " bribes the indolence " and checks the activity of 
 its ministers, our philosophy and literature are still far 
 from being sufiiciently impregnated with the idea of 
 Christianity, to recognise the real worth and dignity of 
 the Reformation. Moreover, since that disastrous cloud 
 has come over the religious mind of England, which 
 leads so many of our divines to decry the Reformation 
 and its authors, the most unfounded charges against 
 Luther have found acceptance with many, who catch 
 them up with a parrot-like volubility in repeating ugly 
 words. Therefore, seeing that Luther's character is so 
 closely connected with that of the Reformation, — a fact 
 attested by the very virulence with which the enemies 
 of the Reformation have always set themselves to revile 
 him, — to those who love the Reformation, it must needs 
 seem desirable that Luther's name should be cleared 
 from all unmerited stigmas. To do this, so far as I 
 am acquainted with those which have been cast upon 
 him of late years in England, is the object of the present 
 work. 
 
VINDICATION OF LUTHER. 
 
 The best vindication of Luther is indeed that supplied 
 by his own works, — ^by the volumes which he sent forth 
 during thirty years, at one period almost like flights of 
 birds, in assertion of God's truth, and to destroy the 
 strongholds of falsehood, — and still more by that which 
 he was enabled in God's strength to write on the page 
 of history, and on the hearts of his countrymen, and of 
 so large a portion of Christ's Church. Hence the most 
 satisfactory apology for him is his life, the fullest and 
 most faithful record of it. Such apologies we find in 
 several books written of late years, both of English 
 growth, and exotics which have been naturalized. It is 
 the intense interest of Luther's character that has given 
 such wide popularity in England to D'Aubigne's History 
 of the Reformation, notwithstanding the great vices 
 of its style and manner. ~T^ lively portrait of the same 
 character is presented in Mr Hazhtt's translation of 
 Michelet's work. Ranke's admirable history too,^ which 
 gives a noble picture of the great Reformer, has been 
 rendered into English by a pen, which, while it preserves 
 the masculine strength of its originals, invests them with 
 a feminine grace and clearness. Among our own divines. 
 Dean Waddington has found himself compelled, like 
 D'Aubign^, to turn his History of the Reformation into 
 a life of the chief agent in it, which he has executed 
 diligently and affectionately. Of the present work the 
 object is of a lower order, to correct certain misrepre- 
 sentations which have become current concerning specific 
 points in Luther's Ufe and doctrine. In the course of it 
 I shall have to discuss several questions at greater length 
 than would be consistent with a history or biography ; 
 and some of these questions will perhaps be found to be 
 of no slight or merely temporary interest. 
 
REPLY TO MR HALLAM'S REMARKS 
 ON LUTHER. 
 
 Mr Hallam, in his Introduction to the Literature of 
 Europe, speaks of Luther in three passages, — Part I. 
 chap. iv. §§ 54—61, chap. vi. § 4, and § 26. In none of 
 these passages are his observations of much importance. 
 Indeed, his subject being the history of Literature, 
 though it does not exclude Theology, yet it does not 
 lead him into any profound or laborious investigation 
 of theological questions, or even of the development of 
 Theology as a science : still less is it a history of Religion. 
 Nor does he appear to possess much acquaintance with 
 German literature of any period, an acquaintance very 
 rare among persons of his immediate standing, who for 
 the most part deemed that modern literature consisted 
 of three provinces, ItaKan, French, and English, whence 
 an occasional excursion might be made into the Spanish 
 peninsula on the one side, and into the sandy plains of 
 Germany on the other. Hence it might be thought that 
 there is little need of entering into a serious examina- 
 tion of Mr Hallam's remarks on Luther, though the 
 main tenour of them is very unfavorable ; unless his 
 reputation for learning, accuracy, judgement, and impar- 
 tiality gave weight to his testimony ; whereby young 
 readers, as I have known to happen in some instances, 
 are induced to suppose that Luther's merits must have 
 been greatly overrated, seeing that this learned and 
 impartial critic finds so little good, and so much evil 
 
REPLY TO MR II ALL AM. 9 
 
 in him. Mr Hallam's learning indeed, as I have already 
 hinted, and consequently his accuracy do not embrace 
 this region of knowledge : and while the soundest judge- 
 ment needs a cognisance of the subject matter on which 
 it is to be exercised, it is perpetually seen, that impar- 
 tiality, in its mere negativeness, is a sorry qualification 
 for forming an estimate of intellectual or moral gran- 
 deur. For what would befall a person who set himself 
 to frame a judgement on Shakspeare, boasting that he 
 could do so with perfect impartiality ? He who under- 
 stands Shakspeare must admire and love him ; and unless 
 we admire and love him, we cannot possibly understand 
 him. Nor is it otherwise with the Reformation and 
 its worthies, on which subject Mr Hallam tells us 
 (chap. iv. § 54), he can speak with impartiality. Even 
 in such matters, both heat and cold are better than 
 Laodicean lukewarmness. 
 
 In all the three passages cited, in which Mr Hallam 
 speaks of Luther, he charges him with Antinomianism, 
 though without bringing forward one tittle of direct proof, 
 one single expression of Luther's, as a warrant for his cen- 
 sure (b) ; while there is little else in any of the passages, 
 except the old complaint that Luther was violent and 
 coarse and dogmatical, with an admission however that 
 " his soul was penetrated with a fervent piety, and his in- 
 tegrity as well as purity of life are unquestioned." Hence 
 the reader, — if he has that confidence in his author, which 
 Mr Hallam in the main fully deserves, — will of course 
 think that there must be the strongest evidence of 
 Luther's demoralizing doctrines ; since they are so pro- 
 minently oiFensive to such an impartial critic, that they 
 prevent his recognising anything else in a writer, in whom 
 one should have thought, from what he is said to have 
 effected, there must needs have been some remarkable 
 
10 REPLY TO MR HALLAM's 
 
 and eminent qualities. But, when we look for this 
 evidence, we are baffled. After a strong expression of 
 censure, in chap. iv. § 59, Mr Hallam merely refers us 
 to the first volume of Luther's works "passim" and then, 
 in the next note, adds, "I am unwilling to give these 
 pages too theological a cast by proving this statement, 
 as I have the means of doing, by extracts from Luther's 
 own early writings. Whoever has read the writings of 
 Luther up to the year 1520 inclusive, must find it im- 
 possible to contradict my assertion." In a subsequent 
 passage (chap. vi. § 30), Mr Hallam says, " Even the 
 Coryphaei of the Reformation are probably more quoted 
 than read ; — and it may not be invidious to surmise that 
 Luther and Melanchthon serve little other purpose, at 
 least in England, than to give an occasional air of eru- 
 dition to a theological paragraph, or to supply its margin 
 with a reference that few readers will verify." Is this 
 a lurking consciousness betraying itself? At least one 
 may guess that our divines are not the only persons who 
 stick such feathers into their plumes ; although they 
 who have discovered that few readers verify references, 
 may take the safer course of omitting them altogether. 
 
 Here however at all events the reader, if, having been 
 accustomed to hear Luther's name held up to veneration 
 and love, he has been shockt at learning that the man 
 whom he had been taught to revere as the great preacher 
 of righteousness, of the true righteousness, the ofispring 
 of faith, was in fact a preacher of unrighteousness, is 
 enabled to breathe more freely. He remembers that the 
 publication of the Theses against Indulgences took place 
 on the eve of All Saints in 1517, — that the burning of 
 the Pope's Bull, which was the decisive act of separation 
 from the Papal Church, was on the 10th of December 
 1520; he looks into the first volume of Luther's Latin 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 1 1 
 
 works,, to whicli Mr Hallam refers ; he finds that it con- 
 tains nothing prior to the year 1518, except three collec- 
 tions of scholastic Theses, including those against Tetzel ; 
 and knowing how unsafe it is to frame conclusions con- 
 cerning a man's doctrines from propositions of this kind, 
 — which are ever wont to take a startling and paradoxical 
 shape, as well from the naked brevity with which they 
 must be asserted, as from the polemical purpose for 
 which they are promulgated, — he further calls to mind 
 that Luther went on writing and preaching with a co- 
 piousness almost unparalleled till four days before his 
 death, on the 18th of February 1546. Hence he comforts 
 himself with the reflexion, that, whatever extravagances 
 there may have been in Luther's earlier writings, when 
 he first caught sight of the truth, through the power of 
 which he delivered the Church from the stifling superin- 
 cumbent darkness, the mists, which had gathered round 
 that truth at its first rising above his horizon, soon 
 cleared away, and he no longer ran into the same ex- 
 cesses ; which thus would merely betoken that, in the 
 violence of the struggle to dehver his own mind, and that 
 of the Church, from the crushing bondage of the Romish 
 errours, he sometimes overstrained himself, and overstept 
 the mark in the opposite direction. 
 
 It is true, the chapter in which this note occurs, treats 
 expressly of the period from 1500 to 1520. But one can 
 hardly suppose that this is the only, or the chief reason 
 why the limitation with regard to Luther's writings is 
 introduced. Indeed, though the charge of Antinomianism 
 is renewed in both the passages in the sixth chapter, 
 several expressions imply that Mr Hallam supposes Lu- 
 ther's later writings to be less erroneous and mischievous 
 than the earlier. Doubtless it is strange that a historian 
 of literature should determine his estimate of one, whom 
 
12 REPLY TO MR HALLAM's 
 
 his position and influence, if nothing else, mark out 
 among the foremost of mankind, by the writings of his 
 first three years ; which in such case must have been very 
 immature and crude ; and which at any rate were merely 
 so many steps in the gradual emancipation of his mind, as 
 he burst one chain of errour after another ; while the riper 
 works of twenty-five years of unwearied, devoted labour 
 are scarcely noticed. Yet his writings, taken as a whole, 
 are the first great utterance of the most momentous crisis 
 the human niind has had to go through since the original 
 reception of Christianity, a crisis by which the whole 
 region of thought from that time forward has been more 
 and more modified, both in the way of detriment and of 
 expansion. Such a proceeding is much as if one were to 
 pronounce judgement on Shakspeare from his Pericles 
 and Titus Andronicus. 
 
 An explanation however of this, and of much more, 
 seems to be afforded by the first sentences in Mr Hallam's 
 remarks on Luther. " It would not be just, probably, to 
 give Bossuet credit in every part of that powerful deli- 
 neation of Luther's theological tenets, with which he 
 begins the History of the Variations of Protestant 
 Churches. Nothing, perhaps, in polemical eloquence is 
 so splendid as this chapter. The eagle of Meaux is there 
 truly seen, lordly of form, fierce of eye, terrible in his 
 beak and claws. But he is too determined a partisan to 
 be trusted by those who seek the truth without regard to 
 persons and denominations. His quotations from Luther 
 are short, and in French : I have failed in several attempts 
 to verify the references." Mr Hallam, who here and 
 elsewhere expresses such fervent admiration for Bossuet's 
 eloquence, says of Luther's Latin works, " their intem- 
 perance, their coarseness, their inelegance, their scurrility, 
 their wild paradoxes, that menace the foundations of 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 13 
 
 religious morality, are not compensated, so far at least 
 as my slight acquaintance with them extends, by much 
 strength or acuteness, and still less by any impressive 
 eloquence." To me, I own, in the face of this mild 
 verdict, Luther, if we take the two masses of his writings, 
 those in Latin, and those in his own tongue, — which 
 display different characters of style, according to the 
 persons and objects they are designed for, — in the highest 
 qualities of eloquence, in the faculty of presenting grand 
 truths, moral and spiritual ideas, clearly, vividly, in 
 words which elevate and enlighten men's minds, and stir 
 their hearts, and controll their wills, seems incomparably 
 superior to Bossuet, almost as superior as Shakspeare to 
 Racine, or as Ulswater to the Serpentine. In fact, when 
 turning from one to the other, I have felt at times as if I 
 were passing out of a gorgeous, crowded drawingroom, 
 with its artificial lights and dizzying sounds, to run up 
 a hill at sunrise. The wide and lasting effect which Lu- 
 ther's vmtings produced on his own nation, and on the 
 world, is the best witness of their power (c). 
 
 I should not have toucht on this point, unless it were 
 plain that Mr Hallam's judgement on Luther had been 
 greatly swayed by the Histoire des Variations. It is 
 somewhat strange to begin one's account of a man with 
 saying that " it would not be just, probably, to give credit 
 in every part " to what a determined, able, and not very 
 scrupulous enemy says of him, writing with the express 
 purpose of detecting all possible evil in him and his 
 cause. In truth what could well be less just than this 
 supererogatory candour ? In no court of law would such 
 an invective be attended to, except so far as it was borne^ 
 out by the evidence adduced. Mr Hallara says he had 
 failed in several attempts to verify the references : if he 
 had succeeded, he would probably have found that the 
 
14 REPLY TO MR HALLAM's 
 
 passages cited are mostly misrepresented: how far the 
 misrepresentation is wilful, I do not take upon myself to 
 pronounce. Bossuet's mind was so uncongenial to Lu- 
 ther's, so artificial, so narrow, sharing in the national 
 incapacity for seeing anything except through a French 
 eyeglass, — his conception of Faith, as I have had occasion 
 to remark elsewhere, was so meagre, so alien from 
 Luther's, — and the shackles imposed upon him by his 
 Church so disqualified him for judging fairly of its great 
 enemy, — that we need not be surprised at any amount of 
 misunderstanding in him, when he came forward as an 
 advocate in such a cause. Still, however fiercely "the 
 eagle of Meaux " may have desired to use his beak and 
 claws, he might as well have peckt and clawed at Mount 
 Ararat, as at him whom God was pleased to endow with 
 a mountain of strength, when He ordained that he should 
 rise for the support of the Church out of the Flood of 
 darkness and corruption. 
 
 Here, as the assertion I have made concerning Bos- 
 suet's misrepresentations, should not be made unsupported 
 by proofs, I will cite two or three examples, shewing 
 how the quotations from Luther, which in his pages seem 
 very reprehensible, become innocent when viewed along 
 with the context in their original home. Nor shall 
 these examples be culled out from the six books em- 
 ployed in the attack on Luther. They shall be taken 
 from the first sections of that attack : thus they will 
 better illustrate the manner in which it is carried on. 
 
 Bossuet begins by bringing forward the idle fiction, 
 that Luther, in assailing the Indulgences, was infiuenced 
 by the jealousy between the Augustinians and Dominicans. 
 " Qui ne sait la publication des Indulgences de Leon X, 
 et la jalousie des Augustins contre les Jacobins qu'on 
 leur avoit preferes en cette occasion ? Qui ne sait que 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER, 15 
 
 Luther, docteur Augustin, choisi pour maintenir I'hon- 
 neur de son ordre, attaqua premierement les abus que 
 plusieurs faisoient des Indulgences " (§. vi). When a 
 writer can retail such a flimsy falsehood, which the slight- 
 est examination of the facts shews to be utterly ground- 
 less, he betrays such a warp in his mind, such a proneness 
 to believe evil, and such an ineptitude to discern truth, 
 that he at once ceases to be a trustworthy witness ; and 
 one is bound to sift all his statements, and to examine 
 their grounds (d). 
 
 Bossuet proceeds : " Mais il etoit trop ardent pour se 
 renfermer dans ces bornes : des abus il passa bientot a 
 la chose meme. II avan9oit par degr^s, et encore qu'il 
 allat toujours diminuant les Indulgences, et les reduisant 
 presque a rien par la maniere de les expliquer, dans le 
 fond il faisoit semblant d'etre d'accord avec ses adver- 
 saires, puisque, lorsqu'il mit ses propositions par ecrit, il 
 y en eut une couchee en ces termes : si quelqu'un nie la 
 vSrite des Indulgences du Pa/pe, qu'il soit anatheme." Here 
 it is insinuated, both that there was an inconsistency 
 in Luther's views on Indulgences, and that the proposi- 
 tion concerning the Papal authority is at variance with 
 the rest, and is introduced as a feint, to make believe 
 that he agreed with his adversaries. But when we look 
 at the Theses, all is clear and at one. The real efficacy 
 of Indulgences is stated distinctly in Prop. 5 : Papa non 
 vult nee potest ullas poenas remittere, praeter eas quas 
 arbitrio vel suo vel Canonum imposuit; and in Prop. 61 : 
 Clarum est quod ad remissionem poenarum et casuum sola 
 sufficit potestas Papae. This papal authority Luther at 
 that time had not a thought of questioning, as is plain 
 from a number of passages in his earlier writings : and it 
 is asserted in many of the Theses, though several of them 
 seem to us like irony, as we look back at them with 
 
16 REPLY TO MR HALLAM's 
 
 a knowledge of all that followed. But there is no rea- 
 son for doubting, on the contrary his whole conduct at 
 that period proves, that he was thoroughly sincere, when 
 he asserted, in that painful damnatory form which was so 
 prevalent in his age (Prop. 71), Contra veniarum apostoU- 
 carum veritatem qui loquitur, sit ille anathema et maledic- 
 tus. Yet in the very next proposition, as well as in the 
 one just before, he asserts the necessity of preserving the 
 Indulgences from abuse : Qui vero contra libidinem ac 
 licentiam verborum concionatoris veniarum curam agit, sit 
 ille benedictus. Again, in the 76th Proposition, he tries 
 to obviate the possibility of a mistake as to their effi- 
 cacy : Dicimus contra, quod veniae pa/pales nee minimum 
 venialium peccatorum tollere possint, quoad culpam. The 
 whole is summed up briefly in the Letter which he 
 sent with the Theses to the Archbishop of Magdeburg 
 and Mayence : Cum indulgentiae prorsus nihil boni confe- 
 rant animabus ad salutem aut sanctitatem, sed tantummodo 
 poenam externam, olim canonice imponi solitam, auferant (e). 
 Again, Luther, in his Sermon De Poenitentia, when 
 contending against the doctrinal and practical perversions 
 which prevailed with regard to confession and absolution, 
 and made the efficacy of absolution depend on the full 
 enumeration and express acknowledgement of every sin, 
 urges the evil of thus continually raking about in the 
 mire of our past lives, — the utter impossibility of drawing 
 up anything like a complete enumeration of our sins, — 
 the low conception of purity implied in the very notion 
 that such an enumeration can be complete, — the snare for 
 troubled consciences involved in thus making our con- 
 fidence depend on our own acts, the inward act of contri- 
 tion, and the outward act of confession,- — and the absolute 
 necessity of resting our hope and trust, not on anything 
 in ourselves, or on any acts of our own, but on God's 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 17 
 
 free mercy and grace, manifested in Jesus Christ, and to 
 be apprehended by faith. It is quite marvellous with 
 what clearness he was enabled to discern these truths 
 from the very first : for this Sermon was publisht in the 
 beginning of 1518, while many Romish errours were still 
 hanging about him. As the denial or the ignorance of 
 these truths lies at the bottom of half the Romish cor- 
 ruptions, it is not surprising that Bossuet should prove 
 himself scarcely capable of apprehending, much more of 
 appreciating them. Accordingly his extracts from this 
 Sermon are grossly misrepresented. For instance, Luther 
 says, " Vide ne uUo modo te confidas absolvi propter 
 tuam contritionem : sic enim super te et tua opera con- 
 fides, id est, pessime praesumes. Sed propter verbum 
 Christi, qui dixit Petro, Quodcunque soheris super terrain 
 solutum erit et in coeUs, Hie, inquam, confide, si sacer- 
 dotis obtinueris solutionem, et crede fortiter te absolutum, 
 et absolutus vere eris, quia ilia non mentitur, quicquid 
 sit de tua contritione." That is, trust in God's word, 
 which is sure and perfect, and cannot deceive, however 
 imperfect and fallible your own contrition may be. 
 Bossuet, on the other hand, falsifies these words thus : 
 " C'est pourquoi ce nouveau docteur disoit au pecheur, 
 Croyez fermement que vous Hes dbsous, et des-la vous I'etes, 
 quoiqiCil puisse Hre de votre contrition; comme s'il eut 
 dit, Vous n'avez pas besoin de vous mettre en peine si 
 vous etes penitent ou non " (§ 9). Yet Luther had 
 written excellently about penitence in the preceding two 
 pages ; and his first Thesis, publisht just before, is, 
 Dominus et Magister noster Jesus Christus, dicendo, Poeni- 
 tentiam agite, etc. omnem vitam fidelmm poenitentiam esse 
 voluit. 
 
 Just after the last extract from his Sermon, Lu- 
 ther continues : " Ideo multo magis tibi hie videndum 
 
18 REPLY TO MR HALLAK's 
 
 quomodo nihil huic fidei desit, quam caeteris omnibus. 
 Imo esto, per impossibile, quod confessus non sit con- 
 tritus, aut sacerdos non serio, sed joco absolvat, si tamen 
 credat sese absolutum, verissime est absolutus : tanta res 
 est fides, et tarn potens verbum Christi. Damnabuntur 
 itaque qui nolunt confidere sese absolutes, donee certi 
 sint se satis contritos ; et super arenam, non super petram, 
 volunt domum conscientiae suae aedificare." Bossuet 
 does not dispute any of the propositions here asserted, 
 but consoles himself with distorting them. " Tout con- 
 siste, disoit-il toujours, a croire sans hesiter que vous Hes 
 absous : d'oii il coiicluoit, qu'il nHmportoit pas que le prHre 
 vous haptizat, ou vous donnat Vabsolution serieusement, on 
 en se moquant" Luther says, that if the sacraments, 
 administered with the right matter and form of words, are 
 received with faith, they are eiScacious ; and putting an 
 extreme case, "per impossibile" which he supports by 
 examples out of Ecclesiastical History, he adds that, 
 even if they are administered in jest, still they are effi- 
 cacious, if received with faith: and this has ever been 
 the doctrine of the Church, which has shrunk from the 
 supposition that the efficacy of the sacraments is to 
 depend on the state of mind of the person who admin- 
 isters them. Yet Bossuet has the audacity to transform 
 this into an assertion, " qu'il n'importoit pas que le prHre 
 vous haptizat, ou vous donndt Vabsolution serieusement, ou 
 en se moquant." 
 
 Once more, Bossuet, in the 18th section, returning 
 to the same Sermon, says, " Bien loin de s'efforcer, 
 comme nous, a inspirer aux pecheurs la crainte des 
 jugemens de Dieu, pour les exciter a la penitence, 
 Luther en etoit venu a cet exc^s de dire, que la con- 
 tritionpar laquelle on repasse ses ans icouUs dans Tamer- 
 tume de son coeur, en pesant la griivet'e de ses p'ecUs, 
 
Remarks on luther. 19 
 
 leur difformiU, lew multitude, la biatitude perdue et la 
 damnation miritie, ne faisoit que rendre les hommes plus 
 hypooites ; comme si c'etoit une hypocrisie au pecheur, 
 de commencer a se reveiller de son assoupissement." 
 The words here put into Luther's mouth seem strangely 
 absurd; and one is at a loss to guess what they can 
 mean : but when we turn to his real words, we find 
 a great truth nobly exprest, a truth, which, as well as 
 the others asserted in the same Sermon, is deplorably 
 lost sight of in these days, and through the oblivion of 
 which many are slipping or rolling back blindfold into 
 the quagmires and quicksands of Rome. " Contritio 
 — duplici via paratur. Primo per discussionem, coUec- 
 tionem, detestationem peccatorum, qua quis, ut dicunt, 
 recogitat annos suos in amaritudine animae suae, pon- 
 derando peccatorum gravitatem, damnum, foeditatem, 
 multitudinem, deinde amissionem aeternae beatitudinis, 
 ac aeternae damnationis acquisitionem, et alia quae pos- 
 sunt tristitiam et dolorem excitare spe satisfaciendi per 
 opera bona. Haec autem contritio facit hypocritam, 
 — (here Bossuet craftily breaks oif the sentence in the 
 middle, after having exaggerated facit hypocritam into 
 ne faisoit que rendre les hommes plus hypocrites), — imo 
 magis peccatorem, quia solum timore praecepti et dolore 
 damni id facit. Et tales omnes, — si libere deberent, 
 remoto praecepto et minis poenarum, confiteri, carte 
 dicerent sibi non displicere earn vitam praeteritam, quam 
 sic coguntur displicere confiteri : imo, quo magis timore 
 poenae et dolore damni sic conteruntur, eo magis peccant, 
 et afficiuntur suis peccatis, quae coguntur, non autem 
 volunt odisse." Verily, — for on the strength of these 
 examples we may make Mr Hallam's observation ab- 
 solute,—" it would not be just to give Bossuet credit 
 in every part of his delineation of Luther's tenets." 
 
 c 2 
 
20 REPLY TO MR HALLAM's 
 
 But his perversions are not all wilful falsifications. The 
 superficial theology and morality of Rome could never 
 understand that deep consciousness of sin, as cleaving 
 to our very best works, which drove Luther to seek 
 comfort in the righteousness of another. The Mystics 
 felt this ; but in the common theology of Rome both 
 sin and holiness lie in outward acts (f). 
 
 To return however to Mr Hallam : his unfavorable 
 opinion of Luther is probably owing, one cannot say in 
 what measure, to Bossuet's misrepresentations. Else 
 it would be difficult to understand how an intelligent 
 man, unblinded by prejudice, and having the least know- 
 ledge of the principles and history of Theology, or who 
 had ever thoughtfully read over the Epistles to the 
 Galatians and to the Romans, should have written in 
 such a tone about the great leader of the Reformation. 
 Perhaps too it may be attributable to Bossuet, that 
 Mr Hallam, in the second passage in which he speaks 
 of Luther (chap. vi. § 4), does not introduce him with 
 reference to anything that he eflfected personally and 
 immediately, but merely when speaking of the evils 
 of the Reformation, especially of the fanaticism conse- 
 quent on the rejection of the errours of the ancient 
 system ; to which fanaticism, he says, " in its worst 
 shape, the Antinomian extravagances of Luther yielded 
 too great encouragement." 
 
 Here we seem to have got something like a definite 
 fact. For that which produces an effect must have a 
 real existence ; and we learn that, not only did Luther 
 indulge in Antinomian extravagances, but these Anti- 
 nomian extravagances " encouraged fanaticism," and that 
 too " in its worst shape." Still one may recollect that 
 the burning of Rome and numberless other crimes were 
 ascribed to the early Christians, and that Socrates was 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 21 
 
 put to death for corrupting the morals of the young, 
 and undermining the worship of the gods. The influx 
 of any new momentous truth into the mind of a people, 
 more especially when that truth is opposed to a mass 
 of dominant falsehood, may easily excite commotions, 
 nay, convulsions. When it mixes with irregular pas- 
 sions in the hearts of its recipients, fanaticism is a natural 
 result. But in such cases it becomes a complicated 
 question, to determine how far the guilt of such fanati- 
 cism is chargeable upon those who originally promul- 
 gated the truth. They may have been perfectly blame- 
 less : they may have been rash in proclaiming the truth 
 needlessly to those who were not fitted to receive it : 
 they may themselves have shared more or less in the 
 delusion, and taken part in the excesses. Mr Hallam's 
 next words infer that Luther's conduct can hardly have 
 corresponded to this last supposition ; and they incline 
 one to presume that it would be described more correctly 
 by the first. " Luther," he says, "was the first to 
 repress the pretenses of the Anabaptists ;" and he adds 
 in a note, that Melanchthon "was a little staggered by 
 the first Anabaptists," and said, " Esse in eis spiritus 
 quosdam multis argumentis apparet, sed de quihus judicare 
 praeter Martinum nemo facile possii." This expression 
 of Melanchthon's is itself a strong presumption in favour 
 of Luther's clearsightedness ; and that testimony is con- 
 firmed by the promptness with which he acted. It is 
 true, a candid man will be brought to perceive and 
 acknowledge the erroneousness of his opinions, when 
 he finds their mischief exemplified in practice : this 
 however must needs be a work of time : our first impulse 
 is to rejoice when we see our convictions carried out 
 into action. But Luther, while his soul was possest 
 with the paramount importance of his favorite doctrine, 
 
22 REPLY TO MR HALLAM S 
 
 discerned its truth so distinctly, that he saw how it 
 combined and harmonized with all other moral and 
 spiritual truths, not trenching on or weakening any one 
 of them, but on the contrary compacting and strengthen- 
 ing them all. Therefore, when Carlstadt and others 
 were pushing that doctrine into mischievous extrava- 
 gances, he came forward immediately with all the might 
 of his spirit to repress their excesses (g). 
 
 Mr Hallam's quotation from Melanchthon shews that 
 he is referring to the disturbances which took place at 
 Wittenberg during Luther's confinement in the Wart- 
 burg. A masterly account of these disturbances, of the 
 causes which bred them, and of Luther's conduct on 
 occasion of them, has lately been given by one of the 
 first among living historians, Ranke, in his History of 
 Germany in the Age of the Reformation ; a book which, it 
 may be hoped, will induce Mr Hallam to revise what he 
 has said about Luther, and to give a portrait somewhat 
 less unlike the original in a future edition. This His- 
 tory, written with a thorough knowledge of the facts, 
 a clear insight into the principles and characters which 
 shaped and controlled the events, and with a German 
 love of truth, is of especial value in these days, when 
 so many are prating ignorantly and with blind animosity 
 against the Reformers and their work. If a person 
 fancies that Mr Hallam's charge against Luther, of having 
 yielded encouragement to the disturbances at Witten- 
 berg by his Antinomian excesses, has so much as a pin- 
 point to stand on, I would entreat him to read the first 
 chapter in the third Book of Ranke's History. He will 
 there see how impossible it was in such a state of things 
 that disturbances should not occur, that men's minds 
 should not run into excesses, that, when such a compli- 
 cation of inveterate prejudices was to be shaken, many 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 23 
 
 should not be rashly desirous of overthrowing the insti- 
 tutions connected with them. He will see how, when 
 Luther, having been excommunicated by the Pope, and 
 put under the ban of the Empire, was conveyed to the 
 Wartburg, the more vehement of his followers, Carlstadt 
 and others, as might be expected under such circum- 
 stances, pusht his doctrines to extremes, and tried to 
 precipitate the abolition of many things, which he would 
 have retained as indifferent, until in course of time they 
 fell, through the extinction of the errours which had 
 given birth to them. He wdll further see how the 
 restoration of peace and order was ovnng to the exem- 
 plary wisdom, moderation, and heroic magnanimity of 
 Luther; which were exerted during his whole life, no 
 less for the preservation of what was good and whole- 
 some, than for its purification from the corruptions 
 wherewith it had been tainted. It is a grand picture. 
 Diiring Luther's absence confusion spreads in Witten- 
 berg ; the elements of disorder within attract other 
 elements of disorder from without ; Carlstadt and his 
 associates are joined by fanatical pretenders to prophetic 
 visions, who come to them from Zwickau ; no one knows 
 what to do. Melanchthon, the Magistrates, the Elector 
 and his ministers are at a loss what opinion to form, 
 what measures to take : they can hardly make up their 
 minds whether the movement is for evil or for good. 
 But the tidings come to the ears of the poor monk in the 
 "Wartburg, who was lying there under the twofold ban 
 of the Pope and the Empire. And what did the wild 
 Antinomian do now? I will take the account of his 
 conduct from Ranke. 
 
 " The movement which had begun could not lead to 
 anything except open insurrection, to a revolution in 
 the State for the sake of forming a new Christian 
 
24f REPLY TO MR HALLAM's 
 
 Republic : and then violence would have provoked vio- 
 lence ; and good and evil would have been destroyed 
 together. How much depended again upon^ Luther! 
 These movements proceeded from the groundwork of his 
 opinions, or attacht themselves thereto. If he approved 
 of them, who was to set bounds to them ? But if he 
 opposed them, the question was, how would he he able 
 to do so, or even to maintain his own cause ? During all 
 this time he was in the Wartburg. — His chief occu- 
 pation there was translating the New Testament. He 
 formed the design of giving the German nation a more 
 correct Bible than the Latin Church had in the Vulgate. 
 While he was strengthening his spirit more and more 
 by this task, and only wisht to be at Wittenberg for 
 the sake of completing so important a work with the 
 help of his friends, he heard of the agitation and dis- 
 turbances there. He was not a moment in doubt about 
 their character. He says. Never in his life had any- 
 thing pained him more deeply ; that whatever other 
 things had been done to grieve him, were nothing in 
 comparison. With him it weighed not, what was said of 
 the inspiration of the prophets from Zwickau, of their 
 converse with God. He knew the mysterious depths 
 of the spiritual world. Far different was his experience 
 therein : he was penetrated with too lofty a conception 
 of the Divine nature, to let himself be persuaded that 
 God would appear to a creature, entrance him, and speak 
 with him. ' Would'st thou know,' he writes to Melanch- 
 thon, ' the time and place and manner of Divine con- 
 verse ? hear : As a lion He hreaheih all my bones (Isa. 
 XXXV. 13) ; and, I am cut off from before Thine eyes (Psa. 
 xxxviii. 22) : My soul is full of troubles ; and my life 
 d/raweth nigh to the grave (Psa. Ixxxviii. 3). Therefore 
 does God speak through men, because we could not bear 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 25 
 
 it if He Himself spake to us.' He wishes his Prince 
 joy of the cross that God has imposed on him, and 
 says that not only must Annas and Caiaphas rage 
 against the Gospel, but Judas also must be among the 
 Apostles. He tells him that he himself is going thither. 
 The Elector begged him not to do so yet ; for that at 
 present it would be of no good : he ought rather to 
 prepare his answer for the next Diet, at which his 
 cause, it might be hoped, would obtain a fair hearing. 
 But Luther was no longer to be restrained by repre- 
 sentations of this sort. Never had he been more firmly 
 convinced that he had received the Gospel from heaven, 
 that his faith would protect him. The occurrences at 
 Wittenberg seemed to him a scandal which fell on him 
 and on the Gospel. Thus he set ofi" without caring 
 for the Pope's or the Emperor's ban, while he entreated 
 his Prince not to be anxious about him. He was in 
 the most heroic mood. — On Friday, the 7th of March, 
 he reacht Wittenberg: — on the Sunday he began to 
 preach. He had to try whether the people would attend 
 to him, whether he still had any influence, whether he 
 could succeed in calming the commotion. Narrow and 
 inconspicuous as was the stage he returned to, his enter- 
 prise was of moment in the history of the world. It 
 was to be seen whether the doctrine which had shaped 
 itself in his mind, without any act of his will, by an 
 inward necessity, and which contained such germs for 
 the future development of mankind, would be able to 
 overcome those destructive elements, which were no 
 less active in men's spirits, which had everywhere under- 
 mined and were shaking the ground of public life, and 
 had here found their first vent. The question was, 
 whether it would be possible to reform, without destroy- 
 ing, to prepare a way for the new development of the 
 
26 REPLY TO MR HALLAM S 
 
 human mind, without annihilating the results of all 
 previous ones. Luther lookt at the matter as a pastor 
 and preacher. He did not reject the changes which 
 had been made, in and for themselves, nor the doctrine 
 from which they had sprung. He took care not to 
 wound the authors of the innovations personally, not 
 to speak ill of them. He merely pronounced that they 
 had proceeded too hastily, and had thereby occasioned 
 olfense to the weak, and had not kept the commandment 
 of love. He allowed that there are customs which ought 
 to be entirely abolisht ; for instance, private masses . 
 though even in regard to them all violence, all offense 
 was to be avoided : but, as to most of the others, it was a 
 matter of indifference to a Christian, whether they were 
 observed or no. It was of no essential importance, 
 whether people received the Lord's Supper in one kind 
 or both, whether they preferred private or general con- 
 fession, whether they staid in their convents or quitted 
 them, whether they had pictures in the churches, ob- 
 served the fasts, or not. To make laws concerning such 
 things, to excite tumults, to give offense to weaker 
 brethren, was more injurious than profitable, and mili- 
 tated against the commandment of love. The danger of 
 the tumultuary innovations lay in this, that they were 
 declared to be necessary, to be imperatively demanded by 
 pure Christianity ; much in the same way as on the papal 
 side every ecclesiastical ordinance had been asserted to be 
 an inviolable emanation from the supreme idea, with 
 which the whole of civil life had been brought into the 
 closest connexion. It was an incalculable gain, to shew 
 that Religion recognises a free region, which she does not 
 require to rule over immediately, where she does not 
 need to insist on regulating every particular. Luther did 
 this with the mildness and indulgence of a father and 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 27 
 
 tutor, with the superiority of a further-seeing, more 
 deeply grounded spirit. These sermons are among the 
 most important he ever preacht. They are at the same 
 time orations, like those of Savonarola, not however 
 meant to excite, to carry men along, but to restrain them 
 on a destructive path, to calm and q"uell passions. How 
 could the congregation withstand the wellknown voice, 
 the convincing eloquence of conviction, by which they 
 had first been led into the new regions of thought ? The 
 objections which in other cases are urged against such 
 conduct, that a man is influenced by fear, by personal 
 considerations, had no place here. Never had Luther 
 appeared more heroic. He bad defiance to the excommu- 
 nication of the Pope, to the ban of the Emperor, in 
 returning to his flock. His Prince had told him that he 
 could not protect him ; he had expressly disclaimed such 
 protection : he plunged into the greatest personal danger, 
 and that too, not, as others have done, to take the lead 
 in a commotion, but to oppose it, not to overthrow, but 
 to preserve. At his voice the uprore was husht, the 
 tumult subsided : quiet was restored : some of the most 
 violently excited spokesmen were convinced, and joined 
 him. The more moderate opinions contended for by 
 Luther, and the civil power which had been delivered 
 from a threatening danger, advanced a step nearer to 
 each other. — Once again did the Zwickau prophets meet 
 Luther. He warned them not to let themselves be 
 blinded by the delusions of Satan. They answered that, 
 in proof of their divine' mission, they would tell him 
 what he was thinking of at that moment. When he gave 
 them leave, they said to him, that he was feeling a lean- 
 ing toward them in his heart. Luther cried out, God 
 rebuke thee, Satan ! He afterward confest that this was 
 actually the case ; but their hitting the truth he held to 
 
28 REPLY TO MR HALLAM'^S 
 
 be a sign of Satanic, not of divine powers. He dis- 
 mist them with a kind of challenge to their Spirit to 
 meet his God. If we look apart from the rudeness of 
 his expressions, there is a deep, sublime truth in this 
 conflict between two opposite spirits, a destructive and 
 a conservative one. — Hereupon things became quieter at 
 Wittenberg. The mass was reestablisht as far as pos- 
 sible : — nothing was omitted but the words which refer 
 immediately to the idea of a sacrifice. In other respects 
 a full freedom subsisted, an indefiniteness with regard to 
 forms. Luther remained in his convent, and wore his 
 Augustinian gown ; but he did not object, if others went 
 out into the world. The Lord's Supper was administered 
 both in one and in both kinds. It made no difference, 
 whether a person was content with the general absolution, 
 or felt a desire for a particular one. Many questions 
 were started concerning the limits between that which is 
 to be rejected unconditionally, and that which may still 
 be allowed. The maxim of Luther and Melanchthon was, 
 not to condemn anything, which had not an indisputable 
 text of the Bible, what they called a thoroughly clear 
 and explicit Scripture, against it. This is not to be re- 
 garded as indifference : on the contrary Religion drew 
 back into her own immediate region, and devoted herself 
 to those deep matters which especially belong to her. 
 Hereby it became possible for them to develope and dif- 
 fuse their doctrine, without engaging in a direct contest 
 with the existing state of things, and without awakening 
 those destructive powers, the first stirrings of which had 
 just been so dangerous, by hasty innovations. Nay, the 
 development of doctrine itself could not proceed without 
 reference to these opponents on the other side. Luther 
 saw already that it was hazardous to be continually 
 preaching only of the power of faith : he already urged 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 29 
 
 that faith must manifest itself in good conduct, brotherly 
 love, temperance, and order " (h). 
 
 This last sentence must not he interpreted as an 
 admission that there had been any Antinomian tendency 
 in Luther's previous preaching. It merely means that, 
 in the sermons to the people, the neglected and almost 
 forgotten doctrine of Justification by Faith had been 
 urged too exclusively, even, it may be, by Luther himself, 
 and more so by others ; as was almost unavoidable, since 
 this was the doctrine on which the whole conflict turned, 
 and there had been a succession of struggles more or less 
 immediately connected with it during the four preceding 
 years. Besides, as this truth had been left out of sight, 
 so that the unlearned had scarcely heard of it, there was 
 a greater necessity for enforcing it strenuously and con- 
 tinually, both for its own sake, and in order to get rid 
 of the numerous practical abuses which had grown up 
 through its oblivion. But there is such an aversion to 
 Luther in Mr Hallam's mind, that, whenever he finds 
 reasons to convince him that Luther on any occasion 
 acted with wisdom and moderation, he infers that his 
 conduct previously must have been unvnse and intem- 
 perate. The relinquishment of cherisht errours may in 
 others deserve commendation : in Luther the act, by 
 which he is supposed to have relinquisht such errours, 
 serves in lieu of all other evidence of their existence. 
 He is the first to repress the Anabaptists in 1522 : it is 
 plain he must have been their chief encourager before. 
 He allows Melanchthon in 1527 to express the doctrine 
 of Justification in such a manner that it shall not seem to 
 countenance immorality : does not this prove that he 
 must have promoted licentiousness previously ? Of course 
 the argument is not stated in this bare form : but other 
 argument or evidence is not to be found. Immediately after 
 
30 REPLY TO MR HALLAm's 
 
 saying that Luther was the first to repress the pretenses 
 of the Anabaptists, Mr Hallam adds : " And when he 
 saw the danger of general licentiousness, which he had 
 unwarily promoted, he listened to the wiser counsels of 
 Melanchthon, and permitted his early doctrine upon Justi- 
 fication to be so far modified, or mitigated in expression, 
 that it ceast to give apparent countenance to immorality ; 
 though his difierences with the Church of Rome, as to the 
 very question from which he had started, thus became of 
 less practical importance, and less tangible to ordinary 
 minds than before." 
 
 Mr Hallam is speaking here of certain Instructions for 
 the Visitation of the Saxon Churches, which were drawn 
 up by Melanchthon, with Luther's approbation, in 1527 : 
 this year, he says, is " the era of what may be called the 
 palinodia of early Lutheranism." Now the Confession of 
 Augsburg was in like manner drawn up by Melanchthon, 
 with Luther's full sanction, in 1530: the Schmalcald 
 Articles were drawn up by Luther himself at the end 
 of 1536. These are the deliberate confessional exposi- 
 tions of the Lutheran doctrine of Justification. Among 
 Luther's private expositions of that doctrine, the most 
 celebrated, and perhaps the richest, is in his later 
 Commentary on the Galatians, publisht in 1536. But 
 there is scarcely a writing of any sort, scarcely a sermon 
 down to his death, in which this doctrine is not distinctly 
 enunciated. Yet, if the year 1527 was "the era of the 
 palinodia of early Lutheranism," one must suppose that 
 the recantation or modification of doctrine which took 
 place at that time, whatever it may have been, was 
 permanent : for, if it was confined to a single paper 
 drawn up by Melanchthon, how can it be said to consti- 
 tute an era ? Noy7 can Mr Hallam mean, that the expo- 
 sition of the doctrine of Justification in those confessional 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 31 
 
 books, and in all Luther's writings subsequent to 1527, 
 is at variance with what he calls " early Lutheranism ? " 
 or that this doctrine is in any respect put in the back- 
 groimd? What does he say then to the Schmalcald 
 Articles ? where St Paul's declaration (Rom, iii. 28), Sta- 
 tuimus justificari hominem per fidem absque operibus legis, 
 is quoted, and it is added, in words which could only 
 come from one pen, " de hoc articulo cedere, aut aliquid 
 contra ilium largiri aut permittere nemo piorum potest, 
 etiamsi coelum et terra ac omnia corruant. — Et in hoc 
 articulo sita sunt et consistunt omnia, quae contra Papam, 
 diabolum, et universum mundum, in vita nostra docemus, 
 testamur, et agimus." Does this belong to the later, 
 mitigated, lukewarm fashion of Lutheranism? Or had 
 Luther forgotten himself, and let the old man lift up Jiis 
 voice again ? Or had he relapst into his former excesses ? 
 Again, what will Mr Hallam say to the hundred passages 
 to the same effect in the second Commentary on the 
 Galatians, in every page of which this doctrine is incul- 
 cated ; as might be anticipated from the declaration in 
 the Preface : " In corde meo iste unus regnat Articulus, 
 Fides Christi : ex quo, per quem, et in quern, omnes 
 meae diu noctuque flaunt et refluunt theologicae cogita- 
 tiones." One person at all events was not aware of 
 Luther's having made a recantation ; and he was one who 
 might have been expected to know something about it. 
 Or again, can Mr Hallam mean that the differences be- 
 tween the doctrine of Justification so set forth in those 
 confessional books and private writings, and that of the 
 Church of Rome, are of little "practical importance," 
 and not very " tangible to ordinary minds ? " If by 
 "ordinary minds" he means minds totally ignorant of 
 theology, it is notorious that ignorance confounds all 
 distinctions, and might even say, until it ceast to be 
 
32 REPLY TO MR HALLAm's 
 
 ignorance, and acquired some degree of intelligencej that 
 the differences between the Ptolemaic and Copernican 
 systems of the uni-verse are of little practical importance, 
 and not very tangible to ordinary minds. Else, were it 
 not that theoretical differences are always softened by the 
 blunting and reconciling powers of active Hfe, there would 
 certainly seem to be differences of great practical, as well 
 as speculative importance between the Tridentine doctrine 
 of Justification and that of the Lutheran Confessions, 
 differences indeed which involve all the great practical 
 as well as speculative controversies between the two 
 Churches. 
 
 Besides, it should be carefully remembered that Luther's 
 proclamation of the true doctrine of Justification was not 
 in opposition to the Tridentine explanation, into which 
 certain elements of truth were infused, derived from 
 Luther's preaching, but to its total neglect, and to the 
 continual gross violation of it implied in the whole prac- 
 tical system of the Church. Unless this be borne in 
 mind, it is impossible to do justice to Luther. Men of 
 letters, who amuse themselves now and then in the course 
 of their studies with skimming over the surface of The- 
 ology, if they chance to light on the Romish doctrine of 
 Justification as determined by the Council of Trent, and 
 compare it with what they suppose to be the doctrine 
 of the Reformed Churches, deem it an incontrovertible 
 proof of the narrow bigotry and virulence fostered by 
 Theology, that people should have squabbled and made 
 a hubbub about such petty distinctions, while the nobler 
 and more interesting discussions concerning questionable 
 points of grammar and philology and chronology and 
 topography have always been carried on with such edify- 
 . ing mildness from the days of Aristarchus down to those 
 of Bentley and Hermann. On the other hand, many 
 
• REMARKS ON LUTHER. 33 
 
 young divines, whose imagination can take in and exult 
 in tlie grand conception of an outward unity of the 
 Church, while they are strangers to that deep conscious- 
 ness of sin, which cannot find comfort in anything except 
 the righteousness to be received by Faith, are apt to 
 blame Luther and the other Reformers for having broken 
 that unity, on account of what they may perhaps regard 
 as little more than differences of terminology. They 
 cannot understand the intense earnestness with which 
 St Paul wrote to the Galatians, Behold, I Paul say to you, 
 that, if ye he circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing ; 
 and therefore they cannot appreciate Luther's equally 
 intense earnestness in the selfsame cause. Hence they 
 throw the blame of the schism upon Luther ; whereas 
 they ought to throw it upon the usurping, tyrannical 
 Church, which, instead of receiving the truth he was 
 commissioned to teach, and falling down contritely, like 
 Nineveh at the preaching of Jonah, excommunicated and 
 expelled him, and thereby cast out the truth from her 
 pale. In so doing, she shewed that she was wise in 
 her generation : for, had this truth been once received 
 livingly into her creed, it must have shivered the whole 
 fabric of falsehood, which had been piled up around it, 
 to atoms ; wherefore she substituted a mock -sun for it 
 at Trent. Hence it is of great moment to insist on the 
 practical importance of these differences, however they 
 may seem to be scarcely " tangible to ordinary minds (i)." 
 Here it strikes one as singular that Mr Hallam, 
 though the differences between the definitive Lutheran 
 and the Tridentine doctrine of Justification seem to 
 him so vmimportant and intangible, does yet perceive 
 a wide and momentous difference between what he calls 
 early and later Lutheranism, a difference which other 
 men have hardly fovmd out, but which to his mind is 
 
 D 
 
34 REPLY TO MR HALLAM's 
 
 SO wide, that, while the former "promoted licentious- 
 ness," the latter " ceast to give apparent countenance 
 to immorality,"— so wide that, taking up an expression 
 applied by Erasmus to Luther in this same year, and 
 probably with reference to the Instructions, he calls 
 them " the palinodia of early Lutheranism." That Eras- 
 mus, in a letter written at the time, and apparently with 
 little knowledge of the facts, should have used such an 
 expression, is not surprising. His view of Luther's 
 life and doctrine could not be other than narrow and 
 partial. Being unable to dive with him into the depths 
 of spiritual truth, he naturally assumed that to deny 
 the meritoriousness of good works implied the disregard, 
 if not the rejection, of them altogether. Thus, when 
 he found Luther all at once insisting on their necessity, 
 he might easily say, in the words quoted by Secken- 
 dorf, Indies mitescit febris Lutherana, adeo ut ipse Lu- 
 therus de singulis propemodum scribat palinodiam. But 
 a historian in our days, when we have the whole of 
 Luther's life spread out before us, and the great body 
 of his vsrritings exhibiting every shade of his opinions 
 and every impulse of his feelings, ought to know that 
 he retained his conviction with regard to the doctrine 
 of Justification by Faith unshaken till the end of his life. 
 In all his writings, from the moment when he first caught 
 a lively perception of this primary truth, dovra to his 
 last year, it is the animating principle of his whole 
 teaching. Yet throughout he was no less anxious to 
 inculcate every moral duty, than at the time when he 
 approved of Melanchthon's Instructions, Therefore, if 
 in so doing he sang a palinodia, he must have gone on 
 singing palinodes and antipalinodes and palinantipalinodes 
 all his life, day by day, and hour by hour. But the fact 
 is, the two strains are the strophe and the antistrophe 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 35 
 
 of the same grand spiritual hymn; and he does not 
 give us the one without the other. In writing to the 
 unlearned, he sets forth one phase of the great hody 
 of spiritual truth, that phase which was most needful 
 and useful for them ; as we see, above all, in his ad- 
 mirable Catechisms. In writing for the learned, as 
 in the Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, he 
 mainly sets forth another phase, that which was most 
 urgently required to correct and enlighten the doctrinal 
 system of the Church. But, though one side of the moon 
 was illumined at one period of her revolution, and the 
 other side at another, she was the same moon all the 
 while, and ever and anon shone out in full-orbed splen- 
 dour and beauty. Such has ever been the case with 
 great minds. While lesser men see one side of the truth, 
 or a particle of one side, their ampler view comprehends 
 both sides, and discovers the bearings of each upon the 
 other, their mutual limitation and interpenetration, and 
 how each, when urged exclusively, swells out into a 
 falsehood. For this expansive view however they have 
 to pay a penalty, in that they are sure to be charged with 
 inconsistency ; as has been seen, for instance, in the 
 great political philosophers of the last and the preceding 
 generation, Coleridge and Burke. 
 
 Still, were it not for Mr HaUam's strong prejudice 
 against Luther, he could hardly have failed in this case 
 to recognise that there is no palinodia, no recantation, 
 overt or covert, of any doctrine previously profest ; since 
 the grounds of the apparent discrepancy are so clearly 
 explained by Seckendorf in a passage which he himself 
 refers to (ii. p. 108). " It is more surprising that Eras- 
 mus should have been of opinion that Luther was singing 
 a palinode, since there is not a single article in his 
 Theses which can be shewn to have been changed in that 
 
 r, 2 
 
36 REPLY TO MR HALLAM's 
 
 Visitation ; nor does it affect the doctrines themselves, 
 that Luther uses one method and style in instructing the 
 pastors of the common people, another in refuting his 
 adversaries." In a previous part of the same chapter, 
 Seckendorf had stated that the Instructions were dravra 
 up by Melanchthon, vs^ith the view, not of reforming 
 the popish Pastors, but those who were already called 
 by the name of Evangelical. " For there were some 
 who, preaching of nothing but faith and the comfort 
 arising from the forgiveness of sins, almost neglected 
 the other part -of doctrine concerning sanctification and 
 good works, or who, adopting expressions of Luther's, 
 with which he assailed the insolence of his opponents, 
 or their Pharisaical opinion on the merit of works, mainly 
 outward and ceremonial ones, introduced them inap- 
 propriately in their sermons to the common people, and 
 thus imprudently weakened the desire of holiness. This 
 disadvantage however is no objection to the truth of 
 Luther's doctrine, any more than it is to St Paul's, to 
 whom the same thing happened, when, on his preach- 
 ing the fulness of grace, he was askt, Shall we continue 
 in sin, that grace may abound. Therefore Melanch- 
 thon, by his preface, vrisht to inculcate on the incon- 
 siderate and indiscreet, that they should pay a diligent 
 regard to the condition and proficiency of their hearers. 
 Seeing that the great body of the common people, 
 through the sloth or unfaithfulness of their priests be- 
 fore Luther began to preach, were kept in ignorance of 
 religion, and merely urged to a servile observance of 
 ceremonies, he prescribed the method that the pastors 
 should begin their correction by preaching the Law, and 
 terrifying consciences. For they who were so rude, as 
 most of the common people were, that they did not 
 recognise even enormous sins to be such, nor thought 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 37 
 
 of avoiding them, being accustomed to rely upon the 
 outward expiations hitherto practist, by means of con- 
 fession and ecclesiastical satisfactions, were now falling 
 into a profane security, through the preaching of the 
 remission of sins. Therefore it was necessary that in 
 the first instance they should be led by the schooling 
 of the Law to Christ, and to such a faith in Him as 
 should be accompanied by an amendment of their per- 
 sonal conduct. Luther, on the other hand, in his writings, 
 had disputed with the learned, who, being acquainted 
 with the Law and with morality, sinned on the opposite 
 side, and neglecting the only means of salvation, which 
 is to be sought in a saving faith, had introduced a 
 Pharisaical outward form and discipline. Now with 
 these the Visitors had no concern, but, as I have said, 
 with the common people, who were already in some 
 measure instructed in Evangelical doctrine, and with the 
 Pastors, of whom many were unlearned, and, in avoiding 
 one fault, ran into the contrary. The same purpose 
 was kept in view in the next chapter concerning the 
 Decalogue, and in the third on Prayer, in order that 
 the restoration of the preaching of the free remission 
 of sins through Christ, and the withdrawal of the severe 
 bondage of ecclesiastical rules, might not be followed 
 by the overthrow of virtue and piety. Even the ad- 
 versaries of Rome were offended by those expressions, 
 that there is no merit in works. For, although they 
 are most true and orthodox, they were too subtile for 
 the rude multitude to understand and apply them rightly. 
 Therefore it is recommended that these rude persons 
 should be enjoined to follow after good works by the 
 ordinary arguments, and vidthout any question about 
 merit : for such persons seldom conceive that there can 
 be much merit in their works. Moreover Luther's 
 
38 REPLY TO MR HALLAM's 
 
 teaching had incurred no little odium from the Peasants 
 War : therefore, in this little book, much stress is laid 
 on the obedience of subjects to magistrates, which at 
 another time and under other circumstances might have 
 been superfluous. Another charge was pressing on the 
 Lutheran cause, in consequence of the madness and 
 errours of certain fanatics, who wanted to restore Ju- 
 daism, and its civil laws. Others aimed at an exemption 
 from tribute and tithes: others disapproved of the pim- 
 ishment of criminals, especially thieves. Much is said 
 in answer to all these. As these things, and others 
 which the careful reader will find on examining the 
 Articles of Visitation, exhibit the moderation of Me- 
 lanchthon, so did Luther exhibit no less in this grave 
 matter. He was not ignorant, but foresaw and foretold 
 what judgement would be pronounced upon these Ar- 
 ticles ; and there were some expressions of Melanch- 
 thon's which he could have improved : but he assented 
 to the chief part, and submitted his own opinion to the 
 judgement of others (j)." 
 
 Surely this is a very simple explanation of the dif- 
 ferences, such as they are, between the Articles of 
 Visitation, and Luther's polemical writings : it bears the 
 stamp of truth ; and the more we examine into the 
 facts, the more we shall be convinced of its correctness. 
 Yet Mr Hallam, who refers to the passage, and calls 
 it " remarkable," seems to cite it in confirmation of his 
 view that the Articles formed the palinodia of early 
 Lutheranism. His judgement, which attaches such im- 
 portance to an epigrammatic sentence of Erasmus, and 
 to the " beak and claws '' of " the eagle of Meaux," 
 finds nothing to influence it in the investigations of 
 such a laborious and conscientious seeker after truth 
 as Seckendorf. 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 39 
 
 Here I will again introduce an extract from Ranke's 
 admirable History. He knows what Luther was, what 
 he did, what an inheritance of blessings he left to his 
 country. He does not patch up his notion of Luther out 
 of Erasmus and Bossuet and Audin, deeming that he may 
 supply what is lacking by peeping into the first volume 
 of his works passim. We have already learnt from him 
 that, on occasion of the disturbances at Wittenberg five 
 years before, Luther acted in the very same spirit which 
 dictated the Instructions to the Saxon Churches. We 
 here find him distinctly repelling the imputation of 
 Luther's having recanted or compromised any of his 
 doctrines, when he allowed these Instructions to be issued. 
 At the same time he gives such a beautiful picture of the 
 great Reformer's practical, Socratic wisdom and moder- 
 ation, as is the best of all answers to the charge of Anti- 
 nomianism. " In these Instructions the opposition to the 
 Papacy, vigorously as the contest was elsewhere main- 
 tained against it, falls much into the background. The 
 authors of them deemed that this did not belong to 
 sermons addrest to the people : they exhorted the preachers 
 not to revile the Pope or the bishops, none of whom 
 could hear them : they fixt their attention wholly on the 
 wants of the multitude, on the propagation of Evangelical 
 doctrine among the common people. Herein they pro- 
 ceeded with the greatest indulgence toward everything 
 establisht. They did not deem it necessary positively to 
 forbid the Latin masses : they even thought they might 
 allow the administration of the Eucharist under one kind, 
 whenever any one from conscientious scruples was un- 
 willing to relinquish the customary practice. Although 
 they rejected the obligatoriness of auricular confession, 
 inasmuch as it was not grounded on Scripture, they 
 declared it to be wholesome that every one should confess 
 
40 KEPLY TO MR HALLAM's 
 
 the sins wherewith he felt himself hurthened, with regard 
 to which he needed counsel. They did not even abolish 
 all the festivals of the Saints, but merely required that 
 they should not be invoked, even for their intercession. 
 The idea which we have already often recognised, that 
 only the unconditional religious importance, the indis- 
 pensableness to salvation, ascribed to the institutions 
 which had grown up in the previous centuries, was to be 
 rejected, while the spiritual groundwork and territory of 
 the Latin Church was not otherwise abandoned, manifests 
 itself here again very distinctly. They merely sought to 
 cast off the burthen of the innumerable traditions, and of 
 the usurpations of the hierarchy, and to regain the pure 
 contents of the Scriptures, of Divine Revelation. What- 
 ever could subsist along with this was retained. They 
 took care that the minds of the common folks should not 
 be perplext with the difficult controverted doctrines, 
 especially those concerning good works and free will. 
 Not that they receded in the least from the convictions 
 they had once attained to, from the fundamental doctrine 
 of Justification by Faith, from the struggle against the 
 errour of seeking salvation in the observance of human 
 institutions, such as fasts, and the seven hours. On the 
 contrary these propositions were restated with the utmost 
 precision ; but at the same time they required repentance, 
 penitence, and contrition, the forsaking of sin, a holy life. 
 For thus much lay unquestionably in man's power, to flee 
 from evil and to choose good. The impotence of the will 
 consisted only in this, that it could not purify the heart, 
 or bring forth any divine graces : these must be sought 
 from God alone. The aim they set themselves was to 
 lead men to inward religion, faith and love, and an 
 innocent walk, honesty and good order. So far from 
 departing in any respect from genuine Christianity, their 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 41 
 
 highest endeavour was to penetrate souls more and more 
 deeply with its principles. It is in this that Luther 
 seeks his chief glory, in applying the principles of the 
 Gospel to common life. More especially did he deem 
 himself bound to instruct the various classes of society, 
 — the magistrates and those under authority, fathers and 
 other members of families, — concerning their duties from 
 a religious point of view. He displays an incomparable 
 talent for popular teaching. He directs the parsons how 
 they are to preach so as to edify the common people, — 
 the schoolmasters how they are to instruct the young in 
 their several stages, to combine secular knowledge with 
 religion, to avoid all exaggeration, — the masters of 
 families how they are to train their households in the 
 fear of God. He draws up a series of texts to guide all 
 in right living, "the clergy and the laity, men and women, 
 parents and children, servants and maids, young and old. 
 He gives them a form for blessing and grace at table, for 
 morning and evening prayer. He is the patriarch of the 
 severe and devout domestic disciphne and manners of the 
 families in Northern Germany. How many countless 
 millions of times has his hearty Das wait Gott (k) re- 
 minded the citizen and the peasant, living in his dull 
 work-day drudgery, of his relation to the Eternal ! The 
 Catechism which he publisht in the year 1529, of which 
 he says, that, aged Doctor as he was, he himself prayed 
 it, is equally childly and profound, clear and unfathom- 
 able, simple and sublime. Happy he who has fed his 
 soul therewith, who cleaves firmly thereto ! He possesses 
 an imperishable comfort for every moment, the essence 
 of truth which satisfies the wisest of the wise, in words so 
 simple that a child can understand them." 
 
 Verily Luther is a strange sort of Antinomian. Yea, 
 he belongs to that great Antinomian multitude, which 
 
42 REPLY TO MR HALLAm's 
 
 comprises the glorious company of the Apostles, and the 
 goodly fellowship of the Prophets, and the noble army of 
 Martyrs. Day by day he rose up to wield the sword of 
 the Gospel, almost single-handed, against all the force 
 and fraud of a corrupt and lying Church, which had cast 
 its fetters over the mind, and breathed its rottenness into 
 the heart of Christendom. Day by day too he turned 
 from this grand conflict, to refresh himself by relieving 
 the simplest and deepest wants of the poor and ignorant, 
 by teaching them their duty to God and man, by explain- 
 ing the mysteries of the Gospel to them in the plainest, 
 homeliest speech, by telling them what they were to pray 
 for, and by putting words into their mouths to pray 
 with. 
 
 But we must examine the remainder of Mr Hallam's 
 allegations, if such they can be called. They are chiefly 
 contained in the Note last quoted. He there gives an 
 extract from a letter of Melanchthon's, written in 1537 
 (Lib. VII. No. 1518, in Bretschneider's edition) : " Scis 
 me quaedam minus horride dicere de praedestinatione, de 
 assensu voluntatis, de necessitate obedientiae nostrae, de 
 peccato mortali. De his omnibus scio re ipsa Lutherum 
 sentire eadem : sed ineruditi quaedam ejus (fioprixoaTspa 
 dicta, cum non videant quo pertineant, nimium amant." 
 On these words Mr Hallam observes, " I am not con- 
 vinced that this apology for Luther is sufiicient." One 
 could wish that he ha-d exprest himself more distinctly. 
 Doubtless it is possible that Melanchthon, notwithstand- 
 ing his acuteness and clearness of judgement, notwith- 
 standing the singular intimacy which had subsisted for 
 near nineteen years between him and Luther, the deep 
 love which Luther felt for him, and the admiring and 
 confiding affection with which from the beginning of their 
 acquaintance till the very end of his life he treated him. 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 43 
 
 — notwithstanding too that the matters spoken of must 
 have been the subject of continual conversations between 
 them year after year, and had just been especially brought 
 forward in their discussions on occasion of the signature 
 of the Apology for the Confession of Augshurg, and of the 
 drawing up of the Schmalcald Articles, — it is possible that, 
 notwithstanding all these advantages enjoyed by Melanch- 
 thon for knowing Luther's mind, which was not apt to 
 conceal its thoughts, he may have been mistaken about 
 the extent of the agreement between Luther's opinions 
 and his own ; and Mr Hallam's familiarity with the 
 writings of the two great brother Reformers may have 
 enabled liim to frame a correcter judgement on this point, 
 than they themselves could. Still, when such testimony 
 is to be contradicted, one might have expected that some 
 sort of evidence would be adduced, some sort of argu- 
 ment, something more than the insinuation of a doubt. 
 It might have been desirable also to learn, whether, 
 as Melanchthon in this letter is speaking of Luther's 
 opinions in 1537, Mr Hallam supposes the approximation, 
 which according to his notion took place in 1527, had 
 been followed by a separation, and that Luther had re- 
 canted his palinodia, and fallen back into his old extra- 
 vagances. On all these questions however we are left in 
 the dark, and have to grope out a way for ourselves. 
 
 In doing this I have been brought to the conclusion 
 which I anticipated, that Melanchthon had very good 
 warrant for what he said. He was not thinking of making 
 any " apology for Luther." He is writing. with reference 
 to attacks that had been made upon himself by certain 
 distorters of Luther's doctrine, because he had laid down 
 that good works are requisite to Justification, not indeed 
 as a causa efficiens, or propter quam, but as a causa sine 
 qua non. This the Ultra-Lutherans denied. Some of 
 
44 REPLY TO MR HALLAM's 
 
 them went so far in Antinomianism as to assert .generally 
 that good works are hindrances to salvation : and they 
 claimed to have Luther on their side in the main, as 
 rejecting the necessity of good works as a ground of 
 Justification. During these disputes Melanchthon wrote 
 to his friend Dietrich : " Nee hostili animo videtur in nos 
 esse Lutherus. Heri etiam admodum amanter de his 
 controversiis mecum collocutus est." He then adds, in 
 the words quoted by Mr Hallam, that Luther was of the 
 same mind with him, though certain hasty and vehement 
 expressions of Luther's had been made too much of by 
 some who did not understand their bearing ; that is, who 
 did not perceive how they were aimed at the factitious, 
 arbitrary good works inculcated as meritorious by the 
 Church of Rome. 
 
 Now the very year before, in 1536, being desirous to 
 obtain the precisest statement of Luther's views with 
 regard to good works, Melanchthon had held an amicable 
 argument with him on the subject : the report of it he 
 publisht in 1552, as an appendix to his pamphlet against 
 Osiander. Of course in substance it coincides entirely 
 with the uniform doctrine which Luther taught through- 
 out : but, as it states that doctrine distinctly and cate- 
 chetically, and only occupies four octavo pages, it might 
 enable Mr Hallam to do, what he says (chap. vi. § 26) 
 he has " found impossible," namely, " to understand 
 and to reconcile Luther's tenets concerning faith and 
 works :" and it may further prove to him that he was 
 talking loosely, when he stated, " I can only perceive, 
 that, if there be any reservation in favour of works, not 
 merely sophistical, of which I am hardly well convinced, 
 it consists in distinctions too subtile for the people to 
 apprehend." One is really confounded at meeting with 
 such an assertion from the pen of a writer bearing a high 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 45 
 
 character in literature. If Mr Hallam had never read 
 five pages of Luther, his speaking thus might be ac- 
 counted for : but then what becomes of his character as a 
 critic and historian ? Surely this sentence implies that 
 he has tried to make out vyhether there is " any reser- 
 vation in favour of works " in Luther's writings, that he 
 has examined them carefully with this view, I will not 
 say all, but some fair portion of them. Yet, if he has 
 done so, the only solution for his blindness which I can 
 discover, is in the German proverb about persons who 
 can't see the wood for the trees. 
 
 In the discussion above referred to, Melanchthon re- 
 minds Luther, " Vos ipsi docetis quod justitia operum sit 
 necessaria, et quidem coram Deo. — Ergo saltern est aliqua 
 partialis causa nostra justitia." To which Luther replies : 
 " Necessaria est, sed non necessitate legali, seu coactionis, 
 sed necessitate gratuita, seu consequentiae, seu immuta- 
 bilitatis. Sicut sol necessario lucet, si est sol, et tamen 
 lucet non ex lege, sed ex natura seu voluntate, ut sic 
 dicam, immutabili, quia sic creatus est, ut luceat; sic 
 Justus creatura nova facit opera necessitate immutabili, non 
 lege seu coactione." Again, " Quia persona justa est, justa 
 est perpetuo, et tam din justa ex fide, quam diu fides 
 manet. — Opera igitur fulgent radiis Jidei, et propter fidem 
 placent. — Nulla partialis causa accedit, quia fides semper 
 est efficax, vel non est fides. Ideo quicquid opera sunt 
 aut valent, hoc sunt et valent gloria et virtute fidei, quae 
 est sol istorum radiorum inevitabiliter. — Nos dicimus 
 fidem esse — donum Spiritus Sancti. — Donatum autem hoc 
 donum facit personam novam perpetuo, quae persona turn 
 facit opera nova : non e contra opera nova faciunt per- 
 sonam novam. — Nulla ergo justitia personalis debetur 
 operibus coram Deo, licet accidentaliter glorificabunt per- 
 sonam praemiis certis. Sed personam non justificant. 
 
46 REPLY TO MR HALLAM's 
 
 Omnes enim aequaliter justi sumus in uno Christo, omnes 
 aequaliter dilecti et placentes secundum personam ; tamen 
 difFert stella a stella per claritatem. Sed Deus non 
 minus diligit stellam Saturni, quam Solem et Lunam (l)." 
 This would seem tolerably good testimony to convince 
 Melanchthon that Luther did indeed concur with him sub- 
 stantially on the indispensableness of good works. Now 
 this, as it was the great question agitated at Wittenberg, is 
 likewise the one on which Mr Hallam lays stress ; so that 
 happily there is no need to enter into an examination of 
 the other alledged differences between Melanchthon and 
 Luther ; an enquiry which would demand a good deal of 
 labour, even after what has recently been done to eluci- 
 date it by Galle in his valuable Essay on the Character of 
 Melanchthon as a Theologian ( Versuch einer Charakteristih 
 Melanchthons als Theologen, und einer Entwickelung seines 
 Lehrbegriffs). If further evidence were wanted, we have 
 the best that can be, Luther's ovm. For he came forward 
 soon after Melanchthon's letter, to maintain the same 
 cause in a disputation against Agricola, in defense of the 
 Decalogue ; and Melanchthon sends this disputation to 
 Dietrich, " ut videat eum xai i:ep\ vo'/xou x«i itepi iiTraxorii ilia 
 diserte dicere, quae ego defendi, et propter quae plagas 
 accepi ab indoctis :" Ed. Bretschn. Vol. iii. p. 427 (m). 
 
 It is not indeed to be expected that a writer, having 
 to treat of so vast a theme as the Literature of Europe 
 during two such momentous and copious centuries, 
 should engage in a minute investigation of every fact 
 he has to speak of. But at least he ought to have a 
 thorough acquaintance with the great outlines of the 
 country, and with its principal features, its chains of 
 hills and vallies, its mountains and rivers, its cities and 
 roads; and then he will be able to understand and 
 arrange every piece of information he may pick up. 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 47 
 
 But if he starts without this previous knowledge, he is 
 sure to be mazed at every turn : instead of being set right 
 by a signpost, he will run his head against it, and, 
 stunned thereby, will misread it : the very tendency 
 of human nature to follow one's nose, as the phrase 
 is, will soon lead him into a bog or a pit. Nor will 
 general maxims in such a case be of profit. Valuable 
 as they may be for arranging and digesting what we 
 learn from observation and experience, they will not 
 supersede these two main sources of knowledge, or enable 
 us to do without them. Though we pump till our arms 
 ache, if there is no water in the well, we can only 
 bring up sand or mud. In lieu of any evidence to 
 warrant him in rejecting Melanchthon's testimony, Mr 
 Hallam merely says : " Words are of course to be 
 explained, when ambiguous, by the .context and scope 
 of the argument. But when single detacht aphorisms, 
 or even complete sentences in a paragraph, bear one 
 obvious sense, I do not see that we can hold the vsrriter 
 absolved from the imputation of that meaning, because he 
 may somewhere else have used a language inconsistent 
 with it." 
 
 Somewhere else ! The force of this argument rests 
 on two assumptions. In the first place, he who takes 
 upon him to condemn these aphorisms and sentences, 
 should have a full apprehension of their meaning, in 
 connexion with the language and opinions of their age, 
 and vdth the circumstances which called them forth. For 
 suppose that Luther attaches one meaning to the words 
 faith and gooA works, and that his critic attaches another 
 meaning to them, the critic is not likely to pronounce 
 a right sentence on what Luther may say concerning 
 faith and good works. Next, it is requisite to Mr 
 Hallam's conclusion, that the language inconsistent with 
 
48 
 
 REPLY TO MR HALLAM S 
 
 the offensive sentences should only be used somewhere 
 else. If the general spirit and tone of a writer's doctrine 
 is Antinomian, he cannot claim to be acquitted on the 
 plea that he has now and then, somewhere else, used 
 language more conformable to ordinary notions of mo- 
 rality. But what if a writer can produce work after 
 work written purposely to inculcate the primary moral 
 duties ? What if his writings, when an occasion offers, 
 glow with animated exhortations to live the life of faith, 
 and fulfill the offices of Christian love ? Shall we con- 
 demn him in this case, even if it can be shewn that 
 now and then, somewhere else, in the heat of a polemical 
 argument against a monstrous and tyrannous errour, an 
 errour which was overriding and trampling upon the 
 hearts and consciences of Christendom, was stifling the 
 central principle of the Gospel, and depriving it of its 
 power to renew and to save, he has strained and over- 
 stated the opposite truth ? I am not conceding that 
 Luther has done so : Mr Hallam has not cited a single 
 instance in proof that he has : but supposing that such 
 instances can be produced, I would maintain that they 
 are to be interpreted according to the general tenour of 
 Luther's teaching, which shews a clearness and fulness 
 of insight into the ofiice and power of Faith, and its 
 relation to good works, almost unexampled since the 
 time of St Paul. 
 
 Moreover I would contend that common justice re- 
 quires we should make the amplest allowance for occa- 
 sional over -vehemence or hastiness of expression, when 
 we consider, not merely the peculiarly impetuous tone 
 of his mind, but all the circumstances of his condition, 
 — the darkness out of which he had to work his way, 
 with scarcely any help save that of God's word and 
 Spirit, — the might of the errour he had to fight against, 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 49 
 
 its deadening influence, the abominations it had given 
 birth to, the number of enemies he had to encounter, 
 and the almost superhuman rapidity and vigour with 
 which he carried on his singlehanded warfare. From 
 Ranke (B. iii. c. 3) we learn that 20 publications issued 
 in the year 1518 from the press under Luther's name, 
 50 in 1519, 133 in 1520, in 1521, when he was inter- 
 rupted by his journey to Worms and by his compulsory 
 concealment, about 40, 130 in 1522, and 183 in 1523. 
 This enumeration must doubtless include a number of re- 
 prints : but, with every reduction on that score, the energy 
 which thus glorified God 6^ bringing forth much fruit, 
 is quite astonishing ; more especially when we take into 
 account that, among these annual shoals of books, several 
 were of considerable bulk, such as the first Commentary 
 on the Galatians, the Expositions of the first twenty-two 
 Psalms, the Postils for half the Ecclesiastical year, the 
 treatise De Captivitate Babylonica Ecclesiae, that On the 
 abuses of the Mass, the Address to the Christian Nobless of 
 the German Nation, the Defense of all the Articles ccn- 
 demned by the Papal Bull, and that, along with all these 
 works, which would seem enough to exhaust the powers 
 of a dozen stout men, oloi vS» /Sporoi eliri, he translated and 
 publisht the New Testament and half the Old during 
 the same five years : when we remember too that during 
 this whole period his mind was continually expanding, 
 and that many of these writings were epochal acts in the 
 history of the world, utterances of truths which History 
 has signed and sealed and attested with the witness of ten 
 generations, — ^what can we think of the spirit that would 
 carp and cavil and scold at a few inconsiderate expres- 
 sions? When the world's doombell tolls, it must shake 
 the belfry. When the waters burst forth from their 
 frostbound prison, the ice will crack, not without a 
 
 E 
 
50 REPLY TO MR HALLAM's 
 
 noise ; and they will probably splash over upon the 
 banks. 
 
 That I may not subject myself to the retort, that I too 
 have produced no evidence to establish the consistency of 
 Luther's previous teaching and conduct with the Instruc- 
 tions for the Saxon Visitation, let me here observe that 
 the fullest evidence of that consistency is afforded by his 
 behaviour on occasion of the disturbances at Wittenberg, 
 as represented most faithfully in the account quoted 
 above from Ranke. In the Sermons preacht at that time, 
 which are beautiful models of paternal mildness and 
 gentleness in reproving errour, as well as of paternal 
 wisdom in correcting it, he says. It is sad to think that I 
 have so long been preaching to you, and that in almost all 
 my little boohs I have done nothing but inculcate faith and 
 love ; and yet no trace of love is to be seen in you. This 
 testimony he bears to himself with the same confidence 
 with which St Paul avouches that he has declared the 
 whole counsel of God ; and assuredly it vdll apply fully 
 to all his homiletical writings. Throughout he preaches 
 faith and love, — not good works as having any value, any 
 merit in themselves, but faith and love, after the example 
 of St Paul, in their living, inseparable unity, and their 
 active energy, perpetually bringing forth good works to 
 the glory of God. If this be Antinomianism, Luther is 
 the chief of Antinomians, or only second to St Paul, At 
 the same time his reverence for the moral Law, as declared 
 in the Ten Commandments, has never been surpast : and 
 as it was his delight to teach the poor and simple, he 
 made a number of attempts to set them forth in such a 
 manner that they might be written on the hearts and 
 minds of the people. Thus in 1520 he pubhsht A short 
 Form of the Ten Commandments, the Belief, and the Lord's 
 Prayer, with brief explanations for the people; which 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 51 
 
 was followed in 1529 by his two admirable Catechisms. 
 
 The same reverence for the moral Law induced him to 
 
 publish a versified form of the Ten Commandments in a 
 
 Hymnbook in 1524, and another briefer form in another 
 
 Hymnbook in 1525, which begins with the following 
 
 simple verse : 
 
 O man, wouldst thou live happily, 
 And dwell with God eternally, 
 The Ten Commandments thou must do : 
 For God our Lord will have it so. 
 
 Thus, and in similar ways, during the twenty-eight 
 years of his apostleship, he was continually manifesting 
 his deep, devout reverence for the moral Law in its sim- 
 plicity and purity ; and one of his chief labours during 
 the whole of that period was to instill a like reverence 
 into the minds of the German people, especially of the 
 poor and simple. This humble reverence he expresses 
 with exquisite beauty in the Preface to his larger Cate- 
 chism, when speaking of those who lookt down on the 
 Catechism, and especially on the Commandments, as the 
 rudiments, the milk for babes, which had been superseded 
 by the higher doctrine of the Gospel. " I too am a 
 doctor and preacher, nay, have as much learning and ex- 
 perience perhaps as any of those who feel this boldness 
 and security ; yet I still do like a child whom one teaches 
 its Catechism, and read and say over word for word every 
 morning, and if I have time, the Ten Commandments, 
 the Belief, the Lord's Prayer, Psalms, &c. And I am 
 forced to read it daily besides, and to study it, and yet 
 cannot get as perfect in it as I should wish to be, and 
 must needs remain a child and scholar of the Catechism, 
 ay, and am glad to be so," 
 
 Here I will insert the remarks which wind up the ex- 
 planation of the Ten Commandments in Luther's larger 
 
 E 2 
 
52 REPLY TO MR HALLAM S 
 
 Catechism. Thousands of passages to the same effect 
 may be found in his works, evincing that this is the 
 uniform spirit of his teaching. But as the tenour of that 
 teaching has been so grossly misunderstood and misrepre- 
 sented, this extract may perhaps help some English 
 readers, Mr Hallam among the rest, to understand what 
 Luther's feelings and doctrines about the moral Law were, 
 and what he meant when he seems to speak disparagingly 
 of good works. " These are the Ten Commandments, 
 a summary of Divine teaching as to what we must do, 
 that our whole life may please God, and the true foun- 
 tain and channel from which and along which whatever 
 is truly a good work must spring and flow ; so that, 
 beside the Ten Commandments, no work or doing can 
 be good or pleasing to God, however grand and splendid 
 it may seem to the world. Let us see now what our 
 great saints boast of their spiritual orders, and their grand, 
 difficult works, which they have devised and piled up, 
 while they let these drop ; just as if these were much 
 too mean, or already done with long ago. I trow, one 
 must have all one's hands full enough to keep these, gen- 
 tleness, patience, and love toward enemies, chastity, kind- 
 ness, and what such things bring with them. But such 
 works have no mark and show in the eyes of the world ; 
 for they are not strange and puft out, tied to particular 
 times, places, modes, and gestures, but common daily 
 housework, such as any man may carry on toward his 
 neighbour : therefore they have no dignity. But those 
 others make one's eyes and ears gape, and help them- 
 selves out with great pomp, cost, and noble buildings, 
 and deck themselves so that they glisten and shine all 
 over. People burn incense ; they sing and ring ; they 
 light torches and candles, so that one cannot hear or 
 see anything else, except a priest standing in his golden 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 53 
 
 chasuble, or a layman lying all day on his knees in a 
 church : this is counted a precious work, which no one 
 can praise enough. But for a poor girl to wait upon 
 a young child committed to her, and to tend it carefully, 
 this is thought nothing of. Else what would monks and 
 nuns go and seek in their cloisters. But think: is it 
 not an accursed presumption in these desperate saints, 
 that they take upon themselves to invent a higher and 
 better life and condition than the Ten Commandments 
 teach ; giving out, as was just said, that these are a 
 common life for common folks, but that theirs is for the 
 holy and perfect? And they see not, so wretched and 
 blind are they, that no man can movmt so high as to 
 keep one of the Ten Commandments as it ought to be 
 kept ; but that both the Belief and the Lord's Prayer 
 must come to our aid, — that we may seek and pray for 
 power to do this, and may receive it without intermis- 
 sion. Therefore their boasting comes just to this, as 
 though I boasted and said I had not a penny to pay, 
 but trusted I could pay ten shilHngs. 
 
 " This I say and press, to the end that one may be rid 
 of the sad abuse, which is so deeply rooted and still 
 cleaves to everybody, and may accustom oneself in all 
 conditions upon earth to look to this alone, and to busy 
 oneself about this. For long will it be ere any one can 
 fashion a doctrine or condition, which is comparable to 
 the Ten Commandments ; because they are so high that 
 no one can reach them by human strength ; and he who 
 does reach them is a heavenly, angelic man, far above all 
 the holiness of this world. Only take them up, and try 
 yourself ; use all your might and main ; you will find so 
 much to do, that you vrill not seek or care for any other 
 work or holiness. — 
 
 " Therefore it is not vainly commanded in the Old 
 
54 REPLY TO MR HALLAM's 
 
 Testament, that the Ten Commandments shall be written 
 on all the walls and doorposts, nay, on the garments (Dent. 
 VI. 7. 8). Not that they were to let the characters stand 
 there, and to make a show of them, as the Jews did ; hut 
 that we may have them continually before our eyes, and 
 constantly in our thoughts, may follow them in all our 
 deeds and conduct, and that every one may make it his 
 daily exercise in all cases, business, and dealings, as 
 though they were written in every place on which he 
 looks, yea, wherever he goes or stands. Thus would 
 people find occasion enough, both at home and with their 
 neighbours, to fulfill the Ten Commandments, so that 
 there would be no need of running after such occasions. 
 From this we see again how highly these Ten Command- 
 ments are to be exalted and praised above aU conditions, 
 ordinances, and works, which any one can teach or follow. 
 For here we may take our stand, and say, Let all the 
 wise men and saints come forward, and try whether they 
 can produce any work, except these Commandments, 
 which God requires with such earnestness, and enjoins 
 under His highest wrath and punishment, adding at the 
 same time such a glorious promise, that He will pour out 
 all good things and blessings upon us. Therefore are we 
 to teach them above all other things, and to hold them 
 dear and precious, as the highest treasure given to us by 
 God." 
 
 It is to be hoped, even Mr Hallam will be convinced 
 by this, and by the other evidence already adduced, that 
 more can be urged in disproof of his charge imputing 
 Antinomianism to Luther, than that " he somewhere else 
 used a language inconsistent with it," If we forget what 
 were the good works, which the teaching of the Church 
 in those days exalted and enjoined, we may often stumble 
 at what he says : but if we carry the distinction here set 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 55 
 
 forth along with us, all is clear and straight. This same 
 distinction will help us in understanding the passages, 
 whatever they may be, in Luther's Tahletalk, of which 
 Mr Hallam speaks in the next sentences of the same Note. 
 " If the Colloquia Mensalia are to be fully relied upon, 
 Luther continued to talk in the same Antinomian strain 
 as before, though he grew sometimes more cautious in 
 writing. {Sometimes more cautious in writing ! It is 
 painful to see another instance of the manner in which 
 people keep themselves from acknowledging and giving 
 up a cherisht prejudice.) See chap. xii. of that work, 
 and compare with the passages quoted by Milner, v. 517, 
 from the second edition (in 1536) of his Commentary on 
 the Galatians. It would be well to know if these occur 
 in that of 1519." 
 
 On the Tahletalk, and its authority, I shall have to say 
 something anon : but here again I must observe that one 
 could have wisht for some more precise reference, than to 
 a chapter which fills above twenty closely printed folio 
 pages ; so that there might have been means of judging 
 what Mr Hallam understands by the Antinomianism with 
 which he taxes Luther, and whether it is anything more 
 than the Antinomianism which he might find in St Paul. 
 This is the more desirable, inasmuch as Coleridge, than 
 whom no Englishman was ever better qualified to give 
 sentence on such a point, expressly declares, that this 
 very twelfth Chapter of Luther's Tahletalk, on the Liuw 
 and the Gospel, " contains the very marrow of divinity : " 
 Remains, iii. 401 (n). 
 
 Besides, in turning over the pages of this chapter I 
 find one section headed, " Why the preaching of the Law 
 is necessary against the Antinomians" (p. 207) ; and my 
 eye lights on such passages as the following : " He that 
 will be wise in the sight of God, let him begin to learn 
 
56 REPLY TO MR HALLAM's 
 
 the Ten Commandments and God's word" (p. 206) : 
 again, in p. 188, " Seeing that with all diligence we 
 teach the Law, therefore by the very act itself we ap- 
 prove, that (as our adversaries falsely charge and accuse 
 us) we do not reject the Law and the works thereof, but 
 much rather we do confirm and erect the same, and do 
 teach that we ought to do good works ; and we also do 
 af&rm that the Law is very good and profitable" (p. 188) : 
 again, in p. 197, "Anno 1541, certain propositions were 
 brought to Luther as he sat at dinner, importing that the 
 Law might not be preacht in the Church, because we are 
 not justified thereby. At the sight whereof he was much 
 moved to anger, and said, Siich seducers do come already 
 among our people, while we yet live : what will he done 
 when we are gone ? Let us (said he) give Philip Melanch- 
 thon the honour due to him : for he teacheth exceeding 
 well and plainly of the right difference, use, and profit of 
 the Law and Gospel : and I teach directly also the same, 
 and have thoroughly handled that point in the Epistle to 
 the Galatians. — He that taketh away the doctrine of the 
 Law, doth rend and tear away politiam et oeconomiam : 
 and when the Law is cast out of the Church, then there 
 is no more acknowledging of sins in the world." Here 
 Luther again joins Melanchthon in maintaining that they 
 agree ; though Mr Hallam is loth to take their word 
 even for this. Luther in this very twelfth chapter 
 contends again and again most earnestly against the 
 Antinomians : yet Mr Hallam says, referring to this 
 chapter, that "he continued to talk in the same Anti- 
 nomian strain as before, though he grew sometimes more 
 cautious in writing." Why, even from this very chapter, 
 to which Mr Hallam appeals, as shewing that Luther 
 " continued to talk in an Antinomian strain," a score of 
 passages might be cited, evincing such a singularly clear 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 57 
 
 perception of the true relation between the Law and the 
 Gospel, and of the special office of the Law, that one 
 may pronounce it to have been an impossibility for 
 Luther to have taUtt " in an Antinomian strain ; " unless 
 indeed he talkt so in his sleep, or unless the expres- 
 sions belonged to a much earlier part of his life. If there 
 are any expressions which sound like Antinomianism, we 
 may feel sure, either that they have been misreported, 
 or that we miss their meaning from not knowing the 
 circumstances under which they were spoken. 
 
 In fact, though Mr HaUam, notwithstanding his 
 researches to ascertain the nature and extent of Luther's 
 Antinomianism, does not seem to have heard of it, Luther 
 maintained a continuous struggle against Antinomianism 
 for the last twenty years of his life. He had to approve 
 himself the minister of God by the armour of righteous- 
 ness on the right hand as well as on the left, fighting on 
 the one side against the factitious righteousness and will- 
 worship of Rome, on the other side against the unright- 
 eousness of the Anabaptists and other Antinomians. 
 Among his writings is a Tract specially entitled Against 
 the Antinomians, publisht in 1539. He had been defend- 
 ing certain theses against them, as has already been 
 stated, the year before. Throughout the second Com- 
 mentary on the Galatians, he continually maintains the 
 righteousness of faith against the Antinomian faith 
 without righteousness, no less than against the Popish 
 righteousness without faith ; and in the Preface he says 
 of his two bodies of opponents, with a characteristic 
 image, caudis sunt conjunctae istae vulpes, sed capitibus 
 diver sae. 
 
 Mr Hallam seems to admit that the passages quoted by 
 Milner from the second edition, as he terms it, of this Com- 
 mentary, exhibit an unobjectionable phase of doctrine ; 
 
58 REPLY TO MR HALLAm's 
 
 though here also he cannot refrain from paring down his 
 concession by insinuating a doubt whether these passages 
 occur in the edition of 1519. In a previous note (on 
 chap. IV. § 59), he goes so far as to charge Milner with 
 the " disingenuous trick of suppressing all passages in 
 the early treatises of Luther, which display his Anti- 
 nomian paradoxes in a strong light." This is another 
 instance of a grave accusation, without a tittle of evidence 
 to support it. Against such Antinomian criticism what 
 reply can be made ? Till Mr Hallam brings forward his 
 proofs of Luther's errours, we may suspend our judge- 
 ment ; but thus much is plain, that, if they merely consist 
 of occasional, partial over -statements, and do not colour 
 the main streams of his doctrine, it was no way necessary, 
 and hardly useful, that Milner, in a work like his, should 
 take any notice of them. A far stranger procedure is it, 
 that a historian of literature, in speaking of one of the 
 first men in history, should spend three-fourths of the 
 breath which he allows to him, in talking about the mud 
 which stuck to his shoes, and the drops of sweat which 
 ran down his cheeks, in consequence of his having to 
 journey a long, hard way through the mire. 
 
 With regard to the Commentaries on the Galatians, 
 the first extract cited by Milner, as " giving a beautiful 
 and concise delineation of the order and method of prac- 
 tical Christianity," is expressly stated by him to be taken 
 from the first edition. Perhaps it may be too much to 
 expect from an English historian, that he should have 
 taken the trouble to compare the two Commentaries, 
 when Milner has not given the references : but if Mr 
 Hallam had done so, even in a single instance, he would 
 have found, what Milner himself was not aware of, that 
 the Commentary on the Galatians publisht in 1536 is a 
 totally different work from that publisht in 1519, being 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 59 
 
 thrice as long, and having few sentences, I believe, if any, 
 in common. A second revised edition of the earlier 
 Commentary was publisht in 1524: but that in 1536 is 
 wholly different. As the Epistle to the Galatians af- 
 forded Luther such occasions for maintaining his prime 
 doctrine, and this time against the two opposite perver- 
 sions of it, he again delivered a course of lectures on that 
 Epistle ; which were taken down by some of his friends, 
 and publisht with his consent and corrections (o). In this, 
 as has already been observed, the contest against Anti- 
 nomianism is very prominent, because Antinomianism 
 had taken root and spread widely in the preceding fifteen 
 years. On the other hand there was little Antinomianism 
 when Luther publisht his first Commentary : hence, 
 according to the practical bent of his mind, he devoted 
 himself chiefly to combating that form of errour which 
 at the time was dominant in the Church. But there too 
 his doctrine was in the main the same. 
 
 Here let me recur to an assertion of Mr Hallam's, 
 which has already been quoted in p. 10: "whoever 
 has read the writings of Luther up. to the year 1820 
 inclusive, must find it impossible to contradict my as- 
 sertion," of Luther's Antinomian paradoxes. Mr Hal- 
 lam, I trust, has been driven from every other position ; 
 and he must not be allowed to keep his ground in this. 
 In fact a more astoundingly rash assertion I have rarely 
 met with. I open the first volume of Luther's Latin 
 works at hazard, and my eyes fall on the following 
 passage (p. 418. ed. Jen.), in the note on v. 14, For all 
 the Law is fulfilled in this one word, Thou shalt love 
 thy neighhour as thyself. " This examination (of the 
 nature of your love to your neighbour) will teach you 
 what progress you have made in Christianity. Thus 
 you will find out whom you love, and whom you do not 
 
60 REPLY TO MR HALLAM's 
 
 love, how much you have profited or fallen short. For 
 if there be any one person toward whom you are not 
 kindly afiectioned, you are nothing, even though you 
 work miracles. By this rule too you yourself, without 
 the help of a master, may learn to distinguish between 
 works and good works. You will then clearly perceive 
 that it is better to wish well, to speak well, and to do well 
 to your neighbour, and to make your whole life a service 
 of your neighbour in love, as the Apostle says just 
 before, than if you were to build all the churches in 
 the world, and to amass the merits of all the monasteries, 
 and to work the miracles of all the Saints, unless indeed 
 you wrought them in the service of your neighbour. 
 This is the doctrine which in these days they are not 
 only ignorant of, but assail with the infinite host of 
 their traditions. Their principle is this, that they never 
 teach you to love any one except your immediate personal 
 neighbour, while they squabble so about works, and 
 distinguish their characters. Nor is less care necessary 
 in understanding that very common distinction of the 
 Law of Nature, the written Law, and the Law of the 
 Gospel. For since the Apostle here says, that they 
 all agree in one sum and substance. Love is certainly 
 the end of every Law, as he tells Timothy, 1. i. 5. But 
 Christ also (Matth. vii. 12) expressly declares that what 
 they call the Law of Nature, — All things which ye would 
 that men should do to you, do ye also to them, — is the 
 same with the Law and the Prophets. Now, as He 
 Himself teaches the Gospel, it is clear that these three 
 Laws do not differ so much in their real purpose, as 
 in the misunderstandings of their interpreters. More- 
 over this vraitten Law, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as 
 thyself, says exactly the same thing with the Law of 
 Nature : What ye wish that men should do to you, — 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 61 
 
 for this is to love oneself, — even so do to them: — this 
 is plainly to love others, as oneself. But what else does 
 the whole Gospel teach? Therefore there is one Law, 
 which has spread through all ages, known to all men, 
 written on the hearts of all : nor does it leave any one 
 excusable from the beginning to the end ; although 
 among the Jews ceremonies were added to it, and in 
 other nations their own special laws, which did not 
 bind the whole world, — an obligation peculiar to this, 
 which the Spirit vrrites on the hearts of all, without 
 intermission." 
 
 This passage, on which, as I said, my eyes lighted 
 by accident, stands in the midst of a work animated 
 by the selfsame spirit, and publisht in the year 1519, 
 the very middle of that period, of which Mr Hallam 
 has the boldness to say, that " whoever has read Luther's 
 writings belonging to it must find it impossible to 
 contradict his assertion" of Luther's Antinomian extra- 
 vagances. On the strength of this and the other passages 
 which I have quoted, I will venture to rejoin that who- 
 ever has read these writings carefully, must contradict 
 that assertion : on this point I am content to join issue 
 with him. 
 
 Mr Hallam indeed says, that, " in treating of an 
 author so- fuU of unlimited propositions as Luther, no 
 positive proof as to his tenets can be refuted by the 
 production of inconsistent passages." This is an inge- 
 nious way of silencing all opposition. For what is poor 
 Luther's advocate to do ? He cannot refute the charge 
 brought against him by taking the evidence to pieces, 
 and shewing its invalidity; for of evidence there is not 
 a jot. At the same time he is told that he must not 
 hope to refute it by proving a mental alibi; for that 
 Luther is such a conjuror, he can be in a dozen places 
 
62 REPLY TO MR HALLAM's 
 
 at once. But, seriously speaking, if it can be proved, 
 as the passage last quoted assuredly does prove, that 
 Luther had fully and most clearly discerned the relation 
 between Faith and the evangelical Law of Love, and had 
 seen how this is the sum and principle of all positive 
 laws, we may confidently assert that he cannot have 
 been an Antinomian. Should passages having an oppo- 
 site tendency be brought forward, I would contend, that, 
 unless Luther can be shewn to have been either a mad- 
 man or an idiot, we are bound to interpret them by the 
 light which may be derived from the various passages 
 cited above, and from the numberless others to the same 
 eifect strewn through every part of his writings. But 
 further, I believe that, among the numerous works pub- 
 blisht by Luther during the three years markt out by 
 Mr Hallam, there is hardly one, from which, if it affords 
 us any glimpse of his opinions on morals, it might not 
 be demonstrated that Luther was not an Antinomian. 
 Indeed in some respects, during that period, when he 
 was only gradually purifying himself from the Roman 
 leaven, he may almost be thought to speak too much 
 about good works. 
 
 To begin with the first page in the Jena edition of 
 his Latin works, it is filled with certain propositions 
 concerning the power of the will in the natural man. 
 Here the third corollary to the first conclusion asserts 
 that, though men without faith cannot do anything 
 purely good, yet there is a difference between the chaste 
 and the unchaste, the just and the unjust, so that they 
 vnll not fall under the same punishment. The second 
 conclusion asserts. Homo, Dei gratia exclusa, praecepta 
 ejus servare hequaquam potest ; thus recognising that there 
 is a Divine Law, and that man is bound to observe it, 
 though from the corruption of his nature he cannot. 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 63 
 
 without Divine grace. The third corollary to this con- 
 clusion may startle one at first sight : Cum justitia fide- 
 lium sit in Deo abscondita, peccatum vera eorum mani- 
 festum in seipsis, verum est non nisi justos damnari, atque 
 peccatores et meretrices salvari. But the proposition here 
 asserted is in fact the truth involved in the beautiful 
 parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, coupled with 
 the declaration that the life of the believer is hidden in 
 God, so that of this he is unconscious, while he feels 
 a deep consciousness of his sin. The assertion, non nisi 
 justos damnari) is probably incorrectly exprest, and may 
 have been meant to be equivalent to justos non nisi 
 damnari, that they who count themselves righteous will 
 be condemned. If not, every candid mind will make 
 allowances for exaggerations in such apophthegmatically 
 worded scholastic theses, which were the fashion of the 
 age. 
 
 K we turn over the leaf, we find that the next two 
 pages contain the noble letter which Luther sent along 
 with his Theses to the Archbishop of Mayence. In this 
 he urges as one main argument against the indulgences, 
 that " opera pietatis et caritatis sunt in infinitum meliora 
 indulgentiis, et tamen — propter venias praedicandas ilia 
 tacent, cum tamen omnium episcoporum hoc sit officium 
 primum et solum, ut populus evangelium discat et cari- 
 tatem Christi," These last words seem from the context 
 to mean the duties of Christian love. 
 
 Again, the very foremost in that grand body of Theses, 
 which were the first act in the deliverance of the Church, 
 — Dominus et Magister noster Jesus Christus, dicendo Poeni- 
 tentiam agite, etc. omnem vitam Jidelium poenitentiant esse 
 voluit, — is of itself sufficient to disprove the charge of 
 Antinomianism. For penitence implies that there must be 
 a moral Law ; and the continuance of penitence through 
 
64 REPLY TO MR HALLAM's 
 
 life manifests the deepest conviction of sin, that is, of the 
 violation of the moral Law. Nay, the idea which runs 
 through the whole series of Theses, is that of the dignity 
 and sanctity of the moral Law. Or I may cite the 43d 
 and the next two Theses as exhibiting a state of thought 
 and feeling utterly alien from Antinomianism. Docendi 
 sunt Christiani, quod dans pauperi aut mutuans egenti, 
 melius facit quam si venias redimeret : Quia per opus cari- 
 tatis crescit caritas, et Jit homo melior ; sed per venias nan Jit 
 melior, sed tantummodo a poena liberior. — Docendi sunt 
 Christiani, quod qui videt egenum, et neglecto eo dat pro 
 veniis, non indulgentias Papae, sed indignationem Dei sibi 
 vindicat. Again, the highest reverence for the Lavs' per- 
 vades the ninety-nine Theses against the Scholastic 
 Philosophy in 1517. 
 
 I might go on in like manner through one Treatise after 
 another. But one more example will be sufficient to 
 determine the value of Mr Hallam's statements concern- 
 ing Luther. He says, as we have seen, that " whoever 
 has read the writings of Luther up to the year 1520 in- 
 clusive, must find it impossible to contradict his assertion." 
 Now, even after all the instances already produced of his 
 singular rashness, — a rashness the more puzzling at first 
 sight from its contrast with the calmness and deliberate- 
 ness and caution which he aims at, but easily explicable 
 to those who know how often caution out of season be- 
 comes rashness, — even after all we have hitherto met with, 
 it fills one with amazement to find that, in the first 
 volume of Luther's Latin works, containing those of 
 1517, 1518, 1519, with some belonging to the year 1520, 
 above ninety folio pages are filled with a translation of a 
 course of sermons which he had been preaching to the 
 people on the Ten Commandments, even then, as through- 
 out his life, one of his favorite themes, in which every 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 65 
 
 Commandment is fully expounded and urged both in its 
 literal and in its widest spiritual sense. Moreover, a 
 few pages after, we come to an Instruction for the 
 Confession of sins according to the Ten Commandments. 
 
 In the text indeed to the Note which we have so long 
 been examining, Mr Hallam, while speaking of divers 
 things which he deems reprehensible in Luther, says 
 (c. IV. § 59), " He fancied that to represent a future 
 state as the motive of virtuous action, or as any way 
 connected with human conduct, for better or worse, was 
 derogatory to the free grace of God, and the omnipotent 
 agency of the Spirit in converting the soul." This 
 sentence, being unsupported by any reference, leaves us 
 at a loss to make out what is the opinion here objected 
 to. One might suppose it to be, what we find now 
 and then exprest by Luther, especially in his earlier 
 vmtings, when he was more under the influence of 
 Tauler and other Mystics, that the reference to a future 
 state, if it operates as a motive of our actions, either in 
 the way of personal hope or fear, detracts from their 
 purity and perfection, and is a witness of the corruption 
 of our nature ; for that, if we were not tainted with sin, 
 we should act rightly from the mere love of Truth and 
 Purity and Justice. I cannot feel confident that this is 
 Mr Hallam's meaning : but it seems to be so ; and this 
 opinion we certainly do find in Luther, for instance in 
 the sentences already quoted in p. 19, and again in the 
 following beautiful passage from the same sermon On 
 Penitence. " Proinde confessurus id potissimum et ante 
 omnia tecum cogita, quid faceres, si non esset praeceptum 
 confitendi, si nulla esset quadragesima, si nulli confite- 
 rentur, si nullus esset pudor, sed omnis omnium plenaque 
 libertas. An etiam sic velles confiteri, conteri, poenitere ? 
 Quod si te non ita invenis, jam scito te non ex amore 
 
66 REPLY TO MR HALLAM's 
 
 justitiae, sed consuetudine et timore praecepti poenitere, 
 atque malle sequi turlaam, si omnibus liceret non poeni- 
 tere. Si autem velles, etiamsi nuUus poeniteret, confi- 
 teretur, contereretur, atque adeo si totus ^mimdus aliter 
 ageret, nee praecepti habita ratione, poenitere, sed amore 
 novae vitae et melioris, jam vere poenites. Ecce boo est, 
 quod illi solent dicere, quod contritio in caritate facta 
 facit remitti peccata." Yet, if this be Mr Hallam's 
 meaning, one is puzzled to understand how he can deem 
 that such an opinion is a reprehensible moral paradox, 
 nay, as the context and note would seem to imply, that it 
 savours of Antinomianism. Such an opinion might in- 
 dicate a want of practical wisdom, if it led a person 
 to reject all motives derivable from hope and fear, and 
 to deny their utility and necessity in our frail, peccable 
 state. But this Luther did not : on the contrary he con- 
 tinually urged such motives in their proper place. Nor 
 did he imagine that man would ever in this life attain to 
 a condition, in which those leadingstrings and crutches 
 for our tottering virtue would no longer be needed (p). 
 Just after the last quotation he adds : " si recte perpendas 
 haec dicta, facile dices nullum hominem esse in mundo, 
 qui banc contritionem habeat, vel saltem paucissimos : et 
 de me ipso confiteor similia omnino." This however he 
 regarded as a proof of our inherent, inveterate, incu- 
 rable sinfulness, of our continual need of forgiveness, 
 and of the evil which clings to our very best acts, and 
 abides with us in our very best estate. But I repeat, I 
 cannot feel certain that this is what Mr Hallam refers to ; 
 and I should have past over his words altogether, tmless 
 I desired not to leave the slightest shadow of his censure 
 on Luther's moral tenets unremoved, if it seemed possible 
 to remove it. 
 
 In his remarks on the motives of the great Reformer 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 67 
 
 (c. iv. § 60), Mr Hallam is indeed quite justified in 
 repudiating the notion, " that Luther was desirous of 
 introducing a more rational system of religion ; or, that 
 he contended for freedom of enquiry, and the boundless 
 privileges of individual judgement : or, that his zeal for 
 learning and ancient philosophy led him to attack the 
 ignorance of the monks, and the crafty policy of the 
 Church, which withstood all liberal studies." One might 
 regard these suggestions as a transfer of the thoughts 
 of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the six- 
 teenth, were it not that the sixteenth does exhibit some- 
 thing to a certain extent corresponding to them in the 
 aims of Erasmus, and those of Reuchlin, Hutten, and 
 their friends. But the writings of Erasmus and of his 
 compeers would have been as unavailing to produce the 
 Reformation, as it would be to light men for the labours 
 of agriculture by carrying a dozen candles into the fields. 
 A mightier spirit was needed for this work, one which 
 drew its power from deeper sources of truth, human 
 and divine. 
 
 Mr Hallam however proceeds : " Nor is there any 
 foundation for imagining that Luther was concerned for 
 the interests of literature. None had he himself, save 
 theological ; nor are there, as I apprehend, many allusions 
 to profane studies, or any proof of his regard to them, 
 in all his works. On the contrary, it is probable that 
 both the principles of this great founder of the Refor- 
 mation, and the natural tendency of so intense an appli- 
 cation to theological controversy, checkt for a time the 
 progress of philological and philosophical literature, on 
 this side of the Alps." These opinions are supported 
 by some extracts from Erasmus, such as " Ubicunque 
 regnat Lutheranismus, ibi literarum est interitus." Now 
 such a verdict on the part of Erasmus is comprehensible 
 
 F 2 
 
68 REPLY TO MR HALLAm's 
 
 enough. When the conflicts of the Reformation were 
 raging, the momentous controversies concerning the pro- 
 nunciation of Greek, and accent, and quantity, and 
 etacism, and iotacism, sank into comparative neglect. 
 Possibly too the study of ancient literature was not culti- 
 vated so diligently, at all events not so exclusively, as it 
 might have been otherwise. But the intellectual work 
 of the first half of the sixteenth century was of a higher 
 order than that of cultivating the literature of antiquity. 
 It was to bring forth the literature of modem Europe, at 
 least to bring forth those great primordial thoughts, which 
 have given its peculiar shape and character to modern 
 literature, and to fashion the languages in which those 
 thoughts were to find utterance. There had indeed been 
 earlier throes of this great parturition. Chaucer was con- 
 temporary with our Wiclif, Dante with the struggles 
 between the Guelfs and Ghibellines. Germany too had 
 had an age of epic and lyric poetry in the twelfth and 
 thirteenth centuries. But that subjectiveness, reflective- 
 ness, and analysis, that piercing introspectiveness, which 
 has revealed the lowest depths of the human heart and 
 spirit, for instance and above all in Shakspeare, — this, and 
 the humour which, along with it, forms the distinctive 
 characteristic of modern literature, have sprung in great 
 part out of the Reformation ; as also has our experi- 
 mental science, and our subjective, self-examining phi- 
 losophy. With regard to philology also, if the dilettante 
 pursuit of it sustained a momentary check from the graver 
 studies called forth by the Reformation, it is to be remem- 
 bered that almost all the great masters in philology have 
 arisen among Protestants. Indeed how could they arise, 
 where a main part of religion consists in swallowing the 
 words of the blind and of the false, without questioning 
 their authority or their veracity ? Mr Hallam too himself 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 69 
 
 observes in a Note, that " there were at the time, as well 
 as afterward, more learned men on the side of the 
 Reformation than on that of the Church," 
 
 So far however as Luther himself is concerned, Mr 
 HaUam's observation, that " he had no literature, save 
 theological, and that there are not many allusions to 
 profane studies, or any proof of his regard to them, in 
 all his works," strengthens the conclusion to which we 
 are led by everything else he has said about Luther, that 
 his acquaintance with the great Reformer and with his 
 writings is exceedingly slight. It is notorious indeed 
 that, some years before Luther entered upon his peculiar 
 mission, he had in great measure abandoned profane 
 studies, and given himself up with aU his heart and soul 
 and mind and strength to Theology. Nor was he at any 
 time much of a Greek scholar : such scholarship was 
 Very rare in Germany among his contemporaries. But 
 Melanchthon, in his short Life of him, says that, while 
 he was at school at Eisenach, " having a very vigorous 
 intellect, especially fitted for eloquence, he rapidly sur- 
 past his schoolfellows both in the choice of words and 
 in fluency ; and in writing, both prose and verse, he 
 excelled the other youths who were educated with him." 
 He adds that, during Luther's stay at the University of 
 Erfurt, " he read most of the remains of the ancient 
 Latin writers, of Cicero, Virgil, Livy, and others. These 
 he read, not like boys, merely picking out the words, 
 but as teachers and representatives of human life. Hence 
 he lookt closely at the plans and opinions of the writers ; 
 and having a strong and accurate memory, he distinctly 
 retained most of what he read and heard," This state- 
 ment is confirmed by the extraordinary fluency and 
 copia verborum which Luther shewed all his life in lec- 
 turing off'hand in Latin on the profoundest theological 
 
70 
 
 REPLY TO MR HALLAM S 
 
 questions: and though his taste was too pure, and his 
 aim too straightforward, for him to deck out his pages 
 with classical allusions, which would have been unintelli- 
 gible to most of his hearers, or at least would have diverted 
 their attention from the subject he wisht to press upon 
 them, such allusions are not unfrequent in his writings, 
 when they come in pertinently and serve to enforce what 
 he is saying (q). A remarkable proof of the high value 
 he set on the great Roman writers, is contained in a 
 paper which he wrote at Eisleben two days before his 
 death. Aurifaber, who was his companion at the time, 
 has printed it in the first chapter of the Tahletalh. 
 " Virgilium in Bucolicis nemo potest intelligere, nisi 
 fuerit quinque annis Pastor. Virgilium in Georgicis 
 nemo potest intelligere, nisi fuerit quinque annis Agri- 
 cola. Ciceronem in Epistolis (sic praecipio) nemo integre 
 intelligit, nisi viginti annis sit versatus in Republica 
 aliqua insigni. Scripturas sanctas sciat se nemo degus- 
 tasse satis, nisi centum annis cum Prophetis, ut Elia et 
 Elisaeo, Joanne Baptista, Christo, et Apostolis, Ecclesias 
 gubernarit. — We are beggars : hoc est verum." 
 
 Moreover, if Mr Hallam could have brought himself 
 to look into the Articles of Visitation spoken of above, 
 for anything except to find matter of reproach against 
 Luther, he would have seen that, in the German copy 
 of them, which received Luther's express sanction, the 
 latter Articles, which bear strong marks of his hand, are 
 employed in sketching a plan of National Education, 
 according to which the whole German people were to 
 be educated in the knowledge of Latin Grammar and 
 to read easy Latin authors. This plan is drawn up with 
 great practical wisdom, bearing some marks indeed of its 
 age, but far above anything that has ever been effected, 
 or even attempted at all widely, in England down to this 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 71 
 
 day. It was in consequence of the deplorable ignorance, 
 which he found prevailing among the people in the 
 course of the Visitation, that Luther composed his two 
 invaluable Catechisms. Even in 1520, when writing 
 his grand Letter to the Christian nobless of the German 
 nation, he had strongly urged the necessity of estabhshing 
 schools, and of reforming the Universities. Again, in 
 1524, being at the time under the Ban of the Empire, 
 he vnrote an excellent Letter to the Magistrates of all 
 the German towns, calling upon them to fulfiU their duty 
 of establishing and keeping up Christian Schools in all 
 parts of Germany. In this Letter he urges the great 
 importance of teaching the learned languages, Latin, 
 Greek, and Hebrew, both with a view to the understand- 
 ing of the Scriptures, and in order to train up persons 
 qualified to discharge all civil and social duties, " in order 
 that the men may be well fitted to govern the land and 
 the people, and that the women may manage their house, 
 and bring up their children and household." — "The 
 children (he says), should not only learn languages and 
 history, but singing also, and music, and mathematics." 
 And he adds, " How sorry am I now, that I have not 
 read more poets and histories, and that nobody taught 
 me them ! " This deep interest in the education of the 
 people abode with Luther through life, and is continually 
 exprest ; nor did he ever shrink from exhorting and 
 expostulating with the princes and nobles, to prevail on 
 them to fulfill their sacred duty in this matter. Hence 
 Karl Raumer, in his History of Education {Geschichte der 
 Paedagogik, I. p. 137), says, " If Melanchthon obtained 
 the name of Praeceptor Germaniae, as a learned teacher of 
 Germany, especially of the studious classes, Luther was 
 the pastor of the people, who, with a love animated by 
 the fervour of faith, watcht, prayed, laboured, that all his 
 
72 REPLY TO MR HALLAM's 
 
 dear Germans, high and low, might be prepared by 
 godly discipline and sound instruction, for leading a 
 life well-pleasing tp God. He saw clearly that the 
 Reformation could not be firmly establisht, except by 
 the Christian nurture of the children, at home and at 
 school (r)." This of itself is a sufiicient proof tha the 
 was not an Antinomian. 
 
 It is now full time to take leave of Mr Hallam, the 
 argument with whom has grown to a much greater length 
 than I anticipated, and is certainly very disproportionate 
 to his brief remarks upon Luther. "Were it not for the 
 adventitious force which those remarks acquire from his 
 reputation for learning, judgement, and fairness, they 
 might have been dismist summarily : but when it appeared 
 desirable that they should be refuted, their very vague- 
 ness and slightness, and the absence of any tangible fact, 
 left no way of disproving them except that of proving the 
 contrary (s). Hereby the prejudice, which, though utterly 
 groundless, is by no means uncommon in these days, that 
 Luther erred on the side of Antinomianism, will, I trust, 
 have been dispelled ; and we shall be able to come with 
 free, open minds to the examination of the more definite 
 charges brought against him by others. How indis- 
 pensable this is to a right appreciation of particular sen- 
 tences and propositions pickt out from the writings of a 
 man who expresses himself as strongly as Luther, we shall 
 see exemplified in several cases anon. When a person, 
 prepossest with the notion that Luther was an Antino- 
 mian, lights upon some strong passage severed from the 
 context, he welcomes it as a confirmation of his previous 
 antipathy. On the other hand, he who is familiar with 
 Luther's writings, with their tone and spirit, their singular 
 practical sense and spiritual wisdom, if he falls in with 
 one of these stones of offense, will not stumble, but will 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 73 
 
 suspend his judgement, trusting that what in its separation 
 may seem as shocking as a hand or eye, when severed from 
 its body, will be proved on examination in its original 
 place to fit aptly into the great body of truth from which 
 it has been torn. And after finding, as often as I have 
 found, that this anticipation is thoroughly justified, one's 
 confidence amounts to an assurance, which will not easily 
 be shaken. 
 
74 
 
 REPLY TO MR NEWMAN'S REMARKS 
 ON LUTHER. 
 
 Whatever confidence in Luther's spiritual wisdom 
 may have been inspired hj the' contemplation of his life, 
 or the study of his writings, it will often find occasion in 
 these days to vindicate itself against the attacks which are 
 continually made upon him and his cause. They have 
 proceeded from more than one quarter, but chiefly, as 
 might be expected, from that new School of Theology, 
 which has set itself to depreciate and to counteract the 
 work of the Reformation. By our modern Romanizers the 
 mightiest enemy of the Romish corruptions is naturally 
 regarded with dislike, with aversion, almost with hatred. 
 His intense love of truth revolts those who dally with 
 truth, and play tricks with it, until they cease to discern 
 the distinction between truth and falsehood. His straight- 
 forwardness finds no sympathy among those who walk in 
 crooked ways. His hunger and thirst after that which 
 is spiritual, and his comparative indiiference about out- 
 ward forms, are mortal offenses to those with whom forms, 
 institutions, rites, ordinances are the main thing; and 
 almost everything. Hence the contest about Luther's 
 character now has a peculiar interest and importance. 
 It is a part of the great contest by which our Church 
 is so dismally torn. The enemy, the traducer has endea- 
 voured to get possession of him, and to cover him with 
 ignominy : there is urgent need of some one to defend him 
 from his assailants ; and as no one else has come forward, 
 
REPLY TO MR NEWMAN. 75 
 
 that I am aware of, I have felt bound to do what I can 
 for him to whom I owe such a debt of gratitude and 
 love as can never be paid. 
 
 In this, as in most of the other opinions which charac- 
 terize our new School of Theology, the way was led by 
 him who is the primary author of the schism now rending 
 our Chuich. As the revival of the true scriptural doctrine 
 of Justification was the first act and germ of the Refor- 
 mation, so, wherever and whenever there has been a lapse 
 Romeward, that doctrine has been impugned and under- 
 mined by a more or less overt assertion of human merit 
 and of good works. Hence the discerning perceived from 
 the first that there was a strong tendency toward the 
 Church of Rome in Mr Newman's Lectures on Justification, 
 even as there was in our Armuiian divinity of the seven- 
 teenth century ; although they hoped that the practical 
 wisdom and godliness, which are ever indispensable to bridle 
 in the runaway impetus of speculation, would now also, as 
 then, preserve the devious thinker from following the im- 
 pulses of his own morbid subtilty. In these Lectures on 
 Justification the Lutheran doctrine is assailed with great 
 ingenuity and logical acuteness : and in the course of the 
 argument Luther himself is often spoken of, but on the 
 whole with respect, or at least with that exemplary de- 
 corum which has ever markt Mr Newman's controversial 
 writings, notwithstanding the continual provocations he 
 has received. 
 
 In one place, at the close of the second Lecture, a com- 
 parison is instituted between Luther and Augustin, of 
 course to Luther's disadvantage : but, if we bate the con- 
 trast between their doctrine on the point in question, 
 which I cannot discuss here, the main defect urged against 
 Luther is that he lived in the sixteenth century. For the 
 comparison is wound up with this finely sounding, but 
 
re 
 
 REPLY TO MR NEWMAN S 
 
 empty antithesis : " They (Luther and the other Reformers) 
 have been founders of schools : St Augustin is a Father 
 in the Holy Apostolic Church." Now, as the list of 
 Fathers, so-called, closes with Bernard in the twelfth cen- 
 tury, these words, if they mean anything, must mean that 
 no theologian who has had the mishap of being born since 
 the twelfth century, is to be regarded as comparable in 
 spiritual and scriptural knowledge with those who came 
 into the world previously, and were installed for whatso- 
 ever cause in the rank of Fathers. Yet in the Notes to 
 the Mission of the Comforter I have often had occasion to 
 point out how inferior even the chief among the Fathers 
 were, in their understanding of Scripture, with regard to 
 certain principal heads of Evangelical truth, to the great 
 divines of the Reformation. Mr Newman himself too, and 
 his disciples have found out, subsequently to the publica- 
 tion of his Lectures, that Theology did not come to an ab- 
 solute standstill, or, in other words, — since abiding herein 
 would be an impossibility, — enter upon a state of continual 
 retrogression, at the end of the fourth century, or of the 
 fifth, or at any other definite epoch, but that it advanced, 
 at least in certain departments, beyond the Fathers in the 
 age of the Schoolmen : and far greater and of higher mo- 
 ment was its stride forward at the Reformation. Indeed 
 there is much truth, though perhaps not without some 
 exaggeration of phrase, in what Coleridge says {Remains 
 III. 276), with reference to Luther, Melanchthon, and 
 Calvin, that "the least of them was not inferior to 
 St Augustin, and worth a brigade of the Cyprians, 
 Firmilians, and the like." 
 
 Surely there is nothing surprising in this. The 
 marvel, the contradiction to the whole course of history, 
 would be if this were not the case ; unless we suppose 
 that the special illumination which was granted to 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 77 
 
 the Apostles, was bestowed on the chief teachers of 
 Christianity down to the last of the Fathers, was 
 then withdrawn, and has been withheld ever since. 
 But for such a limitation and restriction of the gifts 
 of the Spirit no ground can be discovered, either in 
 Scripture, or in the nature of man: nor does the 
 history of the Church present any facts to support 
 it. On the contrary, in all periods of the world, the 
 men of greatest intellectual power have ever borne the 
 mark and stamp of their age : they have received, before 
 they could give : if they have given much, they have 
 received much previously : nor have they continued to 
 give, unless they have likewise continued all the while to 
 receive. Indeed this is the special characteristic and 
 office of a great thinker, that in him some of the 
 dominant thoughts and tendencies of his age axe concen- 
 trated and embodied, and find their first utterance. Nor 
 has it been otherwise in the history of the Church. 
 Although Christianity, being in her essence above the 
 relations of time and space, renders her devout votaries in 
 a certain sense independent of them, with regard to their 
 own personal spiritual life, yet, when they set themselves 
 to teach or to act upon others, the variable elements of 
 their nature, those which are necessarily moulded and 
 modified by the moral and intellectual powers and 
 agencies they are brought into contact with, come into 
 play. Hence it is next to a moral impossibility, that 
 men living in the decrepitude of the ancient world, under 
 the relaxing and palsying influences of the Roman and 
 Byzantine empires, when all intellectual and moral life 
 was fast waning away, and the grand and stirring ideeis 
 and aims which had drawn forth the energies of the 
 classical nations in their prime, had been superseded by 
 rhetorical tumour and allegorical and grammatical trifling. 
 
78 REPLY TO MR NEWMAN's 
 
 should have mounted to such a pitch of intellectual 
 power, as to be beyond the reach of the noblest minds 
 in the age when all the faculties of the new world were 
 bursting into life, and when one region of power after 
 another was laid open to man, and called him to rise 
 up and take possession of it, —the whole circuit of the 
 earth he lived in, — the infinitude and the sublimities of 
 the universe in which it is comprised, — the world of 
 Night surpassing that of Day, and swallowing it up in 
 its unfathomable depths, — the classical nations rising out 
 of their millennial sleep, with the beauty of their art and 
 their poetry, and with their heroic glory ; while the 
 incipient knowledge of the newly discovered races tended 
 along therewith to bring out self-consciousness, and to 
 make self-knowledge more distinct, — and the Book of 
 God, speaking in each man's native tongue, became 
 indeed a living book, the Book of Man, revealing the 
 inmost thoughts and purposes of his heart. Hereby 
 more especially man was summoned from the merely 
 objective and passive, or conventional and traditional 
 contemplation of outward things, and of logical abstrac- 
 tions and generalizations, to look into the recesses within 
 his own bosom, and to behold himself in his individuality, 
 as separate from the world, and yet a part, nay, a coun- 
 terpart of the world, a microcosm representing the laws 
 and processes of the macrocosm. Nor should we omit 
 to notice the stimulus afforded by the acquisition of 
 such a mighty organ as the press, multiplying a man's 
 voice a thousandfold, endowing him with a kind of 
 ubiquity, and bringing him into contact with the hearts 
 and minds of the whole body of his countrymen. One 
 of the first acts of this subjective self-analysis, one of 
 the first efiects of man's perception of the entire differ- 
 ence between himself and the outward world, was the 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 79 
 
 discovery of the abyss of sin within himself, as wholly 
 apart from any bad habits or vices contracted from out- 
 ward influences, and which outward influences and out- 
 ward acts, penances, expiatory ofierings, mortifications, 
 were unavailing to remove. The Mystics in the middle 
 ages had a feeling of this ; and herein lay the ground of 
 theii- separation from the popular Theology of their time : 
 but their feeling was itself a mystical one, incommuni- 
 cable except to such as were initiated into the mysteries 
 of divine contemplation. They did not teach how sin was 
 to be overcome by those who tread the walks of common 
 life. The open enunciation of these truths in a manner 
 intelligible to all men, and the declaration of the only 
 efficacious remedy for their inward disease, was the first 
 utterance, the birthcry of the Reformation : and hereby, 
 and by that deeper knowledge of human nature, which 
 such a self-analysis, so long as it did not inveigle men 
 into mistaking the processes of death for those of life, 
 could not fail to produce, the Theology of the Refor- 
 mation became profounder than that of earlier ages. It 
 is a wonderful proof of the power of Christianity to 
 expand and elevate the mind, in despite of the most 
 unfavorable circumstances, that several of the Fathers, 
 living as they did among the falling and fallen leaves 
 of the old world, and so long before the first vernal 
 germinating of the mind of the new world, should have 
 been such great thinkers as they were : but it would have 
 been an inversion and subversion of the order of Nature, 
 if they who grew up in a state of things so much more 
 propitious for the unfolding of high and deep thought, 
 and who had the stores of Christian meditation and ex- 
 perience accumulated during so many centuries to profit 
 by, had been doomed to be altogether inferior to them. 
 Thus there is no antecedent improbability that a 
 
80 
 
 REPLY TO MR NEWMAN S 
 
 theologian in the sixteenth century should be quite as 
 wise and as sound an expounder of scriptural truth, as 
 one in the fourth or fifth. Though the earlier divines may 
 have had certain special advantages, the advantages en- 
 joyed by those in the later period were far greater and 
 more important : and if they had peculiar temptations 
 to lead them astray, so had the others. The epoch at 
 which a man lives does not afford us a criterion for 
 judging of the truth of what he says ; except so far 
 as his testimony may be appealed to concerning facts : 
 in other respects the value of his writings must be de- 
 termined on different grounds, by candid and intelligent 
 criticism. Nor is such criticism less needful with regard 
 to the Fathers than to any other body of writers. 
 
 This is not a merely historical question : it is of urgent 
 practical moment at this day, deeply affecting the welfare 
 of our Church. The bKnd admiration for the Fathers, 
 the servile deference to their authority, have wrought 
 much harm in former ages, and are no less mischievous 
 now. In Coleridge's Remains we find several instances 
 noted of the injury done to our divines of the seven- 
 teenth century by their exaggerated reverence for the 
 Fathers : see Vol. iii, pp. 103 (where he remarks that 
 " Luther was too spiritual, of too heroic faith (t), to 
 be thus blinded by the declamations of the Fathers," 
 104, 117, 125, 149, 174, 175, 183, ("Let any com- 
 petent judge read Hacket's life of Archbishop Williams, 
 and then his Sermons, and so measure the stultifying, 
 nugifying effect of a blind and uncritical study of the 
 Fathers, and the exclusive prepossession in favour of 
 their authority, in the minds of many of our Church 
 dignitaries in the reign of Charles L"), 239, 270 : Vol. iv. 
 pp. 257, 310. An intelligent person familiar with these 
 divines might multiply the instances a hundredfold; 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 81 
 
 nor would it be difficult to find numbers of similar 
 ones in the writers of our days, who have been reviving 
 the same " blind and uncritical study of the Fathers, and 
 the exclusive prepossession in favour of their authority." 
 ' To those who study the Fathers critically and discern- 
 ingly, they still yield grains of precious gold in abundance, 
 as we see in the excellent exegetical writings of Mr 
 Trench. But the superstitious and idolatrous are ever 
 fond of displaying their doting, by picking out as the 
 special objects of their complacency, not that which is 
 really valuable, — other men might approve of that, — 
 but that which in itself is worthless, nay, mawkishly silly, 
 or wildly absurd. In truth there is a wisdom approach- 
 ing to prophetic intuition in the following sentences of 
 Coleridge's taken from his notes on Luther's Tabletalk 
 {Remains, Vol. iv. p. 47), " I cannot conceive anything 
 more likely, than that a young man of strong mind and 
 active intellect, who has no fears, or suffers no fears of 
 worldly prudence to cry. Halt! to him in his career 
 of consequential logic, and who has been innutritus et 
 juratus in the Grrotio-Paleyan scheme of Christian evi- 
 dence, and who has been taught by the men and books, 
 which he has been bred up to regard as authority, to 
 consider all inward experiences as fanatical delusions ; 
 — I say, I can scarcely conceive such a young man to 
 make a serious study of the Fathers of the first four 
 or five centuries without becoming either a Romanist 
 or a Deist. Let him only read Petavius and the difierent 
 Patristic and Ecclesiastico-Historical tracts of Semler, 
 and have no better philosophy than that of Locke, no 
 better theology than that of Arminius and Bishop Jeremy 
 Taylor, and I should tremble for his belief. Yet why 
 tremble for a belief which is the very antipode of Faith ? 
 Better for such a man to precipitate himself on to the 
 
82 
 
 REPLY TO MR NEWMAN S 
 
 utmost goal : for then perhaps he may, in the repose 
 of intellectual activity, feel the nothingness of his prize, 
 or the wretchedness of it : and then perhaps the inward 
 yearning after a religion may make him ask. Have I 
 not mistaken the road at the outset 1 Am I sure that 
 the Reformers, Luther and the rest collectively, were^ 
 fanatics ? " 
 
 How disastrously have these words been fulfilled, and 
 are receiving fresh fulfilment every day ! and with what 
 exactitude is the training of some of our Patrolaters 
 who are lapsing into Romanism, here described! The 
 issue indeed, so far as we are at present acquainted 
 with it, has been mainly in one direction, toward Rome. 
 This is not because the Fathers of the first four or five 
 centuries are favorable to the errours and corruptions 
 of Rome. The contest on this point has been waged 
 again and again ; and the victory in the main has always 
 been on our side. But the very habit of looking with 
 prostrate minds to outward human authority, and that 
 too authority so remote from the special wants and yearn- 
 ings of our age, and incapable of speaking to us with 
 that intelligent fellow-feeling which elicits the responsive 
 activity of our own spirits, — to authority therefore which 
 can only speak imperatively, except to the few whose 
 understandings are mature enough to consult it critically, 
 and to distinguish the true from the erroneous, the 
 relevant from the irrelevant, — tends to breed an imbecile 
 tone of judgement, which is incapable of standing alone, 
 and will not be content with the helps wherewith God 
 has supplied us, but craves restlessly for some absolute 
 authority, whereby it may be enabled to walk in leading- 
 strings all its life long. Such minds, when one prop after 
 another gives way under them, as they find out that no 
 Father can be appealed to as an absolute authority, least 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 83 
 
 of all on the particular questions which agitate our times 
 the most, will try to save themselves from falling into 
 Infidelity by catching desperately hold of Infallibility. 
 And how long will this bear them up ? 
 
 But, though Luther was not what is technically termed 
 a Father, and could not be so from the period, when, for 
 the good of mankind, it was ordained that he should be 
 born, yet it has pleased God that he, above all other men 
 since the days of the Apostles, should, in the truest and 
 highest sense, be a Father in Christ's church, yea, the 
 human father and nourisher of the spiritual life of mil- 
 lions of souls, for generation after generation. Three 
 hundred years have rolled away since he was raised, 
 through Christ's redeeming grace, from the militant 
 Church into the triumphant ; and throughout those three 
 hundred years, and still at this day, it has been and is 
 vouchsafed to him, — and so, God willing, shall it be for 
 centuries to come,— that he should feed the children 
 of half Germany with the milk of the Gospel by his 
 Catechism, — that he should supply the poor and simple, 
 yea, and all classes of his countrymen, with words where- 
 with to commend their souls to God, when they rise 
 from their bed, and when they lie down in it, — that in 
 his words they should invoke a blessing upon their daily 
 meals, and ofier up their thanks for them, — that with 
 his stirring hymns they should kindle and pour out their 
 devotion, both in the solemn assembly, and in the sanc- 
 tuary of every family, — that by his German words, 
 through the blessed fruit of his labours, they should daily 
 and hourly strengthen and enlighten their hearts and 
 souls and minds with that Book of Life, in which God's 
 Mercy and Truth have met together. His Righteousness 
 and Peace have kist each other, and are treasured up for 
 the edification of mankind unto the end of the world. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 
 
 REPLY TO MR NEWMAN S 
 
 If this is not to be a Father in Christ's Church, I 
 know not what is. Nay, more : his spiritual children are 
 not confined to his own country. The word of Truth, 
 which he was sent to preach, has sounded from land to 
 land, and was heard in our land also, coming as it did 
 from the home of our forefathers, for the purification 
 of the Church, and for the guiding of numberless souls 
 away from a vain confidence in the works of the flesh to 
 a living trust in their Saviour. 
 
 This is the man whom Mr Newman calls, not a Father, 
 but the " founder of a school." He seems to have been 
 pleased with his antithesis, with which he closes his ela- 
 borate comparison, and his lecture ; yet a more thoroughly 
 infelicitous one has seldom dropt from a pen. The 
 founder of a school, forsooth ! A teacher indeed he was, 
 and a wise and faithful one, in that School of divine know- 
 ledge which is founded upon the Apostles and Prophets, 
 our Lord Himself being the Head Cornerstone, This 
 however is not the sense in which Mr Newman uses the 
 expression. Were he to write now, he would choose a 
 harder term, and one equally destitute of objective truth, 
 but which would have the advantage of meaning some- 
 thing. Verily, in reading the remarks of English cen- 
 surers on Luther, one is tempted at times to fancy that 
 the History of Germany must have been omitted from the 
 course of their studies, and that they supposed they might 
 pass it by, as they would that of Cochin China or Kams- 
 chatka : so singularly inappropriate are some of their 
 observations, somewhat like the Idiot Boy's story, " The 
 cocks did crow towhoo ! towhoo ! And the sun did shine 
 so cold," If it has been Luther's fate that his name 
 should be borne by a large branch of the Church, a large 
 branch of the Church, even though it should be falsely 
 deemed heretical or schismatical, is not a school. Seeing 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 85 
 
 too that the name was originally imposed on his followers 
 by their adversaries, — seeing that it was a great trouble 
 and grief to him, which he often expresses, to hear his 
 name attacht to those who ought to bear no name save 
 that of their crucified Lord(u), — seeing that from first to 
 last his desire was ever to decrease, and that his beloved 
 Master might increase, — the name may so far be accepted, 
 as a testimony to all generations that Luther was the 
 man of God, sent with the power and spirit of Elijah to 
 cast down the altars of Baal, and to re-establish the 
 true spiritual worship of the Father, in hearts recon- 
 ciled to Him by the Incarnation and Sacrifice of His 
 Only-begotten Son. 
 
 Here, though I must decline entering in this place into 
 a discussion of Mr Newman's objections to Luther's view 
 of Justification, which would carry me much too far, yet, 
 since he states in a note on this comparison between 
 Luther and Augustin (p. 66), that " It is but fair to 
 Luther to say, that he indirectly renounced the extrava- 
 gant parts of his doctrine at the end of life ; that is, the 
 distinctive parts," supporting the assertion by a reference 
 to Dr Laurence's Bampton Lectures; and as this seems at 
 variance with the argument maintained above (pp. 30-34), 
 I will remark, that it was not Luther's practice, however 
 such a practice may find favour in other eyes, to do 
 things, least of all when of such importance, "indi- 
 rectly." The marvel is, that any honest man should have 
 deemed he was pleading an apology for Luther, which 
 Mr Newman's words imply, when alledging that, after 
 upholding a doctrine asserted to be immoral, openly and 
 strenuously all his life, he retracted it " indirectly " in 
 his last year, by a kind of deathbed confession. We 
 shall see in a moment what sort of a retractation it would 
 have been, one which nobody could have guest the drift 
 
86 REPLY TO MR NEWMAN 's 
 
 of. Other men may act thus, and think by so doing to 
 save their own souls : had Luther meant to renoimce any 
 part of his doctrine on Justification, he would have done 
 it openly and explicitly, or he would not have been 
 Luther. 
 
 But the passage referred to in Dr Laurence's Lectures 
 does not afibrd the slightest ground for Mr Newman's 
 assertion (v). For in the first place Dr Laurence is not 
 speaking of Luther's views on Justification, but on the 
 Freedom of the Will. Indeed on Justification Dr Lau- 
 rence seems to have concurred with Luther. Besides, 
 even with regard to Free-will, the evidence cited by 
 Dr Laurence is far from establishing his position. His 
 sole argument is, that Luther spoke very disparagingly 
 of his own works, in the Preface to the first Volume of 
 the Latin Collection, publisht in 1545, the year before 
 his death. The passage is beautiful and very character- 
 istic : "I have long and earnestly resisted those who 
 wisht that my books, or rather the confused mass of my 
 lucubrations should be publisht, both because I was un- 
 willing that the labours of the ancients should be over- 
 whelmed by my novelties, and that my readers should be 
 hindered from reading them, and because now, through 
 God's grace, there are a great number of methodical 
 books, — among which Philip's Common Places excell, 
 — whereby a divine and a bishop may be well and 
 amply trained to be mighty in preaching the doc- 
 trine of godliness ; more especially since the holy 
 Bible itself may now be had in almost every language ; 
 while my books, as the disorderly course of events led, 
 or rather compelled me, are themselves a sort of rude, 
 undigested chaos, which I myself should now find 
 it difiicult to arrange. For these reasons I wisht that 
 all my books were buried in perpetual oblivion, that 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER, 87 
 
 there might be room for better." From this passage 
 Dr Laurence infers that Luther intended to retract his 
 opinions on Free-will, and to give his sanction to the 
 milder views adopted by Melanchthon in the later edi- 
 tions of the Loci Communes : and he supports this notion 
 by citing some other expressions in praise of Melanchthon 
 from the same Preface. Yet surely this inference is a 
 fallacy. When a man speaks slightingly of his own 
 writings, he does not commonly mean to reject the opi- 
 nions advocated in them. His dissatisfaction will rather 
 -arise from the inadequate manner in which those opinions 
 are set forth, from shame a,t perceiving how feebly he has 
 exprest the truths which possest him ; except when the 
 writings belong to an earlier period of his life, and to 
 a past frame of his mind; and then he will probably 
 explain that such is the case. Now Luther has done 
 this a little further on in the same Preface, where he tells 
 us what he especially condemns in his earlier writings, 
 — the collection only embracing those down to 1520, — 
 namely, the Romish leaven, from which he was only 
 purged by degrees, and especially his exaggerated rever- 
 ence for the Pope. " Sciat (Lector) me fuisse aliquando 
 monachum et Papistam insanissimum, cum istam causam 
 aggressus sum, ita ebrium, imo submersum in dogmatibus 
 Papae, ut paratissimus fuerim omnes, si potuissem, occi- 
 dere, aut occidentibus cooperari et consentire, qui Papae 
 vel una syllaba obedientiam detrectarent." Of his other 
 writings he promises to say something, if he lives, in the 
 prefaces to the subsequent volumes. Now surely one 
 has no right to conclude from Luther's words here, that 
 he intended to retract all the opinions in which he differed 
 in whatsoever degree from Melanchthon, and to set up 
 Melanchthon's in their stead. They merely express his 
 singular modesty, which shone so brightly in its union 
 
88 REPLY TO MR NEWMAn's 
 
 with his singular assurance whenever he felt he was 
 standing on the Word of God ; a combination which 
 might seem almost contra-natural, unless we had seen 
 the same in St Paul. One of the ways in which his 
 modesty is wont to manifest itself, is in depreciating 
 himself by the side of Melanchthon, toward whom, from 
 first to last, he felt an intensity of love and admiration, 
 betokening the depth and fulness of the heart it flowed 
 from (w). 
 
 In the same Lecture of Mr Newman's, four pages back, 
 we stumble upon another expression, which strengthens- 
 the temptation to believe that the life of Luther and the 
 German Reformation must be supposed to belong to the 
 History of Kamschatka, Adopting the phrase, shadows 
 of religion, from good Bishop Wilson's Family Prayers, 
 he says, of the Lutheran doctrine of Justification, " Sha- 
 dows of religion these things fitly may be called, like the 
 Jewish new-moons and sabbaths which the Judaizers 
 were so loth to part with." A more anomalous com- 
 parison has never been devised. Outward formal works 
 are likened to an inward spiritual union, which is nothing, 
 except so far as it involves the active energy of a living 
 Faith. Here, as throughout Mr Nevnnan's Lectures, we 
 find a confusion with regard to the meaning of Faith. 
 Faith with him (p. 287) " is not a practical principle " (x). 
 Be it so : then, according to this conception of Faith, 
 Justification by Faith would indeed be a mere " shadow 
 of religion." But with Luther Faith is a practical prin- 
 ciple ; and Mr Newman has no right to charge Luther 
 with consequences, which merely proceed from his own 
 view of Faith, but are incompatible with Luther's. This 
 argument however belongs to another place. For the 
 present I will only mark the felicitous infeKcity of the 
 phrase, " shadows of religion," as applied to Luther. 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 89 
 
 Mr Nevmian is so well pleased with it, that he repeats 
 it again in a Note on his fifth Lecture (p. 128) : " When 
 are we -to escape from the city of Shadows, in which 
 Luther would bewilder the citizens of the Holy Jerusa- 
 lem ? " This expression may indeed suit the apocryphal 
 Luther, " the founder of a school," who lives in the region 
 where the cocks crow, towhoo ! towhoo ! and the sun 
 shines so cold : hut as for the true Luther, the Luther of 
 Eisleben, of Wittenberg, of Worms, — you might as rea- 
 sonably call Hercules a milksop, or Socrates a sentimental 
 blockhead. You can hardly read a page of Luther, either 
 in the four foHo volumes of his Latin works, or the 
 twenty-two thick, double-columned German quartoes, — 
 you can hardly read a single letter, however slight and 
 short, among the 2324 in De Wette's Collection, — with- 
 out being imprest with the conviction that religion with 
 Luther is not a thing of words and phrases, not a thing 
 of habit or custom, of convention or tradition, not a thing 
 of times and seasons, but an intense, vivid reality, which 
 governs the pulses of his heart and the motions of his 
 will. 
 
 Different opinions however have been entertained as to 
 what is a reality, and what a shadow. To savages, to 
 those whose senses overlay their other faculties, even to 
 the early Greeks, as we see from the first lines of the 
 Iliad, the body is the reality, the soul or spirit the shade. 
 The same inversion is found under all forms of supersti- 
 tion. Indeed this is superstition, to seek and lose the 
 reality in the form, in the symbol, in the outward work, 
 in the outward ordinance : and this superstition was per- 
 vading the whole Church, from the crown of the head to 
 the sole of the foot, when Luther arose to call it back 
 from the worship of forms to the worship of living reali- 
 ties. It was because he saw hardly anything but shadows 
 
90 
 
 REPLY TO MR NEWMAN S 
 
 and masks and empty forms, the spawn of the limbo of 
 vanities, moving to and fro in the deathdance around 
 him, — because the spirit of life had slipt away from insti- 
 tutions and ordinances, which may once have had life 
 and a meaning and a practical purpose, but which were 
 now become purposeless and hollow and cavernous for all 
 manner of evil lusts to revel in, — and because, when, in 
 his yearning after realities, he threw his arms round these 
 hollow forms, they crumbled to dust in his fervent em- 
 brace, — because he could not bear to live in a world 
 of shadows and fictions, amid a swarm of " unreal 
 mockeries," — because he felt through all the depths of 
 his heart and soul and mind that God and Christ and 
 Salvation and Justification and Grace and Holiness and 
 Righteousness are not words and shadows, but realities, 
 — while at the same time he felt no less strongly that 
 Sin and Evil and Condemnation and Hell are also terrible 
 realities, which have thrust their iron fangs through our 
 hearts, and hold them bound, and from which in this 
 world we can never whoUy get free, — it was because of 
 this yearning after realities, and of his deep conviction 
 of this twofold reality, that, as one shadow after another 
 revealed its hoUowness to him, he bad it avaunt and 
 vanish. 
 
 When reading the history of the German Reformation, 
 as delineated, for instance, by Ranke's faithful pen, one of 
 the things which strike us continually, is the singular, 
 thorough -going contrast between the shadows and masks of 
 religion on the one side, and the living realities on the other. 
 On the one side we find a mongrel rabble of passions and 
 appetites, ambition, statecraft, the pride of dominion, 
 covetousness and every form of cupidity, the love of ease 
 and the anger at having that ease disturbed, hatred, 
 revenge, bloodthirstiness, fraud, a host of traditionary 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 91 
 
 prejudices, and the obstinate adherence to inveterate 
 habits ; -while they who persecuted the Reformers the 
 most, and were the loudest in urging the plea of religion, 
 the Pope and the body of the hierarchy, were for the 
 most part utterly destitute of it (y). On the other side, 
 along with many imperfections, and divers faults of weak- 
 ness and of violence, we find that which is the mightiest of 
 earthly powers, as being the channel whereby we receive 
 power from heaven, — that which is the one earthly prin- 
 ciple of all reality, inasmuch as through it alone do we 
 gain the conviction of heavenly realities, — Faith. Here- 
 by the Reformers stand : this is the source of their 
 strength. They look not to earthly means and auxiliaries, 
 to human force or policy. On the contrary, Luther ever 
 disclaims and repudiates all support, except such as 
 appears to him wholly consistent with the Divine Law. 
 The cause is not mine, hut Thine, God : do Thou uphold 
 it: this in all his difficulties is the voice that rises from 
 and cheers his heart. The cause is God's, and He will 
 uphold it : this is his reply to those who speak to him of 
 danger emd perplexity, and who desire to resist or coun- 
 termine their foes. Such too is the power of Faith, he 
 was able in a wonderful manner to infuse his spirit into 
 those around him, — "shadows" have no such power, — 
 and to restrain them from measures, which, under their 
 circumstances, would by most men be deemed very 
 excusable, if not perfectly justifiable, but which to him 
 seemed in some respect contrary to the precepts of 
 Scripture (z). 
 
 In fact this is the pervading distinction, — so far as 
 there is any manifesting itself in the various practical 
 functions of the Church, — which characterizes that of 
 Rome. Inheriting the ambition of the Republic and the 
 Empire to rule over the bodies and outward actions of all 
 
92 REPLY TO MR NEWMAN's 
 
 mankind, she has ever directed her attention mainly to 
 that which is outward, to forms, shadows, rites, ceremo- 
 nies, observances ; while everywhere she betrays a want 
 of that Faith, which gives substance to the unseen, and 
 pierces through the veil to the invisible glory behind. 
 Hence, through the want of Faith in divine realities, has 
 she set up her monstrous fiction of a visible Vicar in the 
 place of the invisible Lord. Hence what she has chiefly 
 cared and shed blood for, has been to enforce outward 
 submission, outward conformity, outward acts of devo- 
 tion, the repeating of certain prayers, no matter whether 
 in a known or unknown tongue. Hence her mission- 
 aries have generally been content to make converts by 
 wholesale, as though Truth could be spread like a disease 
 epidemically (aa). Hence again, from the same inability 
 to substantiate the realities of Faith, has she enshrined 
 her images, and interposed the Virgin and the Saints be- 
 tween man and the only Mediator and Saviour, Hence 
 too the whole system of pious frauds, of innocent decep- 
 tions, of holy impostures and impostors. Hence that 
 huge and flagrant imposture of compulsory celibacy (ab). 
 On the other hand, Luther's intense love of truth, which 
 could not be lulled by any make-believe, his yearning 
 after realities, which no phantom or shadow could still, 
 are the legacy which he bequeathed to the Protestant 
 Churches : and so far as they have retained any portion 
 of his spirit, these have been the marks of it, though often 
 exhibiting themselves in uncouth and uncongenial forms. 
 Even the Rationalism, with which Protestant Ger- 
 many is so often, and not undeservedly reproacht, is 
 itself an oflshoot, though a wild and corrupt one, from 
 the love of truth and reality. It bears witness that men 
 could not be satisfled unless the traditional truths of reli- 
 gion were set in harmony with the rest of their knowledge. 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 93 
 
 their experience, and their philosophy, — that they felt 
 the urgent necessity of giving a reason for their Faith, 
 of knowing in whom they believed, and what, and why. 
 Their philosophy may have been shallow or perverse, 
 their experience superficial, their knowledge very limited : 
 but at all events this Rationalism, gross as its extrava- 
 gances have been, is far preferable to that secret unbelief, 
 which has been so dismally prevalent for centuries among 
 the more intelligent in the Romish nations of Europe ; 
 though its utterance was ordinarily supprest, and it was 
 often combined with a specious outward conformity to 
 the establisht creed and worship. He who loves reality 
 v?ill dwell in a mud-cottage, rather than in a palace of 
 froth : and even the crawling and riggling of a worm 
 toward the throne of Truth has more of real life in it 
 than all the freaks and pranks of myriads of monkies in 
 the den of Falsehood. 
 
 I cannot, as I have already said, enter here into the 
 general argument concerning Mr Newman's view of Justi- 
 fication, and his objections to Luther's : but, as the pas- 
 sage just cited about " shadows of religion " is followed 
 by a vehement burst of indignation, it may be well to 
 remark that the indignation is somewhat misplaced. 
 " Away (Mr Newman exclaims) with this modern, this 
 private, this arbitrary, this unscriptural system, which 
 promising liberty conspires against it, which abolishes 
 Sacraments to introduce barren and dead ordinances, and 
 for the real participation of Christ, and Justification 
 through His Spirit, would, at the very marriage-feast, 
 feed us on shells and husks, who hunger and thirst after 
 righteousness." Even here a long discussion would be 
 requisite to examine the various counts in this cumulative 
 indictment, and to shew how fallacious they all are : I 
 will only touch on two points. 
 
94 REPLY TO MR NEWMAN's 
 
 In the first place, the inconsistency and contradiction 
 here, and in other passages to the same efiect, ascribed to 
 the Lutheran doctrine of Justification, pervades the whole 
 Christian view of human nature. Pelagius stumbled at 
 it, and fell into his heresy; and numbers of shallow 
 thinkers since, whose logic just reacht the point of per- 
 ceiving that of two contradictory propositions one or 
 other must be false, — but who never attained to that 
 higher eminence of philosophy, where we discern how 
 such contradictions are perpetually involved in the rela- 
 tions between the finite and the infinite, when essential, 
 eternal truths clothe themselves in the forms of the hu- 
 man understanding, — have followed Pelagius in his one- 
 sided assertion of the unicity of human nature, or have 
 slipt over to the other side of the ship and tumbled into 
 Manicheism. The ordinary form in which the contradic- 
 tion in human nature manifests itself, is that described in 
 the wellknown passage of the seventh chapter of the 
 Epistle to the Romans, which is the key to all profound 
 knowledge of man, "Without engaging in the controversy 
 concerning the particular state there described by St Paul, 
 — ^whether it be that of man prior or subsequent to his 
 conversion, — I may be allowed to assert, that they who 
 have ever had a deep feeling of this inward contradiction, 
 retain that feeling to the end : they who have ever had a 
 deep spiritual conviction of sin, and of their own sinful- 
 ness, retain that conviction to the end. Their growth in 
 holiness does not stifle it, but on the contrary renders it 
 livelier and more piercing : and thus, ascending step by 
 step, we come to that singular phenomenon, that the 
 holiest men would be the most opprest by the conviction 
 of their sinfulness, were it not for their conviction of 
 Christ's righteousness, of which they become partakers 
 through Faith incorporating them as living members into 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 95 
 
 His body, and through which, being clothed upon by it, 
 they may humbly hope to stand in the presence of God. 
 It was this deep and lively conviction of sin, awakened 
 primarily in Luther, and partly through his instrumen- 
 tality in the Protestant Church, that at once swept away 
 the worship of Saints. The Church of Rome, with her 
 superficial, Pelagianizing conception of sin, may set up 
 her Saints by thousands, yea, even ex quovis stipite, and 
 may ,deck them out with works of supererogation and 
 other frippery ; and her advocates may taunt us with 
 having none. But our answer is in those grand words of 
 TertulUan : Solus Deus sine peccato, et solus homo sine 
 peccato Christus, quia et Deus Christus. 
 
 The other point to be noticed in the last sentence cited 
 from Mr Newman is what he says about the Lutheran 
 view of the Sacraments. Here it would seem necessary 
 to take another leaf out of the history of Kamschatka. 
 Yet one finds it difficult to understand how Mr Newman 
 can have failed to hear that this Luther, who " abolisht 
 Sacraments to introduce barren and dead ordinances," 
 along with his great primary struggle against Popery, 
 carried on two other obstinate contests for years, one to 
 vindicate the reality and power of the first Sacrament 
 against the Anabaptists, the other that of the second 
 against the Zuinglians and so-called Sacramentaries. Or, 
 — if it be replied that Mr Newman is not speaking directly 
 against Luther, but against the Lutheran doctrine of 
 Justification, — in the first place, as the whole preceding 
 argument has been directed almost exclusively against 
 Luther himself, an exception in his behalf ought to have 
 been made, recognising that he is free from this disparage- 
 ment of the Sacraments ; and next, as the Lutheran 
 doctrine must at all events be that of the Lutheran 
 Church, I would ask, can Mr Newman be ignorant that 
 
96 REPLY TO MR NEWMAN's 
 
 the Lutherans have a Confession defining the chief pecu- 
 liarities of their faith, and that in this Confession the 
 Sacraments are thus explained ? De Baptismo docent, 
 quod sit necessarius ad salutem, quodque per Baptismum 
 offeratur gratia Dei ; et quod pueri sint haptisandi, qui 
 per Baptismum ohlati Deo recipiantur in gratiam Dei. 
 — De Coena Domini docent, quod corpus et sanguis Christi 
 vere adsint, et distrihuantur vescentihus in Coena Domini. 
 
 Surely this is something different from "barren and 
 dead ordinances," from " shells and husks." But one 
 comes every now and then to indications which would 
 incline one to suppose that the Confession of Augsburg 
 can never have been heard of by most of the writers in 
 the new Oxford School of Theology. So pertinaciously 
 do they draw their notions of what they term Lutheran- 
 ism from English writers of our so-called Evangelical 
 School, ascribing the opinions which they find in those 
 writers, in the gross to Luther, — or else from Romish 
 polemics, from gossip pickt up no matter how or where, 
 from everything except its one genuine source, the Sym- 
 bolical Books. Thus, by these perversions and distor- 
 tions, have the minds of our students been led astray and 
 deluded into believing all manner of evil concerning the 
 Reformation, and its authors, and the Churches that 
 have sprung out of it ; while a similar course of unjusti- 
 fiable perversions and distortions and suppressions, exer- 
 cised upon an opposite class of facts, has beguiled many 
 into looking with admiration and love and reverence upon 
 Rome, nay, into lusting after the corruptions from which 
 the Reformers, through God's appointment, delivered us. 
 It will hardly be rejoined that, in what Mr Newman 
 says about the degradation of the Sacraments, he was not 
 speaking of the actual fact, either with regard to Luther 
 or to the Lutheran Church, but of the consequences 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 97 
 
 wliicli necessarily flow from the logical carrying out of 
 the doctrine of Justification by Faith. For still more 
 incumbent on him would it have been to acknowledge 
 that this necessity was contravened by the great body 
 who were the main asserters of that doctrine. Surely 
 too the Lutheran conception of Faith, which justifies 
 only by apprehending and appropriating the benefits of 
 Christ's atonement, is no way repugnant to the belief 
 that these benefits are conveyed and received in the 
 Sacraments. At least the sole difiiculty, that with regard 
 to the Baptism of Infants, did not repell Luther, who 
 repeatedly explained it: nor is it greater, according to 
 his view of Justification, than according to any other 
 which recognises that the Sacraments are, not magical, 
 but spiritual powers. 
 
 The specific charge of Antinomianism is not, I believe, 
 brought against Luther in Mr Newman's Lectures. On 
 the contrary he rightly states Luther's doctrine to be, 
 " not that the Christian is not in fact fruitful in good 
 works, but that they flow naturally from " his faith 
 (p. 31) : and he is too fair a controversialist to lay stress 
 on particular exaggerations of language as matter for 
 reproof. At least the only thing of the sort that I have 
 observed is just before the close of the first Lecture, 
 where in a note he quotes the following grand passage 
 from the Argument prefixt to the Commentary on the 
 Galatians. " Dicimus autem supra quod lex in Chris- 
 tiano non debeat excedere limites suos, sed tantum 
 habere dominium in carnem, quae et ei subjecta sit, et 
 sub ea maneat ; hoc ubi fit, consistit lex intra limites 
 suos. Si vero vult occupare conscientiam, et hie domi^ 
 nari, vide ut tum sis bonus dialecticus, recte dividas, et 
 legi non plus tribuas quam ei tribuendum est ; sed dicas, 
 Lex, tu vis ascendere in regnum conscientiae, et ibi 
 
 H 
 
98 REPLY TO MR NEWMAN's 
 
 dominari, et earn arguere peccati, et gaudium cordis 
 toUere, quod habeo ex fide in Christum, et me in despe- 
 rationem adigere, ut desperem et peream. Hoc praeter 
 officium tuum facis : consiste intra limites tuos, et exerce 
 dominium in carnem. Conscientiam autem ne attingas 
 mihi : sum enim baptizatus, et per Evangelium vocatus 
 ad communionem justitiae et vitae aetemae, ad regnum 
 Christi, in quo acquiescit conscientia mea, ubi nulla est 
 lex, etc. — Hanc (justitiam Christi) cum intus habeo, 
 descendo de coelo, tanquam pluvia foecundans terram : hoc 
 est, prodeo foras in aliud regnum, et facio bona opera 
 quaecunque mihi occurrunt, etc. — Quicunque certo novit 
 Christum esse Justitiam suam, is non solum ex animo et 
 cum gaudio bene operatur in vocatione sua, sed subjicit 
 se quoque per caritatem magistratibus, etc. — quia scit 
 Deum hoc velle, et placere hanc obedientiam." To this 
 quotation Mr Newman subjoins, " Perhaps it is a happy 
 thing that all of Luther's followers are not 'boni dia- 
 lectici ' enough to carry out his principles this length." 
 This remark is not meant to have much of a sting ; nor 
 in fact has it any. If they were honi dialectici, they 
 would be able to distinguish between the true con- 
 sequences of the doctrine, and the abuse of it. If they 
 were not, they might fall into a mischievous confusion. 
 Of course the mere intellectual perception of a negative 
 proposition will be of little use to common minds ; and 
 it may become hurtful, when it relates to practical matters 
 and stops short of the higher affirmative proposition, 
 to which that negation ought to be a step. This how- 
 ever is no reason why the two should not be stated 
 together, especially in writings the very language of 
 which precludes them from vulgar use. Else the same 
 objections might be brought against the Lutherus ante 
 Lutherum, who wrote, that the Law is not made for a 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 99 
 
 righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for 
 the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, 
 for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for 
 manslayers, for whoremongers, for menstealers, for liars, 
 for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that 
 is contrary to sound doctrine. 
 
 On tte whole however, as has been acknowledged 
 above, Mr Newman preserves that decoi-ous tone, which 
 so honorably distinguishes his polemical writings. If 
 in any instance he has deviated from that tone, it is 
 in a quotation; which, when it strikes us as apposite 
 and smart, often inveigles us to say more than we should 
 deem it warrantable to say in our own person. At the 
 head of the first Lecture he has placed the following 
 words from the Book of Job : Who is this that darkeneth 
 counsel hy words without knowledge ? and he says in p. 5, 
 " What I think of the (Lutheran) system may be gathered 
 from the text I have selected." Here I will not stop 
 to argue whether these words can in any sense be applied 
 with the slightest justice to Luther, of whose " system," 
 it is clear, Mr Newman, when he wrote these Lectures, 
 had a very incorrect notion : but probably it wiU have 
 seemed to many, when they terminated their wanderings 
 through the mazes of his Lectures on Justification, that 
 the text prefixt to the first Lecture had been selected 
 under a judicial blindness as the aptest motto for the 
 whole work. Moreover, when we look back on the 
 Author's subsequent career, when we reflect how he has 
 gone on year after year sharpening the edge of his already 
 overkeen understanding, casting one truth after another 
 into his logical crucible, and persuading himself that he 
 had dissolved it to atoms, and then exhibiting a Kke in- 
 genuity in compounding the semblance of truths out of 
 fictions, — when we call to mind how in this way he 
 
100 REPLY TO MR NEWMAN. 
 
 appeared to be gradually losing the faculty of distin^ 
 guishing between trutb and falsehood, and the very 
 belief in the existence of any power for discerning truth, 
 nay, as it seemed at times, in the existence of any positive 
 truth to be discerned, and how, taking refuge from the 
 encroachments of a universal scepticism, he has at length 
 bowed his neck under a yoke, which a man, gifted with 
 such fine qualities of mind and character, could hardly 
 assume, until he had put out the eyes of his heart and of 
 his conscience, as well as of his understanding, — it is 
 not in scorn and triumph, but in deep sadness and awe, 
 that we repeat, Who is this that darkeneth counsel hy words 
 without knowledge (ac) ? 
 
101 
 
 REPLY TO MR WARD'S ATTACKS 
 ON LUTHER. 
 
 Alas, Mr Newman's own mind is not the only one 
 that he has thus darkened. How many there may be, 
 we know not yet. That there are many is lamentably 
 clear, and not a few who might otherwise have been pro- 
 fitably employed in the service of our Church. Among 
 these it has for some years been the fashion to depreciate 
 the Reformation in all manner of ways: this was the 
 first symptom of their apostasy from the Church of their 
 fathers. By degrees the depreciation swelled out into 
 vehement abuse ; and of this a portion fell upon the 
 German Reformation, especially upon something which 
 was called Lutheranism, and, as connected therewith, 
 upon Luther. It proceeded mainly from a series of 
 articles in the British Critic, since acknowledged by a 
 writer who has attained an unenviable notoriety. Those 
 articles exhibited a good deal of cleverness in the spin- 
 ning of a system out of materials, not very abundant in 
 regard to thought, and still less in regard to knowledge ; 
 and they were further characterized by the exaggerations 
 of a mind, which, on gaining sight of a few truths, fancies 
 it has got hold of all truth, and that whatever is not 
 comprised in its narrow circle is worthless and false. 
 Indeed the tone of the language now and then comes up 
 to frantic railing, rising in proportion to the ignorance 
 it betrays, like the mercury in a vacuum. Thus it fell 
 out that the fervid vials of the writer's wrath were 
 
102 REPLY TO MR WARd's 
 
 discharged on what he was pleased to call the Lutheran 
 doctrine of Justification. Of this he says, in one place, 
 that " no heresy has ever prevailed so suhtile and exten- 
 sively poisonous. — It corrupts all sound Christian doc- 
 trine, nay the very principle of orthodoxy itself. — As far 
 as its formal statements are concerned, it poisons at the 
 very root, not Christianity only, hut natural religion. — 
 A religious Heathen, were he really to accept the doctrine 
 which Lutheran language expresses, so far from making 
 any advance, would sustain a heavy loss, in exchanging 
 fundamental truth for fundamental errour " (Vol. xxxii. 
 pp. 390, 391). In another place (xxxi. 446), the Lu- 
 theran scheme of doctrine is termed " radically and funda- 
 mentally monstrous, immoral, heretical, and antichris- 
 tian," and in another (xxxiv. 33), " the soul-destroying 
 heresy of Luther on the suhject of Justification:" in 
 another (xxxiv. 18) it is asserted "to hring omnigenous 
 corruption in its train." In another place (xxxiv. 407), 
 the writer says, " When we speak of Lutheranism, we 
 speak of an abstract doctrine, which cannot, we verily 
 believe, be held consistently even by the devils. — 'And 
 of this abstract doctrine we now say, that the consider- 
 ations in the text shew it to be worse, that is, to be more 
 fundamentally at variance with our higher and better 
 nature, than Atheism itself." Yet with all this reckless 
 virulence, or rather just as one might expect from it, the 
 writer does not shew the slightest acquaintance vdih 
 Luther's writings, or with those of any of the Lutheran 
 divines, or even with the symbolical expositions of the 
 Lutheran doctrine in the Confession of Augsburg and in 
 Melanchthon's Apology. On the contrary it is evident 
 that he has no such acquaintance, that he has poured 
 forth this flood of railing in utter ignorance of the sub- 
 ject, or at least that he has dravm his impressions of 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 103 
 
 Lutheranism from Mr Newman's Lectures, from the 
 translation of Moehler's SymboUk, and from certain 
 English writers of the so-caUed Evangelical school, whom 
 he has chosen to identify with Luther. 
 
 This is a sample of the conscientiousness and of the 
 reverence deemed becoming by a writer, who, with the 
 rest of his school, is continually complaining of the want 
 of conscientiousness and of the want of reverence as 
 characteristics of our modern religion. He shews his 
 conscientiousness by pronouncing a peremptory sentence 
 of condemnation, without taking the trouble to enquire 
 whether there are any just grounds for it, merely picking 
 up extracts quoted by enemies, and therefore to be 
 examined with caution ; although these extracts them- 
 selves, if read with care, would amply refute the worst 
 parts of his invective : and even from these he must 
 merely have severed certain insulated propositions, setting 
 himself thereupon to elicit poison out of them, such as 
 may often be found in particular propositions, when de- 
 tacht from the body of truth they belong to, as has been 
 seen repeatedly in the immoral paradoxes extorted from 
 the words of the Bible. This too is the measure of his 
 reverence, railing unscrupulously and without restraint 
 at a doctrine, which he designates with a name implying 
 it to have been held by one of the greatest teachers 
 and by one of the richest branches of Christ's Church, 
 and in which many of the wisest and holiest of men have 
 found the spring and stay of their spiritual lives. 
 
 In the passage last cited indeed, the writer, having 
 been reprehended by the Bishop of Ossory for " calum- 
 nious misrepresentations " of Lutheranism, and for " rabid 
 violence of language," — a censure which the reader of 
 the foregoing extracts may think pretty well merited, — 
 says, " When we speak of Lutheranism, we speak of an 
 
104 REPLY TO MR WARD's 
 
 abstract doctrine, which cannot, we verily believe, be 
 held consistently even by the devils ; " and he leaves the 
 question of fact, whether he has any right to call this 
 " abstract doctrine " Lutheranism, for future discussion. 
 This is a novel kind of apology. Suppose a man were 
 to keep on month after month publishing gross libellous 
 attacks on the Duke of Wellington, calling him a robber 
 and a murderer, with a garniture of suitable phrases, and 
 then, on being prosecuted, were to plead that he had 
 been inveying against the abstract notion of a conqueror, 
 which, he verily believed, was too hateful and horrid for 
 any human being ever to come up to it, what would such 
 a plea avail him ? , unless indeed it were regarded as evi- 
 dence of his not being in sound mind. If our Reviewer 
 can ever bring himself to investigate the historical ques- 
 tion honestly, he will find that he had no right whatever 
 to attach the name of Lutheranism to his fiendish doctrine. 
 The strange thing is, that any man, with the slightest 
 consciousness of the responsibility incurred by the public 
 expression of opinions on such topics, any man who had 
 the least self-respect, or feeling of his duty to his neigh- 
 bour, should have gone on pouring out these vollies of 
 abuse in number after number of the British Critic, 
 without its ever occurring to him that he ought to ascer- 
 tain whether there was any ground for what he said. 
 This seems so incredible, that the charitable reader will 
 naturally deem he must have done so : yet that he did 
 not, is quite clear on the face of the Articles themselves, 
 first from the absence of all indications of an acquaintance 
 with any of the Lutheran divines, and secondly from 
 the outrageous misrepresentations, which, in the choice 
 between two miserable alternatives, one would rather 
 believe, for the writer's sake, to have been fabricated in 
 ignorance than against knowledge. 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 105 
 
 These Articles have since been acknowledged by 
 Mr Ward in the Preface to his Ideal of a Christian 
 Church ; in a note to which book (in p. 168) the author, 
 with the view of vindicating himself from the imputation 
 of having written against Luther, with no further know- 
 ledge than he had pickt up from extracts in the works 
 of his adversaries, asserts, " I have read great part of 
 Luther's Commentary on the Galatians : — I do know 
 more of Luther than extracts, having read continuously 
 great part of his principal work." Here one cannot help 
 remarking that this assertion stiU leaves it doubtful how 
 much he had even " read " of Luther, in the lowest sense 
 of the word reading, previously to his attacks on Lu- 
 theranism : and at all events it is plain from what follows 
 that, even if he had read through the whole Commentary, 
 his state of mind totally disqualified him for forming a 
 judgement, or so much as seeing and \uiderstanding what 
 he read. " First, I took up the Commentary (he says) 
 with an expectation of finding much to agree with. — 
 Alas ! I found no such points of sympathy and agreement 
 as I hoped. Never was my conscience so shockt and re- 
 volted by any work, not openly professing immorality. 
 On looking at it again more recently, I think I hardly 
 did it justice in my first perusal : probably the naked 
 expression of his doctrine on Justification (which, in its 
 undisguised deformity, had never been previously pre- 
 sented to my imagination) so seized on my mind, that I 
 did not sufficiently observe the various happy and credit- 
 able inconsistencies which were to be found in it. I now 
 perceive in one place (and very likely the same may be 
 found in other passages) that he distinctly admits that 
 Christians, after justification, continually advance in con- 
 quest over sin." A man is reported to have walkt from 
 Whitechapel to Hyde Park Corner, and to have said at 
 
106 REPLY TO MR WARD's 
 
 the end of his journey, / think I saw a house somewhere 
 on the way. What he had done with his eyes is not 
 recorded : he cannot well have put them in his pocket : 
 a sleepwalker would have run against a wall or a pedes- 
 trian, and thus been startled out of his sleep : some have 
 fancied it may have been a fugitive from Bedlam : some 
 conjecture it was a Frenchman, who carried the map of 
 Paris tied before his eyes, and had come across the Chan- 
 nel in the persuasion that there was not a town in 
 England. Thus it was probably from looking through 
 Mr Newman's spectacles, that Mr Ward could see nothing 
 except what was revolting in Luther: only here, as 
 is so often the case, where the master spoke on the 
 whole intelligently and moderately, the disciple, merely 
 following his master's whistle, without knowing the 
 country, has dasht and floundered through all sorts of 
 extravagances. 
 
 Else the very passage quoted above (in p. 97) from 
 the Argument prefixt to Luther's Commentary, as ex- 
 tracted by Mr Newman, must have met him at the 
 outset. Even as it stands in Mr Newman's Note, 
 that passage should have made him hesitate ; still more 
 so, when read with the omissions supplied in Luther's 
 text. " Hanc (justitiam) cum intus habeo, descendo de 
 coelo, tanquam pluvia foecundans terram : hoc est, prodeo 
 foras in aliud regnum, et facio bona opera quaecunque 
 mihi occurrunt. Si sum minister verbi, praedico, con- 
 soler pusillanimes, administro sacramenta ; si paterfa- 
 milias, rego domum, familiam, educo liberos ad pietatem 
 et honestatem ; si magistratus, officium divinitus mihi 
 mandatum facio ; si servus, fidehter rem domini euro : 
 summa quicunque certo novit Christum esse Justitiam 
 suam, is non solum ex animo et cum gaudio bene operatur 
 in vocatione sua, sed subjicit se quoque per caritatem. 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 107 
 
 magistratibuSj etiam impiis legibus eorum, et omnibus 
 praesentis vitae, si res ita postulet, oneribus atque 
 periculis, quia scit Deum hoc velle, et ei placere banc 
 obedientiam." 
 
 It is true, Lutber does not represent bis Christian as 
 imposing arbitrary penances upon himself, or indulging 
 in acts of willworship. Still one would have thought that 
 any man in his senses, after reading this passage, along 
 with what was cited in p. 97, would have stopt before 
 he pronounced that the doctrine here set forth is " worse 
 than Atheism," and too bad " to be held consistently 
 even by the devils." Allowing that this passage may ap- 
 pear to be inconsistent with other portions of the Lutheran 
 doctrine, surely a candid man, an honest man, a lover of 
 truth, a man of reverent spirit, a man who had any 
 regard for the common decencies of life, — nay, any man 
 who was not besotted by party rancour and presumption, 
 — would have paused before he uttered such a sentence, 
 and would have askt himself. Is it indeed quite certain 
 that I have rightly apprehended the doctrine which is thus 
 explained by its chief expounder ? Is there not a possibility 
 that he, who had lived near twenty years with his whole 
 heart and mind under and in and by this truth, may have 
 understood it as well as I, who only know it from a few 
 hasty glances at fragments disht up in the pages of its 
 opponents! At any rate I must hold my peace, till I 
 have satisfactorily made out the hiatus in the chain of his 
 logic. His major, I am quite positive, is diabolical, nay, 
 too bad even for the devils : how, by what strange process, 
 has this angelical conclusion been deduced from it ? One 
 thing too is plain: whenever I set about exposing the 
 monstrous evils of this hyperdiaboUcal doctrine, I must take 
 the utmost care to note that Luther, through a happy 
 blunder, is not personally implicated in the guilt of having 
 
108 REPLY TO MR WARD's 
 
 inculcated them. Nay, before I give vent to my indigna- 
 tion, ought I not to enquire whether the other principal 
 teachers of the doctrine are chargeable with that guilt, 
 or no ? 
 
 Mr "Ward pleads indeed, that he had said very little 
 about Luther personally, and that " the extracts with 
 which one meets, whether in Moehler or elsewhere, are 
 quite sufficient to justify all that he had ever publisht 
 in his individual disparagement." "What this apology 
 is worth, will he seen anon. But at all events Mr "Ward 
 had spoken out strongly enough against Lutheranism 
 and the Lutheran doctrine. Now what is Lutheranism 
 and the Lutheran doctrine, according to the ordinary 
 acceptation of words? Surely it is the doctrine of Lu- 
 ther, or that of the Lutheran Church. So at least it 
 would he understood by every scholar, by every person 
 fit to bear the name of a theologian, or to write on 
 theological subjects. Such a person, if he deemed him- 
 self called upon to attack Lutheranism, would also deem 
 himself bound to study Lutheranism carefully in the 
 writings of its great promulgator, in the recognised expo- 
 sitions of the Lutheran Church, and in the works of the 
 principal Lutheran divines. He would not be content 
 to draw his conception of Lutheranism from recent 
 English writers ; although this seems to be a practice that 
 commends itself to the new Oxford School of Theology. 
 He might indeed attack these by themselves : but then, 
 if it be unreasonable to expect a man to confess that 
 there is anything in the whole sphere of knowledge, of 
 which he is ignorant, he would shew at least that his cen- 
 sure was restricted to them : and he would feel that, if 
 his views of the doctrine were drawn exclusively from 
 them, and he were then to boast, as Mr "Ward does in his 
 Ideal (p. 305), that he had " ventured to characterize 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 109 
 
 that hateful and fearful type of Antichrist in terms 
 not wholly inadequate to its prodigious demerits," it 
 would be much as if Thersites had boasted of having run 
 his spear through Hector, because he had spit at one of 
 his Lycian auxiliaries. This is a point which needs to 
 be urged on the consciences of our writers in these days. 
 However a prater about conscience may deem himself at 
 liberty to shower down foul words at haphazard, a trulj'- 
 conscientious writer will hold himself bound to take pains 
 in ascertaining the grounds of the censures he expresses. 
 But the literary conscience of our age is sadly torpid : 
 every sciolist fancies himself entitled to pronoimce judge- 
 ment on all men and on all things, while few care to go 
 through any previous enquiry : the patience of laborious 
 research is become rare : the love of truth is grievously 
 flagging and waning, as it needs must in a country where 
 Romanizing principles are gaining ground. Another 
 motive too for dwelling longer than one fain would on 
 such a point is, that our students of divinity may know 
 the trustworthiness of the guides, who are provoking 
 them to quit their own Church, to despise and hate 
 what she has hitherto prized and loved, and to admire 
 and fondle what she has ever reprobated and rejected. 
 
 But let us see what is this " abstract doctrine," which 
 Mr Ward dubs with the name of Lutheranism, and of 
 which he declares his belief that it is too bad "to be held 
 consistently even by the devils," — this doctrine by the 
 invention of which Luther has created in the lowest hell 
 a lower still. In the note in the British Critic (Vol. 
 XXXIV. p. 406), the Reviewer defines what he means by 
 Lutheranism, in order to justify himself from the charge 
 of having misrepresented it. "We consider it a first 
 principle, that the unum necessarium, the only possible 
 preparation for the enjoyment of any real blessings, is 
 
1 10 REPLY TO MR WARD's 
 
 'obedience to the rule of right at whatever sacrifice of 
 self ; ' and that any profest revelation, which should not 
 fully recognise this cardinal principle as its very founda- 
 tion, could not possibly be received by any serious mind. 
 Now, whether or not a denial of this principle be rightly 
 called, as we call it, Lutheranism, is a question of his- 
 tory," Such is the definition he gives of the " abstract 
 doctrine," which he calls Lutheranism: it is the denial 
 of the proposition just stated. A vaguer, more confused, 
 more inadequate definition was never laid down. What- 
 ever Lutheranism may be, seeing that it has exercised a 
 vast power over mankind, its principle or form, the kernel 
 of its true definition, must be something positive, not 
 something negative, an assertion, not a denial. The 
 assertion will indeed involve a denial, or, it may be, many 
 denials ; and these will be the limits of the definition : 
 but a No has little power, unless it be the rebound of 
 a Yes, the thunderclap following the lightning-flash. 
 Erasmuses No, Voltaire's No merely awakened echoing 
 Noes in the hollow caverns of men's hearts, and, the latter 
 at least, gnawed at men's hearts, dried up the fountains 
 of tears, and turned their smiles into sneers. Luther's 
 shook the world, but shook it in order to steady it. It 
 burst the chains of death, to set free the spirit of Ufe. 
 
 That the denial of the above-stated proposition is not 
 explicitly the principle, or any principle of Lutheranism, 
 is most certain. If it is so implicitly, this needs proof. 
 Here it behoves us to remember that there are two ways 
 in which a proposition may be denied, by being rejected 
 as false, or by being absorbed into a higher truth ; as the 
 animal nature is denied by being subordinated to the 
 spiritual, according to that grand process, whereby, 
 through losing our life, we save it. A particular propo- 
 sition may be the best and highest mode of expressing 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. Ill 
 
 a moral truth for one stage of man's moral and intellec- 
 tual life, and may be brought forward less distinctly at 
 another stage, not because it is denied and rejected, but 
 because it is involved and vanishes in a higher declaration 
 of the same truth. The commands which are given to a 
 child of three years old, are not given in the same words 
 to a boy or girl of ten, but are comprehended under some 
 wider forms, which again will be enlarged at fifteen, and 
 again still more at twenty. So the Mosaic Law, which, 
 with its minute precepts concerning outward observances, 
 belonged to the heir during the period of his bondage, 
 vanisht, v/hen the fulness of time came, in the higher 
 spiritual Law of the Gospel, not as being rejected by it, 
 but as being comprised in a larger enunciation of God's 
 eternal Will. For this, as well as other reasons, it would 
 be wiser and safer to take the declaration of the unum 
 necessarium which we find in St Luke, x. 25 — 28, than 
 Mr "Ward's. The latter is rather the statement of a 
 Heathen moralist, and might have come from the pen of 
 a Stoic, but would hardly be recognised in this absolute 
 form by any denomination of Christians, except such as 
 were far gone in the heresy of Pelagius. Not that I 
 would in any respect disparage obedience. In a certain, 
 stage it is the highest perfection that we can attain to : 
 and even when man has been raised to a higher stage of 
 moral intuition, the indispensableness of obedience needs 
 to be urged continually, lest we fall into a lax, delusive 
 interpretation of the Law of Love. But the Law of 
 Love is a higher form of the Law of Obedience, com- 
 prising it, and supplying the principle and motive which 
 may lead man to fulfill it, not grudgingly, according to 
 the letter, but cheerfully and in good measure, running 
 over with the fruits of the spirit. Thus our Lord Him- 
 self has expounded the Law of Love to be the Law of 
 
112 REPLY TO MR WARD's 
 
 Selfsacrifice, and that of a far higher kind than what the 
 Law of Obedience can enjoin: and in the heavenly Epis- 
 tle of the Apjostle of Love (iv. 11-19), we learn what is 
 the living principle and spring of that Law, and what 
 has made it, and alone can ever make it, a living Law in 
 the heart. Now if the Law of Obedience seems in any 
 respect left out of sight in Luther's exposition of the 
 Gospel, — though T think the foregoing argument against 
 Mr Hallam sufficiently proves that it is not, but has its 
 due place and dignity assigned to it, — such an appearance, 
 so far as there is any, would arise from this, that, in 
 speaking of the justified Christian, the Christian as living 
 by Faith in Christ, Luther speaks of him as living under 
 the constraint of the Love of Christ, and as fulfilling the 
 Law of Love, rather than as fulfilling the Law of Obe-. 
 dience. This is plain from the very passage last quoted. 
 Were it needful, I could fill hundreds of pages with 
 extracts to the same efiect : but I will merely refer the 
 reader to the exposition of the Commandments in the 
 Catechisms ; where he will also find that the Law of 
 Love with Luther comprises the Law of Obedience, and 
 that no tittle of the latter is allowed to pass away (ad). 
 
 In the Ideal of a Christian Church, where the argument 
 against what Mr Ward calls the Lutheran doctrine of 
 Justification forms the subject of a very long chapter, he 
 has given another fuller definition of what he means by 
 it, but with little improvement in regard to correctness, 
 or approximation to the doctrine really held by Luther 
 and the Lutheran Church. Indeed the very process 
 which he has chosen to follow, in order to get at his 
 definition, is one by which he was sure to go wrong. An 
 ordinary mortal in such a case, who was anxious to speak 
 the truth, and to keep from misrepresenting and slander., 
 ing his brethren, would have had recourse to some of the 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 113 
 
 authoritative expositions of the Lutheran doctrine, for 
 the sake of ascertaining what the Lutherans themselves 
 meant by it. Having done this, he v?ould have had 
 a full right to point out any inconsistencies which he 
 thought he perceived in that doctrine, or any con- 
 clusions flowing from it repugnant to morality. Such a 
 course however was not suited to Mr Ward. It would 
 have required some thoughtful, conscientious study, and 
 might have cut him short in the midst of his railing. 
 When you wish to belabour a man, and to shew ofl" your 
 strength and skill in demolishing him, put up a man of 
 straw, an abstract man ; and you may thump away with- 
 out risk. This is what Mr Ward does. Instead of 
 stating on historical grounds what the Lutheran doctrine 
 of Justification is, he lays down, in p. 186, what, he says, 
 it " inevitably must be." Its two chief peculiarities, 
 according to this new mode of detecting and refuting 
 heresies, are, first " that the pardon is complete and final, 
 involving no terms or conditions whatever ; " secondly, 
 " that the trust in Christ — carries with it its own evi- 
 dence, and leads necessarily, without any special pains or 
 eflrort on our part, to a holy life." Mr Ward acknow- 
 ledges that this is merely his own statement of the 
 Lutheran doctrine, which, he says in p. 187, he had 
 " been compelled himself to put into this shape, because 
 he had not been able to find any consistent account of it 
 whatever in the writings of its defenders;" that is, he 
 had not found any account consistent with his own pre- 
 conceived notions. He acknowledges too that, in all the 
 writers whom he has supposed to hold this doctrine, there 
 are a number of inconsistencies with his view of it. This 
 however does not disturb his persuasion: for the belief 
 in one's own infallibility, and the contempt and abhor- 
 rence of all investigation, seem to be two of the qualities 
 
 I 
 
114 REPLY TO MR WARD's 
 
 which fit paople out for a voyage to Rome. In the 
 words of an old dranaatist, " One eye is Put out with 
 zeal, t'other with ignorance ; And yet they think they're 
 eagles." 
 
 The process by which Mr Ward gets to his statement, 
 is a curious sample of the logic current in the new 
 school of sophists. " In order to determine the real 
 essence of Lutheran doctrine," he says in p. 167, "it 
 will be impossible perhaps to act more safely, than by 
 taking along with us the remembrance, what it is which 
 Lutheranism professes to accomplish. Now its great 
 achievement, according to the unanimous voice of all its 
 advocates, is, that it provides a full security for personal 
 holiness, at the same time that it rescues the believer 
 from all fear of God's wrath to come." One cannot well 
 find a more glaring instance of that strange perversion of 
 the laws of reasoning which prevails among our Roman- 
 izing divines, than this deduction of a statement of a doc- 
 trine, held during three centuries by a large portion of the 
 Church, not from historical evidence, nor from the grounds 
 on which it was originally establisht, but from certain 
 incidental consequences. For though it is truly asserted 
 that Luther's doctrine of Justification does minister com- 
 fort to troubled consciences, and does tend to promote 
 holiness, it is only when we already know what it is, that 
 we can understand how it does this. By no process of 
 mere ratiocination can we make out from an applepie 
 that the fruit must have grown on an appletree, or from 
 warmth and light that they must have proceeded from 
 the sun. Nor, to take an analogous instance, could any 
 one, meditating on the salvation of mankind, have made 
 out .through reasoning by what wonderful manifestation 
 of Divine Love it was to be effected. Yet here the 
 effect was the direct purpose of the cause : whereas the 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 115 
 
 Lutheran doctrine was not devised for any purpose, but 
 was drawn from the word of God as it revealed itself to 
 Luther : and only after he had discerned what seemed 
 to him to be the truth, did he also perceive the blessed 
 results which flow from it, as like results ever must from 
 every manifestation of Divine Truth (ae). 
 
 Mr Ward however thinks his course quite unobjection- 
 able. " It is impossible (he says) to adopt a course more 
 free from the possibihty of cavil, than to make this, the 
 pretension (of Lutheranism), the test for discovering its 
 real nature and meaning; an attempt of no ordinary 
 difficulty, when we consider the cloudy language and in- 
 consecutive thought so prevalent among its supporters." 
 When such reasoning is in vogue, it is no wonder people 
 grow to lose the notion that there is such a thing as 
 truth. Facts are thrust aside as of no value : anything 
 may be transubstantiated out of anything : and a papal 
 Bull will serve in lieu of all other authority to declare 
 the order and laws of the moral and spiritual universe, 
 nay, has this advantage, that it saves us from the trouble 
 and the perils of enquiry. As to the excuse alledged for 
 adopting this anomalous method, by which it was morally 
 impossible ever to get at the truth, — namely, " the cloudy 
 language and inconsecutive thought prevalent" among 
 Lutheran divines, and the inability " to find any con- 
 sistent account of the Lutheran doctrine whatever in the 
 writings of its defenders," — it may not be irrelevant to 
 observe, that Baur, when reprinting his masterly and 
 triumphant refutation of Moehler's attack on the Lu- 
 theran doctrine of Justification, remarks (in p. 319), " It 
 may be regarded as a cheering proof of the firmness 
 and stability vdth which this fundamental doctrine of 
 the Lutheran Creed still maintains its central place in 
 the minds of Protestants, that, among the Protestant 
 
 I 2 
 
116 BEPLY TO MR WARd's 
 
 theologians who have taken part in this controversy, there 
 is no perceptible difference of any importance on this 
 point." So saying he cites the replies to Moehler by 
 Nitzsch and by Hengstenberg : and assuredly it is a 
 remarkable witness, both to the power of the doctrine, 
 and to the precision with which it has been laid down, 
 that three such men, belonging to three very different 
 theological and philosophical schools, and two of them 
 masters in theological learning and thought, should have 
 coincided so entirely in their statements of such an ele- 
 mentary doctrine, branching, as it does, through every 
 part of Christian life. There cannot well be a surer sign 
 that the doctrine has a consistency in itself, and that 
 the expositions of it have been clear, able, and autho- 
 ritative. In opposition to the weight which lies in 
 the testimony and example of such men, Mr Ward's 
 will not weigh a chip of straw : for, without comparing 
 their relative competency in other respects, the three 
 Germans are thoroughly acquainted with the matter they 
 are treating of, while he has hardly seen so much as the 
 tip of its shadow. 
 
 Such being the mode adopted by Mr Ward to guess 
 out what ±he Lutheran doctrine may be, it is not sur- 
 prising that the result of his conjectural operations should 
 be sky-vidde of the truth. It would be far beyond my 
 purpose however to attempt any exposition of the numer- 
 ous fallacies in his Chapter on Justification : all that is 
 requisite is to shew that, whatever he may be contending 
 against, and however furious his blows may be, they do 
 not touch the Lutheran doctrine. Nor will this be difii- 
 cult. For according to Mr Ward, as we have seen, — 
 and the statement is repeated in p. 187,~the distinctive 
 peculiarities of the Lutheran doctrine of Justification 
 " must inevitably be " comprised in these two propositions ; 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 117 
 
 first, "that the pardon is complete and final, involving 
 no terms or conditions whatever;" and secondly, "that 
 the trust in Christ, on which it immediately follows, is 
 a feeling which carries with it its own evidence, and 
 which leads necessarily, without any special pains or 
 efibrt on our part, to a holy Ufe." Now with regard to 
 both these propositions it may be averred, that they are 
 no part of the Lutheran doctrine, which on the contrary 
 distinctly eschews and repudiates them. 
 
 In support of his first • proposition Mr Ward adds, " If 
 the pardon once given be not complete and final, then 
 our anxiety is not removed on our future lot : — if it 
 involve any terms or conditions whatever, then the same 
 anxiety remains." Thus he grounds both the parts of 
 his first proposition on that incidental consequence. 
 This is in the true Romish spirit, which could not achieve 
 its object of overriding the world with a huge lie, unless 
 it took speculative arguments for the basis of its historical 
 facts, while it makes tradition serve as the only source 
 of speculative truth. Still however I trust, the Pro- 
 testant love of truth is not so far extinct in England, as 
 that we should have thrown aside that prime maxim of 
 modern philosophy, that no secure positive knowledge 
 of facts can be drawn from any except documentary 
 evidence : and on the strength of that evidence I reply, 
 that the doctrine here called Lutheran, with regard to 
 the completeness and finality of the pardon once given, 
 is not the Lutheran doctrine, inasmuch as it is expressly 
 condemned in the Confession of Augsburg, where, in 
 the twelfth Article, we read, Damnant Andbaptistas qui 
 negant justificatos posse amittere Spiritum Sanctum. 
 
 As to the assertion that the pardon " involves no terms 
 or conditions whatever," the Lutheran doctrine does 
 not go beyond the repeated declarations in Scripture 
 
118 REPLY TO MR WARD's 
 
 concerning the freeness of grace : but while it constantly 
 maintains the passiveness of Faith in receiving pardon, 
 it is no less strenuous in contending that, if this Faith 
 be real, it must be a liviiag power, full Of active energy, 
 and manifesting itself in good works, through the opera- 
 tion of the indwelling Spirit. This is proved by the 
 passage quoted above in p. 45 ; and a thousand others to 
 the same effect might be cited without much trouble from 
 Luther's works : but, as the statement of a doctrine in 
 a Symbolical Book like the Apology for the Confession of 
 Augsburg will naturally be rounder and more precise than 
 in polemical or homiletical writings, I will rather adduce 
 the following words from the Section De dilectione et 
 impletione legis. " Profitemur igitur quod necesse sit 
 inchoari in nobis, et subinde magis magisque fieri legem. 
 Et complectimur simul utrumque, videlicet spirituales 
 motus, et externa bona opera. Falso igitur calumniantur 
 uos adversarii, quod nostri non doceant bona opera, cum 
 ea non solum requirant, sed etiam ostendant quomodo 
 fieri possint. — Longe enim imbecillior est humana natura, 
 quam ut suis viribus resistere Diabolo possit, qui habet 
 captives omnes, qui non sunt Kberati per fidem. Potentia 
 Christi opus est adversus Diabolum, videlicet ut, quia 
 scimus nos propter Christum exaudiri et habere promis- 
 sionem, petamus ut gubernet et propugnet nos Spiritus 
 Sanctus, ne decepti erremus, ne impulsi contra volunta- 
 tem Dei aliquid suscipiamus. — Christus enim vicit Dia- 
 bolum, et dedit nobis promissionem et Spiritum Sanctum, 
 ut auxilio divino vincamus et ipsi. Et 1 Johannis, iii. 8, 
 Ad hoc apparuit Filius Dei, ut solvat opera DiahoU. — 
 Item fides ilia, de qua loquimur, existit in poenitentia, 
 hoc est, concipitur in terroribus conscientiae, quae sentit 
 iram Dei adversus nostra peccata, et quaerit remis- 
 sionem peccatorum, et liberari a peccato. Et in talibus 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 119 
 
 terroribus et aliis afflictionibus debet haec fides crescere et 
 confirmari. Guare non potest existere in his, qui secun- 
 dum carnem vivunt, qui delectantur cupiditatibus suis, 
 et obtemperant eis. — Quare fides ilia, quae accipit 
 remissionem peccatorum in corde perterrefacto et 
 fugieute peccatum, non manet in his qui obtemperant 
 cupiditatibus, nee existit cum mortali peccato." 
 
 This passage from the Apology is also a sufficient 
 refutation of what Mr Ward lays down as the second 
 characteristic of Lutheranism, that " the trust in Christ, 
 on which pardon follows, is a feeling which carries with 
 it its own evidence, and which leads necessarily, without 
 any special pains or effort on our part, to a holy life." 
 For it asserts that, unless Faith manifest itself in good 
 works, in the conquest of sin, in an increasing perform- 
 ance of the law, and a growth in spiritual graces, it is 
 not real Faith, — that Faith does not abide in those who 
 follow their lusts, — that it cannot coexist with mortal 
 sin, — further, that it must be nourisht by continual 
 prayer for the aid of the Spirit in fighting against the 
 devil, — and finally, that it is amid the terrours of con- 
 science and other aflflictions, that it has to grow and be 
 strengthened. In fact this one passage from the Apology 
 is enough to convict I know not how many of Mr Ward's 
 charges against Lutheranism of flagrant misrepresenta- 
 tion, and, if he retains any feeling of shame, should make 
 him sink to the earth in confusion, until he has openly 
 retracted his calumnies. 
 
 These quotations from the Lutheran Symbolical Books 
 are sufficient, I say, to rebut Mr Ward's charges, as 
 leveled against Lutheranism, and to convict him of that 
 recklessness about the ninth Commandment, which is 
 so awfully prevalent in the fallen Church of Rome, 
 as almost to be a recognised principle of conduct, 
 
120 
 
 REPLY TO MR WARD S 
 
 sanctioned by the unreproved practice of half a dozen 
 centuries, with regard to all those whom that Church has 
 chosen to condemn. But since Mr Ward, after his recent 
 researches in Luther's writings, mainly in the Commen- 
 tary on the Galatians, for materials to bolster up his 
 slanders, has thought fit specifically to assert (p. 171), 
 " The essence of Luther's Gospel is this, that a person so 
 afiected,'' with the terrours of conscience, " has only one 
 great struggle to go through, in order that he may obtain 
 the indefectible promise of eternal salvation," it will be 
 well to cite a few of the passages in this very Com- 
 mentary, where the contrary is expressly maintained. 
 To begin with the short Preface, we there read, " Valde 
 prodest ut haec fidei doctrina in publico et assiduo usu 
 — conservetur. Et quantumvis cognoscatur et perdis- 
 catur, tamen diabolus adversarius noster semper obam- 
 bulans et quaerens nos devorare non est mortuus ; item, 
 caro nostra adhuc vivit ; denique omnes undique tentationes 
 nos urgent et premunt. Quare haec doctrina nunquam 
 satis tractari et inculcari potest." Here the words about 
 the flesh and temptations plainly refer, not merely to the 
 conflict which a man has to go through before he receives 
 the gift of justifying Faith, but to the struggles between 
 the flesh and the spirit which continue through the whole 
 of life. Thus in the Argument we find, " Ita utrumque 
 manet dum hie vivimus. Caro accusatur, exercetur tenta- 
 tionibus, contristatur et conteritur justitia activa legis. 
 Sed spiritus regnat etc." Again near the beginning of 
 the note on i. 3 : " Nam satis vel nimium non potest 
 inculcari et urgeri (articulus justificationis). Imo etiamsi 
 probe discamus et teneamus eum, tamen nullus est, qui 
 eum perfecte apprehendat, aut plena affectu et corde 
 credat. Adeo lubrica est caro nostra, et repugnat ohe- 
 dientiae spiritus." A little before the end of the same 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER, 121 
 
 note : " Ideo oportet nos dare operam, ut fides nostra certa 
 sit, diligenti et assidua tractatione verhi et invocatiove 
 crescat et confirmetur, ut Satanae resistere possimus." At 
 the end of the note on quod tarn cito, i. 6 : " Vigilemus 
 igitur sedulo, primum unusquisque pro se, deinde doctores 
 non solum pro se, sed pro tota ecclesia, ne intremus in 
 tentationem." Yet Mr Ward, speaking of watchfulness 
 as a peculiar Catholic grace, asserts (p. 205), printing his 
 assertion in Italics, to bring out its venom more forcibly, 
 " This grace can have no place whatever under the Gospel, 
 according to any consistent form of Lutheranism ; " that is, 
 according to that imaginary form which he has spun for 
 it out of his own brain. Again, in the note on vv. 11, 
 12, there is a striking passage, where Luther speaks of 
 his own experience : " Deinde causa quoque justifica- 
 tionis lubrica est, non quidem per se, — sed quoad nos ; 
 id quod ego ipse saepe experior. Novi enim, in quibus 
 horis tenehrarum nonnunquam lucter. Novi, quoties ego 
 radios evangelii et gratiae veluti in quibusdam densis 
 nuhibus suhito amittam. Novi denique, quam versentur ibi 
 in lubrico etiam exercitati, et qui pedem firmissime figunt, 
 — Ideo, quantum ad nos attinet, res valde lubrica est, 
 quia nos Imhrici sumus. — Resistit insuper spiritui caro, 
 quae non potest certo statuere promissa Dei vera 
 esse. Ideo pugnat et militat contra spiritum, et, ut 
 Paulus ait, captivat spiritum, ut tam firmiter credere 
 non possit, ac velit. Quare perpetuo inculcamus cog- 
 nitionem Christi et fidem non esse rem aut opus 
 humanum, sed simpliciter donum Dei, qui, ut creat, ita 
 conservat fidem in nobis, sicut autem per verbum fidem 
 primum donat, ita deinceps per verbum exercet, auget, 
 confirmat et perficit earn. Itaque summus Dei cultus et 
 sabbatum sabbatorum est, exercere sese ad pietatem, tractare 
 et audire verbum. — Oui ergo sic friget, quod putat se 
 
122 REPLY TO MR WARD's 
 
 appreliendisse, et incipit paulatim fastidire verbuni, ille 
 jam Christum et evangelium amisit, et hoc quod putat 
 se nosse, tantum speculative apprehendit ; — talesque 
 fiunt tandem fanatic! ac nugaces spiritus. Quare unus- 
 quisque plus toto conatu summisque viribus contendat et 
 decertet serio discere et conservare Jianc doctrinam, et ad 
 hoc utatur humili oratione coram Deo, et assiduo studio 
 ac meditatione verbi. Et quanquam vehementissime decer- 
 taverimus, adhuc satis tamen sudabimus. Habemus enim 
 non contemnendos, sed maximos, fortissimos, et valde assi- 
 duos hostes contra nos, carnem nostram, omnia pericula 
 mundi, item legem, peccatum, mortem, iram ac judicium 
 Dei, et diabolum ipsum, qui nunquam quiescit, intus per 
 ignita tela, foris per pseudoapostolos nos tentare, ut, si non 
 omnes, tamen plures ex nobis subvertat." So much for 
 Mr Ward's assertion, that " the essence of Luther's 
 Gospel is this, that a person — has only one great struggle 
 to go through, in order that he may obtain the indefectible 
 promise of eternal salvation." " This doctrine (he has 
 the audacity to add) does not come in accidentally here 
 and there ; it is the one burthen of the greater part of 
 the Commentary." Yet he has not produced a single 
 passage conveying it ; nor can he. " Ut tenerrimus 
 est (iste articulus), ita facillime laeditur (says Luthei-, 
 on ii. 4, 5) : hoc bene expertus est Paulus ; hoc quoque 
 experiuntur omnes pii." Again, when speaking of St 
 Paul's withstanding St Peter at Antioch (on ii. 11), he 
 says, " Hujusmodi exempla scribuntur nobis in consola- 
 tionem. Est enim plenum consolatione, cum audimus 
 sanctos Spiritum Dei habentes etiam peccare. Hanc 
 consolationem nobis eripere volunt, qui negant sanctos 
 posse peccare. Samson, David, et alii multi celebres 
 viri Spiritu Sancto pleni lapsi sunt in grandia peccata. 
 — Tales error es et peccata sanctorum proponit Scriptura 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 123 
 
 in coiisolationeiii afflictorum et desperabundorum. — Nemo 
 unquain tarn graviter lapsus est, qui non possit resur- 
 gere. Econtra nemo tarn firmiter fixit pedem, qui non 
 possit labi. Si Petrus lapsus est, et ego labi possum. 
 Si resurrexit, possum et ego resurgere." Once more, in 
 the note on ii. 13; " Profecto mira res est, quod tanti 
 viri, Petrus, Barnabas, et alii, tam cito et facile labuntur 
 in illo ipso opere, quod noverant recte factum, ac antea 
 docuerant. — Nam in illo ipso, quod optime scimus, possumus 
 tamen labi et errare, non solum in grave nostrum, sed etiam 
 aliorum damnum. Versemur igitur summa diligentia et 
 humilitate in studio sacrarum liter arum, ac serio or emus ne 
 veritatem evangelii amittamus. Nihil igitur sumus cum 
 omnibus quantumvis magnis donis, nisi Deus adsit. — 
 Nisi ipse nos assiduo sustentet, nihil prodest summa 
 cognitio, et ipsissima theologia. Nam sub horam tenta- 
 tionis subito fieri potest, ut astu diaboli eripiantur nobis 
 e conspectu omnes loci consolatorii, ac solum commina- 
 torii occurrant ac obruant nos. Discamus igitur, Deo 
 suhtrahente manum facillime posse nos labi ac everti. Itaque 
 nemo superbiat et glorietur de justitia, sapientia, et donis 
 suis, sed humilietur ac oret cum apostolis, Domine adauge 
 nobis fidem (af)." 
 
 In truth almost the only semblance of evidence, which 
 can be produced in support of Mr Ward's description of 
 the Lutheran doctrine of Justification, is the fact, which 
 is sufficiently notorious, that far more attention is paid by 
 the Romish than by the Protestant Churches to rules of 
 discipline for the moral training of its members. It may 
 be that the Reformers undervalued such things ; though, 
 if they did, we cannot well wonder at it, considering the 
 many gross and demoralizing perversions of such disci- 
 pline, which they had seen and past through. But when 
 Mr Ward says that, according to the Lutheran doctrine, 
 
124 
 
 REPLY TO MR WARD S 
 
 " the trust in Christ, on which pardon follows, — leads 
 necessarily, without special pains or effort on our part, to 
 a holy life," — not to mention the misunderstanding in- 
 volved in the words, on which pardon follows, instead of 
 hy which pardon is received, — he entirely leaves out of 
 account the two mighty arms wherewith man is to strive 
 in his heavenward course. Faith and the prayer of Faith. 
 As we read that Whosoever is horn of God cannot sin 
 (1 John iii. 9), and as our Saviour Himself has declared, 
 He that heareth My word, and helieveth in Him that sent 
 Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condem- 
 nation, hut is past from death to life (John v. 24), the 
 great truth here exprest, of which the Church previously 
 knew not well what to make, is recognised as fundamental 
 by Lutheranism ; though without the omission of the 
 opposite side of the picture, the imperfection of our 
 faith, and of our regeneration, and the sinfulness which 
 consequently cleaves to us. But Mr Ward, as one 
 might expect of a Romanizer, cannot get rid of the 
 notion that the act of Faith, by which justification is 
 received, is an opiis operatum. In arguing against 
 Lutheranism, he ever leaves out of sight, that Faith, 
 according to the Lutheran view, is an abiding, energetic, 
 active principle, manifesting itself necessarily by the 
 conquest over sin, and by all manner of good works : 
 nor has he attained, any more than the whole Romish 
 Church, to an adequate conviction that the only really 
 efficacious means which man can use for overcoming 
 sin and advancing in holiness, is the prayer of Faith 
 for the help of the Spirit. 
 
 The efficacy of disciplinary regulations Luther mis- 
 trusted, it may be too much so, from his experience of 
 their impotence, from having found in his own case 
 that they were as powerless to bind the strong man as 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 125 
 
 Samson's withes, and from having seen how iii others 
 
 they were often a mere form, the mockery of a form, 
 
 a trick to lull and cheat the conscience. Besides he had 
 
 a strong conviction that it is not fitting that tliose who have 
 
 known God, or rather are known hy God, should turn again 
 
 to the weak and beggarly elements of the world, and he 
 
 subject to ordinances, Touch not, taste not, handle not. It 
 
 should he home in mind too that the laxity of recent 
 
 times was very unlike what he and other Reformers, 
 
 whether in Germany or in England, desired to see 
 
 establisht. But it may be questioned whether any one 
 
 else ever felt such intense, unhesitating reliance on the 
 
 power of prayer, as the best and only sure auxiliary in 
 
 all our struggles, either against temporal or spiritual 
 
 enemies. In Luther's Letters, which present such a 
 
 picture of every movement of his heart and soul from 
 
 the year 1517 to his death, as we scarcely have in the 
 
 case of any other man, we see ever-recurring proofs of 
 
 this, on the one hand in the confidence with which he 
 
 encounters every outward danger, however appalhng in 
 
 itself, through his trust in his Heavenly Helper ; and on 
 
 the other hand in his continual, earnest entreaties to his 
 
 friends for their prayers, in order that he may be enabled 
 
 to overcome the assaults of sin and Satan. Among the 
 
 twenty-three hundred letters in De Wette's Collection, 
 
 far more than half, I believe, are wound up with a 
 
 solicitation for the prayers of his correspondent. 
 
 Immediately after the passage just cited from p. 171, 
 Mr Ward pursues his account of what he calls " Luther's 
 Gospel." " When conscience has performed its olEce of 
 frightening and alarming the sinner, its usefulness is 
 over : from that time it is no longer man's guide to 
 salvation, but the one only impediment in the way of his 
 attaining salvation. Well was it for Luther that he 
 
126 REPLY TO MR WARD's 
 
 had enjoyed the unspeakable bjessings of a Catholic 
 education and monastic discipline, and so had learnt 
 to feel in some slight measure the real sinfulness of 
 sin, before he turned his mind to the invention of these 
 blasphemies." It would take no little time to set forth 
 the blunders and misrepresentations, the bewildering 
 confusion of history and philosophy and theology, in 
 these two short sentences. 
 
 The remarks about Conscience shew that Mr Ward 
 wholly misunderstands Luther's use of the word, and 
 the meaning which it bore in his age. In its primary 
 and most legitimate signification, Conscience is the 
 testimony which a man's inward sense bears to his feel- 
 ings, and to his acts as proceeding from and expressive of 
 his feelings, with reference to their moral value. It is con- 
 sciousness determined in this specific direction, by recog- 
 nising a moral obligation, and comparing our feelings 
 and acts therewith. The particular form of law which 
 it may acknowledge, does not belong to its essence : for 
 it is wholly subjective ; wherefore that form will vary 
 with the culture which our moral sense may have 
 received. What characterizes the Conscience as such, 
 as that which is distinctive of man in all stages of 
 culture, and constitutes him a moral being, is merely 
 that it recognises a law, a principle, an obligation, 
 which, as moral beings, we are bound to obey. Now 
 the voice of law is almost always vetative ; so therefore 
 is that of Conscience ; and, like law, it reproves and 
 punishes transgressions. Hence, as our moral acts are 
 notoriously mostly evil, and fall far short even of that 
 very imperfect moral standard which exists in each indi- 
 vidual mind. Conscience, even among Heathen writers, 
 is generally found to be used in malam partem, signifying 
 the consciousness of something wrong and vicious. Much 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 127 
 
 more did this become the case, when the knowledge 
 of sin, of its depth and universality, and of the sanctity 
 of the moral law, was brought out so distinctly by 
 Christianity. Then even the answer of a good conscience 
 could be nothing more than a conscience void of offense, 
 when our heart does not condemn us. Seeing therefore 
 that the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the sinfulness under- 
 lying, even when it does not rise up and shew itself in 
 every human feeling and action, was manifested to Luther 
 more vividly than perhaps to any man who lived between 
 him and St Paul, Conscientia with him usually means 
 the consciousness of our sins and of our sinfulness ; a 
 consciousness under the crushing misery of which, when 
 a man has once been awakened to a spiritual conviction 
 of this sinfulness, he cannot find rest in anything except 
 the atoning sacrifice of the Saviour. This is the great 
 work of the Conscience in the scheme of salvation. The 
 Law being our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, Con- 
 science acts as the executive of the Law, applying it 
 to each several case. In this sense, when we have our 
 hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience, and so far as 
 they continue under that purificatory sprinkling, the 
 work of the accusing Conscience is at an end ; or, as Mr 
 Ward says, " its usefulness is over." 
 
 In his next words, — " from that time it is no longer 
 man's guide to salvation" — it is difiicult to make out 
 any tenable meaning. Can he intend to say, what the 
 words seem to imply, that Luther speaks of a man's 
 Conscience as being, at any moment in his spiritual 
 course, his "guide to salvation?" Luther did not use 
 his words thus vaguely. Later moralists have indeed 
 enlarged the domain of the Conscience, so as to make 
 it comprehend our special convictions of. the moral law, 
 according to our highest discernment of it, with reference 
 
128 REPLY TO MR WARD's 
 
 to our own personal conduct : for Conscience is always 
 subjective, and acts reflexly, pronouncing only on our 
 own actions, but never sallying forth to pass judgement 
 on the actions of others. It is in the earlier sense, taking 
 Conscience for the consciousness of evil and sin, that 
 Hamlet says. Thus Conscience does make cowards of us all; 
 vsfhich line is quoted by Coleridge in the Friend (vol. i. 
 p. 22Q), in order that he may bring out the opposite truth : 
 "But it is Conscience too which makes heroes of us all" 
 This remark however, though there is grandeur in the 
 thought, seems to rest on a partial misconception of the 
 powers of Conscience ; the office of which, at least in 
 Shakspeare's age, was like that of Law, to keep us from 
 evil, but which has no positive spring to prompt heroic 
 enterprises. This, the ordinary action of the Conscience, 
 is set forth in a masterly manner in the dialogue between 
 the Murderers of Clarence in Richard the Third, and with 
 exquisite humour in Launcelot Gobbo's argument with 
 himself about leaving the Jew's house (ag). There may 
 too be cases, where a stout, unflinching obedience to the 
 voice of the Conscience will be heroic ; where Conscience, 
 forbidding us to comply with the threats of power com- 
 manding us to violate it, does indeed make heroes of us : 
 as when Luther closed his answer at Worms with saying. 
 Unless I, and the texts which I have quoted, are refuted by 
 testimonies out of Holy Scripture, or hy open and clear 
 reasons and arguments, and unless my Conscience is thus 
 bound by God's word, I cannot and will not recant any- 
 thing ; because it is neither safe nor advisable to do any- 
 thing against one's Conscience. Here I stand ; I can do 
 nothing else; God help me! Amen! This was Luther's 
 practical exposition of the meaning of Conscience (ah) : 
 we have seen several examples of Mr Ward's. Yet Luther 
 would have shrunk from calling the Conscience in any 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 1£9 
 
 respect " the guide to salvation ; " although the law by 
 which he set and regulated his Conscience was that of 
 God. He had far too deep a conviction of sin, to fancy 
 that we can have any " guide to salvation," except a 
 heavenly. 
 
 What Mr Ward meant by the expression is not clear. 
 If we take this passage along with that quoted in p. 109, 
 and divers others in his writings, we might have ample 
 grounds for charging him with the Pelagian heresy ; and 
 this would be in keeping with his hankerings after 
 Rome. But it is more probable that these passages, as 
 well as a number of others, are merely the floundering 
 and sprawling and splashing of a person who has got 
 beyond his depth, and who thrusts out his arms and legs 
 on all sides, and catches at every twig, that he may have 
 something to take hold of. For Conscience is a word 
 vdth which sundry tricks have been played, by the new 
 school of sophists at Oxford ; until it has come to be 
 held that Conscience is to pronounce on the moral fitness 
 of particular outward acts ; whereas that fitness can only 
 be determined by the calm and patient exercise of the 
 practical understanding, examining the materials supplied 
 by experience and observation, and applying the laws of 
 the reason to them, with a due regard to the demands of 
 the aflTections, and, in certain cases, to the imaginative 
 parts of our nature. By this unlimited extension of the 
 ofiice of Conscience, its majesty and sanctity are violated. 
 It loses that infallibility, which belongs to it only when 
 it is declaring that a person ought to do what according 
 to his best convictions he verily believes to be his duty, 
 a proposition which is very far from identical, inasmuch 
 as hereby it pronounces that the convictions of the under- 
 standing ought to bind the will, thus casting a bridge 
 over the great primary chasm in our nature, while on 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 REPLY TO MR WARD S 
 
 the other hand it sighs and groans at every act which 
 widens that chasm. But when we charge the Conscience 
 with the ofEce of determining upon outward acts, its 
 infallibility passes away, and we become not only still 
 more prone to errour, but more presumptuous and head- 
 strong in our errours. The decisions of the Conscience, 
 being summary and immediate, supersede that careful 
 thought and diligent investigation, which are requisite 
 before we can pass a right judgement on a complicated 
 practical question. Every prejudice, every caprice, every 
 wajrward impulse of fancy or passion may be stampt with 
 the authority of Conscience (a i). 
 
 This sophistry is still, as ever, a favorite part in the 
 Romish system of falsehood. Hereby the Massacre of 
 St Bartholomew, the persecutions of the Waldenses, the 
 murder of Henry the Fourth, the Gunpowder Plot were 
 baptized in its hellish baptism as Acts of Conscience. 
 Thus too in our days one man after another is quitting 
 the Church in which he was baptized, and the ministry 
 to which he had solemnly devoted himself, for the sake of 
 some idle fancy, some petty whim, some phantom of 
 unity or authority, without having anything more than 
 a visionary notion of what the Church of Rome is, or 
 being able to aUedge any solid reasons for abandoning 
 that of England. He pleads that, in taking such a step, 
 he is following the dictates of his Conscience, Thus he 
 cheats his Conscience, and stifles its remonstrances, and 
 gulls himself with the belief that he is acting a heroic 
 part. Whereas such conduct is much as if a judge were 
 to pass sentence of death on a man, who was arraigned 
 before him on a charge of murder, without thinking of 
 examining the evidence, on the ground that murder is a 
 very horrible crime, from which his Conscience revolts, 
 and that all the laws of God and man condemn it, and 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 131 
 
 that the man's countenance speaks ill of him, or that a 
 friend for whom he has a high esteem thought him 
 guilty, or that the culprit's coat is of an ugly colour, or 
 that he dislikes the cut of his hair. This is painfully, 
 awfully absurd ; but scarcely more rational are the grounds 
 on which many persons nowadays are falling into the sin 
 of schism, on the plea of Conscience, whereby they bar 
 out all the reasoning by which their follies might be 
 dispelled. 
 
 Such are the natural results of that wild, Jacobinical 
 principle asserted by Mr Ward in p. 44, — which, he says, 
 it is " one great object of his work to enforce and illus- 
 trate, — the absolute supremacy of the Conscience in moral 
 and religious questions." There is indeed a true principle 
 of high moment intimated, though strangely distorted 
 and exaggerated, in these words, the principle exprest 
 by the Apostles, when they said, We ought to obey God 
 rather than men. But this true principle Mr "Ward 
 wholly misunderstands: for it is the very principle on 
 which the Reformers, whom he so virulently reviles, 
 Luther above all, acted, as we have just seen in his speech 
 at Worms, which is confirmed by an abundance of similar 
 evidence during the whole of his public Hfe. Only 
 Luther's conduct is that of a reasonable being. He does 
 not call an arbitrary notion, an imaginary persuasion, the 
 voice of his Conscience : he does not pretend that his 
 Conscience can pronounce whether such and such propo- 
 sitions are true or not. He says, Prove to me by solid, 
 cogent arguments, and by the plain testimony of God's word, 
 that the propositions which I have maintained are erroneous ; 
 and then I will recant them. But so long as the best and 
 calmest exercise of my own understanding, enlightened by 
 God's word, and building upon its express declarations, 
 assures me that my doctrine is true, my Conscience forbids 
 
 K 2 
 
132 REPLY TO MR WARD's 
 
 me to recant ; and how can I disobey it ? Of the recent 
 atuse of the word Conscience he knew nothing, nor of 
 the wider signification attacht to it by moralists of the 
 last century. Hence Mr Ward's rebuke of him for not 
 regarding the Conscience as "man's guide to salvation," 
 in addition to the other marks of wisdom we have 
 discerned in it, involves a sheer anachronism, as gross as 
 it would be to quarrel with him for not having gone to 
 Worms by the railroad. 
 
 The worth of Mr Ward's next assertion, that, in 
 " Luther's Gospel," after " the Conscience has performed 
 its oifice of frightening and alarming the sinner," it is 
 now " the one only impediment in the way of his attaining 
 salvation," may be perceived in some measure by a 
 reference to the passage quoted in p. 122. There is a 
 state of mind indeed, through which spirits of a peculiar 
 depth and earnestness have to pass, when they have been 
 first brought to a lively conviction of their sins, and of 
 the sanctity and terrours of God's Law, — the state repre- 
 sented in the seventh chapter of the Epistle to the 
 Romans, — the state, of which there is such an awful 
 picture in Bunyan's account of his own spiritual confiicts. 
 When thus stirred and shaken, the Conscience, in its 
 agony and bloody sweat, will often for a while reject all 
 consolation, and is unable to discern the angel coming to 
 strengthen it through the thickness of the surrounding 
 night. Now to those who have past through this state, 
 and have been brought by God's grace to a hopeful trust 
 in the Saviour, this crisis of their spiritual life must 
 necessarily ever be of overpowering interest ; and there- 
 fore, as Luther had been brought through it, and as 
 it was during this very crisis that he first discerned the 
 hoUowness of the prevalent formal religion, with its out- 
 ward acts and penances, which could not make him who 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 133 
 
 performed them perfect as pertaining to his Conscience, 
 he ever after spoke of everything connected with these 
 struggles, and of the only way in which the Conscience 
 can be purged from dead works to serve the living God, 
 with an intensity of earnestness totally incomprehensible 
 to those who have never known anything of this inward 
 warfare. It is in this relation only that Luther speaks 
 of the Conscience as "an impediment in the way of a 
 man's attaining salvation ; " when, in the recoil from 
 carelessness, or from self-righteousness, unable as yet 
 to relinquish the notion of his own importance, a man 
 magnifies his sins, or rather raises them up as a thick 
 mist of darkness around him, which interposes a veil of 
 wrath before the mercy-seat, so that the Sun of Righteous- 
 ness is turned into a ball of fire, and instead of the crown 
 of thorns and the drops of blood shed for others trickling 
 down the calm, forgiving brow, he can see nothing but 
 the head of a Fury attired with whips and snakes. At 
 the same time it is utterly false, that Luther speaks of 
 the Conscience as, at any time, " the one only impediment 
 in the way of a man's attaining salvation." Nor, as we 
 have seen from his speech at Worms, is it less false to 
 say, that he regarded the Conscience as having no office 
 to perform except that " of frightening and alarming the 
 sinner;" or that he thought its usefulness would ever 
 in this life cease. 
 
 Among the remarks I have been led to make about 
 Luther, much has already occurred to shew the strange 
 ineptitude of Mr Ward's next observation : " Well was 
 it for Luther that he had enjoyed the unspeakable bless- 
 ings of a Catholic education and monastic discipline, and 
 so had learnt to feel in some slight measure the real sin- 
 fulness and evil of sin, before he turned his mind to the 
 invention of these blasphemies." In this sentence I will 
 
134 REPLY TO MR WARd's 
 
 only speak of one point: the stones which, after the 
 writer's fashion, are spouted forth so profusely from the 
 Geyser in his breast, may be left to fall back on his own 
 head. The gist however of this sentence, if it means 
 anything, is, that, though Luther had some insight into 
 the sinfulness of sin, it was but slight, at least in com- 
 parison with that possest by the Church under the 
 dominion of Rome, and cultivated by its discipline and 
 institutions, and that for the insight which he had, 
 such as it was, he was indebted to that discipline and 
 those institutions. It cannot, I think, be pleaded that 
 Mr Ward's words do not imply this ; for if they do not 
 mean this, what do they mean ? Yet one should be 
 loth to suspect any writer, except one who is so fond 
 of playing at heels overhead with History, of broaching 
 assertions so contrary, not only to well-known facts, 
 but also to the view of those facts recognised by all 
 who have the least acquaintance with the History of the 
 Church. To cite a single testimony : my honoured 
 friend, Mr Trench, in his admirable and well-timed 
 Lectures On the fitness of Scripture for unfolding the 
 Spiritual Life of Men, has just been saying (p. 60), 
 "Who can fail to see in the great Apostle of Tarsus, 
 — ^him who by the past training of his life, and the con- 
 sequent fulness with which he brought out the scheme 
 of our justification, should become the spiritual fore- 
 father of the Augustins and Luthers, of all them who 
 have brought out for us, with the sense of personal guilt, 
 the sense also of personal deliverance, the consciousness of 
 a personal standing of each one of us before God ? " 
 
 In truth, if there is one thing notorious about Luther, 
 it is that his deep, irrepressible, unappeasable conscious- 
 ness of sin was the primary motive of his whole public 
 life, and of all that he did for the reformation of the 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 135 
 
 Church. It was on account of this deep feeling of the 
 inward disease in the Conscience, that he tore off the 
 plasters and lenitives with which the Romish quacks 
 were wont to lull and skin over the wounds at the sur- 
 face. It was on account of this that he set his foot upon 
 the scandalous fraud of Indulgences. It was by reason 
 of this that he saw through the utter vanity of the 
 penances and so-called good works, by which men were 
 idly trying to purge their consciences. He felt, as St 
 Paul and Augustin felt, that the evil in man does not 
 lie in the imperfection of his outward works, but in the 
 corruption of his heart and will. Therefore did he 
 insist so strongly on the frailty which clings to our very 
 best works ; and therefore did he continually urge that, 
 if we are to be justified, it must be wholly through grace, 
 by the righteousness of our Divine Saviour, to be received 
 and appropriated by Faith, without any admixture of 
 the works wrought by so frail and peccable a creature. 
 On the other hand, among the characters whereby the 
 Church of Rome is distinguisht from those branches 
 of the Church, from which she cut herself oiF at the 
 Reformation, none is more plain and manifest than this, 
 that she has a less deep and pervading conviction of sin, 
 and of the sinfulness of human nature. Thus much 
 must be admitted by every intelligent judge, to whichever 
 side his own predilections may lean. Hence the apolo- 
 gists for the Romish doctrines are ever wont to urge that 
 the Protestant representations of the corruption of human 
 nature are monstrously exaggerated, so as to have a 
 Manichean character ; while the reciprocal charge of 
 Pelagianism is constantly brought by Protestant polemics 
 against Rome (a j). This, even without our prejudging 
 the question as to which representation may be the most 
 correct, is enough to prove on which side lies the deeper 
 
136 
 
 REPLY TO MR WARD S 
 
 consciousness of sin : and the conviction we are thus 
 led to is confirmed by divers features in the Romish 
 system. The whole doctrine of penances and of acts of 
 mortification, so far as these are regarded, not as disci- 
 plinary, but as expiatory, implies a no less false and 
 superficial conception of the sinfulness of man, than of 
 the mercy of God. The whole notion of human merit 
 and of meritorious works is incompatible with the know- 
 ledge of man's deep and pervading sinfulness : and how, 
 unless that knowledge had been checkt and almost stifled, 
 could the Church ever have devised and propagated the 
 fraud of Works of Supererogation, and that of Indul- 
 gences founded thereon ? I do not mean to deny that, 
 among the holy men in all ages of the Church, many were 
 truly opprest by a heavy consciousness of sin : but the 
 system of the Church either deluded them into trying to 
 lull this consciousness by outward works of satisfaction ; 
 or else, if it did not openly condemn and reject them as 
 heretical, it drove them into themselves, and made them 
 seek solace in Mysticism. 
 
 Here it may seem incredible, — and yet, if the reader 
 turns to Mr Ward's book, he will find it the fact, — that 
 in the very page in which Luther is stated to have learnt 
 through his " Catholic education and monastic discipline, 
 — to feel in some sUght measure the real sinfulness and 
 evil of sin," and only a dozen lines before this strange 
 statement, Mr Ward cites portions of the following 
 passage. " Perpende diligenter singula verba Pauli, im- 
 primis bene nota et urge hoc pronomen: nostris. (Qui 
 dedit semetipsum pro peccatis nostris : Gal. i. 4.) — Facile 
 dixeris et credideris Christum Dei Filium traditum esse 
 pro peccatis Petri, Pauli, et ahorum sanctorum, quos 
 dignos fuisse judicamus hac gratia. Sed difiicillimum est, 
 ut tu, qui indignum te judicas hac gratia, ex corde dicas 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 137 
 
 et credas Christum traditum pro tuis invictis, infinitis, 
 et ingentibus peccatis. Ideo in genere et sine pronomine 
 facile est magnificis amplificationibus praedicare et ex- 
 tollere beneficium Christi, scilicet, quod traditus sit 
 quidem pro peccatis, sed aliorum, qui digni fuerunt. 
 Quando autem pronomen, nostris, addendum est, ibi 
 resilit infirma natura et ratio. Ibi non audet accedere 
 ad Deum, nee polliceri sibi tantum thesaurum gratuito 
 dandum. Ideo neque cum Deo vult agere, nisi prius 
 sit pura et sine peccatis. Quare si etiam legit, audit 
 banc sententiam. Qui dedit semetipsum pro peccatis nostris, 
 aut similes, tamen pronomen, nostris, non applicat pro 
 se, sed pro aliis, qui digni et sancti sunt. Ipsa vero 
 tantisper exspectare vult, donee digna reddatur suis 
 operibus. Hoc tunc nihil aliud est, nisi quod humana 
 ratio libenter vellet, quod peccati vis non esset major 
 nee potentior, quam ipsa somniat. Hinc hypocritae 
 ignari Christi, etiamsi sentiant remorsum peccati, tamen 
 cogitant se facile suis operibus et meritis illud abolituros. 
 Et tacite sic optant, quod ilia verba. Qui dedit semetip- 
 sum pro peccatis nostris, assent verba in humilitate dicta, 
 et peccata non essent seria et vera, sed inania et ficta. 
 In summa ratio humana vellet libenter Deo offerre et 
 adducere fictum et simulatum peccatorem, qui nihil esset 
 conterritus, qui peccatum non sentiret ; sanum vellet 
 adducere, non indigentem medico, et tunc, quando non 
 sentiret peccatum, vellet credere quod Christus traditus 
 esset pro peccatis nostris. Sic totus mundus affectus 
 est, et praesertim qui in mundo esse volunt aliis religio- 
 siores et sanctiores, ut ipsi somniant, scilicet, monachi 
 et omnes justitiarii. Hi ore quidem fatentur se pecca- 
 tores esse, fatentur item se quotidie peccata committere, 
 sed non tam ingentia et multa, quin suis operibus ea 
 abolere possint. Imo ultra hoc volunt afFerre justitias 
 
138 REPLY TO MR WARD's 
 
 et merita sua ad tribunal Christi, et pro illis postulare 
 a judice retributionem vitae aeternae. Interim tamen, 
 ut sunt humiles fratres, ne penitus mundi sint, fingunt 
 quaedam peccata, ut pro illorum venia possint magna 
 devotione cum ipso publicano orare, Deus propitius esto 
 mihi peccatori. Illis haec verba Pauli, pro peccatis 
 nostris, sunt plane inania et nugacia. Ideo neque ea 
 intelHgunt, neque in tentatione, cum peccatum serio 
 sentiunt, consolationem ex eis accipere possunt, sed ibi 
 simpliciter desperare coguntur. Est igitur haec praecipua 
 scientia ac vera sapientia Christiana, haec verba Pauli 
 pro seriis et verissimis habere, scilicet, quod Christus in 
 mortem traditus sit, non propter justitiam aut sanctitatem 
 nostram, sed propter peccata nostra, quae vera, grandia, 
 multa, imo infinita et invicta sunt. Itaque ne fingas ea 
 esse parva, quae tuis operibus aboleri possint. Neque 
 desperes propter ipsorum magnitudinem, cum aliquando 
 in vita vel in morte serio ea senseris ; sed disce hie ex 
 Paulo credere, Christum non pro fictis aut pictis, sed 
 veris, non pro parvis, sed maximis, non pro uno atque 
 altero, sed omnibus, non pro devictis (quia nuUus homo, 
 nullus etiam angelus vel minimum peccatum vincere 
 potest), sed pro invictis peccatis traditum esse. — Da 
 igitur operam sedulo, ut non solum extra tempus tenta- 
 tionis, sed et in periculo et pugna mortis, cum conscientia 
 perterrefit recordatione praeteritorum peccatorum, et 
 diabolus magno impetu te invadit, et mole, fluctibus, 
 ac diluvio peccatorum obruere vult, et perterrefaciat, a 
 Christo abstrahat, et ad desperationem te adigat, ut, 
 inquam, tum possis cum fiducia dicere : Christus Dei 
 Filius traditus est non pro justis et Sanctis, sed pro in- 
 justis et peccatoribus. Si Justus essem, et peccatum 
 non haberem, non indigerem Propitiatore Christo. Cur 
 ergo, O perversum in modum sancte Satan, vis me facere 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 139 
 
 sanctum, et a me exigere justitias, cum nihil habeam 
 praeter peccata, et ea vera et gravissima, non ficta aut 
 inania ? Qualia sunt peccata contra primam tabulam, 
 videlicet, summa infidelitas, dubitatio, desperatio, con- 
 temtus Dei, odium, ignoraritia, blasphemia Dei, in- 
 gratitudo, abusus nominis Dei, negligentia, fastidium, 
 contemtus verbi Dei, etc. ; deinde etiam ilia carnalia 
 contra secundam, quaKa sunt, non habere honorem 
 parentibus, non obedire magistratui, appetere alterius 
 res, uxorem, etc. quanquam ista levia sint respectu supe- 
 riorum. Et esto sane, quod homicidium, adulterium, 
 furtum, et id genus alia peccata contra secundam tabulam, 
 facto non commiserim, commisi tamen corde. Quare 
 sum transgressor omnium mandatorum Dei, tantaque 
 est peccatorum meorum multitude, ut bubalum corium 
 ea complecti noij possit. Imo non est numerus eorum ; 
 peccavi enim supra numerum arenae maris. Ad haec 
 diabolus tam callidus est artifex, ut etiam ex bonis 
 operibus meis et justitia mea possit facere maximum 
 peccatum. Cum igitur peccata mea tam seria, vera, 
 grandia, infinita, horribilia, et insuperabilia sint, et mea 
 justitia coram Deo mihi non prosit, sed plus obsit, ideo 
 Christus Dei Filius pro ipsis in mortem traditus est, ut ea 
 aboleret, et me et omnes qui hoc credunt salvos faceret." 
 This passage attracted Mr "Ward's notice, when he 
 was hunting after stumblingblocks in the Commentary on 
 the Galations ; and we must suppose him to have read 
 it through, since he quotes several fragments of it, though 
 in such a way that the reader is sure to misapprehend 
 the meaning, and will never divine that the appalling 
 enumeration of sins is represented as a part of the last 
 agony of a troubled conscience, " in periculo et pugna 
 mortis." Not that Mr "Ward's misrepresentations, either 
 here or elsewhere, seem to have been intentional : he is 
 
140 
 
 REPLY TO MR WARD S 
 
 as candid and veracious as his violent delusions, his 
 blinding idolatries and antipathies, his ignorance on many 
 of the matters treated of, his carelessness, and his pre- 
 sumption veil! let him he. If his extracts from this 
 passage do not adequately convey its meaning, one can 
 see plainly that he himself had totally misunderstood it. 
 Else he could not have said, immediately after those 
 extracts, " The essence then of Luther's Gospel is this, 
 that a person so affected has only one great struggle to go 
 through, in order that he may obtain the indefectible 
 promise of eternal salvation." For in the latter part of 
 this very passage Luther is not speaking of the primary 
 struggle, when the sinner is first brought to seek _ the 
 righteousness of Christ : on the contrary he is exhorting 
 those who have been so brought, to hold the beginning of 
 their corifidence firm to the end : and he sets forth the 
 enormous diificulty of doing so. " Da operam sedulo, 
 ut non solum extra tempus tentationis, sed et in periculo 
 et pugna mortis — ut, inquam, turn possis cumfiducia dicer e, 
 etc." So that the believer is expressly warned in this 
 passage to exercise constant diligence and watchfulness 
 throughout his life, to the end that he may not at his 
 last hour for any pains of death fall from Christ; in direct 
 contradiction to Mr Ward's inference from it, that he 
 " has only one great struggle to go through." Such a 
 perversion, though probably arising from no worse cause 
 than the recklessness with which he gathers up materials 
 for abusing the objects of his aversion, proves him wholly 
 unfitted for exercising any critical or judicial function. 
 Far more difficult however is it to understand how any 
 one, having read through this awful and terrific catalogue 
 of sins, — the sins, not of an openly vicious life, but such 
 as every sensitive conscience, looking back through the 
 dark line of its past years, must acknowledge itself to 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 141 
 
 be burthened with, — should immediately say that Luther 
 had " learnt to feel in some slight measure the sinfulness 
 of sin," and should not have expunged the assertion, 
 which stands two pages before, that he can see nothing 
 in the Commentary on the Galatians " shewing any deep 
 and true insight even into human corruption." 
 
 Nor is it a much less strange defiance of the ordinary 
 rules by which we frame our conclusions concerning facts, 
 to ascribe Luther's feeling of " the real sinfulness of sin," 
 such as it was, to " the unspeakable blessings of a Catholic 
 education and monastic discipline," just after reading his 
 statement of the miserably false and perverted notion of 
 sin which prevailed in the monasteries. To this subject 
 he often recurs, because it was one of the crying delusions 
 of the age. In consequence of the general blindness 
 to the real nature of sin, and to the real sinfulness of man, 
 — from the vulgar notion that sin consisted mainly in 
 certain outward forbidden acts, from which if a man 
 abstained, he was deemed to be comparatively pure, — 
 a notion which rules of discipline and the practice of 
 compulsory confession are pretty sure to foster, — it grew 
 to be held that the monastic life, as being to a certain 
 extent removed from the grosser temptations of the 
 world, had a sort of inherent purity : and thus people 
 were brought into such an unnatural state, that artificial 
 sins were fabricated, in order that they might have 
 something to confess. Of these ficta peccata some in- 
 stances are mentioned in a passage quoted in the Notes 
 to the Mission of the Comforter, p. 243. Hence Luther 
 says, in the Commentary on ii. 16 : " Ipsi (Papa cum suis 
 episcopis, doctoribus, monachis, etc.) peccatum mortale 
 tantum intellexerunt de opere externo commisso contra 
 legem, ut est homicidium, adulterium, furtum, etc. Non 
 viderunt peccatum mortale esse ignorantiam, odium. 
 
142 
 
 REPLY TO MR WARD S 
 
 contemtum Dei in corde, ingratitudinem, murmurationem 
 contra Deum, aversari voluntatem Dei. — Guisque enim 
 monachus hanc habet imaginationem : ego per observa- 
 tionem sanctae regulae possum mereri gratiam de con- 
 gruo ; operibus autem, quae post acceptam gratiam facio, 
 tantum meritum accumulare possum, ut non tantum mihi 
 sufEciat pro consequenda vita aeterna, sed etiam hoc aliis 
 communicare et vendere possim. Sic docuerunt et 
 vixerunt omnes monachi, et pro hac manifesta blasphemia 
 in Christum defendenda nihil non tentant hodie contra 
 nos papistae." 
 
 Where such opinions prevailed, there could not pos- 
 sibly be any deep feeling of " the real sinfulness and evil 
 of sin : " and that vv^hich the monastic system had not, it 
 could not impart, unless by awakening a feeling of its 
 own shallowness and hollowness. Hence, in the Com- 
 mentary on I. 15, Luther says, " Ego in monachatu 
 Christum quotidie crucifixi, et falsa mea fiducia, quae 
 turn perpetuo adhaerebat mihi, blasphemavi. Externe 
 non eram sicut caeteri homines, rap tores, injusti, adulteri; 
 sed servabam castitatem, obedientiam, et paupertatem ; 
 denique liber a curis praesentis vitae, totus eram deditus 
 jejuniis, vigiliis, orationibus, legendis missis, etc. Interim 
 tamen sub ista sanctitate et fiducia justitiae propriae 
 alebam perpetuam diifidentiam, dubitationem, pavorem, 
 odium, et blasphemiam Dei." Again, — for it is desirable 
 that these assertions concerning " the unspeakable bless- 
 ings of a Catholic education and monastic discipline," 
 and their aptness for teaching " the real sinfulness and 
 evil of sin," assertions by which the ignorant and credu- 
 lous may so easily be beguiled, should be exposed in 
 their naked falsehood, — in the Commentary on ir. 18, 
 Luther gives a form of absolution, which the monks 
 " inter se usi sunt," especially those " qui volebant 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 143 
 
 haberi religiosiores caeteris." He records it, he says, 
 " ut et posteritas intelligat infinitam et ineffabilem fuisse 
 abominationem papistici regni." And now tbat all the 
 arts of sophistry are busily employed, in order to prove 
 that black is white, and white black, that evil is good, 
 and good evil, it is unhappily needful to refute them by 
 shewing that black is indeed black, and evil indeed evil. 
 The form is as follows : " Parcat tibi Deus, frater. 
 Meritum passionis Domini nostri Jesu Christi, et beatae 
 Mariae semper Virginis, et omnium sanctorum, meritum 
 ordinis, gravamen religionis, humihtas confessionis, con- 
 tritio cordis, bona opera, quae fecisti et facies pro amore 
 Domini nostri Jesu Christi, cedant tibi in remissionem 
 peccatorum tuorum, in augmentum meriti et gratiae, et 
 in praemiimi vitae aeternae : Amen." It is true, this 
 document does contain a mention of Christ's Passion, 
 as one of the grounds whereby the remission of sins and 
 eternal life are to be obtained : but well might Luther 
 say, " Si diligenter verba expenderis, intelliges Christum 
 plane otiosum esse, et ei detrahi gloriam et nomen Justi- 
 ficatoris et Salvatoris, et tribui monasticis operibus." 
 When the merits of Christ's Passion were set in the same 
 rank with the merits of the Virgin Mary, and of all the 
 Saints, and of a religious order, and with the burthens of 
 religious observances, and the good works done and to be 
 done by the person to be absolved, it is plain that the 
 whole stress would be laid on the religious observances 
 and good works : and the natural result was what Luther 
 describes as his own state : " Ego in eodem luto haesitavi ; 
 putabam Christum esse Judicem (etsi ore fatebar eum 
 passum et mortuum pro redemtione generis humani) pla- 
 candum observatione regulae meae. Ideo cum orabam 
 aut celebrabam raissam, solitus eram semper adjicere in 
 fine : Domine Jesu ad te venio, et oro ut gravamina ordinis 
 
144 
 
 REPLY TO MR WARD S 
 
 mei sint compensatio pro peccatis meis." Well too might 
 he give thanks for his deliverance from this darkness, in 
 which the fallen Church had been given up to that miser- 
 able idolatry, the worship of our own works. " Nunc 
 vero gratias ago Patri misericordiarum, qui me e tenebris 
 vocavit ad lucem Evangelii, et donavit me uberrima 
 cognitione Christi Jesu Domini mei ; propter quem, una 
 cum Paulo, omnia duco esse damna, putoque esse o-xo/SaXa, 
 ut Christum lucrifaciam, utque inveniar in lUo, non 
 habens meam justitiam ex regula Augustini, sed eam 
 quae est per fidem Christi : cui sit laus et gloria, una cum 
 Patre et Spiritu Sancto, in saecula saeculorum, Amen." 
 
 These last extracts will, I hope, still be efEcacious in 
 preserving some from being duped by empty phrases 
 about " the unspeakable blessings of a Catholic education 
 and monastic discipline," and their fitness for teaching 
 men to feel " the sinfulness and real evil of sin." During 
 several ages there were indeed divers beneficial purposes, 
 which the monastic institutions were calculated to effect, 
 and which to a large extent they did efiect : and even in 
 these days a modified form of them might be serviceable 
 for the performance of some of the mighty works to 
 which the Church is called. But among the special 
 temptations to which such institutions are liable, one is 
 that of substituting fictitious offenses, peccata ficta, and 
 fictitious good works, for the ordinary transgressions and 
 the ordinary duties of morality (a k) : and the proneness 
 of man in every condition to magnify whatever belongs 
 peculiarly to that condition cannot fail to exercise its 
 noxious influence with regard to these fictitious offenses 
 and good works, so that they are apt to throw what is 
 higher and deeper, and belongs to our common humanity, 
 into the background. This delusion had reacht a dismal 
 highth at the beginning of the sixteenth century : and 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 145 
 
 hence do we find Luther continually inveying against the 
 hollowness of such arbitrary works, whereby men's con- 
 sciences were deceived ; while he is no less strenuous in 
 urging the infinite superiority of the simple moral law, 
 with its every-day household duties, to all such self- 
 imposed, artificial acts of willworship : see for instance 
 above, pp. 52 and 60. 
 
 Here however Mr Ward interposes with the bold 
 assertion, that Luther " shews the greatest misconception 
 of Catholic doctrine " (p. 172). Now on what grounds 
 does he rest this assertion ? Has he taken the trouble to 
 examine Luther's statements concerning the various 
 matters of doctrine and practice, against which he lifts up 
 his voice ? and has he compared them with the infor- 
 mation which may be derived from other vnriters, as to 
 the state of the Church at that period ? No : such a 
 laborious process would never suit a person whose con- 
 science is to pronounce summary judgement on every 
 question pertaining to religion. In limited monarchies 
 it may be thought right to attend to facts ; but the 
 autocrat of all the Russias would feel his supremacy 
 impeacht, if he were not allowed to deal with facts also, 
 to make and unmake them, at will. Mr Ward does not 
 attempt to shew that Luther's representations of the 
 opinions and practices current in his age, with the know- 
 ledge and sanction of the highest authorities in the 
 Church, are at variance with the facts ascertainable from 
 other sources. His plea is merely that they are incon- 
 sistent with certain higher and more spiritual views of 
 Romish doctrine and practice, which he has formed for 
 himself, so far as one may judge from the books quoted 
 in various parts of his volume, out of a few devotional 
 works, almost all of them belonging to later times, some 
 of them to the nineteenth century. 
 
 h 
 
146 
 
 REPLY TO MR WARD S 
 
 I do not mean to deny that similar views are to be 
 found also in writers anterior to the Reformation. In 
 every age of the Church there was a Christian element in 
 it, contending vnth the Antichristian, an evangelical, 
 scriptural, spiritual element, struggling with more or less 
 success against the corruptions which the hierarchy suckt 
 in from its adulterous intercourse with the world. Here- 
 by the life of the Church was preserved from sinking 
 into utter rottenness. Hereby too the Reformation, 
 when this Evangelical element was raised into distincter 
 consciousness, and for a season into predominant power, 
 was united, by an unbroken, though in certain places a 
 very slender, thread of truth, to the first ages of the 
 Church. At the end of the fifteenth century indeed the 
 thread seemed almost about to snap : but then, as so 
 often in history, it was again seen that, when need is 
 highest, then aid is nighest. Hence, although it is quite 
 true that the gross corruptions of Christian doctrine, with 
 the consequent practical corruptions, which roused Luther 
 to protest against them, were not the only form of doc- 
 trine previously discoverable in the Church, yet it is 
 a sheer fallacy to make this, as the Romish apologists 
 are wont to do, the ground of a charge that he misunder- 
 stood and misrepresented the doctrines of the Church. 
 His protest in the first instance was directed, not against 
 the doctrines of the Church, but against the corruptions 
 of her doctrine and practice, which he saw spreading 
 uncheckt on evpry side. He had no thought of separ- 
 ation; but when his conscience forbad him to keep 
 silence any longer, he spoke, hoping earnestly, how- 
 ever fondly, that the evils, when pointed out, would be 
 corrected (al). 
 
 Here I feel bound to repeat, that the schism was not 
 Luther's act, but the Pope's, whose fatal Bull decreed 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHEE. 147 
 
 that, in lieu of a reformation of the whole Church, the 
 Reformation should be confined to a portion of it, with 
 which the remainder should no longer hold Christian 
 communion. For the imagination so readily becomes 
 a slave to the objects by which we are habitually sur- 
 rounded, that, in thinking of persons living whether in 
 forein lands or in past ages, we involuntarily place them 
 amid circumstances similar in the main to our own : and 
 it requires constant effort and watchfulness to bear in 
 mind how much that to us is so familiar, as almost to seem 
 a part of the order of the world, must in their eyes have 
 been totally different. Thus Mr Ward, in a passage 
 where, for the sake of sharpening his abuse of our 
 English Reformers, he makes a sort of admission in 
 favour of the German, says in p. 44 : " It does appear 
 that the Continental Reformers had submitted themselves 
 to the discipline under which God's Providence had 
 placed them, until their conscience (most ill-directed, I 
 admit, and morally perverse, but still honestly) seemed to 
 them to command its abandonment." These words give 
 an erroneous notion of Luther's position and conduct; 
 for it is plain that he is the Reformer especially referred 
 to : and this they do by transferring the relations of our 
 days to his ; as though two different bodies and systems 
 had been existing in his days, and as though he, after 
 making trial of one, and being dissatisfied, had gone 
 over to the other, under the expectation of liking it 
 better. Such capricious conduct was totally alien from 
 Luther. Mr Ward's words may apply more or less to 
 several of the schismatics in our days, who have recently 
 been "abandoning the discipline under which God's 
 Providence had placed them," being moved to do so by 
 certain speculative or imaginative impulses, or by mere 
 caprices of will, which they have confounded with the 
 
 /, 2 
 
148 REPLY TO MR WARD's 
 
 dictates of Conscience : but they are wholly inapplicable 
 to Luther, who did not of his own accord abandon the 
 system he was placed under, but who was driven out of 
 it ; and who did not allow his Conscience so to transgress 
 its proper sphere, as that it should command him to 
 abandon that system, pronouncing judgement on an act 
 of so complicated a nature and involving such far-stretch- 
 ing consequences, but confined it rather, as we have seen 
 above, to its most appropriate office, that of pronouncing 
 a categorical veto when he was called upon to deny what 
 the word of God, interpreted according to the best 
 exercise of all his faculties, convinced him to be the truth. 
 That Luther's representations of the doctrines and 
 practices current in his age are not founded on a mis- 
 conception of them, but are quite correct, is proved by 
 the most indisputable documents : nor would there be 
 any difficulty in producing a crushing mass of evidence 
 to confirm them (am). Indeed it may be doubted whether 
 any one, except a person who had set up the infallibility 
 of his own fancies and prepossessions under the name 
 of Conscience, would have presumed to deny this, at all 
 events without attempting to bring forward some chain 
 of proofs in warrant of his assertion. In default of such 
 proofs, the first question that suggests itself is, which 
 is the most likely to have understood the real character 
 and purport of the doctrines and practices prevalent in 
 the German monasteries at the beginning of the sixteenth 
 century, — Luther ? or Mr Ward ? To this question Mr 
 Ward himself might be allowed to return an answer : 
 shame, if no better motive, would keep him from engross- 
 ing the minority to himself. For while his view of 
 " Catholic doctrine " appears, as I have already said, to 
 be derived mainly from the devotional writings of later 
 ages, Luther had the best of all means for understanding 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 149 
 
 it thoroughly, such as it was in his days, seeing that he 
 spent a dozen years of his prime in endeavouring to 
 realize it in his own life, as it presented itself to him : 
 and the strenuousness and perseverance of his efforts 
 prove that he was earnestly desirous of knowing its 
 meaning and value (an). 
 
 After the statement of what Mr Ward is pleased to 
 call Luther's Gospel, in p. 171, he adds : " Luther 
 speaks in many places of his own great difficulty in 
 acquiescing in the system he had devised : and from 
 himself he seems to have argued to others ; so that — 
 any one who knows ever so little of Luther's writings 
 must see how painfully aware he is of the opposition 
 presented by human instincts to his lax system ; and 
 how anxiously he endeavours to deceive both others and 
 himself as to the potency of the remedy, which he had 
 the almost incredible boldness of devising from his own 
 invention, against the plainest testimonies of Scripture, 
 against the unceasing and continuous voice of the Church. 
 All this is very pleasing in considering his personal 
 character." Here we have another sample of the mo- 
 rality lookt upon with favour by the modern sophists 
 who prate about the supremacy of the Conscience. Mr 
 Newman, we have seen above, in p. 85, thinks he is 
 bringing forward an apology for Luther, when charging 
 him with the baseness of " indirectly renouncing" immoral 
 doctrines, which he maintained publicly with the utmost 
 vehemence and apparent earnestness down to his death. 
 And now Mr Ward deems it "very pleasing in consider~ 
 ing his personal character," that he should have been 
 "painfuUy aware of the opposition presented by human 
 instincts to his lax system, which he had the boldness 
 of devising from his own invention, against the plainest 
 testimonies of Scripture, against the unceasing and 
 
150 REPLY TO MR WARD's 
 
 continuous voice of the Church." The greater the crimes 
 committed in the service of the apostate Church, the 
 more the criminals were often exalted in her eyes. 
 Jaques Clement, Garnet and Catesby, were highly ex- 
 tolled: in honour of the Massacre of St Bartholomew 
 medals were coined. Still it was reserved for the new 
 school of the Conscience to find out that it is a matter 
 of commendation in an adversary to renounce indirectly, 
 what he has asserted thousands of times openly, and still 
 goes on asserting ; and that it is a " very pleasing " trait 
 of character for him to have been aware how the doc- 
 trine which he invented, and upheld on every occasion 
 with all his heart and soul and mind, in defiance of 
 Scripture and of the Church, was also in opposition to 
 the instincts of human nature. Mr Ward complains of 
 " the cloudy language and inconsecutive thought preva- 
 lent among the supporters " of Lutheranism. To a man 
 in a thick fog all the country round, even places which 
 are lying under a clear sky, seems to be involved in a like 
 atmosphere. 
 
 While the remainder of the last extract may be left 
 to burst through its own tumidity, it seems right to note 
 that here again the Pelagian hoof peeps out. Otherwise 
 it would be strange to find it alledged as a strong argu- 
 ment against Luther's doctrine, that it is " opposed by 
 human instincts," at all events without some enquiry as 
 to the nature and character of those instincts. For human 
 instincts must needs be opposed to that doctrine, of which 
 we are told that the world cannot receive it, that the natural 
 man cannot know it, to that which was a stwmMing -block 
 to the Tews, and foolishness to the Greeks. Therefore, 
 though the opposition to human instincts is not of itself 
 enough to prove a doctrine true, yet we may be sure 
 that, imless a doctrine be in opposition to them, it cannot 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 151 
 
 be more than a partial, superficial representation of the 
 Gospel. Even the second Commandment, Thou shalt 
 love thy neighbour as thyself, is in opposition to human 
 instincts ; so too far more is the first. I grant that, even 
 in man's fallen state, traces may be discerned of feelings 
 which were designed to respond to these Commandments, 
 and which can only receive their full expansion by means 
 of them. But so are there traces of feelings which 
 respond to the great truth, that we are justified by Faith, 
 without the works of the law. Here however, as in 
 many other places, Mr Ward betrays that very want of 
 " any deep and true insight into human corruption," 
 which he ascribes to Luther. 
 
 In p. 172 another admission is made in Luther's 
 favour : " Of course it should be most fully acknow- 
 ledged, that he expresses a confident opinion that justi- 
 fying faith will always lead to good works." This is 
 another instance how, even when Mr "Ward tries to do 
 justice to Luther, he cannot. His mind is so full of 
 his own notions, there is no room in it for Luther's. 
 Mr Newman, we saw, in p. 88, falls into a misconcep- 
 tion, from confounding Luther's view of Faith with 
 his own. In like manner this acknowledgement of Mr 
 Ward's implies a very inadequate apprehension of what 
 Luther means by Faith, as may be seen from the passage 
 already quoted in p. 45. If Luther's idea of Faith had 
 corresponded to Mr Newman's and Mr Ward's, he could 
 then have done no more than " express a confident opinion 
 that justifying Faith will always lead to good works." ^ But 
 then his whole theory of Evangelical truth would have 
 wanted its keystone. It would no longer have been a 
 Gospel in which Righteousness and Peace meet together, 
 but a loose, disjointed string of thoughts, in which the 
 holiness and justice of God and the moral interests of 
 
152 
 
 REPLY TO MR WARD S 
 
 mankind are equally sacrificed to the establishment of 
 absolute and arbitrary decrees. He who would under- 
 stand Luther rightly, must keep fast hold on the idea, 
 that Faith, according to his view, by an inherent, irre- 
 pressible necessity, must produce good works : Fides 
 semper est efficax, vel non est fides. In confirmation of 
 this I will merely quote one passage from the Com- 
 mentary on the Galatians, ii. 18. " We conclude there- 
 fore with St Paul that we are justified solely by Faith 
 in Christ, without the Law or Works. But when a man 
 is justified by Faith, and already possesses Christ through 
 Faith, and knows that Christ is his Righteousness and his 
 Life, assuredly he will not be idle, but, like a good tree, 
 will bring forth good fruit, because, in that he believes, 
 he has the Holy Spirit ; who, wherever He is, allows not 
 a man to be idle, but impells him to all the exercises of 
 piety, to the love of God, to patience in afflictions, to the 
 calling upon God, to the giving of thanks, to the shewing 
 forth of charity to all. Wherefore we also say that Faith 
 without works is nought and empty. Hereby the Papists 
 and the Fanatics mean that Faith, without works, does 
 not justify, or that Faith, however real, if it have not 
 works, is of no worth. This is false : but Faith without 
 works, that is, a fanatical notion, mere vanity, and a 
 dream of the heart, is not Faith, and does not justify." 
 
 The rest of Mr Ward's remarks on particular passages 
 in the Commentary on the Galatians do not seem to call 
 for any special notice. With regard to most of them it 
 is clear that his apprehension of their meaning is more 
 or less imperfect ; but the misunderstandings are of the 
 same kind as those, which have been already exposed. 
 Nor is there any need ,of vindicating the book itself from 
 his contemptuous sentence. " The Commentary (he 
 says in p. 172), considered intellectually as a theological 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 153 
 
 effort, is perhaps one of the feeblest and most worthless 
 productions ever written." I was told some years since 
 of an Oxford bachelor of arts, who, having heard Euclid 
 spoken of with much praise in the common-room, said 
 the next day at dinner that he had been reading through 
 six books that morning, but had not found much in them. 
 Had he been a disciple of Mr Ward's, he would pro- 
 bably have said that they were the stupidest and most 
 worthless books ever written. After the abundant evi- 
 dence we have had of Mr Ward's incapacity to under- 
 stand Luther, we shall not attach much more weight to 
 his sentence. The doctrine which was foolishness to the 
 Greek from the first, is so still : and since Luther's 
 Commentary is an exposition of that one doctrine in all 
 manner of forms and relations, as might be anticipated 
 from his declaration in the Preface, quoted above in 
 p. 31, one cannot wonder that it should fall under the 
 same condenmation. 
 
 Those who look into it expecting to find a learned 
 critical commentary, will be disappointed. It is not 
 such, and was never intended to be such : nor would the 
 circumstances of its composition have allowed it to be 
 so. Luther had too much practical work of paramount 
 importance on his hands, to find leisure for critical 
 exegesis. Indeed the very form of the work forbad 
 this : for it appears from the Preface to have been made 
 up of a course of Lectures, which were taken down by 
 some of his friends : " I myself can hardly believe (he 
 there says), that I was so prolix as this volume represents 
 me, when I was expounding this Epistle publicly. Yet 
 I feel that all the thoughts, which I find noted down 
 vnth such diligence in this book, are mine ; so that I 
 am forced to confess that the whole, and perhaps still 
 more, was said by me in those public lectures." This 
 
154 REPLY TO MR WARD's 
 
 homiletical character of the work accounts for its diffuse- 
 ness, which would have been wholly unsuited to a written 
 commentary : in fact it is not so much this, as a course 
 of lectures on the doctrine of Justification by Faith as 
 declared in the Epistle to the Galatians. At times the 
 author's strong wiU forces passages to bend somewhat 
 reluctantly to his interpretation ; but on the whole it 
 is marvellous how he enters into St Paul's mind, and 
 draws forth his thoughts, and expands them: and it is 
 hardly too much to say, what is nearly implied in the 
 passage quoted just now from Mr Trench, that Luther 
 has done more to bring out the innermost spirit of St 
 Paul's writings, than all other critics put together. 
 
 This has been recognised by many godly men ever 
 since, especially by those who have had to go through 
 the same spiritual conflicts. Not till the world's course 
 has run out, will it be known to how many such per- 
 sons this Commentary on the Galatians, of which Mr 
 Ward speaks with unmeasured contempt, has been a 
 blessed wellspring of spiritual light and consolation. 
 Let me be allowed here to quote the words of one of 
 those great teachers, who are now and then raised up 
 for the edification of Christ's Church, the author of the 
 Pilgrim's Progress, In his account of that awful warfare 
 by which he was so wonderfully prepared and fitted for 
 the ministry of consolation, he says : " Before I had got 
 thus far out of these my temptations, I did greatly long to 
 see some ancient godly man's experience, who had writ 
 some hundreds of years before I was born. — Well, after 
 many such longings in my mind, the God in whose hands 
 are all our days and ways, did cast into my hand one 
 day a book of Martin Luther ; it was his Comment on 
 the Galatians; it was so old that it was ready to fall 
 piece from piece if I did but turn it over. Now I was 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 155 
 
 pleased much that such an old book had fallen into 
 my hands ; the which when I had but a little way 
 perused, I found my condition in his experience, so 
 largely and profoundly handled, as if his book had been 
 written out of my heart. This made me marvel ; for 
 thus thought I, this man coidd not know anything of 
 the state of Christians now, but must needs write and 
 speak the experience of former days. Besides he doth 
 most gravely in that book debate of the rise of these 
 temptations, namely, blasphemy, desperation, and the 
 like, shewing that the law of Moses, as well as the devil, 
 death, and hell, hath a very great hand therein, the which 
 at first was very strange to me ; but considering and 
 watching I found it so indeed. But of particulars here 
 I intend nothing : only this methinks I must let fall be- 
 fore all men, I do prefer this book of Martin Luther upon 
 the Galatians (excepting the Holy Bible) before all the 
 books that ever I have seen, as most fit for a wounded 
 conscience." The book of which Bunyan speaks thus, 
 will not be extinguisht by Mr Ward's scornful censure. 
 
 After saying all the evil he can of the Commentary on 
 the Galatians, — the total amount of which, as attaching 
 to Luther, is just nought, so that, if no momentum can 
 be lost, it must recoil on the head of its author, — Mr 
 Ward seems to have spent a quarter of an hour in turn- 
 ing over a few pages here and there, in this and that 
 volume of his works, in the hope of lighting upon some- 
 thing to condemn, "Another short work of Luther's, 
 which I have lookt through, is his Sermo de Matrimonio, 
 preacht, let it never be forgotten, publicly before a 
 large congregation. Let those who speak of him as a 
 spiritually-minded man read that Sermon, Quotations 
 however of that kind are better omitted. The following 
 are extracted from certain Disputationes pro Veritate 
 
156 
 
 REPLY TO MR WARD S 
 
 inquirenda." From these he cites five propositions. In 
 such a frivolous manner does this writer pursue the task 
 he has set himself, — a task which, if ever entered upon, 
 ought to have been carried on with judicial accuracy and 
 deliberation, — of taking away the character of one who 
 for three centuries has been held in the highest veneration 
 by so many of the best and wisest of men. He " looks 
 through " his Sermon on Marriage, insinuates that there 
 is great impurity in it, and then flies ofi" to another book 
 to pick up something offensive there. This is another 
 instance how our newfangled, autocratical Conscience 
 pronounces her verdicts without examination. Whereas 
 a conscientious man of the old school, — of that Protestant 
 school which loves truth above all things, — if called to 
 pass sentence on a treatise such as Mr Ward describes, 
 would not have been content with looking through it, but 
 would have read it through carefully, to ascertain whether 
 the necessities of the argument did not justify what, 
 taken unconnectedly, might seem obtrusively indelicate : 
 he would have called to mind how the picking out of 
 particular expressions might warrant a charge of impurity 
 against the purest writings, for instance, against the First 
 Epistle to the Corinthians : and he would further have 
 taken into consideration how much in such matters is 
 variable and arbitrary, how the plainness of speech which 
 is offensive to later ages, was deemed no way unbecoming 
 by earlier, and how the differences between different 
 periods in this respect are totally irrespective of moral 
 purity, even as the outside of the whited sepulcre affords 
 no criterion of what is to be found within. 
 
 Which of Luther's Sermons on Marriage shockt Mr 
 Ward so that he could not bring himself to read it, but 
 forgot the obligations of justice, in his eagerness to note 
 down his moral indignation, I do not feel quite certain. 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 157 
 
 Walch's collection of his German works contains four, 
 one preacht in 1519, the second in 1522, the third in 
 1525, the fourth in 1545. In all four there is much that 
 is wise and wholesome ; and several passages are of 
 exceeding beauty : in no one of them is there anything 
 to warrant Mr Ward's censure, if we read them with a 
 due regard to the age and occasion. But the latter two 
 do not seem to have been translated into Latin ; and 
 the Jena edition of his Latin works only gives a trans- 
 lation of the first. As this stands in the same volume 
 with the Theses pro Veritate inquirenda, under the Title 
 De Matrimonio, Mr Ward's flying from it to those Theses, 
 might lead one to suppose that this must be the Sermon 
 he refers to. If we had to deal with any other critic 
 indeed, it might be regarded as an objection to this 
 notion, that this Sermon only fills three folio pages ; so 
 that the laziest of human beings, unless the plea of con- 
 science had deadened the sense of moral responsibility, 
 would have had patience enough to read it through, 
 before he held it up to reprobation. So too, if we had 
 to deal with any other critic, would it have seemed in- 
 credible that he should speak in such a tone of this 
 Sermon, seeing that it does not contain a single word to 
 ofiend the purest ears in our days, not a single sentence 
 which one need hesitate on this score to preach before 
 any congregation in England. A stronger reason for 
 doubting whether this Sermon is the object of Mr Ward's 
 censure lies in the Romish leaven still found in it : for 
 it speaks of marriage as a sacrament ; which notion Luther 
 did not controvert, I believe, till he publisht his treatise 
 De Captivitate Bahylonica Ecclesiae in 1522: nor had 
 he as yet entirely divested himself of the exaggerated 
 honour for celibacy. The Sermon ends however with 
 a beautiful passage on the primary duty of parents to 
 
158 
 
 REPLY TO MR WARD S 
 
 bring up their children in the fear of God, a duty which, 
 we have seen above (p. 71), Luther took every oppor- 
 tunity of enforcing. " If you would exercise true peni- 
 tence, would obtain the highest indulgences here and 
 elsewhere, if you would die happily, would have your 
 offspring increase and spread abroad, strive with your 
 utmost diligence, with all your powers, that your boys 
 may be well brought up. If you cannot do this your- 
 self, use the help of those who know how, can, and will ; 
 nor spare any labour, money, or expense. These are the 
 altars, the testaments, the vigils and masses of the dead : 
 these are lights which will shine for you perpetually, here 
 while you live, and elsewhere after your death in life 
 eternal." Can this be the passage which is to prove that 
 Luther was not spiritually minded ? 
 
 Perhaps however the longer Sermon Vom Ehelichen 
 Lehen, preacht in 1522, of which a translation is inserted 
 in the Wittenberg edition of Luther, is that to which 
 Mr Ward refers : and this is the more likely, inasmuch 
 as Audin, who is one of Mr Ward's purveyors, quotes a 
 number of passages from it, and uses his utmost skill in 
 making them as offensive as possible. Here, as Mr Ward 
 is rightly withheld by delicacy from citing what would pain 
 our more fastidious ears, I will follow his example, merely 
 remarking that, though this sermon is characterized by a 
 Lutheran plainness of speech, and though in ordinary 
 times such subjects are ill fitted for being treated in the 
 pulpit, we cannot be qualified for pronouncing judgement 
 upon it, unless we know before what congregation it was 
 preacht, and what was the occasion which called it forth. 
 Luther himself says in the Preface, that he had shrunk 
 from touching the subject, but that necessity must over- 
 come reluctance : " I must try to instruct miserable per- 
 plext consciences." The date of this Sermon, 1522, 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 159 
 
 when many of the inmates of the convents were quitting 
 them, and when the errours of the Anabaptists were be- 
 ginning to spread, shews that there was urgent need for 
 the voice of wisdom to set forth the true idea, relations, 
 and obligations of marriage : nor could this be done 
 without an exposition and refutation of the manifold 
 scandalous errours and abuses concerning it bred and 
 propagated by the Papacy (ao), many of them for no 
 other purpose, it would seem, than that of extorting 
 money from those who desired to violate any of the 
 prohibitions. 
 
 At the same time, although there is nothing in the 
 Sermon De Matrimonio to justify Mr Ward's censure, I 
 do not deny that in Luther's writings we now and then 
 meet with certain coarsenesses of expression, such as to 
 the more delicate ears of our days would be very offen- 
 sive : and they who are unable to distinguish between what 
 is essential and permanent, and what is merely accidental 
 and variable, that is, ninetynine hundredths of mankind, 
 would be apt to exclaim that he who could allow himself 
 to use such language, cannot possibly have been " spirit- 
 ually minded." But to judge of such matters, we ought, 
 according to a favorite expression of Luther's, which 
 has already occurred above, to be honi dialectici, so as to 
 discern how much in the prescriptive usages of society 
 belongs to particular configurations of manners, and how 
 much results of necessity from the principles of morals. 
 On this point, as I have already remarkt, different ages 
 differ greatly ; and even in the same age there are consi- 
 derable differences between different classes of society. 
 Culture increases delicacy : as a nation becomes more 
 cultivated, it becomes more delicate and fastidious in its 
 language : so too in the same age are those classes whose 
 minds are more cultivated. Hence, though much in the 
 
160 
 
 REPLY TO MR WARD S 
 
 conventions of society on this score is somewhat arbitrary, 
 yet, since there is a sort of connexion between delicacy 
 of language and purity of feeling, inasmuch as that 
 delicacy implies a shrinking from the very notion and 
 suggestion of impurity, a person who wantonly violates 
 these conventions is justly an object of moral condemna- 
 tion. Still, even in the same age, although the various 
 classes of society to a certain extent breathe the same 
 moral and intellectual atmosphere, and are subject to like 
 influences through the manifold intercourse amongst 
 them, a plainness of speech, which would be revolting in 
 members of the higher classes, is continually used by the 
 lower inofiensively and irreprehensibly. Moreover, if we 
 examine the question on the widest scale, we find that 
 the feeling of shame did not exist in the paradisaical state, 
 any more than it does in early childhood, that it only 
 sprang out of the Fall, being, so to say, the shadow cast 
 by Sin on the pure surface of the Conscience, and that, 
 as the consciousness of sin has deepened, so has shame. 
 Thus we learn that, though shamelessness, in all ages 
 since the first, betokens a deadness of Conscience, yet the 
 increase of fastidiousness with regard to language by no 
 means betokens an increase of moral purity, but often 
 the very contrary. "Words which might have been used 
 with unsuspicious freedom in Cato's age by grave sena- 
 tors, and even by virtuous matrons, were discarded as 
 unseemly in that of Augustus : for sensitiveness may 
 arise from soreness, as well as from a natural fineness of 
 organization; and the sparks, which would be harmless 
 elsewhere, become dangerous in the neighbourhood of 
 tinder and of gunpowder. Thus in Luther's age a plain- 
 ness of speech prevailed, whereby, if we look at it unre- 
 flectingly, we may easily be disgusted. But it gave no 
 ofifense then, because, in the greater simplicity, or call 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 161 
 
 it rusticity, of men's minds, it was not provocative of 
 impure feelings. 
 
 Besides, in forming a judgement on this matter, it 
 would be necessary to take into account the class in which 
 Luther was born, and his life in the monastery. For 
 peasants know little about' conventional niceties of lan- 
 guage ; and the absence of female society deprived the 
 monks of that which is the great refiner and purifier of 
 manners ; while the practice of the confessional induces a 
 necessity of speaking on subjects from which a man 
 might otherwise shrink. He who has lived in forein 
 coxmtries must have been often tempted, in this as in 
 many other respects, to condemn the natives hastily and 
 rashly, and therefore unjustly, trying them by his own 
 standard, instead of theirs. If it be urged that we do 
 not find similar coarsenesses in the Latin writings of the 
 pious monks in earlier ages, I would reply that neither do 
 we in Luther's. Few of them have left any remains in 
 their native tongue ; and the very use of a dead language 
 operates as a check on familiarity of expression. The 
 nations too which sprang out of the Roman empire may 
 be said to have inherited a traditional consciousness of 
 impurity, and, along therewith, to a certain extent, a 
 traditional shame, and a traditional refinement of speech. 
 Many words came to them already bearing a stamp of 
 reprobation, which was not attacht till later to their 
 German synonyms. With regard to Luther moreover we 
 must ever keep in mind that his energy and his mighty 
 love of truth constrained him always to speak plainly and 
 strongly. He could not mince his words, or take thought 
 about suiting them to fastidious ears, even if there had 
 been such to suit them to : and the humour with which 
 he was so richly gifted, and which is the natural associate 
 of an intense love of truth, if it be not rather a particular 
 
 M 
 
162 REPLY TO MR ward's 
 
 form and manifestation of that love, led him to strip oif 
 the artificial drapery and conventional formalities of life, 
 and to look straight at the realities hidden beneath them, 
 in their naked contrasts and contradictions (ap). In fine, 
 if w^e would understand Luther rightly, as has been well 
 said in one of the excellent articles in defense of his 
 Tahletalk, in the Zeitschrift fur Protestantismus und 
 Kirche, which seems to be by the editor, Harless (vol. ii. 
 pp. 207, 209), " we must not expect to find a saint of 
 Padua, with downcast look and hollow voice; we must 
 not be afraid of seeing him everywhere, without any cloak 
 or ornaments, in the fulness, freedom, and truth of his 
 natuxal character ; we must accustom ourselves to observe 
 him in his private human relations, as one who, like the 
 whole race sprung during six thousand years from the 
 loins of Adam, was weak and sinful, or, as Jerome says 
 of the whole body of the Apostles, homo vasculo clausus 
 infirmo, and to remember that he too was fallible in higher 
 things. — We do not lose him, we do not lose his great- 
 ness, when we draw near and watch him in the pettiest 
 concerns of his daily life. He is one of those grand 
 characters that can do all things. Hating all show, 
 free from all self-consciousness, scornfully heedless of all 
 consequences, he wins and conquers every one who comes 
 within his sphere, by the simple truth of his bearing, by 
 the energy of his will, and by the inward majesty of his 
 sanctified nature. He is so utterly destitute of every- 
 thing hke a halo, that one's first glance at him has to beg 
 pardon of the next for seeing so little in him." 
 
 As to the propositions selected by Mr Ward from the 
 Theses pro Feritate inquirenda, some others akin to them 
 have already been spoken of in the remarks on Bossuet 
 (pp. 17 — 20) : and as he does not specify what he deems 
 objectionable in them, thinking no doubt that their very 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 163 
 
 enunciation is sufficient to condemn Luther, there seems 
 no need of saying more on the character of such Theses, 
 or on the Lutheran idea of Faith, without a right appre- 
 hension of which we shall perpetually imagine stumbling- 
 blocks where there are none. At the same time a candid 
 critic, when looking at these Theses, and at Luther's other 
 writings anterior to 1521, will remember his own sentence 
 on them prefixt to his first Volume : *' All these things 
 are to be read with judgement. For there are many 
 assertions and arguments in this first volume which breathe 
 and smell of the lees and bilge-water of Paris and Louvain. 
 You will perceive that I am merely striving to emerge and 
 force my way out of this thick darkness." Moreover it 
 is especially incumbent on a person who quotes passages 
 as grounds of condenmation, to be careful that his ex- 
 tracts are thoroughly correct, neither distorted nor muti- 
 lated. On this score Mr Ward does not offend often. 
 Here however, in citing the 15th proposition, he merely 
 gives, " It is certain that thy sins are forgiven, if thou 
 believest them forgiven." Whereas the original is : 
 " Certum est, remissa esse peccata, si credis remissa, 
 quia certa est Christi Sahatoris promissio." The propo- 
 sition is indeed complete in itself ; but as it is scarcely 
 intelligible without the reason given for it, which must 
 needs be deemed weighty, this should not be withheld 
 when we are called on to condemn it. Nor is the 
 translation of the 25th thesis quite- correct. Much 
 too of what is startling in them vanishes when we 
 view them in connexion with those which precede and 
 follow, as links in a logical chain. Hereby that which is 
 vague and general in them is defined : we perceive under 
 what relations, and with what specific purpose the asser- 
 tions are made : we discern theix bearing, their logical force 
 and cogency, and the necessity which drew them forth. 
 
 M 2 
 
164 
 
 EXAMINATION OF MR WARD'S EXTRACTS 
 FROM MOEHLER. 
 
 "With these propositions Mr Ward ends the string of 
 extracts which he has gathered out of Luther's writings, 
 in order to justify his way of speaking of him. But he 
 seems to have felt that he had made out a poor case : so 
 he looks round as far and wide as his reading enables him, 
 in the hope that other enemies and revilers of Luther may 
 supply him with something worse than what he himself 
 has heen able to discover. In so doing he is as unscru- 
 pulous as ever. He does not take the slightest pains to 
 ascertain whether the charges brought against Luther are 
 well-founded or no. Whatever presents itself is welcome, 
 if it will but blast his name : the more heinous it is, the 
 more eagerly he embraces it. Indeed he would almost 
 seem to have shaped his conduct after the model of that 
 tribunal which sought false witness against Luther's 
 Heavenly Master : and he also has at length succeeded 
 in finding two witnesses, whose evidence is in exact accord 
 with his wishes. One of them quotes Luther's own 
 words ; but so did the false witnesses before that infernal 
 tribunal. What the other does we shall see presently. 
 At all events, as Luther always rejoiced and gave thanks, 
 when he had to endure any cross whereby he might in 
 any respect be likened to his Master, so would he rejoice, 
 as far as he himself is concerned, that men should still 
 revile him and speak all manner of evil of him falsely for 
 Christ's name's sake. 
 
MR ward's extracts FROM MOEHLER. 165 
 
 The evidence which Mr Ward's learning has collected 
 in this manner, is a quotation taken from the English 
 translation of Audin's Life of Luther, two quotations 
 from the English translation of Moehler's Symbolik, a 
 quotation from an Article of his own in the British 
 Critic, which appears there to have been borrowed 
 from the French translation of Moehler, and certain 
 extracts from an Article in the Edinburgh Review, and 
 from a Pamphlet on the recent schism in the Church of 
 Scotland. Verily, a formidable array of witnesses, pickt 
 out with a due recognition of the judicial maxim that 
 secondhand testimony is to be rejected ! To one point 
 however they do bear conclusive testimony, which is con- 
 firmed by all the rest of the volume, namely, to Mr 
 Ward's utter incompetency for pronouncing an opinion 
 on any question relating to the German Reformation. 
 
 The passage taken from Audin need not detain us, nor 
 the first of the three taken from Moehler. They merely 
 declare the - impotence of man's unregenerate will in re- 
 gard to divine and spiritual things, with Luther's peculiar 
 force of expression. I wiU only beg the reader, who 
 might otherwise be shockt by these passages, as contra- 
 dictory both to his own consciousness and to universal 
 experience, to remember that Luther is speaking of 
 the impotence of the natural mind with reference to 
 spiritual things. He does not deny, nor does Calvin, — 
 though both are commonly supposed to do so, — that man, 
 even since the Fall, has always possest a power, however 
 it may have been almost stifled in the great mass of men, 
 to fulfill the duties of civil justice and morality, at least 
 to a certain extent. From among the number of passages 
 which prove this, I will cite one, which also shews that 
 Luther readily recognised the virtues of the great Hea- 
 thens, however the misinterpreters and exaggeraters of 
 
166 EXAMINATION OF MR WARD's 
 
 his doctrines may have fancied themselves bound to deny 
 them. " The works of the Law however may be per- 
 formed either before justification or after justification. 
 Before justification many good men even amiong the 
 Heathens, such as Xenophon, Aristides, Fabius, Cicero, 
 Pomponius Atticus, &c., performed the Law, and wrought 
 excellent works. Cicero suffered death bravely for a just 
 and good cause. Pomponius was a true and firm man, 
 who never spake, nor could tolerate any falsehood. Now 
 firmness and truth are noble virtues, and admirable works 
 of the Law : yet they were not justified by them." 
 Comment, in Gal. ii. 16. See also the fifth note in the 
 Appendix to Laurence's fourth Bampton Lecture (aq). 
 
 On the next two extracts it will unhappily be requisite 
 to dwell longer. For they are two of the favorite pas- 
 sages with those who set themselves to revile Luther : at 
 least they have been so since they were held up to indig- 
 nation by Moehler in his Symbolik. Yet this itself would 
 have excited a scruple in a lover of truth. Wotild you 
 judge of Laud by what Prynne may say of him, without 
 sifting his assertions ? or of Cromwell from Clarendon ? 
 Would you choose Eschines as your authority for deter- 
 mining the character of Demosthenes ? or take the state- 
 ments of Celsus or Julian as authentic documents for the 
 principles of Christianity ? Then, if you have such an 
 appetite for falsehood, may you swallow the reports of a 
 Romish writer concerning Luther. A sample of the 
 enormous lies which were circulated about him during 
 his lifetime and soon after, even by men of considerable 
 eminence, may be found in Bayle's Article upon him. 
 What we have seen of Bossuet shews that, though he 
 does not deal in such gross fictions, he is far from having 
 a due regard for truth. Moehler may perhaps be more 
 veracious: but his religion compelled him to look at 
 
EXTRACTS FROM MOEHLER. 167 
 
 the Reformation and its authors under the influence 
 of a blinding prejudice : and instead of training him to 
 a conscientious accuracy in the minutest things, it habi- 
 tuated him to attend solely to what coincides with the 
 tenets of his Church, and to reject whatever opposes 
 them. Hence it may be said that the task which Moeh- 
 ler undertook in his Symbolik, — that of examining the 
 various Protestant Confessions of Faith, and comparing 
 them with the Creeds of the Church of Rome, — is one 
 which a Romish divine cannot possibly perform. The 
 submission he is bound to pay to the dogmas of his own 
 Church incapacitates him for an impartial examination of 
 doctrines which his Church condemns : and this applies 
 even to the German Romanists, notwithstanding the 
 greater freedom and expansion which their minds acquire 
 through their intercourse with the theology and philoso- 
 phy of their Protestant neighbours. Besides, though 
 from a higher point on the hill of knowledge one may 
 look back on the lower steps, and discern their relative 
 bearings, no one standing at a lower point can survey the 
 higher. In fact a Romanist could not attain to an intel- 
 ligent apprehension of that higher and purer manifesta- 
 tion of Christian truth which was vouchsafed to the 
 Church at the Reformation, and by which the corruptions 
 and errours of the previous centuries were disperst, with- 
 out ceasing ipso facto to be a Romanist. It is a moral 
 impossibility almost analogous to that of a Heathen 
 sitting in judgement on Christianity. 
 
 A Protestant also, it may be objected, is in like man- 
 ner unfitted by the shackles of his own faith for judging 
 the Church of Rome with fairness : and doubtless all 
 men, in whatever position they may stand, have a multi- 
 tude of prejudices and prepossessions, which it is very 
 difficult to repress or lay aside, and which turn their 
 
168 EXAMINATION OF MR WARd's 
 
 judgement awry, especially when it is exercised upon 
 those who differ from them on matters of importance. 
 Still the case is by no means the same. Every advance 
 we make in philosophy, or in any department of science, 
 throws a light upon all the preceding stages in its history, 
 and enables us in some respects to understand their 
 nature and purpose better even than those who lived 
 under their immediate influence : and in like manner 
 assuredly the clearer insight into Christian truth which 
 was granted to us at the Reformation, should enable us to 
 appreciate what was really good and evil in the medieval 
 Church, and to discern its place and office in the Provi- 
 dential order of the world. Besides, the chief Confessions 
 of the Protestant Churches do not make the same arro- 
 gant pretensions to determine the minute particulars of 
 Christian doctrine : they are in many respects wisely 
 negative, merely protesting against certain definite, pre- 
 valent corruptions ; and they assert little positively, 
 beyond the primary, universal principles embodied in 
 the ecumenical Creeds, and recognised by every denomi- 
 nation of Christians. Thus they do not cramp and fetter 
 the mind, but enlarge it, and fulfill the divine office of 
 Truth by setting it free. 
 
 For these reasons the readers of Moehler's Symbolik, 
 more especially those who have little previous knowledge 
 to counteract the impressions produced by his statements, 
 ought to bear continually in mind that he cannot, from 
 his very position, be a trustworthy witness, much less 
 a safe critic, with regard to the meaning and spirit of the 
 Protestant Confessions. For he sets out with the unhesi- 
 tating conviction that they are wholly erroneous, and 
 with the determination to prove that they are so. He 
 cannot do them justice ; because his Church forbids him, 
 and because his mind has been so trained and moulded 
 
EXTRACTS FROM MOEHLER. 169 
 
 by the teaching of that Church, that his very conceptions 
 of the primary ideas of Christianity,— Faith, Works, Sin, 
 Grace, — are very different ; nor can he help substitut- 
 ing his oven conceptions, when he meets v^ith those vs^ords 
 in their Protestant signification. At the same time his 
 critical faculty has been studiously represt; because, if 
 it vyere not, it would overthrow or undermine a large 
 portion of the walls which the Church has cast around 
 his faith : and hence he must inevitably missee, misread, 
 misunderstand, and consequently misrepresent what he 
 finds, however unintentionally. He will catch at every 
 straw that will tickle or bolster up his prejudices ; and 
 when he comes to anything that seems very offensive, 
 as it is just what he expected and was seeking for, he will 
 not stop to examine whether on a nearer view it may not 
 prove perfectly innocent. 
 
 Here, as Moehler's work has been translated into 
 English, as it has been much bepraised by our Roman- 
 izers, and has evidently exercised a good deal of in- 
 fluence among them, — and as it is well calculated to 
 foster most delusive prejudices against the Reformation, 
 and in favour of the Church of Rome, in readers pre- 
 pared by visions about the glories of the middle ages, 
 and who are ready to regard the Protestant Churches as 
 outcasts from the pale of Christianity, because, through 
 whatever cause, they have adopted a different form of 
 government, — let me be allowed to remark that, able as 
 the Symbolik certainly is, considering the cause it has to 
 maintain, and plausible as it must needs seem to such as 
 have nothing more than a superficial acquaintance with 
 the topics which it discusses, still, in addition to the 
 errours already spoken of, its value in the service of 
 Truth is destroyed by two pervading fallacies. In 
 the first place, while the author's profest object, as is 
 
170 EXAMINATION OF MR WARD's 
 
 intimated by his title, is to compare the Protestant Sym- 
 bolical Books with those of the Romish Church, in order 
 to ascertain and examine the doctrinal antitheses between 
 them, he soon finds out that, if he confines himself to 
 these deliberate, dogmatical expressions of doctrine, he 
 shall not be able to make out a case : therefore he scrapes 
 together all sorts of passages, not merely out of profess- 
 edly dogmatical treatises, — ^which under certain restric- 
 tions would be allowable, —but out of occasional pam- 
 phlets, out of sermons, out of private letters, nay, even 
 out of Luther's Tabletalh, to kindle and fan an odium 
 which he cannot otherwise excite. Yet it is plain that 
 such a procedure can only mislead and dupe the reader 
 with regard to the great subject matter of the contro- 
 versy ; which is not whether such and such individual 
 Protestants may not at times have written extravagantly 
 or unadvisedly, but is instituted to determine the relative 
 value of the body of Truth set forth by each Church in 
 the solemn Confession of its Faith. Strange too it may 
 seem that the thought of the Lettres Provinciales did not 
 come across him, and warn him of the tremendous retri- 
 bution he might provoke. Moreover, after he has thus 
 craftily shifted the whole ground of the contrast, so that, 
 while it is nominally between the symbolical declarations 
 of doctrine recognised by the opposite Churches, in lieu 
 of the Protestant symbolical declarations he is conti- 
 nually slipping in whatever errours he can pick up in 
 the most trivial writings of the Reformers, — and these too 
 not seldom aggravated by gross misrepresentations, — 
 even this does not content him : a like trick must be 
 played with the other scale. As the one side is degraded 
 below the reality, the other is exalted above it. The 
 fallacy spoken of above, in p. 32, runs through the whole 
 book. The opposition of the Reformers is represented 
 
EXTRACTS FROM MOEHLER. 171 
 
 as having been directed, not against the gross corruptions 
 and errours which prevailed when they began the conflict, 
 but against the modified exposition of Romish doctrine 
 drawn up with such singular adroitness at the Semi- 
 reformation of Trent : nay, even this is often refined and 
 spiritualized by the interpolation of views belonging to 
 the theology and philosophy of the nineteenth century. 
 Hence it is not to be wondered at that Moehler's work 
 should impose on such readers as do not see through 
 these fallacies, but suppose his representations of the 
 opposite parties to be correct. 
 
 Yet its influence ought to have been exploded long 
 ago. For never in the history of controversies was there 
 a completer victory than that gained by the champions of 
 Protestant truth who replied to it. Indeed the attack, 
 instead of being injurious, was eminently beneficial to 
 the German Protestants. It led them to examine the 
 foundations of their strength, to bring out the divine 
 armour of truth stored up in the writings of the Re- 
 formers. Among the answers which Moehler called forth, 
 some, which are highly spoken df,-^for instance, Heng- 
 stenberg's and Marheineke's, — I have not seen : but the 
 two that I have read are triumphant. That by Nitzsch 
 is a masterly assertion and vindication of the great Pro- 
 testant principles which Moehler assailed ; and its calm 
 and dignified tone and spirit, its philosophic power and 
 deep Christian wisdom render it one of the noblest among 
 polemical works. Baur on the other hand takes up his 
 Herculean club and smashes Moehler's book to atoms. 
 Immeasurably superior to his adversary through his vast 
 learning and wonderful dialectic power, he pursues him 
 through sophism after sophism, unravels fallacy after 
 fallacy, and strips off" misstatement after misstatement, 
 till he leaves him at last in a condition of pitiable 
 
172 EXAMINATION OF MR WARD's 
 
 nakedness and forlornness. In several of Baur's other 
 works the Hegelian predominates over the Christian, to the 
 great disparagement and sacrifice of Christian truth ; and 
 his criticism has of late years become extravagantly de- 
 structive : even in his answer to Moehler his philosophy 
 at times is too ohtrusive. But his vindication of the doc- 
 trines of the Reformation, and his exposure of the Triden- 
 tine fallacies, as well as of Moehler's, is complete. Varus 
 himself hardly fared worse, than the modern who has 
 recently been attempting to bring the countrymen of 
 Arminius under the bondage of Rome (ar). May 
 such be the fate of those who would bring us also under 
 that bondage ! 
 
 Like conquest may the Church of England see ! 
 And her foes find a like inglorious grave ! 
 
 Such being the vfitness against Luther, — one who, in 
 addition to the common human readiness and carelessness 
 in suspecting evil, labours under so great special disquali- 
 fications as render it a moral impossibility for him to look 
 at Luther with a calm, candid eye, — it might be thought 
 that every one who cared for truth, or feared to commit 
 the sin of slander, would have examined his allegations 
 to make out their real purport and bearing. Suppose a 
 man were to quote such words as I came not to bring 
 ipeace, but a sword, and to assert that they are a charac- 
 teristic specimen of the doctrines of Jesus, what sentence 
 would such a false blasphemer incur ? and what should 
 we say of those who took up and repeated his blasphemy, 
 without so much as enquiring after its grounds ? Surely 
 we do not need to have it proved, in this sixth millennium 
 of the world, that words, however accurately cited, when 
 wrested from their context, may seem to bear a very 
 different meaning from that in which they were originally 
 uttered. 
 
EXTRACTS FROM MOEHLER. 173 
 
 The first of the two passages we have to examine 
 stands thus in Mr "Ward's note. "So thou seest how rich 
 is the Christian ; even if he will, he cannot destroy his 
 salvation by any sins how grievous soever, unless he re- 
 fuse to believe. For no sins can condemn him except 
 unbelief alone. All others, if faith in the divine pro- 
 mise made at Baptism return or remain, are absorbed 
 in a moment through the same faith." These words, if 
 faith be nothing more than an intellectual conviction, 
 are doubtless very false and mischievous. At the 
 same time it is plain on the face of them, even as they 
 stand here, that they will admit of an interpretation, 
 whereby they will only be a strong and abrupt way of 
 declaring that forgiveness of sins which we receive 
 through the death and passion of our blessed Saviour, of 
 which we become partakers by faith, and which is not 
 limited to sins of a certain magnitude, and incapable of 
 embracing the greater, but is sufficient to cover them all, 
 — with the exception at least of the one unpardonable 
 sin, — and, though they are as scarlet, can make them 
 white as snow, though they are like the sins of David, 
 can put them away in a moment. 
 
 Now if we turn to the Treatise De Captivitate Babylo- 
 nica Ecclesiae, from which the extract is taken, — a trea- 
 tise written in 1520, in the very crisis and agony of the 
 conflict between the principle of the old Church and that 
 of the Reformation in Luther's own soul, and therefore 
 necessarily bearing marks of the vehemence of the strife, 
 — we find that it stands in that portion which is devoted 
 to the vindicating of the sacrament of Baptism from its 
 Romish corruptions. After saying that this sacrament, 
 as administered to little children, had been preserved 
 through God's mercy uncontaminated by the manifold 
 abuses which had turned the other into an instrument 
 
174 
 
 EXAMINATION OF MR WARD S 
 
 of gain, he adds : " But while Satan was unable to ex- 
 tinguish the virtue of Baptism in infants, he yet pre- 
 vailed so as to extinguish it in all adults ; insomuch that 
 there is scarcely anybody who calls to mind that he was 
 baptized, much less who glories in it, so many other ways 
 having been found out for remitting sins and for going 
 to heaven. These notions have been promoted by that 
 dangerous saying of St Jerome's, — in which he calls 
 repentance the second plank after the shipwreck. For 
 hence, when people fell into sin, despairing of the first 
 plank or ship, as though it had been lost, they began to 
 lean and rely solely on the second plank, that is, on 
 repentance. Hence arose those infinite burthens of vows, 
 religious orders (as), works, satisfactions, pilgrimages, in- 
 dulgences, sects, and out of these those oceans of books, 
 questions, opinions, human traditions, which the whole 
 world can hardly contain, so that this tyranny is oppress- 
 ing the Church of God incomparably worse, than it ever 
 opprest the Synagogue, or any nation under the sun. — 
 Primarily therefore in Baptism should we attend to the 
 Divine promise, which declares. He who believes, and is 
 baptized, shall be saved. Which promise is to be pre- 
 ferred immeasurably to all the pomps of works, vows, 
 religious orders, and whatsoever man has introduced. — 
 This declaration ought to have been inculcated diligently 
 into the people ; the promise ought to have been assidu- 
 ously repeated to them ; they should have recurred con- 
 tinually to their Baptism ; faith in it ought to have been 
 perpetually excited and cherisht. For as, when this 
 Divine promise has once been brought to bear upon us, 
 its truth endures even to our death, so our faith in it 
 ought never to intermit, but to be fostered and strength- 
 ened even to our death by the constant recollection of 
 the promise made to us in Baptism. Wherefore, when 
 
EXTRACTS FROM MOEHLER. 175 
 
 we arise out of our sins, or repent, we do nothing else 
 than return to the virtue of our Baptism, and to that faith 
 in it from which we had fallen ; and we recur to the pro- 
 mise then made to us, which through sin we had deserted. 
 For the truth of the promise once made abides for ever, 
 ready with outstretcht hand to receive us when we return. 
 — In the next place it will be no slight benefit, if the 
 penitent laying hold first of all on the recollection of his 
 Baptism, and trustfully calling to mind the Divine pro- 
 mise which he has deserted, acknowledges it to God, 
 rejoicing that he has such a bulwark of safety still in 
 reserve, in that he has been baptized, declaring his detes- 
 tation of his impious ingratitude in falling away from the 
 faith and truth of his baptism. For his heart will be 
 wonderfully comforted, and animated to a hope of mercy, 
 if he considers that the Divine promise made to him, which 
 cannot lie, is still entire and unchanged, and cannot be 
 changed by any sins of his ; as St Paul says, If we believe 
 not, He dbideth faithful : He cannot deny Himself, This 
 truth of God, I say, will save him, so that, though all 
 other things perish, this, if he believe in it, will not 
 forsake him. — For if the children of Israel, when about 
 to turn to repentance, began by commemorating their 
 coming out of Egypt, and by this recollection returned 
 to the God who brought them out, — which recollection, 
 and this their safeguard, is so often inculcated on them 
 by Moses, and repeated by David, — how much more 
 ought we to commemorate our coming out of our Egypt, 
 and in this recollection to return to Him who brought us 
 out by the laver of a new regeneration, the remembrance 
 of which is enjoined on us for this very purpose ! — Thus 
 we read of a certain virgin who, whenever she was 
 tempted, repelled the temptation with her Baptism, say- 
 ing briefly, / am a Christian. For the enemy immediately 
 
176 EXAMINATION OF MR WARD's 
 
 understood the virtue of Baptism, and of her faith which 
 relied upon the Truth of God's promise, and fled from 
 her. Thus you see how rich the Christian or baptized person 
 is, who, even though he wish it, cannot destroy his salva- 
 tion i>y any sins whatsoever, unless he toill not believe. For 
 no sins can condemn him, except unbelief alone. All others, 
 if faith in the Divine promise made to him at his Baptism 
 return or stand fast, are absorbed in a moment by the same^ 
 faith, yea, truth of God; because He cannot deny Himself ^ 
 if you confess Him, and cleave faithfully to His promise. 
 Whereas contrition, and the confession of sins, and satis- 
 faction for them, and all those human devices, will soon 
 fail you, and make you more unhappy, if, forgetting this 
 Divine truth, you rest upon them. For whatever lahorious 
 efibrts we make, without faith in God's truth, are the 
 vanity of vanities and vexation of spirit." 
 
 From this extract we perceive the real meaning of the 
 words, which Moehler, and Mr Ward after him, hang up 
 in their pages as a scarecrow. Indeed they had already 
 been anathematized by the Council of Trent in its sixth 
 Canon on Baptism, in which these words are citedj — 
 though without mention of Luther's name, — with a sophis- 
 tical perversion of their meaning, through the omission 
 of the context. Luther, — he, be it remembered, whom 
 Mr Newman charges with " abolishing Sacraments to 
 introduce barren and dead ordinances,"— is speaking of 
 the power of that grace which is conferred on us in our 
 Baptism, and whereby we become the children of God : 
 and he asserts, most truly, that the adoption bestowed on 
 us then is not a mere shadow, but a mighty reality, — 
 that the evangelical promise of the forgiveness of sins, 
 of which we then receive the pledge, is not given merely 
 to Heathens, on their becoming Christians, but to Chris- 
 tians also, — that to the Christian sinner al§o Christ says. 
 
EXTRACTS FROM MOEHLER. 177 
 
 Thy sins are forgiven thee, before He says, Arise and 
 walk, — that, if we go to Him with a humble, living faith 
 in the power of His atonement, in the reconciliation 
 which He has wrought for us, our sins, though they 
 be as scarlet, — and who, knowing the terrible depths of 
 sin, will not confess that his are so ? — shall be washt out 
 at once, and wiU not be left for us to wash out by an 
 endless scouring with the sand of good works : whereby, 
 even though they were Hke the sand of the sea in number, 
 we should be continually deepening the stain, rather than 
 expunging it. Take thy stand on thy Baptism, says this 
 disparager of Baptism ; not on thine own works, thine 
 own sorrow, thine own penances, hut on God's promise 
 made to thee at thy Baptism, Therein thou wast received 
 hy Him to he His child. Be assured that this reception 
 was a reality, that thou didst become His child. Go to 
 Him as such in humble faith. His arms are already stretcht 
 out to receive thee. Great as thy sins may be, let them not 
 keep thee away : they cannot he greater than those of many 
 whom He has received among His saints. Christ did not 
 die for the righteous, but for sinners. The way into the 
 kingdom of heaven has been opened for publicans and 
 harlots; and so is it open for thee (at). 
 
 Thus the passage which Mr Ward holds up to reproba- 
 tion, is in fact an assertion of that blessed truth, which 
 is the only possible comfort for all such as have been 
 brought to a spiritual conviction of sin : and it coincides 
 exactly with the sentences on the same subject cited by 
 my dear friend and brother, Mr Maurice, in the Second 
 Letter in the first edition of his Kingdom of Christ; 
 where, strengthening himself with the authority of 
 Luther, he vindicates the same blessed truth against the 
 unscriptural notions concerning post-baptismal sins pro- 
 mulgated by the new Oxford School of Theology. It is 
 
 N 
 
178 EXAMINATION OF MR WAED's 
 
 an assertion of the blessed truth declared in the parable 
 of the Prodigal Son, as its meaning and purport have 
 been beautifully explained by Mr Trench, — a truth so 
 blessed that the natural understanding cannot receive it, 
 even after it has been revealed and declared. Hence all 
 those vv^ho, following the dictates of their natural under- 
 standing, have set themselves to dechristianize Christ- 
 ianity, have ever begun by denying the freedom and 
 fulness of Divine grace, and by maintaining that God 
 cannot give it except to those who will buy it of Him, 
 though the utmost we could do would be to pay a grain 
 of sand for a skyful of light. The irrepressible workings 
 of this spirit have especially manifested themselves in the 
 Church of Rome, and are manifesting themselves among 
 us at this day in our modern Romanizers. They cannot 
 believe that there is joy in heaven over one sinner that 
 repenteth. No, they say, the only cause worthy to make 
 the angels rejoice is the sight of the ninetynine righteous 
 men who need no repentance. They cannot reconcile them- 
 selves, any more than the elder brother could, to the 
 notion that the Father should bring forth the best robe, 
 and kill the fatted calf, to welcome the returning Prodigal. 
 They are sure that, if the Father receives him at all, it 
 will be as one of his hired servants, to work off his sins by 
 yearlong service, at the rate of a sin a year; whereby 
 forsooth at the end of the world he might just be be- 
 ginning to clear off the score of his youth, while a fresh 
 score was daily growing against him. 
 
 The next passage which Mr Ward quotes, it must be 
 confest, is very startling : " Be thou a sinner and sin 
 boldly, but still more boldly believe and rejoice in Christ. 
 Sufficient is it that through the riches of the glory of God 
 we know the Lamb who taketh away the sins of the 
 world ; from Him sin shall not separate us, no, though a 
 
EXTRACTS FROM MOEHLER. 179 
 
 thousand thousand times in every day we should commit 
 fornication or murder." Verily it does seem here as 
 though hell were casting up its spray into heaven. Still, 
 after our ample experience of the manner in which words 
 may be misrepresented, and after the thousand thousand 
 proofs afforded by Luther's writings and life, that he did 
 know something of the Gospel, we will not be dis- 
 heartened. At all events we will try to make out what 
 these awful words can mean, to whom they can have been 
 said, for what purpose. Were they said to Simon de 
 Montfort, when he marcht against the Albigenses ? or to 
 Alva, when he entered on his government in the Nether- 
 • lands ? or to Louis the Fourteenth, when he revoked the 
 edict of Nantes ? or to poor Mary, when she mounted the 
 throne after the death of her brother Edward ? Were 
 they a dram administered to Charles the Ninth and to 
 Catherine of Medicis on the eve of St Bartholomew ? or 
 a billet-doux sent to Charles the Second during the pro- 
 gress of his conversion ? Or were they a motto written 
 up in the halls of the Inquisition ? Or can it be that 
 Luther was once engaged in a friendly correspondence 
 with Munzer ? or with Alexander the Sixth ? The only 
 hint Mr Ward in his Ideal gives about this passage, is, 
 " Here I may add a quotation I made in the British 
 Critic." On turning however to the place in the British 
 Critic (xxxi. 438), we find that this quotation also is 
 borrowed from Moehler. Mr Ward there says : " As to 
 the natural tendency of Luther's principles, the following 
 passage from one of his letters to Melanchthon is worthy 
 of observation." To Melanchthon, of all men that ever 
 lived ! not to Munzer ; not to Alexander the Sixth ; not 
 to Leo the Tenth : not to Clement the Seventh ; but to 
 Melanchthon ! A strange person truly to choose as the 
 confidant of such a doctrine, as the recipient of such an 
 
 N 2 
 
180 
 
 EXAMINATION OF MR WARD S 
 
 exhortation ! The Tempter, against whom Luther so 
 often battled, must for once have gained complete pos- 
 session of him, and turned him into an instrument for 
 destroying the soul of his younger friend. 
 
 Mr Ward proceeds : " Its genuineness, we believe, is 
 unquestionable ; though his admirers profess they can 
 give it an innocent meaning ; nor must it be read without 
 remembering that it was plainly written. in haste and 
 under excitement, nor indeed do we quote it as proof of 
 his habitual feeling, but the tendency of his doctrine in 
 proportion as his conscience should sleep." He then 
 gives the passage, and adds, " Quoted in Moehler's Sym- 
 holique, French Translation, and acknowledged genuine 
 by Bauer in his answer to Moehler." Here it is notice- 
 able that these apologetical remarks are omitted, when 
 the passage is quoted in the Ideal : there it stands in its 
 naked, hateful deformity. Such is the natural advance 
 in recklessness as a person draws nearer to Rome. The 
 nails and cramps which held the vessel of his Conscience 
 together, fly out as he approaches the magnetic mountain ; 
 and at last he sinks into the deep. Again, though these 
 remarks might lead one to suppose that Mr Ward had 
 referred to the passage in Luther's letter, with the view 
 of ascertaining the correctness of Moehler's charge, this 
 is not the case. He was already too far gone for that. 
 They merely repeat what Moehler himself had said in 
 nearly the same words. Further, — for I must make one 
 more observation on Mr Ward's mode of citing this 
 passage, — he says it is " acknowledged genuine by Bauer 
 in his answer to Moehler." Qf course he means, by 
 Baur. Thus much is true : Baur does not think of ques- 
 tioning the genuineness of the passage : indeed . no one 
 could, who knows anything of Luther's unmistakable 
 style. But Baur proves that the words quoted by 
 
EXTRACTS FROM MOEHLER. 181 
 
 Moehler, when torn from the context, have an offensive, 
 revolting meaning, which clearly cannot belong to them 
 if they are taken along with it; and lie enters into an 
 argument of some length to shew what the real meaning 
 must be, and that it is perfectly innocent. What then 
 are we to think of a person, who appeals to Baur as 
 acknowledging the genuineness of the passage, — which he 
 only does tacitly, by not disputing it, — and yet does not 
 mention that Baur proves from the context that the 
 meaning of the words must be far less offensive than, 
 when we look at them without the context, it seems to 
 be ; even supposing that he is not quite successful in 
 establishing his own interpretation of them ? Can the 
 fraudulent tricks of calumny be carried to a higher pitch ? 
 A man kills a ruffian, whom he finds attempting to 
 violate his wife. A friend deposes that he saw the ruffian 
 attempting the violation, at the time when the incenst 
 husband slew him. Then comes the calumniator, and 
 says, Here is a man who has committed murder ; and his 
 friend testifies that he saw him commit it. Unless indeed 
 Mr Ward should alledge that, in appealing to Baur, 
 whom he miscalls Bauer, he was acting under the ig- 
 norance, which would be the best excuse for so many 
 of his offenses, and that he did not know, except from 
 hearsay, who Baur is, or what he has said. 
 
 Let us however do, what Mr Ward ought to have done, 
 and has not done : let us turn to Luther's letter to Me- 
 lanchthon, and try to ascertain the real meaning of these 
 strange words, which the great Reformer utters in the 
 ears of his younger friend. In so doing I shall avail 
 myself of the help afforded by Baur's note in his Answer 
 to Moehler, pp. 651 — 655, and by the vyriter whom I have 
 already quoted, in the Zeitschrift fur Protestantismus und 
 Kirche, ii. 216 — 219. The letter was written on St 
 
182 
 
 EXAMINATION OF MR WARD S 
 
 Peter's day, 1521, during the second month of Luther's 
 confinement in the "Wartburg, We have only a frag- 
 ment of it, deficient at the beginning ; and it is said by 
 Aurifaber to have been found in Spalatin's Library : it had 
 of course been sent to him on account of the important 
 questions it discusses. Here, while we disclaim the 
 notion of trying to get out of the scrape by questioning 
 the genuineness of the letter, the style and substance of 
 which prove that it cannot have been written by any one 
 except Luther, let us equally reject the flimsy apology 
 of its having been written " under excitement." For 
 though he suffered much in bodily health from want of 
 exercise while he was in the Wartburg, yet even in his 
 letters from thence we see that then, as ever, he was the 
 stouthearted, faithful man of God, resolute to do and to 
 suffer all things for the sake of the Truth, and grieving, 
 not on account of any personal dangers or restraints, but 
 solely for the calamities of the Church. Nor do these 
 letters really furnish any support to Coleridge's strange 
 fancy, which he broacht in the Friend on the ground of 
 some expressions in them, — but which in after years, 
 when he knew more of Luther, he would probably have 
 laid aside, — that there was any genuine similarity of 
 character between Luther, the healthy man of God, 
 and that morbid, dreaming, unprincipled egotist, 
 Rousseau (au). 
 
 At all events the letter in question is written vnth the 
 calmest self-possession, and enters into an interesting 
 argument on several matters which were agitating the 
 minds of his friends, especially on the obligatoriness of 
 the clerical and monastic vows with regard to celibacy ; 
 concerning which his advice had been sought by 
 Melanchthon ; and which at that time Luther inclined to 
 deem binding on the regular, but not on the secular 
 
EXTRACTS FROM MOEHLER. 183 
 
 clergy. He then speaks on the administration of the 
 Eucharist in one or two kinds. Carlstadt and some of his 
 more violent followers seem to have been already promul- 
 gating the opinions, which a few months after gave rise to 
 the disturbances at Wittenberg spoken of above, and to 
 have been declaring that to receive the Eucharist under 
 one kind was in itself a positive sin, Luther on the other 
 hand, with that exemplary sobriety of judgement which 
 he displayed through life in all practical matters, contends, 
 as he ever does with regard to outward things, that they 
 should be left to right themselves, that the peace of the 
 Church should not be disturbed by precipitate and violent 
 innovations, and that his friends ought to content them- 
 selves v(T.th preaching the truth, holding fast the assurance 
 that, when that was duly recognised, the errours of disci- 
 pline and practice would fall to the ground. In Carl- 
 stadt's opinion Melanchthon seems to have participated. 
 Were his previous letter remaining, it would doubtless 
 explain the difficulties in Luther's answer ; but, as all his 
 letters to Luther in the Wartburg are lost, we are left 
 to make out the tenour of it from Luther's reply. 
 
 The point he mainly discusses is, whether the receiving 
 in one kind is a sin. " Nihil arguit illos, unam acci- 
 ■pientes, jpeccasse vel non peccasse. — Nee consentiunt pia 
 corda privari altera specie : qui vero consentiunt et pro- 
 bant, eos — peccare quis negdbit? Cum ergo non exigat 
 (Christus) necessario, et hie urgeat tyrannus, non video 
 quomodo peccent unam accipientes. — Scriptura nihil definit, 
 sine qua peccatum pronunciare non possumus. — In sununa, 
 quia Scriptura non urget hie peccatum esse, peccatum non 
 assero." He then expresses his approbation that, at 
 Wittenberg, where they had the power, they had resolved 
 to re-establish Christ's original institution in its integrity, 
 and declares his own purpose never again to celebrate a 
 
184 
 
 EXAMINATION OF MR WARD S 
 
 private mass : " et ego amplius non faciam missam priva- 
 tam in aeternum." After this lie speaks of the calamities 
 which he seems to himself to see impending over Ger- 
 many. " Ohsecro oremus Dominum ut festinet nobis 
 ampliorem Spiritum suum dare. Suspicor enim fore ut 
 cito visitet Dominus Germaniam, sicnt meretur ejus in- 
 credulitas, impietas, et odium Evangelii. At haec plaga 
 tum nobis imputabitur, quod haeretici Deum provoca- 
 verimus, erimusque opprobrium hominum et abjectio plebis: 
 illi vero apprehendent excusationes in peccatis suis, et 
 justificabunt semet ipsos, ut probet reprobos neque boni- 
 tate neque ira bonos fieri : et scandaUsabuntur multii 
 Fiat, fiat voluntas Domini. Amen." And now, after 
 this solemn prognostication of the evils hanging over the 
 Church, he turns to Melanchthon, and winds up his letter 
 with the following exhortation. " Si gratiae praedicator 
 es, gratiam non fictam, sed veram praedica : si vera gratia 
 est, verum, non fictum peccatum ferto : Deus non facit 
 salvos ficte peccatores. Esto peccatoi', et pecca fortiter ; 
 sed fortius fide et gaude in Christo, qui victor est peccati, 
 mortis, et mundi. Peccandum est, quam diu sic sumus. 
 Vita haec non est habitatio justitiae ; sed exspectamus, 
 ait Petrus, coelos novos et terrain novam, in quibus justitia 
 habitat. Sufficit, quod agnovimus per divitias gloriae Dei 
 Agnum, qui toUit peccatum mundi : ab hoc non avellet nos 
 peccatum, etiamsi millies, millies uno die fornicemur aut 
 occidamus. Putas, tam parvum esse pretium et redem- 
 tionem pro peccatis nostris factam in tanto ac tali Agno ? 
 Ora fortiter : es enim fortissimus peccator." 
 
 When we read this passage in connexion with the rest 
 of the letter, especially with the solemn prophecy which 
 just precedes it, thus much assuredly is quite plain, that, 
 even if Luther could at other times have given admission 
 to the opinions, which the mutilated words cited and 
 
EXTRACTS FROM MOEHLKR. 185 
 
 mistranslated by Mr Ward seem to imply, and which he 
 may truly characterize as too bad " even for the devils," — 
 and could have avowed them to Melanchthon, nay, could 
 have urged Melanchthon to act upon them, could have 
 urged him to continue reveling in the grossest sin, in 
 order that grace might abound, — at all events he must 
 have been stark mad to have done this immediately after 
 speaking in such a tone of the evils coming on the Church, 
 that is, on the lovers of truth in it, whereat their enemies 
 would exult and triumph, and many would be offended 
 (av). Unless some evil spirit had actually taken posses- 
 sion of him, he could not just then have cried to Melanch- 
 thon, Come, brother, let us sin, let us wallow in sin, so that 
 our enemies may indeed have good reason to exult and 
 triumph over us, and that all the lovers of godliness mag be 
 offended. But further, on reading over the whole passage 
 it is manifest that the words, esto peccator et pecca for- 
 titer, are dependent upon, or at least closely connected 
 with the sentence which precedes them. Si gratiae prae- 
 dicator es, gratiam non fictam sed veram praedica : si vera 
 gratia est, verum, non jictum peccatum ferto : Deus non 
 facit salvos Jicte peccatores. If we had Melanchthon's 
 letter, this would probably be quite clear. As it is, the 
 passage quoted above, in p. 138, from the Commentary on 
 the Galatians happily comes to our aid, and explains what 
 Luther means by Jictum peccatum and Jicte peccatores. 
 We there found him inveying against that miserable 
 ignorance of the pervading sinfulness of human nature, 
 which led people to devise artificial sins, that they might 
 have something to confess and be forgiven for. " Ratio 
 humana veUet libenter Deo offerre et adducere Jictum et 
 simulatum peccatorem. — Ne penitus mundi sint, Jingunt 
 quaedam peccata, ut pro illorum venia possint — orare. — 
 Disce hie ex Paulo credere, Christum non pro Jictis aut 
 
186 EXAMINATION OF MR WARD's 
 
 is, sed veris, non pro parvis, sed maximis, — -peccatis 
 traditum esse." Shortly after he adds; " Muniamus igitur 
 cor nostrum his et similibus Scripturae sententiisj ut 
 diabolo accusant!, Tu es peccator, ergo damnatus, respon- 
 dere possimus, Quia tu me peccatorem dicis, ideo volo esse 
 Justus et salvus. Imo damnaheris. Non. Confugio enim 
 ad Christum, qui semetipsum tradidit pro peccatis meis. 
 Nihil igitur efficies tu Satan, quod proponendo peccati 
 magnitudinem conaris me perterrefacere, et sic adducere in 
 tristitiam, diffidentiam, desperationem, odium, contemtum, 
 et blasphemiam Dei. Imo per hoc, quod me peccatorem 
 dicis, ministras mihi arma contra te, ut tuo proprio gladio 
 te jugulare et conculcare possim, quia Christus propter 
 peccatores mortuus est. Deinde tu ipse mihi praedicas 
 gloriam Dei. Nam commonefacis me paternae dilectionis 
 Dei erga me miserum et perditum peccatorem, qui sic 
 dilexit mundum, ut Filium suum daret, etc. Item, quoties 
 objicis me esse peccatorem, toties revocas mihi in memo- 
 riam beneficium Christi Redemptoris mei, in cujus 
 humeris, non meis, jacent omnia peccata mea." 
 
 This passage affords us a clew to what is perplexing in 
 the letter to Melanchthon. When we look back to the 
 previous argument about the Eucharist, it seems evident 
 that Melanchthon must have been insisting on the sinful- 
 ness of receiving in one kind. This Luther speaks of as 
 a,Jictum peccatum, and says. You, who are a preacher of 
 Grace, remember that the Grace you are to preach of is 
 not a makebelieve, but a mighty reality, and that it is not 
 bestowed on us for the forgiveness of artificial peccadilloes, 
 but of those awful, cleaving sins, of which every man 
 with an awakened conscience must acknowledge himself 
 guilty. God sent His Son into the world to save real 
 sinners, not fide peccatores. Therefore esto peccator, et 
 pecca fortiter : acknowledge that thou art a sinner ; but 
 
EXTRACTS FROM MOEHLER. 187 
 
 be of good heart notwithstanding : do not torment thyself 
 about peccadilloes : let not the consciousness of thy sins 
 drive thee to despair : believe in Christ, and rejoice in 
 Him, who is the Conqueror of sin and death and the 
 world ; and let this faith and joy prevail over the con- 
 sciousness of thy sins. We needs must sin, so long as we 
 are in our present state. This life is not the habitation 
 of righteousness ; but we look, St Peter tells us, for a 
 new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous- 
 ness. It is enough that through the riches of the glory 
 of God we have knovFn the Lamb who taketh away the sin 
 of the world. From Him sin shall not separate us, etiamsi 
 millies, millies uno die fornicemur aut occidamus. Thinkest 
 thou that the price and redemption offered for our sins by 
 this Divine Lamb is so small, that it will not avail to cover 
 jourjlcta peccata ? Pray boldly and instantly ; for thou 
 art a very great sinner (aw). 
 
 That this paraphrase expresses the real meaning of the 
 passage which has been held up to reprobation by Mr 
 Ward, I cannot doubt. In his citation it is mutilated 
 and mistranslated ; but whether the guilt of the mutilation 
 and mistranslation belongs wholly to him, or is shared by 
 the French translator, I have not the means of deter- 
 mining. In the third edition of the German Symbolik, 
 Moehler begins the Latin quotation with Si gratiae prae- 
 dicator es, and carries it down to in tanto ac tali Agno : 
 thus one may divine that the meaning of the passage is 
 not so utterly monstrous ; though the portion which he 
 renders into German, as it were, for the sake of deluding 
 his unlearned reader, is only coextensive with Mr Ward's 
 extract. From what Baur says, it would seem as if in 
 Moehler's first edition nothing had been given except this 
 mutilated translation ; and it is possible that this may 
 have been the original of the French version. Still the 
 
188 EXAMINATION OF MR WARd's 
 
 extract just before is professedly taken by Mr Ward from 
 the English translation, which is from the latest German 
 edition : and it is the very passage in a note on which 
 Moehler introduces the extract from the letter to Me- 
 lanchthon. Hence at all events it was disgraceful care- 
 lessness in Mr Ward not to correct his quotation thereby. 
 Again, Luther's words, rightly cited in the Symholik, 
 are etiamsi milUes, millies uno die fornicemur aut occi- 
 damus; whereas Mr Ward renders them, "Though a 
 thousand thousand times in every day we should commit 
 fornication and murder." Perhaps this may be imputable 
 to the French translator ; for Mr Ward's learning must 
 surely be extensive enough to know that in uno die does 
 not mean in every day. Though it might perhaps be 
 shewn that there are a score of blunders in one page of 
 Mr Ward's Ideal, we should not be quite justified in 
 saying that there are a score of blunders in every page. 
 This mistranslation serves his purpose of blasting Luther's 
 fame, inasmuch as it substitutes a hellish horrour, — the 
 thought that a continuous life of the most atrocious sin 
 can coexist with faith and prayer and Christ's righteous- 
 ness, — for that which, justly oifensive as it may be, is 
 so mainly from its peculiar, Lutheran extravagance of 
 expression (ax). 
 
 Let me here remind the reader that, in estimating what 
 is personally reprehensible in such expressions, we are 
 bound to look at them in connexion with the tone and 
 style of the age. Now in the age of the Schoolmen, as 
 has been the case in every age when metaphysical specu- 
 lation has been active, it became a common practice to 
 enunciate paradoxical propositions in a startling form ; it 
 m^ight be in mere defiance to the common sense of man- 
 kind, — the fondness for being stared at being often no 
 less busy in the student's closet than in the dressingroom 
 
EXTRACTS FROM MOEHLER. 189 
 
 of the fop, — or it might be for the sake of exemplifying 
 the fallaciousness of vulgar prejudices, or of shewing how 
 often common opinions, even when sound in themselves, 
 are maintained on untenable grounds. The very forms 
 too of the scholastic logic, and the manner in which the 
 exercises were conducted, encouraged such a habit. 
 Hence everybody who has heard anything about the 
 Schoolmen, has heard of some of their paradoxical propo- 
 sitions ; and the custom of asserting such propositions in 
 scholastic exercises has come dovwi traditionally even to 
 our times. Indeed they have their use with a view to the 
 training of the logical and dialectic faculties. A large 
 collection of such theses is to be found in the first volume 
 of Luther's Latin works : and the singular clearness of 
 his understanding, the distinctness and rapidity with 
 which he ever discerns a central, germinal truth, and 
 separates it from its adjuncts and accidents, bear witness 
 to the benefit of this training, when kept in check by 
 such masculine sense and such stern conscientiousness. 
 
 Some of these propositions however have been pickt 
 out by his enemies for reprobation, especially one which 
 asserts. Si in fide fieri posset adulterium, peccatum non 
 esset. Yet this proposition is logically true ; though 
 doubtless it would be rank folly, if not worse, to scatter 
 such sayings abroad among those who are likely to mis- 
 understand and misuse them. But however offensive and 
 mischievous this proposition may seem, when taken in- 
 sulatedly, if we look at it in the original chain of theses, 
 by which Luther in the year 1520 set forth the great 
 truth, that faith, as the recipient of justification, is exclu- 
 sive of works, and that unbeHef is the prime, fontal sin, 
 the source of all other sins, the meaning of the paradox is 
 quite plain : and we see how he was led to assert it in this 
 naked form, while contending against the dismal confusion 
 
^^0 EXAMINATION OF MR WARD's 
 
 which prevailed with regard to the relation between faith 
 and works. That relation is strikingly declared in the 
 following antithetical paradoxes : Fides nisi sit sine ullis, 
 etiam minimis operihus, non justificat, imo non est fides. 
 Impossible est fidem esse sine assiduis, multis, et magnis 
 operihus. Hence it is plain what is the purpose of the 
 thesis selected for reprobation, and how it is to be 
 answered, by the denial, not of the consequence, but of 
 the premiss ; for if the premiss be granted; the conse- 
 quence must follow (ay). Logically it is analogous to such 
 common sayings, as If the shy falls, we shall catch larks ; 
 which serve a like purpose of sharpening the faculty of 
 making distinctions : and though it would be justly 
 shocking to use such a moral paradox for this compa- 
 ratively trivial purpose, Luther's saying is justified by the 
 occasion which called it forth, and the company amid 
 which it stands, which sufficiently guards it against 
 misapprehension. 
 
 It is true, the logical and dialectic faculties have no 
 immunity from abuse, any more than the other talents 
 committed to man. To make our moral convictions the 
 subject of analysis, to question them as if they might be 
 erroneous, though for the sake of establishing them more 
 securely, must needs brush off the dew of reverence which 
 hangs on the mind at dawn : it may foster indifference to 
 positive truth : it may encourage the conceited to fancy 
 that, by acquiring the power of playing tricks with words, 
 they also acquire a right of playing tricks with realities, 
 and are elevated thereby far above the reach of those, the 
 sum of whose knowledge is that Yea is Yea, and that 
 Nay is Nay. Nor need we go back to Plato and Aristo- 
 phanes, in order to see how dialectic subtilties may be 
 perverted to the undermining of aU moral distinctions. 
 The casuistry of later ages has afibrded too many grievous 
 
EXTRACTS FROM MOEHLER. 191 
 
 proofs that the intellect in Christian countries may be as 
 corrupt and corruptive as ever it was among the Heathens. 
 The point however which I am urging here, is that the 
 familiarity with such speculations will naturally breed a 
 habit of asserting broad, absolute propositions, without 
 the limitations arising from their combination with the 
 other elements of human nature, and of putting impossi- 
 ble cases, with the view of distinguishing the essential 
 principle from all its accidental accompaniments. 
 
 Now in the passage of Luther which we are consider- 
 ing, the real offensiveness lies in the monstrous exagger- 
 ation of the language. The indignation bestowed upon 
 him might indeed have been bestowed most deservedly 
 upon the truly atrocious and blasphemous proposition, 
 whereby the venders of Indulgences, whom he assailed, 
 tried to lure purchasers for their trumpery, — Venias 
 papales tantas esse, ut solvere possint hominem, etiamsi quis 
 per impossibile Dei Genitricem violasset. Such a propo- 
 sition is indeed an abomination in the sight of God and 
 of man : yet this doctrine, which Mr Ward might well 
 call too had for the devils, the flagitious hierarchy encou- 
 raged ; or at least they would not repress and condemn 
 their emissaries for proclaiming it, even when called upon 
 and earnestly implored to do so. Luther's proposition 
 on the other hand is fundamentally true : his words ren- 
 der it probable that he was thinking of David's crimes : 
 the addition of millies millies, as everybody acquainted 
 with his writings wiU recognise at once, is a mere Luther- 
 ism. Most readers will remember his answer to Spalatin 
 with regard to the advice of his friends, who would have 
 dissuaded him from venturing to Worms, that, even if 
 there were as many devils in Worms as there were tiles on 
 the housetops, still he would go thither. So again, in his 
 grand letter to the Elector from the Wartburg, when he 
 
192 
 
 EXAMINATION OF MR WARD S 
 
 declares his resolution of returning to "Wittenberg, he 
 says he will not be withheld by fear of Duke George. 
 This I know full well of myself, if affairs at Leipsic were 
 in the same case as now at Wittenberg, I would ride thither, 
 even though {your Electoral Grace must forgive my foolish 
 speech) it were to rain pure Duke Georges for nine days, 
 and each one of them were nine times more furious than this. 
 These instances are notorious : a multitude of similar 
 ones might be cited from Luther's writings, especially 
 from those belonging to this critical period of his life, 
 when all his powers were stretcht beyond themselves by 
 the stress of the conflict. To our nicer ears such expres- 
 sions may seem in bad taste. Be it so. When a Titan 
 is walking about among the pygmies, the earth seems to 
 rock beneath his tread. Mont Blanc would be out of 
 keeping in the Regent's Park ; and what would be the 
 outcry if it were to toss its head and shake oif an ava- 
 lanche or two ? Such however is the dulness of the 
 elementary powers, they have not apprehended the dis- 
 tinction between force and violence. In like manner, 
 when the adamantine bondage in which men's hearts and 
 souls and minds had been held for centuries, was to be 
 burst, it was almost inevitable that the power which was to 
 burst this should not measure its movements by the rules 
 of polisht life (az). Erasmus did so ; Melanchthon did so ; 
 but a thousand Erasmuses would never have effected the 
 Reformation : nor would a thousand Melanchthons, 
 without Luther to go before . him and to animate 
 
 him. 
 
 Should any doubt remain as to the correctness of the 
 foregoing explanation, it must be removed by the follow- 
 ing extract from the beautiful letter (No 375 in De 
 Wette's Collection), written a few months after to Hart- 
 muth of Kronberg, who. had been deprived of his domains 
 
EXTRACTS FROM MOEHLER. 193 
 
 in consequence of his attachment to the cause of the 
 Reformation. The train of thought is the very same. 
 After speaking of the disasters and scandal brought on 
 the cause by the disturbances at Wittenberg, Luther 
 says, he thinks that these things may have happened in 
 part as a punishment to himself, " for this reason, because 
 at Worms, to oblige some good friends, that I might not 
 be deemed too stiffiieckt, I quencht my spirit, and did not 
 deliver my confession before the tyrant more haughtily 
 and severely ; although the unbelieving heathens have 
 since reviled me for the insolence of my answers. They 
 judge as heathens (such they are) must judge, who Jiave 
 never felt the power of the Spirit or of faith. I have 
 often repented of my humility and respectful conduct. 
 But, be this as it may, whether I sinned or acted rightly, 
 let us nevertheless be undaunted and undismayed. For 
 as we do not vaunt ourselves on our good deeds, neither 
 do we despond at our sins. We thank God that our faith 
 stands higher than good deeds or sins. For the Father of 
 all mercy has given to us to believe, not in a wooden, but 
 in a hving Christ, who is Lord over sin and innocence, 
 and who can raise and preserve us, even though we were 
 to fall into a thousand and again a thousand sins every 
 hour. Of this I have no doubt. And even though Satan 
 try us still more fiercely and cruelly, he shall not make 
 us faint, unless he find a way to pluck down Christ from 
 the right hand of God. Because Christ continues sitting 
 there, we too shall still be lords an4 masters over sin, 
 death, the devU, and all things : nothing shall hinder us." 
 It may be well to remark that the thousand and thousand 
 sins every hour here spoken of must not be appealed to in 
 defense of Mr Ward's translating uno die by every day. 
 For the context shews the nature of the sins referred to, 
 that they are sins of ignorance and of infirmity ; so that 
 
 o 
 
194 MR ward's extracts from moehler. 
 
 this passage merely bears witness to Luther's intense 
 feeling of clinging, pervading sinfulness. 
 
 I will add one more extract to shew how habit- 
 ually Luther's imagination contemplated its objects in 
 large masses and swarms, a habit naturally fostered by 
 the consciousness that he had long been standing almost 
 single, and at certain critical moments altogether so, 
 against the world. Only while in common cases it is fear 
 that multiplies its enemies, with him it was courage : 
 their number itself seemed to make him still bolder ; for 
 he felt he was protected by Him who is One, and who 
 yet is mightier than all the myriad myriads of the uni- 
 verse. The passage comes from a Sermon preacht during 
 the plague at Wittenberg in 1539, calling upon the 
 citizens not to run away, and is printed by Walch, vol. x. 
 p. 2349. " This is not a time to fly ; but we must do 
 what Christ bids us in Matthew xxv. 35 : I was an hun- 
 gred, &c. You know that I never fled in the plague, 
 but staid through it with my whole house and family. 
 Yet I might have fled with a good conscience, especially 
 having the Prince Elector's command. Not so. He 
 who has grown to his wife, brothers, children, sisters, 
 neighbours, let him stay, and help and comfort in the 
 common danger. We all owe each other a death. Thus 
 am I now your parson and makeshift, am tied to my 
 pulpit, from which a hundred pestilences shall not drive 
 me away ; but I shall remain to visit the sick with my 
 priests. If we die in this work of love, well for us : our 
 last hour will be better for us than a thousand years of life. 
 On the other hand, if you fly from your distresses, the 
 time win come when you would rather have died a 
 thousand times over " (ba). 
 
195 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON DR MILL'S REMARKS 
 ON LUTHER. 
 
 Here I am constrained, though with pain and reluc- 
 tance, to remark that a writer of a very different stamp 
 from Mr Ward has committed the same sin of citing 
 the same mutilated words with the purpose of holding 
 up Luther to condemnation. Yes, sin it is, and sin it 
 ought to be called, so long as the Ninth Commandment 
 keeps its place in the Decalogue, to take up slander 
 hastily, without examination, and to repeat it and circu- 
 late it through the world, and that too against a man 
 whose memory has been an object of sacred reverence 
 to millions for ten generations. In fact, the higher the 
 character borne by him who does so, the more such 
 conduct ought to be reprobated. That which in Mr 
 "Ward may seem of a piece with his ordinary procedure, 
 is doubly painful in such a man as Dr Mill, a grave man, 
 a thoughtful man, deliberate and weighty in most of his 
 judgements, and one of the very few in our days who 
 uphold the reputation of English divines for theological 
 learning. Yet, wide as his learning is, and in some 
 departments profound and accurate, it is unfortunately 
 by no means so in the region against which he has been 
 induced by the present state of theology to direct his 
 polemical batteries. The intelligent reader of Dr MiU's 
 attacks on modem German philosophy has frequent 
 occasion to regret that the assailant is not more intimately 
 acquainted with the authors he is assailing, and will think 
 
 o 2 
 
196 OBSERVATIONS ON DR MILL's 
 
 it would have been better that he who professes to teach 
 the English public what great reason they have for 
 abhorring Hegel and Schelling, should at least have 
 read some fair portion of the works he so strongly 
 condemns : whereas it is quite clear that, when he went 
 forth to war against those celebrated philosophers, he 
 had not read a word of Hegel, beyond a few extracts 
 in other writers, and very Kttle of Schelling : nor does 
 he even seem to have known that for the last twelve 
 years Schelling has been strongly contending against 
 Hegel, and has made, or at all events professes to make, 
 the idea of personality and of a personal God the central 
 principle of his system (bb). When we remember how- 
 ever what is the ordinary practice among Englishmen, 
 who give vent to their bile and their self-satisfaction in 
 abusing German Philosophy and Theology, it may not 
 be thought surprising that even such a man as Dr Mill 
 should deem himself warranted in passing sentence 
 without searching into the merits of the case. But it 
 does seem strange that he should count it right to act 
 on the same plan toward Luther ; unless indeed he holds 
 that the sins of the children are to be visited on the 
 father, and that Luther is to be brought to summary 
 punishment on account of the extravagances of modern 
 Rationalism and Pantheism (bc). 
 
 At all events, from whatsoever cause, he seems to 
 delight in seizing an occasion of snarling at Luther, or 
 rather at scraps of Luther, and opinions entertained by 
 Luther, which he has happened to meet with in the 
 course of his miscellaneous reading. Thus, having learnt 
 from Coleridge's Tahletalk that Luther had conjectured 
 that the Epistle to the Hebrews may have been written 
 by ApoUos, he dismisses this conjecture with a contemp- 
 tuous mark of admiration in a note on his Praelectio 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 197 
 
 Theologica ; though surely this is not the way for a divine 
 to treat an opinion which the two recent learned editors 
 of that Epistle, Bleek and Tholuck, have confirmed, after 
 an elaborate investigation, by the sanction of their voices, 
 extolling it as an instance of Luther's remarkable "critical 
 tact." Thus again, in note Z to his Sermons on the 
 Temptation, he extracts a fine passage from Chilling- 
 worth's Sermon on Rom. viii. 34, where that masterly 
 logician, after speaking of the enemies that have no 
 power over the Christian, adds: "Yet for all St Paul's 
 exactness there remains one enemy behind ; and that is 
 a sore one of prime note ; and truly I wonder how the 
 Apostle could miss him : and that is sin. I would to 
 God St Paul had taken notice of him ; for this one 
 enemy is able to do us more harm than all the rest put 
 together ; nay, but for sin, all the rest almost were our 
 very good friends. Had we best supply St Paul's inco- 
 gitancy, and even adventure to put him in the catalogue 
 too ? Well, let those that have a mind to do it, do it : 
 truly I dare not. And but that I know Martin Luther 
 was a bold-spirited man, I should wonder how he durst 
 so confidently have ventured upon it. In his book 
 entitled Captivitatis Bahylonicae, cap. de Baptismo, near 
 the beginning, he hath these words : Vides quam dives 
 sit homo Christianus sive baptizatus, qui etiam volens non 
 potest perdere suam salmtem quantiscunque peccatis, nisi 
 noUt credere. — Only let us do thus much for St Paul's 
 credit, to believe it was not merely inconsiderateness in 
 him to leave out sin in this catalogue ; that there was 
 some ground of reason for it. For though it may come 
 to pass, by the mercy and goodness of God, that even 
 sin itself shall not pluck us out of his hand, yet it would 
 be something a strange preposterous doctrine for a 
 preacher of the New Covenant to proclaim that we 
 
198 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON DR MILL S 
 
 shall undoubtedly obtain the promises of the Covenant, 
 though we never so much break the conditions." 
 
 After vfhat has been said in explanation of this extract 
 from Luther, it will not, I trust, need further apology. 
 Still I will take leave to remark that, while Chilling- 
 worth's calm and grave tone in speaking of it shines 
 much to his advantage, when contrasted with that of 
 Luther's modern assailants, his argument in the last 
 sentence is built on the erroneous notion that the evan- 
 gelical dispensation is a Covenant (bd). Besides we 
 here find that same reluctance and inability to recognise 
 the Son of God as the friend of publicans and sinners, 
 which characterize the whole body of Arminian Theology, 
 and whereby that Theology relapst Romeward, after the 
 grand assertion of that truth at the Reformation. More- 
 over, with all Chillingworth's acuteness, we here see 
 how, — in this respect also like the other Arminian 
 divines, though as a logician far superior to most of 
 them, — he used the truths at the surface as the materials 
 of his logical processes, instead of digging down to 
 those at the centre. For what is the confidence which 
 St Paul entertains that no power whatsoever will be able 
 to separate us from the love of God manifested in Jesus 
 Christ ? It must either be that no enemy whatsoever 
 will be able to draw us into any sort of sin ; in which 
 case he would be contradicting the whole tenour of his 
 own doctrine, as well as the strong declaration in St 
 John's first Epistle (i. 8, 10), and would raise the justified 
 Christian beyond the need of using the fifth petition ia 
 the Lord's Prayer. Or else it must mean that, although 
 they whom God has chosen and justified will still fall 
 continually into sin, while they abide in our present state 
 of infirmity, yet the grace of the Spirit shall so strengthen 
 them, that, notwithstanding the number and power of 
 
REMARKS ON LUTHER. 199 
 
 their enemies, these shall not prevail over them, so as 
 finally to separate them from the love of God, and to 
 nullify the propitiation of their Heavenly Intercessor. 
 But if this be the true interpretation of that passage in 
 St Paul, though Sin is not expressly enumerated among 
 the enemies that shall not separate us from God, it is 
 implied throughout that, as he says in another place, 
 Sin shall not have dominion over us. In other words, 
 the passage of Luther vyhich Chillingworth finds fault 
 with, if we bate its overstrong expressions, will be found 
 to be in unison with that of St Paul. 
 
 Dr Mill however, after his quotation from ChiUing- 
 worth, adds : " The same author who wrote the words 
 quoted, and in whose Commentary on the Epistle to the 
 Galatians similar sentiments may be found, gave utterance 
 also to the following, in a letter to Melanchthon : ' Sufficit 
 quod agnovimus, per divitias gloriae Dei, Agnum qui 
 toUit peccata mundi: ab hoc non avellet nos peccatum, 
 etiamsi millies millies uno die fornicemur aut occidamus,' 
 Greater outrage against the grace of Christ can scarcely 
 be conceived, than the maintenance of such propositions 
 under the idea of magnifying it." What an erroneous 
 impression of Luther's meaning these words, standing by 
 themselves, convey, has been sufficiently shewn. Not 
 that Dr Mill intended to mislead his readers : doubtless 
 he took the quotation from some one else, probably from 
 Moehler. But at all events, when such a man is beguiled, 
 in whatever way, into committing such an act of injustice 
 against Luther, it is a lamentable instance of that torpour 
 of the literary conscience in England, of which I com- 
 plained above. Verily every teacher in England ought 
 to make it one of his first businesses to write these 
 golden words from Niebuhr's Letter to a Student of 
 Philology on the minds and hearts of his pupils. " Above 
 
200 OBSERVATIONS ON DR MILL's REMARKS. 
 
 all things, in every branch of literature and science, 
 ought we to preserve our truth so pure, as utterly to 
 shun all false show, — so as never to assert anything, 
 however slight, for certain, of which we are not thoroughly 
 convinced, — so as to take the utmost pains, when we are 
 expressing a conjecture, to make the degree of our 
 belief apparent. If we do not, where it is possible, our- 
 selves point out defects which we perceive, and which 
 others are not likely to discover, — if, when we lay down 
 our pen, we cannot say, in the presence of God, / have 
 written nothing hnowingly, which, after a severe examina- 
 tion, I do not believe to be true ; in nothing have I deceived 
 my reader, either with regard to myself or others ; nor have 
 I set my most odious adversary in any other light than 
 I would answer for at my last hour, — if we cannot do 
 this, learning and literature make us unprincipled and 
 depraved" (be). 
 
.201 
 
 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S ATTACKS 
 ON LUTHER. 
 
 NiEBUHR adds, immediately after the passage just cited, 
 " Here I am conscious that I demand nothing from others, 
 of which a higher spirit, reading my soul, could reproach 
 me with ever having done the reverse : " and the most 
 diligent and minute examination of his writings has 
 taught me that he was thoroughly warranted in saying 
 so. How many English writers in our days may right- 
 fully say the same I know not, except my fellowlabourer 
 in that translation of his Roman History, which we 
 both felt to be scarcely less valuable as a moral than 
 as an intellectual discipline. That several of our cele- 
 brated writers have no notion of this sort of veracity, 
 we have seen : at all events no such notion can 
 ever have crost Mr "Ward's mind, or that of his second 
 witness, whom we have still to cross-examine. He is 
 one just after Mr Ward's own heart. Such a string of 
 charges as he brings against Luther has rarely been seen. 
 After a number of other very grave counts in the indict- 
 ment, he goes so far as to accuse him of " publicly 
 preaching incontinence, adultery, incest even, as not only 
 allowable, but, if practised under the prudential regula- 
 tions which he himself lays down, unobjectionable, and 
 even praiseworthy." Not a tittle of evidence indeed is 
 adduced in proof of these tremendous accusations ; and 
 though many of the others are asserted to be proved 
 by quotations of Luther's own words, hardly a single 
 
202 
 
 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 reference is given for them. This would cast suspicion 
 on the evidence in the judgement of any conscientious 
 person, or at all events vcould make him wait till he had 
 ascertained the correctness of the statements, before he 
 defiled his pen by repeating them. Such scruples however 
 do not trouble Mr Ward : the more virulent the abuse, 
 the more eagerly he catches it up and propagates it. 
 
 This witness, as cited by Mr Ward, appears in an 
 amphibious character, as the writer of an Article in the 
 Edinburgh Review (No. CXXI), on the Admission of 
 Dissenters to our Universities, and as the author of a 
 pamphlet on the Schism in the Church of Scotland. 
 The pamphlet bears the name of Sir William Hamilton ; 
 and Mr Ward says of the Article in the Review, that 
 " it can be no discourtesy to attribute it to its universally 
 acknowledged author. Sir W. Hamilton." Since the 
 Pamphleteer refers to the Article as his own (in p. 59), 
 in order to correct a misstatement in it, Mr Ward is 
 clearly warranted in ascribing it to him. Else it would 
 be a very doubtful honour. The Article is one of a 
 series attacking the English Universities, especially that 
 of Oxford ; which series certainly exhibited much learning 
 and considerable logical power, but was characterized, as 
 is truly said in a Note to the Lectures on the Question 
 whether the Church or the State has the Power to educate 
 the Nation, (p. 311), "by extreme and even ludicrous 
 ferocity : " and one of the series is there not incorrectly 
 described " as having for its immediate object the estab- 
 lishment of these two propositions, first, that all who 
 took the side opposite to that espoused by the Reviewer 
 were villains ; and secondly, that all who took the same 
 side with him were fools : " while, as might be expected 
 from so renowned a logician, " the ultimate object was of 
 course to prove the sinfulness and inexpediency of bigotry. 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 203 
 
 and inculcate charity and good will." In truth it is much 
 such an Article as might be expected to have come from 
 Polyphemus after the loss of his eye, or from Ajax in 
 his madness. The blows are as violent, and dealt out 
 with almost equal discrimination. 
 
 Nevertheless Mr Ward says, " Sir W. Hamilton's 
 authority is a sufficient voucher for the accuracy of the 
 quotations, but unfortunately he does not specify his 
 references." To this I would reply, that no authority 
 whatsoever, not even that of Aristides or the Duke of 
 Wellington, ought to be taken as a voucher for such a 
 vague mass of scurrilous slander. Truth is definite and 
 distinct, above all is scrupulously so, when constrained 
 to speak evil. It is the calumniator who casts his charges 
 pellmell into a witches caldron. What weight then can 
 any one, with the slightest sense of justice, attach to the 
 unsupported assertions of a writer who has shewn himself 
 capable of being hurried along by such blind fury ? Mr 
 Ward too, be it remembered, must have been personally 
 enabled to appreciate the correctness of accusations 
 branding the whole governing body of the University of 
 Oxford for many generations with the foulest crimes and 
 the most groveling motives. What can be the worth of 
 such testimony, when imputing the public preaching of 
 these abominations to a man whose name has been revered 
 above all other human names for three centuries by the 
 most truth-seeking and truth-loving nation upon earth, a 
 nation inferior to none in the purity of its domestic 
 morals, notwithstanding the forein importations whereby 
 during a part of those three centuries the higher classes 
 have been grievously tainted ? Surely it may be termed 
 a moral impossibility, that Luther should " publicly have 
 preacht incontinence, adultery, incest," and yet that all 
 the learning of Protestant Germany, which explores the 
 
204 
 
 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 hidden things of every nation and age, should never have 
 found it out, — nay, that all the sharp-eyed maKgnity of 
 his Romish enemies should never have hrought forward 
 the evidence of these facts, in such a mode as to convince 
 and confound their opponents. Nor is it less a moral 
 impossibility, that, if these accusations could have been 
 estahlisht on conclusive evidence, the moral sense of 
 Protestant Germany would not have been revolted 
 thereby, and, bitter as the pain might have been, have 
 torn its love and reverence for Luther out of its bleeding 
 heart. Still, in defiance of this twofold moral impossi- 
 bility, Mr Ward is pleased, through a sort of fraternal 
 affection for a writer so nearly akin to him in the calm- 
 ness and sobriety requisite for the exercise of judicial 
 functions, to say that the writer's name " is a sufficient 
 voucher for the accuracy of his quotations," that is, of 
 course, not merely for their literal, verbal accuracy, but 
 for the correctness of the meaning which they needs must, 
 and are evidently designed to convey. 
 
 Yet the very mode in which the charges against Luther 
 are lugged into the Review, ought to have discredited 
 them ; inasmuch as the worst part of them is no way 
 connected with the writer's theme, but seems foisted in 
 to give vent to some personal antipathy or animosity. 
 In contending against an argument which had been used 
 for retaining the tests in our Universities, on the ground 
 that the abolition of them might open the way for a 
 laxity of opinion, such as has prevailed in those of 
 Germany, the Reviewer asserts, " We can easily show — 
 that there is hardly an obnoxious doctrine to be found 
 among the modern Lutherans, which has not its warrant 
 and example in the writings of Luther himself." This 
 is a bold assertion ; and the more one knows of Luther, 
 and of that which is objectionable in modem German 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 205 
 
 theology and philosophy, the more audacious it seems : 
 nor does its audacity diminish, when we examine the 
 proofs by which the Reviewer supports it. To bear 
 out his argument, as well as his assertion, the extrava- 
 gances of opinion alledged against Luther ought to have 
 been of the same kind as those complained of in the 
 modern German Universities. When it is urged that 
 the teaching in the German Universities is destructive 
 of the Divine authority of Christianity, that it degrades 
 Jesus into a mere man, a teacher of morality, that it 
 divests Him of His superhuman powers, that it substitutes 
 some form of natural religion. Deism, or even Pantheism 
 or Atheism, for the Revelation and Incarnation of a 
 personal God, it is utterly wide of the mark to answer, 
 Why, Luther did the same thing : he carried the doctrine 
 of predestination and ahsolute decrees to a wild and shocking 
 extreme ; more especially if we consider that in so doing 
 he was building wholly on what he believed to be the 
 only legitimate sense of the express declarations in Scrip- 
 ture, and that he was reviving the doctrine of Augustin 
 in opposition to the Pelagianism of his age. Or how is 
 the argument enforced by the statement that Luther 
 basely compromised the truth in allowing the Landgrave 
 of Hesse to marry a second wife during the life of the 
 first ? However disgraceful or criminal his conduct 
 may have been, it was his own act, and that of his col- 
 legues ; nay, the worse it was, the more it was theirs, 
 and the further removed from the controversy about tests. 
 A logician like the Reviewer, who is so fond of displaying 
 his logical dexterity, would not have tript thus, unless 
 some blind passion had driven him headlong. He must 
 have been cherishing some secret aversion to Luther ; 
 and being irritated by finding him spoken of with 
 praise by the opponent whom he was refuting, he took 
 
206 REPLY TO SIR W. .HAMILTON'S 
 
 fire and resolved to give vent to his spleen. So he 
 gathers together what he calls " a hasty anthology of 
 some of Luther's opinions," picking out every thorn and 
 briar, every nettle and thistle, everything poisonous and 
 deadly, that he fancies can be found in him. Now hasty 
 assuredly it is, even to a pitch of rashness and recklessness 
 and slovenliness: but the very confession of hastiness 
 ought to have convinced Mr Ward, that the name of a 
 writer who can bring such grave charges against a great 
 and holy man, or at least a man so reputed to be such, 
 hastily, could never be a sufficient voucher for the 
 correctness of his statements. 
 
 This hasty anthology, as the Reviewer terms it, by a 
 litotes like that which gave the Furies the name of the 
 Eumenides, is divided into three classes, Speculative 
 Theology, Practical Theology, and Biblical Criticism. 
 Under the first head his hasty researches have only 
 enabled him to cite the following sentences, in which 
 the doctrine of God's absolute decrees is asserted, in 
 what seems a very offensive manner. " God pleaseth 
 you when he crowns the unworthy ; he ought not to 
 displease you when he damns the innocent. All things 
 take place by the eternal and invariable will of God, 
 who blasts and shatters in pieces the freedom of the will. 
 God creates in us the evil, in like manner as the good. 
 The high perfection of faith, is to believe that God is 
 just notwithstanding that, by his will, he renders us 
 necessarily damnable, and seemeth to find pleasure in 
 the torments of the miserable." 
 
 Much of this sounds very horrible ; but never is the 
 utmost exactitude of greater importance than in argu- 
 ments on these awful subjects. As a slight obstacle on a 
 railway will drive a rapid train out of its course, and may 
 occasion its destruction, so a few little words more or less 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 207 
 
 in such speculations will turn truth into blasphemous 
 falsehood. Now in the sentences just transcribed we 
 immediately perceive one expression which Luther cannot 
 have written in the sense the Reviewer means it to bear. 
 He cannot have spoken of God as damning the innocent, 
 directly and absolutely : for he could not regard any 
 man as innocent before God's judgement-seat. The 
 Reviewer, as usual, gives us no reference ; but we may 
 guess that the quotation comes from the Treatise De 
 Servo Arbitrio, the object of which is to reassert a most 
 important and profound truth, a truth grievously obscured 
 in those days by the practical Pelagianism of the Church : 
 and the assertion of this truth was a great service to 
 Christian Theology and Philosophy, notwithstanding the 
 occasional harshnesses and exaggerations of expression. 
 
 As the sentences just quoted stand in the Review, they 
 seem to form one continuous passage. But when we 
 look through the Treatise De Servo Arbitrio, we discover 
 to our surprise that they are culled out from various 
 parts of it, with long intervals between them, and that 
 they are monstrously garbled and misrepresented. I dare 
 say the Reviewer himself does not know this ; and he 
 may perhaps be thankful to see the originals of his 
 quotation. Well ! if he will look into the third volume 
 of the Jena edition, p. 207 a, he will find Luther arguing 
 thus against an objection urged by Erasmus in his 
 Diatribe de Libero Arbitrio on the score of justice : 
 " Vides ergo Diatriben cum suis in hac causa non 
 judicare secundum aequitatem, sed secundum affectum 
 commodi sui. Si enim aequitatem spectaret, aeque 
 expostularet cum Deo, dum indignos coronat, atque 
 expostulat cum eo, dum immeritos damnat. Aeque 
 etiam latidaret et praedicaret Deum, dum damnat im- 
 meritos, atque facit, dum indignos salvat. Utrobique 
 
208 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 enim par iniquitas, si sensum nostrum spectes ; nisi non 
 fuerit aeque iniquum si Cain ob homicidium laudes 
 regemque facias, atque si Habel innocentem in carcerem 
 conjicias aut occidas. Cum igitur ratio Deum laudet 
 indignos salvantem, arguat vero immeritos damnantem, 
 convincitur non laudare Deum ut Deum, sed ut suo 
 commodo servientem : hoc est, seipsam et quae sua sunt 
 in Deo quaerit et laudat, non Deum aut quae Dei sunt. 
 At si placet tibi Deus indignos coronans, non debet etiam 
 displicere immeritos damnans." Here the sentence which 
 the Reviewer sets at the head of Luther's offensive 
 sayings, and which, as so placed, can only be understood 
 absolutely, —nay, which he plainly meant to be under- 
 stood absolutely, — nay, which, as we shall see, he himself 
 understood absolutely, — comes in as one in a chain of 
 strictly logical propositions, in reply to a particular 
 argument used by Erasmus. Luther is not declaring his 
 ovra belief, but merely reducing his opponent's argument 
 ad ahsurdwm. 
 
 Turn we back eighty-four folio pages to 165 a, and we 
 come to the following sentences. " Est itaque hoc 
 imprimis necessarium et salutare Christiano nosse, quod 
 Deus nihil praescit contingenter, sed quod omnia incom- 
 mutabiU, et aeterna, infallibilique voluntate et praevidet 
 et proponit et facit. Hoc fuhnine sternitur et conteritur 
 penitus Liberum Arbitrium." If the reader compares this 
 with the Reviewer's second sentence, he will perceive 
 what is the meaning of a "literal translation." Luther 
 says that " the foreknowledge of God is a thunderbolt 
 by which Liberum Arbitrium is crusht and destroyed." 
 The Reviewer's Uteral translation most profanely repre- 
 sents God as " blasting and shattering in pieces the freedom 
 of the will" But this mistranslation too, we shall see, is 
 not imputable wholly to him. 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 209 
 
 The precise original of the next sentence, " God 
 creates in us the evil, in like manner as the good," I 
 have not met virith : perhaps there is none, none at all 
 events that the Reviev^er knows of; but there are a 
 number of passages that "blast and shatter in pieces" 
 such an accusation ; for instance in 199 a : " Quando 
 Deus omnia in omnibus movet et agit, necessario movet 
 etiam et agit in Satana et impio. Agit autem in illis 
 taliter, quales illi sunt, et quales invenit ; hoc est, cum 
 illi sint aversi et maK, et rapiantur motu illo divinae 
 omnipotentiae, non nisi aversa et mala faciunt. Tanquam 
 si eques agat equum tripedem vel bipedem, agit quidem 
 taliter, qualis equus est; hoc est, equus male incedit. 
 Sed quid faciat eques ? Equum talem simul agit cum 
 equis sanis, illo male, istis bene : aliter non potest, nisi 
 equus sanetur. Hie vides Deum, cum in malis et per 
 malos operatur, mala quidem fieri, Deum tanien non posse 
 male facere, licet mala per malos faciat, quia ipse bonus 
 malefacere non potest, malis tamen instrumentis utitur. — 
 Omnipotentia Dei facit ut impius non possit motum et 
 actionem Dei evadere. — Corruptio vero seu aversio sui a 
 Deo facit ut bene moveri et rapi non possit. Deus suam 
 omnipotentiam non potest omittere propter illius aversi- 
 onem, impius vero suam aversionem non potest mutafe. 
 Ita fit ut perpetuo et necessario peccet et erret, donee 
 Spiritu Dei corrigatur. — Non igitur quispiam cogitet, 
 Deum, cum dicitur indurare, aut malum in nobis operari, 
 (indurare enim est malum facere), sic facere, quasi de 
 novo in nobis malum creet ; ac si fingas malignum caupo- 
 nem, qui, ipse mains, in vas non malum fundat aut 
 temperet venenum, ipso vase nihil faciente. — Sic enim 
 fingere videntur hominem per sese bonum, aut non 
 malum, pati a Deo malum opus, dum audiunt a nobis 
 dici Deum in nobis operari bona et mala — (can this be the 
 
 p 
 
210 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 original of the Reviewer's sentence, " God creates in us 
 the evil, in like manner as the good ? " the Reviewer 
 himself, we shall see, cannot tell us whether it is or 
 not:) nosque mera necessitate passiva sutjici Deo 
 operanti. — Sed ita cogitet, — in nobis, id est, per nos 
 Deum operari mala, non culpa Dei, sed vitio nostro, qui 
 cum simus natura mali, Deus vero bonus, nos actione 
 sua pro natura omnipotentiae suae rapiens, aliter facere 
 non possit, quam quod ipse bonus malo instrumento 
 malum faciat, licet hoc malo pro sua sapientia utatur 
 bene ad gloriam suam et salutem nostram." Let none 
 despise this explanation. "Who has given a better ? and 
 Luther himself, just before, says, " Oportuit verbis Dei 
 contentos esse, et simpliciter credere quod dicunt, cum 
 sint opera Dei prorsus inenarrabilia. Tamen in obse- 
 quium Rationis, id est, stultitiae humanae, libet ineptire 
 et stultescere, et balbutiendo tentare si qua possimus eam 
 movere." 
 
 For the last sentence in the Reviewer's quartette we 
 must again go back fifty-six folio pages to 171 a; and 
 there we read, "Hie est fidei summus gradus, credere 
 ilium esse clementem, qui tam paucos salvat, tam multos 
 damnat, credere justum, qui sua vohmtate nos necessario 
 damnabiles facit, ut videatur, referente Erasmo, delectari 
 cruciatibus miserorum, et odio potius quam amore dignus." 
 The meaning of this passage, as is clear from the context, 
 . is : " This is the highest pitch of faith, to believe in the 
 mercy of God, although few are saved, and so many 
 condemned, to believe in the justice of God, who by His 
 will creates us, though by the necessity of our fallen 
 nature we become inevitably subject to condemnation, 
 without the special help of His Spirit ; so that, as Erasmus 
 states it, He seems to find pleasure in the torments of the 
 wretched, and to be deserving of hatred rather than love." 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER, 211 
 
 The argument throughout the whole Treatise is, that 
 God does not create the evil in us, but that He creates 
 us, though our fallen nature is evil, and though, until 
 that fallen nature is reneM^ed, we are unable to resist sin, 
 and thereby become liable to condemnation. How grossly 
 all this is misrepresented in the Reviewer's " literal 
 translation," is plain. In the last clause the words 
 referente Erasmo, which show that it was a conclusion 
 drawn, not by Luther himself, but by Erasmus, are 
 wholly left out (bf). 
 
 Still in one sense the Reviewer is not so guilty as he 
 appears. For, strange though it may be deemed, it 
 unquestionably is the fact, as I have already hinted more 
 than once, that he had never set eyes on the original 
 Latin of any one of these four sentences. The garbling, 
 the mistranslation, the misrepresentation are not the 
 Reviewer's sin, but Bossuet's, in the second Book of 
 whose Histoire des Variations the four sentences stand, 
 almost consecutively, though not in the same order, in 
 one page, § xvii. As a thief is sometimes detected 
 through some flaw in bis shoe or boot, which happens to 
 coincide with the foot-prints about the spot where the 
 robbery was committed, so here we may feel confident 
 that the Reviewer, who verily needs an expert policeman 
 to track him, took his quotations from Bossuet, because, 
 after the Chinese fashion, they copy Bossuet's faults. 
 For Bossuet too, in the second sentence, gives, " Toutes 
 choses arrivent par une immuable, ^ternelle, et inevitable 
 volonte de Dieu, qui foud/roie et met en pieces tout le 
 libre arhitre ; " and Bossuet also, according to his wont, 
 perverts the whole of the last sentence, omitting the 
 very words which the Reviewer omits, not only the clause 
 about God's mercj', but also the two words referente 
 Erasmo, the absence of which completely changes the 
 
 p 2 
 
212 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 character of the last clause, shifting its ofFensiveness 
 from Erasmus to Luther ; and Bossuet in like manner 
 mistranslates qui sua voluntate nos necessario damnahiles 
 facit" by " quoiqu'il nous rende necessairement damnahles 
 par sa volontL" 
 
 But though Bossuet may thus relieve the Reviewer 
 from a part of his guilt, still, when we remember that in 
 the sentence immediately before these propositions, which 
 he quotes as exemplifying Luther's paradoxes in Specu- 
 lative Theology, he promises that his " hasty anthology of 
 Luther's opinions" shall be "in his oivn words, literally 
 translated" — and when we find it thus demonstrated that 
 the first four sentences which he produces, on a subject 
 on which the utmost precision is, above all, indispensable, 
 as a metaphysician must be especially aware, are not 
 translated from Luther, but from the translation of a 
 Frenchman, a person therefore nationally inaccu rate, and 
 Luther's bitter and fierce enemy, — and that he can never 
 have seen Luther's words, that he had no notion whatever 
 of their meaning and logical connexion, — we will leave 
 him to characterize his own conduct, if he can find appro- 
 priate terms for it in that rich vocabulary which he has 
 poured out in his attacks on the University of Oxford. 
 On the other hand what a testimony is it to the soundness 
 of Luther's doctrines, that this knot of garbled sentences 
 thus twisted and strained from their meaning are all that 
 so unscrupulous an enemy has been able to scrape 
 together against him under the head of Speculative 
 Theology ! 
 
 As the second head will require some discussion, and is 
 closely connected with the supplementary charges brought 
 against Luther in the Pamphlet, we will proceed next to 
 the third, that of Biblical Criticism. Under this head 
 the Reviewer has strung together divers sayings, which 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 2 IS 
 
 he ascribes to Luther, aiad which, as here represented, 
 appear derogatory to certain portions of the Bihlc 
 From other parts of the Article it is plain that the 
 Reviewer himself feels no repugnance to the freest 
 exercise of criticism on the books collected in the Sacred 
 Volume : therefore these sayings, as quoted by him, are 
 not designed to inspire the same odium,, for the sake of 
 which they are reprinted by Mr Ward. But, with a 
 view to common readers, it may be well to remark, that, 
 even if some of Luther's expressions with regard to 
 certain parts of the Bible appear to be objectionable, 
 at all events to him, far more than to any other man, 
 are we indebted for the elevation of the Scriptures to 
 that power and ubiquity which they now possess, for 
 their supreme authority in the Church, and for their 
 abiding presence as the guardian and guide of every 
 household, the comforter of every sick bed, in the 
 cottage as well as the palace. 
 
 In fact the very freedom of Biblical Criticism, that 
 practice of trying and proving every part of the Scrip- 
 tures by the severest tests, fearlessly and unshrinkingly, 
 which the Protestant Churches have derived from the 
 Reformation, is itself a proof of their reverence for the 
 Bible. Because we know it to be of gold, we feel 
 assured that it will only come out the purer, though 
 it be tried seven times, nay, seventy times seven, in the 
 fire. We do not, — so far at least as we have imbibed 
 the true spirit of the Reformation, we do not regard the 
 Bible as a collection of mysterious oracles to be received 
 in unquestioning silence, literally and undiscriminatingly, 
 as all equally sacred, all equally precious and momentous. 
 We do not wrap it up in wool, and lay it in a dark, 
 unapproachable sanctuary. We know that it is the 
 volume of God's word, and that therefore it has light 
 
214 
 
 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON S 
 
 in itself, yea, that it is full of light, and that this its 
 light it is to manifest by holding its course openly in the 
 eyes of all mankind, like that of the sun through the 
 sky. Did we deem it a candle or a lamp, we should 
 screen it from the winds, and should fear it would burn 
 out : but we cannot fear that either winds or clouds will 
 ever blow out or blot out the sun. For this reason, 
 because the Protestant Churches feel this firm assurance 
 that the Bible contains the Revelation of the Most High 
 God, they are not afraid to let all its parts be tried by 
 the most searching criticism. If they suspected that it 
 might possibly turn out to be a lie, a fiction, a cunningly 
 devised fable, they would keep it out of sight, and debar 
 people from coming too near it, lest the imposture should 
 be detected. But inasmuch as we know and are confident 
 that in the Bible we have the word of God, the declara- 
 tion of His holy will, and of His infinite mercy and 
 grace, — inasmuch too as we know and are confident that 
 the Spirit of Truth has not forsaken His office of en- 
 lightening Christ's Chxirch, but still vouchsafes to direct 
 and preserve the hearts and minds of all such as seek His 
 aid through faith in the Onlybegotten Son of the Father, 
 — therefore we do not shrink from examining the Scrip- 
 tures, as St Paul throughout requires his readers to 
 examine his writings, by the most piercing light of the 
 purified reason, according to the analogy of the faith. 
 
 Hence, although there has been much very deplorable 
 and reprehensible in the Biblical criticism of later times, 
 — although there may be some inconsiderate expressions 
 handed down to us as coming from Luther himself, — the 
 free, living study of the Bible as the Book of God, 
 wherein God manifests Himself livingly and with distinc- 
 tion, even as He does in the outward world, more plainly 
 in some parts, and less plainly in others, — wherein too. 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 215 
 
 as in everything that comes within the sphere of humanity, 
 some portions belong to the realm of transitory things, 
 as well as others to that of eternal things, — this free, 
 living study of the Bible, without which there can be 
 no vital appropriation and assimilation of its truths, and 
 without which it would still less be able to shape and 
 guide the intellect of mankind, is infinitely preferable to 
 the unreflecting reception of every verse in it, verse by 
 verse, even as we should receive a Koran or a Shaster ; 
 just as a living man, notwithstanding all that is frail and 
 perishable about him, ranks immeasurably above a wooden 
 puppet, nay, immeasurably above the finest marble statue. 
 Should any one still feel a scruple, let him read Luther's 
 Letters, or his Tahletalk, and see how the Bible was 
 indeed a living book with him, flesh of his regenerate 
 flesh, and bone of his bone, how it was the light which 
 shone on all his thoughts, and the rock on which he took 
 his stand, with the assurance that, God helping him, all 
 the powers of earth and hell would never be able to 
 drive him away from it. 
 
 We must look however at a few of Luther's sayings 
 concerning the Scriptures, which Mr Ward exhibits for 
 reproof, taking them from the Edinburgh Reviewer. 
 Among them, of course, we find the notorious one about 
 the Epistle of St James. All sorts of persons complain 
 that Luther called it an Epistle of Straw ; and perhaps 
 the loudest in this complaint are those to whom the whole 
 Bible is little else than a book of straw. The expression, 
 so far as I have been able to discover, occurs only in a 
 part of the Preface to the German New Testament 
 publisht in 1522, printed by Walch in Vol. xiv. p. 105, 
 and was ■ omitted in the editions subsequent to 1524. 
 Luther, in pointing out for the instruction of those who 
 were unused to the reading of the Bible, which books in 
 
216 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 the New Testament are of the greatest importance, says, 
 as many have said before and since, that the Gospel of 
 St John is to be valued far above the other three, and 
 concludes thus : " St John's Gospel, and his first Epistle, 
 the Epistles of St Paul, especially those to the Romans, 
 Galatians, Ephesians, and St Peter's first Epistle, — these 
 are the Books v^hich set Christ before you, and teach 
 you everything necessary and salutary for you to knov7, 
 even though you v^ere never to hear or see any other 
 book or doctrine. Therefore the Epistle of St James is 
 quite an epistle of stravr by the side of these ; for it has 
 no true evangelical character." Now, doubtless, if these 
 Books were to be severed from the rest of Scripture, it 
 would be much as if you were to cut away the roots and 
 trunk of a tree, and to fancy that the upper branches 
 would still continue hanging in the air, putting forth 
 leaves, and bearing fruit. On the other hand it should 
 be observed that the expression applied to the Epistle 
 of St James is not used positively, but relatively, in 
 comparison with those books of the New Testament in 
 which the special doctrines of the Gospel are brought 
 forward more fully and explicitly. It was probably 
 suggested by what St Paul says in 1 Cor. iii. 12 ; and, 
 as I have often had occasion to remark, Luther's words 
 are not to be weighed in a jeweller's scales. 
 
 Besides we must take into account that, while he is 
 quite right in denying the specially evangelical character 
 . of this Epistle, it had been turned by those who exag- 
 gerated and perverted its meaning, into the main prop of 
 those very errours concerning Faith and Justification, 
 which it was his peculiar mission to overthrow. Even in 
 the quietest controversy we well know how difiicult it is 
 to measure all our thoughts and words, not to exagge- 
 rate what favours our own side, not to depreciate what 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 217 
 
 supports our adversary. Who tlien will make a man 
 an oifender for a word, uttered in the stress of such a 
 conflict, the most awful perhaps ever waged by man, 
 inasmuch as it was not only against an external power 
 which kept the hearts and minds of half Christendom in 
 abject bondage, and answered an argument with a sen- 
 tence of excommunication and an auto de fe, but also in 
 the first instance against the force of his own inveterate 
 habits and prepossessions, nay, of a faith which he had 
 himself long held earnestly and submissively before he 
 detected its fallacy. Nor should it be forgotten that 
 Luther omitted the offensive expression in the later 
 editions of his New Testament (bg). 
 
 The Reviewer, it has already been stated, gives no 
 references for his extracts, a practice utterly to be repro- 
 bated when they are cited as grounds of censure. The 
 chief part however of the "hasty anthology" collected 
 under the head of Biblical Criticism may be traced to 
 Luther's Tabletalh ; and when we compare these ' so- 
 called extracts with the passages from which they appear 
 to have been taken, we discover more than one reason 
 why it. may have been thought expedient that the 
 references should here be left out, though in other parts 
 of the Article they are given carefully. In the first place 
 the importance of the allegations, for whatsoever purpose 
 they may be cited, is much diminisht when they are 
 known to come from the Tabletalk, Precious as that 
 book is, both for the body of truths contained in it, and 
 for its vivid portraiture of Luther's character and familiar 
 habits, we are not entitled to regard it as a sufficient 
 authority for Luther's opinions, except so far as it is 
 confirmed by his acknowledged writings. At least we 
 certainly have no right to make it the ground of accusa- 
 tions against him. For in all conversation there is much 
 
218 
 
 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON S 
 
 that is prompted, and, it may be, exaggerated, by casual 
 impiilses of the moment, much that, at the time of 
 utterance, is limited by previous or subsequent remarks, 
 and so cannot be rightly understood without them. 
 Besides even the best hearers will often misapprehend 
 and misconceive, the best reporters will often misstate, 
 especially when the report is not committed to writing for 
 hours, it may be for days or weeks after. Some collections 
 of Tabletalk are indeed very interesting and delightful ; 
 but they should always be read in an indulgent, not in a 
 censorious spirit. The only safe rule is, to ascribe what- 
 ever we find that is wise or ingenious or instructive, to 
 the speaker, since this is not likely to have been invented 
 by the reporter ; while the blunders, the absurdities, the 
 extravagances should be overlookt, from the probability 
 that they may be the scribe's interpolations or perversions, 
 or that they may have had some unrecorded justification 
 at the moment. These remarks apply with double force 
 to Luther's, which is compiled from the manuscripts of a 
 dozen of his friends (bh). 
 
 A second reason for the omission of all references might 
 be, that, when it was seen from what a tiny spot in the 
 vast expanse of Luther's writings they were drawn, this 
 would have swept away all appearance of that extensive 
 acquaintance with them which the Reviewer now seems 
 to claim, but which his extreme ignorance of what Luther 
 was proves he cannot have possest. There is also a third 
 reason why it certainly is expedient for the Reviewer 
 that his readers should not have any facilities for referring 
 to the passages he professes to cite ; for then any one 
 would easily have detected how grossly several of them 
 are misrepresented. At present, even if we fancy we 
 have found them out, there is always a possibility that 
 the same words may occur somewhere else, without the 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 219 
 
 context, through the omission of which they convey a 
 totally different meaning from what Luther intended to 
 express by them. 
 
 For instance, when our eyes run through the Reviewer's 
 anthology, one of the most startling sentences is this : 
 " The Booh of Esther I toss into the Elbe" If a person 
 familiar with Luther's style lights upon this sentence, he 
 wiU. recognise the great Reformer's unmistakable mark 
 in the words, I toss into the Elbe ,• and it will be a pang 
 to him to find Luther applying such rude words to any 
 book, even the least important, in the Holy Scriptures. 
 But he did not. The Reviewer asserts that he gives us 
 Luther's " own words, literally translated : " Mr Ward 
 asserts that the Reviewer's name is " a suflicient voucher 
 for the accuracy of his quotations : " and yet Luther 
 never said anything of the sort about the book of Esther. 
 The original of this "literal translation" is plainly the 
 foUovying sentence in Luther's Tabletalk, Das dritte Buch 
 Esther werfe ich in die Elbe : The third book of Esther I 
 toss into the Elbe. Why the Reviewer left out the word 
 third in his "literal translation," it is for him to explain. 
 Were one to follow the example he sets in imputing the 
 vilest motives to all persons in authority in the University 
 of Oxford, one should call this a fraudulent imposition. 
 Was he puzzled to make out what could be meant by the 
 third book of Esther ? and did he intend tacitly to correct 
 the text ? When words are made the ground of an accu- 
 sation, they should be examined with scrupulous care ; 
 and if it appear requisite to alter them, this should be 
 expressly stated. Here the next sentence plainly shews 
 that a totally different correction is needed. " In the 
 fourth book, in that which Esther d/reamt, there are pretty., 
 and also some good sayings, as. Wine is strong, the king 
 stronger, women still stronger, but truth the strongest of 
 
^0 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 all" I quote from Walch's edition, Vol. xxii. 2079, 
 and have no means of examining older copies of the 
 Tischredren ; but the old English translation speaks of 
 the third book of Hester. So that the errour, gross as it 
 is, seems to have belonged to the original text. For 
 there can be no question that Luther had been talking, 
 not of a non-existent third and fourth book of Esther, 
 but of the book of I^zra or Esdras : though there is still 
 much confusion in the report of his words; since the argu- 
 ment about strength does not stand in the fourth book, 
 but in the third, the first of the Apocryphal ones ; those 
 of Ezra and Nehemiah being numbered as the first two. 
 Thus Luther's words are nothing but a Lutheran mode of 
 saying what Jerome actually did, when he cast these 
 Apocryphal books out of his Version, as he says in his 
 Preface to the book of Ezra : " Nee quemquam moveat 
 quod unus a nobis editus liber est ; nee apocryphorum 
 tertii et quarti somniis delectetur ; quia et apud Hebraeos 
 Ezrae Neemiaeque sermones in unum volumen coarctantur, 
 et quae non habentur apud illos, nee de viginti quatuor 
 senibus sunt, procul abjicienda." Nor can anything well 
 go beyond Jerome's contemptuous expressions about the 
 same books in his pamphlet against Vigilantius (bi). As- 
 suredly too the next sentence quoted by the Reviewer, — 
 " I am so an enemy to the book of Esther that I would it 
 did not exist ; for it Judaizes too much, and hath in it a 
 great deal of heathenish naughtiness," — though here again 
 the English Translation agrees with Walch in applying 
 Luther's words to the Book of Esther, was in fact spoken 
 of the Apocryphal books of Esdras. For the whole 
 passage in the Tabletalk is as follows : " When the Doctor 
 was correcting the translation of the second Book of the 
 Maccabees, he said, I dislike this book and that of Esther 
 so much, that I wish they did not exist; for they Judaize 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 221 
 
 too much, and have much heathenish extravagance. Then 
 Master Forster said, The Jews esteem the book of Esther 
 more than any of the prophets." The combination of the 
 book with that of the Maccabees, — which the Reviewer 
 ought not to have omitted, — as well as Forster's remark, 
 leaves no doubt that Luther spoke of the book of Esdras 
 (b j). These blunders shew how unsafe it is to build 
 any conclusions on the authority of the Tahletalk. 
 
 What the Reviewer meant by his next extract, — 
 " Isaiah hath borrowed his art and knowledge from the 
 Psalter," — or what Mr Ward meant by repeating it, — 
 what either of them can have deemed reprehensible in it, 
 one cannot well conceive. Even from the English words 
 an intelligent reader would make out, that Luther was 
 only speaking of Isaiah's style and composition : and this 
 is still plainer when we see them in connexion with what 
 goes before. " Neither Cicero nor Virgil, nor Demos- 
 thenes was such an orator, or so eloquent as David. — 
 Moses and David are also the two greatest prophets. 
 What Isaiah has, he takes from David; and so do the 
 other prophets." What is there more censurable in 
 this, than in saying that Moses was learned in all the 
 wisdom of the Egyptians, or that St Paal profited by the 
 instructions of Gamaliel ? 
 
 Again, the sentence about the book of Proverbs is so 
 broken off as to be wholly deceptive : " The Proverbs of 
 Solomon have been collected by others." When such a 
 sentence is cited as an example of licentious criticism on 
 the Scriptures, of such criticism as proves Luther to have 
 fumisht warrants and precedents for all that is most 
 "obnoxious" in modern Rationalism, we cannot but 
 suppose that it implies a doubt concerning the authen- 
 ticity of the Proverbs. An honest writer would not have 
 detacht it from what follows : " The Proverbs of Solomon 
 
REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON S 
 
 were collected by others, and caught up from his mouth, 
 and written down when he uttered them at table or 
 elsewhere ; and in them the king's majesty and wisdom 
 shine and are seen." 
 
 On the book of Jonah the Reviewer makes Luther 
 say, " The history of Jonah is so monstrous, that it is 
 absolutely incredible." Verily the misrepresentation in 
 these words is so monstrous as to be almost incredible. 
 It is true, Luther is represented in the Tabletalh as 
 saying those words ; and he goes on thus (p. 2096) : " yea, 
 it sounds like a lie, and more extravagant than any fable 
 of the poets ; and if it did not stand in the Bible, I 
 should laugh at it as a lie. For if one thinks about him, 
 how be was three days in the great belly of the fish, 
 where in three hours he might have been digested and 
 turned into the substance of the fish : here he might have 
 died a hundred times, under the earth, in the sea, in the 
 fish, &c. Is not this to live in the midst of death ? so 
 that by the side of this miracle that of the Red Sea is 
 nothing. And how oddly it turns out ! After he is 
 delivered and saved, he begins to rage and to grumble 
 and to vex himself for the sake of a little thing, namely, 
 a herb. It is a great mystery : I am ashamed of my 
 interpretation of this prophet, that I have treated the 
 main action and purpose of the miracle so weakly." So 
 that the greatness of the miracle, instead of making 
 Luther doubt its truth, as the Reviewer by his shamefully 
 garbled quotation accuses him of doing, is merely mag- 
 nified by Luther to shew the fulness of his faith in it. 
 After this one should hardly be surprised to find the 
 Reviewer accusing the Decalogue of inculcating all 
 manner of crimes, because it says in one Commandment, 
 Thou shalt commit oMtery, and in another, Thou shalt 
 steal. At all events, when one examines the whole of his 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER, 223 
 
 indictment against Luther, the first count of it in the 
 Review, and the second in the Pamphlet, one might be 
 led to fancy that he must have been in the habit of 
 reading the ninth. Thou shalt hear false witness against 
 thy neighbour. 
 
 In this gross perversion of Luther's saying about the 
 prophet Jonah, the Revievper has an accomplice in Mr 
 Devrar, the author of a recent work on German Protes- 
 tantism, which is also entitled A Brief History of German 
 Theology from the Reformation to the Present Time, and 
 which, for shallowness and presumption, is well worthy to 
 rank with most of the other English diatribes against 
 German theology and philosophy. It has the same apt- 
 ness for choosing the evil, and refusing the good : indeed 
 the author only looks for the evil ; and even if he were 
 w illin g to do justice to the good, his prejudices would 
 prevent his recognising it. Yet he pronounces summary 
 judgement on a long series of theological and philoso- 
 phical systems, while it is plain that he has never set 
 himself to study any one of them : nor has he the sKghtest 
 sympathy with that mysterious instinct which constrains 
 the masters of thought to wear out their lives in seeking 
 after the hidden life and truth and unity in all things. 
 One of the objects of this worthless book is to make out 
 that Luther was the father of Rationalism; though, if 
 he was so, it could only have been as Noah was the father 
 of Ham, and Adam of Cain. In every field, whether of 
 the world or of the Church, however diligent and careful 
 the husbandman may be in sowing good seed only, the 
 tares and other weeds will spring up along with the 
 wheat. But in trying to draw out his pedigree, the 
 author substitutes an arbitrary definition of Rationalism 
 for the received one ; a proceeding far from justifiable,- 
 inasmuch as he thereby attracts the odium attacht to the 
 
224> 
 
 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON S 
 
 word in its ordinary sense to that which he suhstitutes in 
 lieu of it ; although in no sense can Luther be shewn to 
 be the father of Rationalism, unless in that in which 
 St Paul might be termed its first father, and Augustin 
 and Chrysostom as well as Origen, Anselm and Aquinas 
 as well as Erigena, belong to the family. 
 
 With the view of establishing Luther's paternity, Mr 
 Dewar, in pp. 26 — 28, has collected divers sayings con- 
 cerning some of the books of Scripture, in proof that 
 " he did not scruple to give utterance to very liberal 
 opinions upon any particular portion of the Bible which 
 did not exactly accord with the theological system which 
 his ovra judgement had led him to construct." Of these 
 sayings several are taken from the Tdbletalk; and among 
 them is the following : " The history of the prophet 
 Jonah is so strange, that it is totally incredible ; nay, 
 it sounds more fabulous and inconsistent than any legend 
 of the poets ; and if it were not in the Bible, I should 
 laugh at it as a lie." When one considers the purpose 
 for which these words are quoted, and the company they 
 stand amongst, it is plain the author intended them to 
 imply that Luther doubted the truth of the book of 
 Jonah. Yet as his title-page proclaims him to be an 
 English clergyman, and as the profest object of his book 
 is to give a history of German Theology, tracing its 
 errours up to Luther, one might have expected from 
 him, what it might be exorbitant to demand from an 
 Edinburgh Reviewer, that, before he charged Luther 
 with the contemptuous rejection of a prophetical book, 
 he would have lookt about to ascertain whether this 
 could possibly be the fact. He might then have found 
 out that Luther in 1526 publisht an Exposition of the 
 book of Jonah, which indeed is referred to in this very 
 passage of the Tabletalk, and that in the Preface to 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 225 
 
 this Exposition he says he had been led to choose this 
 book from the disastrous condition of the Church, 
 " because it is an excellent, singular, comfortable ex- 
 ample of faith, and sets a great and mighty miracle 
 of God's goodness before the world. For who can do 
 otherwise than trust in God heartily, and boldly defy 
 all the devils, the world, and all raging tyrants, and take 
 pride in God's goodness, when he considers this example 
 how God's power and grace were able so easily to preserve 
 Jonah in the midst of the deep sea, and in the midst of 
 the whale also, that is, not in one kind, but in many kinds 
 of death, forsaken and unknown by all men, by all crea- 
 tures, and to restore him, as if it cost no trouble, nay, to 
 do this with a word ? As though He would say to us, 
 io, this I do with a word: what, think ye, can I do ivith 
 My Spirit and power ?" (bk). 
 
 The Reviewer's other extracts from Luther's Biblical 
 Criticisms, as well as those collected by the Historian 
 of German Theology, may be dismist without notice. 
 The original of some of them I have not lighted on ; 
 nor did it seem worth any laborious search. For in 
 those which I have traced, it is plain that the offen- 
 siveness arises mainly from the Reviewer's garbling seve- 
 rance of a few strong expressions from the context in 
 the Tahletalk : and after what we have seen, nobody will 
 require further proofs of his capacity for extracting poison 
 from the wholesomest food. 
 
 Under the head of Practical Theology, in the Review- 
 er's " hasty anthology," we find this paragraph. " We 
 [Luther, Melanchthon, Bucer, Melander, Corvinus, Adam, 
 Leningus, Winteferte] cannot advise that the license of 
 marrying more wives than one be publicly introduced, 
 and as it were ratified by law. If anything were allowed 
 to get into print on this head, your Highness [PhiHp 
 
 Q 
 
REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON S 
 
 Landgrave of Hesse, champion of the Reformation, who, 
 having lost, as he pleads, conceit of his wife, being 
 touched with scruples of conscience at his adultery, 
 which however, he admits, he ' does not wish to abstain 
 from,' and ' knowing ' (as he tells themselves) of Luther 
 and Melanchthon having exhorted the king of England 
 not to divorce his first queen, but to marry a second 
 over and above, — had applied to the leading doctors of 
 the Reformation for license to have a second wife] — 
 your Highness easily comprehends that it would be un- 
 derstood and received as a precept, whence much scandal 
 and many difficulties would arise. — Your Highness should 
 be pleased to consider the excessive scandal ; that the 
 enemies of the Gospel would exclaim that we are Kke 
 the Anabaptists who have adopted the practice of poly- 
 gamy, and that the Evangelicals, as the Turks, allow 
 themselves the license of a pluraHty of wives. , , . 
 But in certain cases there is room for dispensation. If 
 any one (for example) detained captive in a forein 
 country, should there take to himself a second wife for 
 the good of his body and health, &c. — in these cases 
 we do not know by what reason a man could be con- 
 demned who marries an additional wife with the advice 
 of his pastor, not with the purpose of introducing a new 
 law, but of satisfying his own necessity. — In fine, if 
 your Highness be fully and finally resolved to marry 
 yet another wife, we judge that this ought to be done 
 secretly, as has been said above, in speaking of the dis- 
 pensation, so that it be known only to your Highness, to 
 the lady, and to a few faithful persons obliged to silence, 
 under the seal of confession ; hence no attacks or scandal 
 of any moment would ensue. For there is nothing 
 unusual in princes keeping concubines; and although 
 the lower orders may not perceive the excuses of the 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER, 227 
 
 thing, the more intelligent know how to make allowance." 
 In a note to this passage the Reviewer, after some re- 
 marks on the circumstances of the marriage, and its 
 effects, states that monogamy was publicly condemned 
 by Henke, a German Professor of Theology, at the end 
 of the last century, and adds : " However detestable 
 this doctrine, the bold avowal of the Rationalist is ho- 
 norable, when contrasted with the skulking compromise 
 of all professed principle, by men calling themselves 
 The Evangelicals. Renouncing the Pope, they arrogate 
 the power of the keys to an extent never pretended to 
 by any successor of St Peter ; and proclaiming themselves 
 to the world as the apostles of a purified faith, they 
 can secretly, trembling only at discovery, authorize in 
 name of the Gospel, a dispensation of the moral law. 
 Compared with Luther or Cranmer, how respectable is 
 the character of Knox ! " 
 
 I have given this extract thus fully, that the reader 
 may know the whole heinousness of the offense with 
 which Luther is charged. For the Reviewer does not 
 mince matters. If he has to deal out reproof and re- 
 proach, he does so with overflowing measure, and after 
 the number of lashes ordained by justice superadds a 
 few out of love at the end, like the closing bravura of 
 a popular singer. In this instance too at all events his 
 indignation has run away with him ; and he scatters 
 words which betray that he knows nothing about Luther, 
 or that, if he ever did know anything, it must have been 
 obliterated from his mind. For no one acquainted with 
 the story of Luther's life, and with his letters, could have 
 taxt him with want of courage in his dealings with princes. 
 The Reviewer's injudicious comparison shall not provoke 
 me to speak ill of so great and good a man as Knox : 
 but assuredly Knoxes behaviour to Mary will not shew 
 
 a 2 
 
228 
 
 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON S 
 
 to advantage when contrasted with Luther's toward his 
 sovereins. For Luther's, from first to last, was governed 
 by the two Christian principles of submitting and shewing 
 honour to the powers placed over us as being ordained 
 by God, and of obeying God rather than man, whenever 
 their commands clash. Indeed it would not be easy to 
 find any man who has adhered so stedfastly to the 
 first principle under circumstances which so often con- 
 strained him to act upon the second. His earliest re- 
 maining letter to the Elector, Frederic the Wise, written 
 in the latter part of the year 1517, just after the publi- 
 cation of the Theses, and before his name became noto- 
 rious, is a beautiful example of respectful frankness and 
 sincerity. After thanking the Elector for the promise 
 of a piece of cloth, and interceding earnestly for Stau- 
 pitz, who was under some disgrace, he adds : " Also, 
 most gracious Lord, that I may shew my faithfulness 
 to your Princely Grace, and may deserve my court-dress, 
 I have heard that your Grace, after the expiration of 
 this tax, means to impose another, and perhaps a heavier. 
 If your Grace will not despise a poor beggar's prayer, 
 I entreat that for God's sake you would not let it come 
 to this : for it grieves my heart, and that of many who 
 favour your Grace, that even this tax in these last days 
 has robbed your Grace of so much good report, good 
 name, and favour. God has indeed gifted your Grace 
 with a high understanding, so that you see further in 
 these matters than I, or perhaps all your Grace's subjects : 
 but it may well be, yea, God will so have it, that a 
 great understanding may at times be taught by a small 
 understanding, to the end that no one may trust in 
 himself, but only in God our Lord, whom I pray to 
 grant your Grace health for our good, and for your 
 Grace's everlasting happiness. Amen." The spirit which 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 229 
 
 breathes in this letter is the same which manifested itself 
 three years after in Luther's quiet firmness, and simple, 
 immovable conscientiousness at Worms ; and all his letters 
 to the three Electors, who governed Saxony during that 
 momentous period, exhibit a like combination of the 
 two often seemingly incongruous principles which are to 
 regulate the conduct of the Christian toward his tem- 
 poral rulers. Never, for example, did heroic faith find 
 a nobler utterance than in the letters to Frederic the Wise 
 from the Wartburg. Therefore, even if it should prove 
 that, in the afiair with the Landgrave of Hesse, Luther 
 did for once yield an unjustifiable compliance to the 
 wishes of a prince, still it is unjust to condemn him 
 summarily for one transgression, when during thirty 
 years he acted in every other instance with uniform 
 magnanimity under the most trying circumstances (bl). 
 What will become of the Reviewer's character for learn- 
 ing, for knowledge, for reasoning, for justice, for veracity, 
 if we try him by the same rule, and pronounce sentence 
 on all his writings, nay, on his whole moral worth, from 
 the evidence contained in his remarks upon Luther ? 
 
 But that transgression is so monstrous ! Luther sacri- 
 ficed such a sacred principle, the very foundation of aU 
 domestic morahty, to gratify a libertine prince ! and he 
 did it so basely, so cringingly, so skulkingly ! Such is 
 the opinion which Luther's enemies make no scruple in 
 proclaiming ; and even his lovers and admirers, many of 
 them, hang down their heads, when mention is made of 
 the Landgrave's double marriage. Thus, in the friendly 
 Article on Luther which appeared in the 138th Number 
 of the Edinburgh Review, the writer, — a totally different 
 person from his collaborator whom we have been dealing 
 with, — after stating that Bayle has sufficiently vindicated 
 Luther's moral character, says : " One unhappy exception 
 
230 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 is to Ibe made. It is impossible to read without pain the 
 names of Luther, Melanchthon, and Bucer, amongst the 
 subscribers to the address to the Landgrave of Hesse, on 
 the subject of his intended polygamy. Those great but 
 fallible men remind his Highness 6f the distinction 
 between universal laws, and such as admit of dispensation 
 in particular cases. They cannot publicly sanction poly- 
 gamy. But his Highness is of a peculiar constitution, 
 and is exhorted seriously to examine all the considera- 
 tions laid before him ; yet, if he is absolutely resolved to 
 marry a second time, it is their opinion that he should do 
 so as secretly as possible ! Fearful is the energy with 
 which ' the Eagle of Meaux ' pounces on this fatal errour, 
 tearing to pieces the flimsy pretexts alleged in defense 
 of such an evasion of the Christian code. The charge 
 admits of no defense. To the inference drawn from it 
 against the Reformer's doctrine, every Protestant has a 
 conclusive answer. Whether in faith or in practice, he 
 acknowledges no infallible Head but one." 
 
 Now, after what we have seen of this terrible " Eagle 
 of Meaux," we will not utterly despond, however he may 
 flap his wings, and whet his beak, and strike with his 
 claws. Furious as his assaults were, he often dasht 
 against a rock, which repelled him and scarcely felt a 
 scar. Nor on the other hand would we rely for the 
 vindication of Luther altogether upon Bayle, who, keen- 
 sighted as he was on the surface of things, and clever 
 above all men in saying No, and in pulling down the 
 tower of Babel, had no fellowfeeling with that which was 
 the central spring of Luther's whole life, that without the 
 discernment of which it is quite impossible to understand 
 him. With this latter Reviewer's last remark however I 
 fully concur. It is strange to find the Romanists assail- 
 ing the Reformation by impugning the moral character of 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 231 
 
 its teachers, without thinking what a tremendous retalia- 
 tion they are inviting. But, if we did not know it from 
 other sources, Luther himself has taught us a thousand 
 times over, that in no human being are we to look for 
 anything like an exemption from evil, and that the 
 Reformation does not rest on the character of Luther, 
 but on the word of God, who is wont to accomplish His 
 purposes by choosing the weak and base things of this 
 world to be His instruments, lest man should glory in 
 anything except the Lord. Still, for the sake of truth 
 and justice, if for nothing else, it is worth while to 
 ascertain, so far as we may, what was the real amount of 
 Luther's sin in this matter of the Landgrave's marriage : 
 and though, at the very worst, we may find comfort in 
 his own remark concerning David's grievous crimes, that 
 " God suffered him so to fall, lest he should grow proud " 
 {TiscJireden, lx. § 23), we may allowably rejoice if it turn 
 out that Luther's conduct was not quite so heinous as 
 his enemies represent it, or as many even of his friends 
 acknowledge it to have been. 
 
 Here we have a twofold enquiry ; first, what was it 
 that Luther did ? and secondly, wherein did his sin lie ? 
 With regard to the first question, after the specimens we 
 have seen of the hostile Reviewer's felicity in garbling 
 his quotations, we want something fuller and more 
 precise than his statement, which on its face bears the 
 marks of being made up, like an advocate's, of the most 
 offensive matter he could pick out. As to the second 
 question, it is notorious that the subjective character, or 
 sinfulness, of an act is something different, often very 
 different, from its objective character, or criminality. 
 The latter is measured by an outward, the former by an 
 inward standard. The criminality of an act we determine 
 by its repugnance to right reason as expressing itself in 
 
232 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 public law ; while its sinfulness is determined by its 
 repugnance to that voice of reason which utters itself as 
 law in the conscience of the agent. These two characters 
 of the act may often be nearly coincident ; but in weigh- 
 ing the moral worth or pravity of the agent, it is requisite 
 to distinguish between them ; for often they will diifer 
 widely : and this is especially necessary in estimating the 
 acts of former ages ; which we are apt to try, not by their 
 standard of right, but by our own. 
 
 Now in the hostile Review the sinfulness of Luther's 
 
 act is plainly laid down, as consisting in this, that it was 
 
 " a skulking compromise of all profest principle," in 
 
 which he " arrogated the power of the Keys to an extent 
 
 never pretended to by any successor of St Peter," and 
 
 " secretly authorized a dispensation of the moral law." 
 
 The heinousness of this act is enhanced from its being 
 
 done by one who " called himself an Evangelical," who 
 
 had "renounced the Pope," and " proclaimed himself to 
 
 the world as the apostle of a purified faith," and who did 
 
 it " in name of the Gospel, trembling only at discovery." 
 
 This is black enough : the arch Accuser himself could 
 
 not well have shewn more ingenuity in wringing the 
 
 uttermost drop of poison out of an act. If this analysis 
 
 of it be at all correct, we must allow Luther to stand 
 
 in the pillory, exposed to the pelting insults of his 
 
 revilers, and must resign ourselves to the mysterious 
 
 dispensation, whereby one of God's chosen instruments 
 
 for the establishment of Evangelical Truth was allowed to 
 
 fall, like David, down to the brink of hell. 
 
 Fortunately however the bringer of this heinous charge 
 has himself retracted it, substituting another dravm up 
 in a somewhat mitigated form. Some nine years after 
 the publication of the attack on Luther in the Edinburgh 
 Review, during the heat of the divisions in the Scotch 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 23S 
 
 Church, Sir "William Hamilton of Preston publisht a 
 Pamphlet, which has already been mentioned, calling 
 upon the Ministers of the Convocation, " not to he 
 Schismatics, not to be Martyrs, by mistake." Herein, 
 with the view of warning them of the mischiefs of an 
 ill-directed enthusiasm, and to inculcate the importance 
 of calmness and moderation and mildness, of which his 
 own writings, as they shew no spark of enthusiasm, must 
 needs exhibit an exemplary pattern, he tells them that 
 Luther and Melanchthon, whom in the course of the 
 preceding nine years he has discovered to be " great and 
 good " men, notwithstanding the foul wickedness he had 
 previously laid to their charge, were led by their over- 
 wrought zeal to preach the most abominable doctrines. 
 Among other things, he says, " Polygamy awaited only 
 the permission of the civil ruler to be promulgated as an 
 article of the Reformation ; and had this permission not 
 been significantly refused (whilst, at the same time, the 
 epidemic in Wittemberg was homceopathically alleviated, 
 at least, by the similar but more violent access in 
 Munster), it would not have been the fault of the fathers 
 of the Reformation if Christian liberty has remained less 
 ample than Mahommedan license. As it was, polygamy 
 was never abandoned by either Luther or Melanchthon 
 as a religious speculation ; both, in more than a single 
 instance, accorded the formal sanction of their autho- 
 rity to its practice — by those who were above the law ; 
 and had the civil prudence of the imprudent Henry VIII. 
 not restrained him, sensual despot as he was, from carry- 
 ing their spontaneous counsel into eifect, a plurality of 
 wives might now have been a privilege as religiously 
 contended for in England as in Turkey." 
 
 On this passage for the present I will merely remark 
 that " the epidemic in Wittemberg'" began in the autumn 
 
234 
 
 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON S 
 
 of 1521, and was allayed, as we have seen above, by 
 Luther's return in the month of March 1522, and that 
 " the similar but more violent access in Munster," 
 whereby, according to the Reviewer, it was " homoeo- 
 pathically alleviated," began in the autumn of 1533, more 
 than eleven years after the other had been subdued. 
 This, I believe, is a solitary instance in the history of the 
 world, in which coming events have cast their shadow so 
 long before, with a power of healing like that exercised 
 by St Peter's. VJerily, Mr "Ward for once is quite right : 
 Sir W. Hamilton's authority is a sufficient voucher for 
 the accuracy of all his statements, more especially in 
 matters connected with the Reformation. 
 
 However, at all events, Sir W. Hamilton is a great 
 logician ; and so he bethought himself that his new attack 
 upon Luther was in direct contradiction to his former 
 one in the Review ; for that, if Luther held polygamy 
 "as a religious speculation," and would have "promul- 
 gated it as an article of the Reformation," provided he 
 could have obtained " the permission of the civil ruler," 
 he cannot have been " compromising all profest prin- 
 ciple," when he gave his assent to the Landgrave's 
 double marriage. Accordingly, when a sufficient time 
 had elapst for a master in logic to work through the 
 process for detecting this contradiction, in a postscript to 
 the third edition of Sir W. Hamilton's Pamphlet, he 
 made this benign admission in behalf of Luther and 
 Melanchthon. " So far was there from being any dis- 
 graceful compromise of principle in the sanction accorded 
 by them to the bigamy of the Landgrave of Hesse, they 
 only, in that case, carried their speculative doctrine (held, 
 by the way, also by Milton) into practice ; although the 
 prudence they had by that time acquired, rendered them, 
 on worldly grounds, averse from their sanction being 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 235 
 
 made publicly known. I am the more anxious to 
 correct this general mistake touching the motives of these 
 illustrious men, because I was myself, on a former occa- 
 sion, led to join in the injustice : (Edinh. Rev. vol. LX. 
 p. 226.)" 
 
 Thus the violent attack on Luther in the Review is 
 homoeopathically alleviated some nine years afterward 
 by a scarcely less violent one in the Pamphlet. For the 
 case is not much mended. If Luther really held the 
 doctrine of polygamy, and desired to introduce the prac- 
 tice, his anxiety to keep the matter secret, " on worldly 
 grounds," through " the prudence he had by this time 
 acquired," leaves a strong taint of cowardly meanness on 
 his character, in addition to the shame he deserves for 
 holding and inculcating a principle so adverse to the 
 purity of the Gospel, and to the moral wellbeing of 
 mankind. So that this is a sorry apology for Luther. 
 After Alecto has half suckt out his blood, she tosses 
 him to Megaera to strangle him. Let us see whether a 
 careful examination of the documents which remain wiU 
 not yield something better than this homceopathic alle- 
 viation. At all events, as these two contradictory state- 
 ments destroy each other, there is a chance that a more 
 favorable representation may emerge from their mutual 
 fratricide. 
 
 Here it will be necessary to insert the answer to the 
 Landgrave's application at length : else we cannot judge 
 of its real purport and purpose. " Since your princely 
 Grace has through Master Bucer laid before us a certain 
 longstanding trouble of your conscience, — although it is 
 difficult for us to answer it in such haste, we would not 
 let Bucer ride off without a letter. And first, we are 
 heartily rejoiced and thank God that he has helpt your 
 Grace out of your dangerous sickness ; and we pray that 
 
^^6 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 He will strengthen and preserve your Grace iri soul and 
 body to His praise. For, as your Grace sees, the poor 
 miserable Church of Christ is small and forsaken, and 
 verily needs pious lords and princes; as we doubt not 
 God will preserve some, although every kind of tempta- 
 tion befall. With regard to the question, of which 
 Master Bucer spoke with us, firstly, this is our opinion. 
 Your Grace knows and understands this yourself, that it 
 is a very diiFerent thing to make a general law, and in a 
 particular case to use a dispensation, out of weighty 
 reasons, and yet according to divine permission; for 
 against God no dispensation has force. Now we cannot 
 advise that it be openly introduced, and thus made a law, 
 that each be allowed to have more than one wife. But 
 should anything of this get into print, your Grace may 
 conceive that this would be understood and adopted 
 as a general law, whence much scandal and trouble would 
 ensue. Therefore this is by no means to be adopted; 
 and we pray your Grace to consider how grievous it 
 would be, if it were charged upon any one that he had 
 introduced this law in the German nation, whence endless 
 trouble in all marriages might be feared. As to what 
 may be said against this, that what is right before God 
 should be allowed altogether, this is true in a measure. 
 If God has commanded it, or it is a necessary thing, this 
 is true ; but if it is not commanded, nor necessary, other 
 circumstances should be taken into account. Thus with 
 regard to this question : God instituted marriage that it 
 should be the union of two persons alone, and not of 
 more, unless nature had been corrupted. This is the 
 meaning of the saying, They two shall be one flesh. And 
 this at first was so retained. But Lamech introduced the 
 example of having more than one wife at once, which is 
 recorded of him in Scripture as an innovation contrary 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 237 
 
 to the first rule. Thenceforward it became customary 
 among the unbelievers, till at length Abraham and his 
 descendants took more than one wife. And it is true 
 that afterward this was allowed in the law of Moses, 
 as the text says, Deut. xxi..l5, If a man have two wives, 
 &c. For God gave way somewhat to the weakness of 
 nature. But since it was according to the first beginning 
 and the creation, that a man should not have more than 
 one wife, this law is praiseworthy, and has thus been 
 adopted in the Church : nor should another law be made 
 and set up against it. For Christ repeats this saying in 
 Matt. XIX. 5, And they twain shall he one flesh, and 
 reminds us how marriage was to be at first, antecedently 
 to man's infirmity. That in certain cases however a dis- 
 pensation may be used, — as if a person taken captive in 
 a forein land should marry there, and on gaining his 
 freedom should bring his wife with him, — or if long 
 continued sickness should supply a cause, as has been 
 held at times with regard to lepers,— if in such cases a 
 man takes another wife with the counsel of his Pastor, 
 not to introduce a law, but as a matter of necessity, such 
 a man we could not condemn. Since then it is one thing 
 to introduce a law, and another to use a dispensation, we 
 humbly entreat your Grace to consider, first, that care 
 should in every way be taken that this matter be not 
 brought publicly before the world, as a law which every- 
 body may follow. Next, since it is to be no law, but 
 merely a dispensation, let your Grace also consider the 
 scandal, namely, that the enemies of the Gospel would 
 cry out, that we are like the Anabaptists, who take 
 several wives at once, and that the Evangelicals seek 
 the liberty of having as many wives as they please, ac- 
 cording to the practice in Turkey. Again, what Princes 
 do, gets abroad much further than what is done by 
 
238 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 private persons. Again, if private persons hear of such 
 an example in their lords, they desire that the like should 
 be allowed to them ; as we see how easily a practice 
 spreads. Again, your Grace has an unruly nobility, 
 many of whom, as in all countries, on account of the great 
 revenues which they derive from the Chapters, are vio- 
 lently opposed to the Gospel. Thus we know ourselves 
 that very unfriendly speeches have been heard from divers 
 young squires. Now how such squires and the country- 
 folks will behave toward your Grace in this matter, if a 
 public proceeding be adopted, may easily be conceived. 
 Again, your Grace, through God's grace, has a very 
 illustrious name, even among forein kings and potentates, 
 and is feared on account thereof, which credit would be 
 impaired hereby. Seeing then that so many scandals are 
 combined, we humbly entreat your Grace to consider this 
 matter well and diligently. This however is also true, 
 that we by all means entreat and exhort your Grace to 
 avoid fornication and adultery ; and in truth we have long 
 had great sorrow from hearing that your Grace is laden 
 with such distress, which may be visited with punish- 
 ments from God and other dangers ; and we entreat your 
 Grace not to esteem such matters out of wedlock a light 
 sin, as the world tosses such things to the wind, and 
 despises them. But God has often fearfully punisht un- 
 chastity : for it is recorded as a cause of the Deluge, that 
 the rulers practist adultery. Again, the punishment of 
 David is a solemn example : and Paul often says, God is 
 not mocked : adulterers shall not enter into the kingdom of 
 God. For faith must be followed by obedience, so that 
 one must not act against one's conscience, nor against 
 God's commandment. If our conscience condemn us not, 
 then have we confidence toward God : and if through the 
 Spirit we mortify the deeds of the body, we shall Uve ; hut 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 239 
 
 if we live after the flesh, that is, against our conscience, we 
 shall die. This we say, because it is to be considered 
 that God will not trifle with such sins, as many people 
 now grow bold to entertain such heathenish thoughts. 
 And we have heard with pleasure that your Grace has 
 seriously mourned on account thereof, and feels sorrow 
 and repentance for them. These great and weighty 
 questions press for your Grace's attention, pertaining to 
 the whole world. Moreover your Grace is of a slender 
 and far from a strong constitution, and sleeps little; 
 wherefore your Grace should reasonably spare your body, 
 as many others are forced to do. And we read of the 
 illustrious Prince Scanderbeg, who wrought many noble 
 deeds against the two Turkish emperors, Amurath and 
 Mahomet, and protected and preserved Greece as long as 
 he lived. He, they say, specially exhorted his soldiers to 
 chastity, and said that nothing takes away a brave man's 
 spirit like unchastity. Again, even if your Grace had 
 another wife, and did not seriously resist the evil practice 
 and inclination, it would not avail your Grace. It 
 behoves man in his outward walk to bridle his members, 
 as Paul says : Yield your members as instruments of 
 righteousness. Therefore let your Grace, in considera- 
 tion of all these causes, the ofiense, the other cares and 
 labours, and the weakness of body, weigh this matter 
 well. Be also pleased to consider that God has given 
 your • Grrace fair young Princes and Princesses with this 
 Consort ; and be content with her, as many others must 
 have patience under their marriage, to avoid offense. 
 For that we should excite or urge your Grace to an 
 offensive innovation, is far from our mind. For your 
 country and others might reproach us on account thereof, 
 which would be intolerable to us ; because we are com- 
 manded in God's word to regulate marriage and all 
 
240 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 human matters according to their first Divine institution, 
 and, so far as possible, to keep them therein, and to avert 
 whatever may offend any one. Such too is novs^ the w&y 
 of the world, that people like to throw all the blame 
 upon the preachers, if anything unpleasant fall out ; and 
 men's hearts, among high and low, are unsteady : and all 
 sorts of things are to be feared. But if your Grace do 
 not quit your unchaste life, — or that you write that this 
 is not possible, — we would rather that your Grace stood in 
 better case before God, and lived with a good conscience, 
 for your Grace's happiness, and the good of your country 
 and people. If however your Grace should at length 
 resolve to take another wife, we think that this should 
 be kept secret, as was said above of the dispensation; 
 namely, that your Grace, and the Lady, with some con- 
 fidential persons, should know your Grace's mind and 
 conscience through confession. From this no particular 
 rumour or scandal would arise ; for it is not unusual for 
 princes to have concubines ; and although all the people 
 would not know what the circumstances were, the intel- 
 ligent would be able to guess them, and would be better 
 pleased with such a quiet way of life, than with adultery 
 and other wild and licentious courses. Nor are we to 
 heed everything that people say, provided our consciences 
 stand right. Thus far, and this we deem right. For 
 that which is permitted concerning, marriage in the law of 
 Moses, is not forbidden in the Gospel, which does not 
 change the rule of outward life, but brings in eternal 
 righteousness and eternal life, and kindles a true obe- 
 dience to God, and would set our corrupt nature straight 
 again. Thus your Grace has not only our testimony 
 in case of necessity, but also our advice, which we 
 beseech your Grace to weigh, as an illustrious, wise, 
 Christian Prince ; and we pray that God may lead and 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 241 
 
 direct your Grace to His praise and to your Grace's 
 happiness." 
 
 In translating this document, — the concluding para- 
 graph of which is omitted, as not hearing on our im- 
 mediate question,— I have followed the text given by 
 Bretschneider in the. recent valuable edition of Melanch- 
 thon, vol. III. 856. The Reviewer seems to have taken 
 his extracts from the Latin translation printed by Bossuet, 
 as an appendix to the 6th book of the Histoire des Varia- 
 tions. When we compare them with the whole body 
 from which they are torn, they who admire ingenuity, in 
 whatsoever cause it may be displayed, will be struck with 
 the dexterity shewn in garbling the opinion of the 
 divines, so as to render it as offensive as possible. The 
 main part of it, wherein they perform their duty of 
 spiritual advisers honestly and faithfully, telling the 
 Landgrave of the evils likely to arise from his conduct, 
 and of the Divine wrath which he was provoking by his 
 sinful life, is wholly left out ; so that it seems as if they 
 had had no thought of their pastoral responsibility, but 
 readily consented to do just what the Landgrave wisht, 
 and were solely deterred by fear of the shame it might 
 bring on themselves and on their cause. Readers familiar 
 with Luther's writings may indeed complain that he has 
 spoken with so little of his ordinary force on this occa- 
 sion. The style however of the opinion clearly shews that 
 it was not written by him, but by Melanchthon, who 
 usually drew up the papers wherein they had to express 
 their joint thoughts ; because Luther felt, as he says in 
 his letter to the Elector, approving of the manner in 
 which the Confession of Augsburg had been drawn up, 
 he " could not tread so softly and gently." Besides we 
 learn from Bretschneider that the original document in 
 the Hessian Archives is in Melanchthon's handwriting. 
 
 R 
 
^*2 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 Moreover, when we examine the whole opinion con- 
 nectedly, we are compelled to reject the excuse, which 
 
 , Sir W. Hamilton so kindly proposes, in order to rescue 
 Luther from the fangs of the Edinburgh Reviewer. For 
 from first to last it is plain that the license, which the 
 
 I divines declare themselves unable to condemn, is meant 
 
 i by them to be regarded as a dispensation, and not as 
 authorizing or sanctioning polygamy : and this is the 
 main reason why they are so earnest in requiring that the 
 second marriage, if entered upon, should be kept secret, 
 lest it should be lookt upon as the introduction of a 
 general practice. Polygamy, as a general practice, they 
 altogether condemn ; because they conceive that our 
 Lord's words in the passage referred to reestablish the 
 primary, paradisiacal institution of monogamy. At the 
 same time, while they see that polygamy, though con- 
 trary to the original institution, is sanctioned in the Old 
 Testament, both by the practice of the Patriarchs, and by 
 the express recognition of it in the book of Deuteronomy, 
 they do not find any passage in the New Testament 
 directly and absolutely forbidding it. Here we should 
 bear in mind what their rule, especially Luther's, was. 
 When the word of God seemed to him clear and express, 
 
 ! then everything else was to bow to it : heaven and earth 
 
 J might pass away, but no tittle of what God had said. 
 
 iOn the other hand, where no express Scripture could be 
 produced, he held that all human laws and ordinances, 
 and everything enjoined by man's understanding on con- 
 siderations of expediency, however wide that expediency 
 might be, is so far flexible and variable, that it may be 
 
 made to bend to imperious circumstances in particular 
 
 cases (bm). 
 
 Thus the document itself forces us to decline Sir 
 
 W. Hamilton's plea, that Luther was merely giving" his 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 243 
 
 sanction in a single instance to that which he desired at 
 heart to establish generally, the patriarchal practice of 
 polygamy. Still many may be apt to believe that, when 
 a writer of any character makes so broad and positive an 
 assertion, he must have some good ground for it ; and 
 this credulity may not have been altogether overthrown 
 by the evidence we have seen touching our present 
 witness. The German Reformers may have been shuf- 
 fling, and have been glad to allow of bigamy as an 
 exception in this case, with the view of introducing it 
 gradually as a custom. Men so desperately wicked, as 
 Sir W. Hamilton makes them out to be, even while he 
 calls them "great and good" and "illustrious," would 
 not stick at any fraud. But in the course of the painful 
 controversy which arose when the Landgrave's double 
 marriage became notorious, Bucer was unhappily misled 
 into publishing a pamphlet in defense of polygamy, 
 under the assumed name of Hulderic Neobulus ; by 
 which Luther was so incenst that he resolved to reply 
 to it. Among Melanchthon's letters are two to the 
 Landgrave, one dated the 5th of April 1542, the other 
 the 28th of March 1543, from which it appears that the 
 Landgrave had been alarmed by the report of Luther's 
 purpose. Melanchthon tells him that Luther had in- 
 tended to write, but had desisted in consequence of an 
 earnest request from the good Elector, John Frederic, 
 who was very loth that anything should be done to 
 prolong these vexatious and scandalous discussions. 
 
 Still, though Luther did not answer Bucer's pamphlet 
 at length, he could not be restrained from pronouncing 
 his judgement on it, in words markt with even more than 
 his usual vehemence, and which shew that the Landgrave 
 had good reason to dread the outpouring of his indigna- 
 tion. Whether Luther himself publisht them, does not 
 
 R 2J 
 
244 
 
 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON S 
 
 appear certain ; but they are manifestly genuine : they 
 are alluded to in Melanchthon's second letter to the 
 Landgrave, and are given by Seckendorf (Lib. iii. p. 281), 
 in the course of an excellent and conclusive discussion on 
 the whole affair. " He who desires my judgement upon 
 this booh, let him hear. Thus says Dr Martin Luther on. 
 this hook of Neobulus : He who follows this rogue and hook, 
 and thereupon takes more than one wife, and means that 
 this should he a matter of right, may the devil bless his bath 
 in the bottom of hell ! Amen, This, God be praised ! I 
 well know how to maintain ; and though it snowed pure 
 Neobulos, Nebulas, Hulderics, along with pure devils, a 
 whole year through, people shall not make me a right out of 
 this. This I will prevent. Much less shall they make me 
 a right, that a man may separate himself from his wife 
 rightfully, when she has not already separated herself by 
 open adultery, which this rogue would also like to teach." 
 IVIoreover the fragment of Luther's projected reply to 
 Neobulus has been printed by Walch, Vol. xxi. 1577 — 
 1585. Herein he says, in answer to an argument drawn 
 from the example of the Patriarchs and of the Jewish 
 kings, " "We have already shewn in a number of books 
 that the Law of Moses does not concern us, and is no 
 longer law, and that we are not to look at the examples 
 in the history of the saints, much less of the kings, but at 
 God's commandments, and at their faith." He proceeds 
 to give divers reasons in proof that, even among the Jews, 
 polygamy was never sanctioned as a general institution, 
 but was merely a Ferh'dngniss, a dispensation, allowed in 
 certain cases under peculiar circumstances (bn). 
 
 After such a volcanic hyper-Lutheran outburst, Sir 
 W. Hamilton himself -mil hardly dare to reassert, that 
 " polygamy was never abandoned by Luther as a religious 
 speculation : " and surely it is very unlikely that he who 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 245 
 
 condemned an apology for polygamy with this unmea- 
 sured indignation, should have been conscious of having 
 ever maintained the doctrine he thus reprobated. Never- 
 theless the virulence of renegades is proverbial; and 
 Sir W. Hamilton, in the above-mentioned Postscript to 
 the third edition of his Pamphlet, after saying that his 
 statements concerning Luther and Melanchthon had ex- 
 cited much notice, adds : " I cannot here enter on an 
 articulate manifestation of the correctness of these state- 
 ments ; but I now say, what I may take a more suitable 
 opportunity of proving, that there is nothing there ad- 
 vanced not critically accurate. In particular, I may add, 
 in reference to the sources, 1. that I do not found merely 
 or principally upon passages known to Bossuet, Bayle, 
 &c. ; and, through them, to persons of ordinary infor- 
 mation. These, I admit, would not justify all I have 
 asserted in regard to the character of the doctrine preached 
 by Luther. 2. I do not found my statement of the 
 general opinion of Luther and Melanchthon in favour of 
 polygamy, on their special allowance of a second wife to 
 Philip the Magnanimous, or on any expressions contained 
 in their Consilium on that occasion. On the contrary, 
 that Consilium, and the circumstances under which it was 
 given, may be, indeed always have been, adduced to show 
 that in the case of the Landgrave they made a sacrifice of 
 eternal principle to temporary expedience. The reverse 
 of this I am able to prove, in a chronological series of 
 testimonies by them to the religious legality of polygamy, 
 as a general institution, consecutively downwards from 
 their earliest commentaries on the Scriptures and other 
 purely abstract treatises." 
 
 This was publisht in 1843; but the "articulate manl^ 
 festation " here spoken of has not, so far as I have been 
 able to learn, yet made its appearance, Probably it; 
 
246 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 never will ; there being no materials out of which to 
 compile it ; though, after the specimens we have seen of 
 the Reviewer's talent for misrepresentation, one cannot 
 feel sure that he will not extort evidence in favour of 
 polygamy out of words which were used vdth the purpose 
 of condemning it. In a trustworthy writer such pro- 
 fessions would infer that he had a substantial body of 
 authorities in reserve to back his statements : but though 
 Sir W. Hamilton makes a parade of an extensive and 
 intimate acquaintance with the German Reformers, we 
 have discovered httle hitherto except indications of ig- 
 norance of them. Nor can we suppress all feeling of 
 surprise, when we find him speaking somewhat sHght- 
 ingly of those who derive their knowledge from Bossuet, 
 Bayle, &c., as "persons of ordinary information," seeing 
 how he has been convicted of having drawn his whole 
 knowledge of Luther's errours in Speculative Theology 
 from a single page of Bossuet, which he has copied with 
 a servile and slovenly adherence to its blunders, though 
 without any acknowledgement, and that too immediately 
 after professing to give Luther's opinions " in his own 
 words literally translated." Besides it is pretty clear 
 that what the Reviewer has alledged against Luther under 
 the head of Practical Theology, is in like manner taken 
 from Bossuet, without further examination, as well as 
 without acknowledgement. 
 
 After such an exhibition of the extent of the Re- 
 viewer's information, be it " ordinary " or extraordinary, 
 concerning Luther, we may allowably suspect that his 
 " chronological series of testimonies by the two Re- 
 formers to the religious legality of polygamy, as a general 
 institution, consecutively downwards from their earliest 
 commentaries on the Scriptures and other purely abstract 
 treatises," if he were to bring it forward, would dwindle 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 247 
 
 down to an equality with one of those infinite series, the 
 amount of which is summed up by zero ; such being the 
 fertile imagination which our author shares with a 
 renowned knight of earlier times, that he has only to 
 utter the magical word, and a score of buckram men 
 spring up, in defiance of the ancient maxim, that out of 
 nothing nothing can come. Indeed there is an expression 
 in the sentence just quoted, which, unless I misunder- 
 stand it, involves a fair portion of ignorance, and, if one 
 were not dealing with a master in logic, one might also 
 add, confusion. The " chronological series of testimo- 
 nies," we are told, is to be gathered, " consecutively down- 
 wards from their earliest commentaries on the Scriptures." 
 Now the only pertinent sense of these words is if we 
 suppose that, by what the author calls their " earliest 
 commentaries," he meant their Commentaries on the earliest 
 Boohs of the Scriptures, and that he was thinking espe- 
 cially of Luther's Commentary on the Book of Genesis. 
 For in this he is naturally led to speak on the original 
 institution of marriage, on the first introduction of poly- 
 gamy, and on its practice by the Patriarchs. But the 
 Commentary on Genesis, as everybody acquainted with 
 Luther's writings is aware, is not one of his earliest,, but 
 one of his latest works. Indeed it was the chief work 
 of the last ten years of his life. The lectures, out of 
 which it is made up, were begun in 1536, and were not 
 concluded till the 17th of November 1545, just three 
 months before his death, and end with that touching 
 passage : " This is the dear book of Genesis. Our Lord 
 God grant that others after me may handle it better. I 
 can do no more ; I am weak ; pray to God for me, that He 
 may give me a good, happy last hour." On the other 
 hand Luther's " earliest commentaries " are on the Epistle 
 to the Galatians, and on the first twenty two Psalms \. 
 
"'^^ REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 Melanchthon's, on the Epistle to the Romans, and the 
 Gospel of St John ; and it is very unlikely that these 
 should contain any paradoxes about polygamy. 
 
 That Sir W. Hamilton's "articulate manifestation" 
 will remain for ever inarticulate, I am led to conclude, 
 in the first place, because Luther's numerous enemies, 
 vi^ho, though slovif to learn from him, and blind to all his 
 wisdom and goodness, have been lynx-eyed in detecting 
 whatever might be used in kindling odium against him, 
 have never been able to make out a charge of his having 
 recommended polygamy. Besides, as more than once 
 before, I feel warranted in replying that the accusation 
 brought against Luther is false, because his opinion on 
 the subject was often exprest, and effectually disproves 
 it. I restrict my assertion to Luther, not being suffi- 
 ciently acquainted with the writings of Melanchthou to 
 speak with equal confidence of him ; and I have no wish 
 to encroach on the prerogative of Luther's enemies of 
 pronouncing peremptory judgement on matters of which 
 they are ignorant. Not however that I conceive there is 
 the slightest ground for believing that the accusation 
 against Melanchthon could be substantiated a whit more 
 than against Luther. 
 
 What Luther's view with regard to polygamy was, we 
 learn from several explicit passages in his writings ; for 
 instance from the following remarks on Sarah's giving 
 Hagar to Abraham to be his wife {Comment, in Gen. xvi. 
 3). " Moreover from this act we are not to set up an 
 example, as though it were allowable for us to do the 
 same thing. For the circumstances are to be considered. 
 No promise of a seed has been made to us, such as was 
 made to Abraham ; and however barren your marriage 
 may be, no danger will arise from thence, albeit God will 
 that all your ofl'spring should perish. Whereas Abraham 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 249 
 
 not only had the promise of a seed ; but it was plain that 
 Sarah was barren. These circumstances do not apply to 
 your case. Therefore this singular act of this married 
 couple is by no means to be strained into an example, 
 especially under the New Testament. For the Old 
 Testament permitted polygamy, even for the sake of 
 children ; and there is a law of Moses (Deut. xxii, 29), 
 that, if a man has corrupted a maid, he shall retain her as 
 his wife. But these ceremonial or legal ordinances have 
 ceast : and the case of Abraham is very diiFerent from 
 that mentioned by Moses." Again the same principles 
 are inculcated in the Commentary on xxx. 1, with re- 
 ference to Jacob's four wives. " A man must not say, 
 Jacob did this, therefore I too may do it : as is related of 
 Munzer exhorting the peasants, that, after the example 
 of Joshua and Samson, they should slay the princes. 
 But remember thou, that thou must abide by this rule 
 (I Cor. VII. 2), Let each man have his wife. — Therefore 
 these things are recorded, not as examples, but that we 
 should abstain from imitating the example. We may 
 admire, but not imitate them. For there are some things 
 which we may imitate, others which we may admire. 
 Hope, believe, call upon God, like Leah ; but do not marry 
 four wives, like Jacob. For this belongs solely to Jacob, 
 and to those whom God willed to be exempted from 
 the general rule. Let us exercise ourselves in the faith, 
 the patience, the hope, set before us in the Patriarchs ; 
 and let us abstain from those heroic examples." 
 
 In the Commentary on Deuteronomy, an earlier work, 
 publisht in 1525, it is remarkt in several places that 
 polygamy was allowed to the Jews, with the sanction of 
 the Law ; but I have found no expressions which can 
 be construed to imply that a similar licence is in any re- 
 spect conceded as rightful to Christians. That Luther's 
 
250 
 
 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON S 
 
 opinions at this period coincided with those which he 
 maintained afterward, appears from his letter to Metzsch, 
 written in December 1526. "To your first question, 
 whether a man may have more than one woman to wife, 
 my answer is this. Unbelievers may do what they please ; 
 but Christian freedom is to be regulated according to 
 love ; so that everything should be determined with a 
 view to our neighbour's good, where no necessity or sin 
 against faith or conscience prevents us. Now however 
 every one seeks that freedom, which will serve and profit 
 himself, without regard to his neighbour's benefit or 
 edification ; although St Paul says, All things are lawful 
 to me, hut all things are not expedient : Only use not your 
 liberty for an occasion to the flesh. — Again, though the 
 ancients had many wives. Christians are not to act after 
 such an example ; because there is no necessity, nor 
 edification, nor special woTd of God, commanding this ; 
 and such great scandal and trouble might come from it. 
 Therefore do not esteem the Christian as more free, 
 unless there be some command of God with regard to 
 such freedom." So again in the following March he 
 writes to Clemens Ursinus, in a letter full of that wisdom 
 of faith and love, which is the only true prudence : 
 " Polygamy, which was conceded of old to the Jews an^ 
 Heathens, cannot be approved of rightfully nor enterprised 
 with a safe conscience among Christians, unless in a case 
 of extreme necessity, as where one party is separated by 
 the leprosy or a like cause. Therefore you must say to 
 the carnal, that, if they wish to be Christians, they must 
 cultivate faith, and curb the flesh, not loosen its reins : if 
 they choose to be Heathens, they may do what they like, 
 at their peril." 
 
 This too is the line of argument which he takes in a 
 previous course of Sermons on the Book of Genesis, 
 
' ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 251 
 
 publisht in 1527, where, in speaking of the polygamy of 
 Abraham and Jacob, he vindicates them from the censure 
 of the Manicheans and other disparagers of marriage. 
 At the same time he declares again and again that their 
 example is not to be regarded as a precedent, which we 
 may follow by adopting polygamy as an institution, 
 though it may be deemed a sanction for having re- 
 course to such a remedy in extreme cases. When the 
 Landgrave appealed to certain expressions in those Ser- 
 mons as justifying his conduct, Luther replied, " My 
 sermon on Genesis will no way help the Landgrave. For 
 on divers occasions, both before and since, I have taught 
 that the Mosaic law was not to be reestablisht, although 
 it may allowably be made use of as an example, se- 
 cretly in a case of necessity, or even publicly, if the 
 magistrate so ordain. Therefore, although I should give 
 a secret counsel to a troubled conscience in a case of 
 necessity, that it should act according to the law or ex- 
 ample of Moses, I should not establish an open law or 
 example, but should answer as a confessor, who does 
 nothing publicly, but in private, according to the need of 
 consciences." See S,eckendorf, iii. p. 280; who also 
 gives a letter from the Elector to the Landgrave, ex- 
 plaining Luther's previous expressions in the same 
 manner. " It is one thing to write and teach what in 
 this or that case is not contrary to God and to Scripture : 
 it is another thing to venture on and defend an act con- 
 trary to public law and to universal custom. — When 
 Luther writes that he does not recommend bigamy, he 
 indicates thereby that he is unwilling that it should be 
 introduced publicly ; and the purpose of that sermon was 
 mainly to defend the Patriarchs from various censures 
 of the commentators, not to excite Christians to the same 
 licence." 
 
252 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 The same principles guided both Luther and Melanch- 
 thon in the opinions they delivered with regard to Henry 
 the Eighth's divorce. Here again the Pamphleteer shews 
 that he is a full match for the Reviewer in the art of 
 misrepresentation. " Had not the civil prudence (he 
 says) of the imprudent Henry VIII restrained him from 
 carrying their (Luther's and Melanchthon's) spontaneous 
 counsel into effect, a plurality of wives might now have 
 been a privilege as religiously contended for in England 
 as in Turkey." In the Postscript he adds that this state- 
 ment is not founded " on the vague expressions contained 
 in Luther's letter to Barnes," but on Melanchthon's 
 " Consultatio de Digamia Regis Angliae." Yet, if Luther 
 is to be charged, as the author charges him, with the 
 guilt of this " spontaneous counsel," the evidence must 
 be sought in what he himself advised, seeing that he 
 delivered his opinion fully, and not in what Melanchthon 
 may have said in a document, where, by using the first 
 person singular, he shews that he alone is responsible 
 for it. 
 
 Now Luther's letter to Barnes, the agent sent to collect 
 the opinions of the Protestant divines, is in so noble a 
 spirit, one can hardly understand how any man with a 
 heart in his bosom can have read it without admiration ; 
 and it shines forth especially, when contrasted with the 
 paltry compromises of truth, which bribery and other 
 sinister motives drew from so many Universities. He 
 takes the true religious and philosophical ground, that 
 the Levitical restrictions of consanguinity, which were 
 contravened by express ordinances even among the Jews, 
 are no way binding on Christians, except so far as they 
 are re-enacted by the ecclesiastical and civil law of the 
 land ; that the authority which enacts such regulations 
 may dispense with them ; but that to dissolve a marriage 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 253 
 
 celebrstted in mutual good faith, which had subsisted for 
 so many years, and from which issue had sprung, was a 
 direct violation of the Divine precept, which forbids 
 divorce save in the case of adultery. " Be it, that the"^ 
 King sinned in marrying his deceast Brother's wife ; yet 
 it will be a much more atrocious and greater sin to re- 
 pudiate her, and to dissolve their marriage so cruelly, that 
 not only the King, but the Queen herself and the Princess 
 will incur the perpetual disgrace of incest : when in fact 
 there is no cause why he should brand them with this 
 horrible crime, and, in addition thereto, dissolve his mar-^ 
 riage. Which two huge sins are such, that no regard 
 whatever should be paid to the lesser sin, especially one 
 so long past, and already remitted, and in truth now no 
 sin at all." Holding this opinion of the divorce, he 
 deprecates it with all his energy. " I should wish — that 
 my opinion might benefit both the King and the Queen, 
 so that they may not be beguiled — by the sophists into 
 so nefarious and wicked a divorce, by which they would 
 incur a perpetual misery of conscience. — But if our 
 adversaries have entirely got hold of the King, let our 
 friends try with all their energy at least to save the 
 Queen, so that she may never consent to the divorce, but 
 may rather die than make her conscience guilty of such a 
 crime before God, and that she may believe most firmly 
 that she is the true, legitimate Queen of England, made 
 and approved such by God Himself. — For if they cannot 
 save the King, — which God forfend ! — let them at least 
 save the soul of the Queen, so that, if the divorce cannot 
 be averted, she may bear this great evil of an exceeding 
 injury as her cross, but may no way approve of it or 
 consent to it. I, who can do nothing else, will lift up 
 my prayer to God, that Christ may prevent the divorce, 
 — or, if He will not prevent it, that He may at least give 
 
254 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 a strong faith and a stedfast, undoubting conscience to 
 the Queen, that she is and will continue to be the legiti- 
 mate and true Queen of England, in spite of the gates of 
 ihe world and of hell." 
 
 Such being the feelings with which Luther contem- 
 plated the divorce, it will not surprise us that he should 
 have said, " Before I could approve of such a divorce, I 
 would rather permit the King to marry another Queen, 
 and to have two wives or Queens at once, after the 
 example of the Kings and Patriarchs." There are two 
 ancient copies indeed of the letter to Barnes, both of 
 them publisht by De Wette ; and among other diifer- 
 ences between them, these last words do not occur in 
 that which on the whole seems the most authentic. But 
 I will not lay any stress on this objection. In the Land- 
 grave's application it is stated that something of the sort 
 had been said in the answer to Henry VIII : and though 
 this might refer solely to Melanchthon's Consilium, yet, 
 knowing what we do of Luther's opinion on the allowable- 
 ness of bigamy in cases of extreme urgency, we may easily 
 suppose him to have said thus much in this case, even if 
 this mode of evading the difficulty had not already been 
 mooted and talkt of by others (bo). But when, after 
 reading Sir W. Hamilton's accusation, we turn to Luther's 
 writings, and find that this is the sole grormd for it, so 
 far as Luther is concerned, what must be our indignation 
 against such reckless slander ! 
 
 The purport of Melanchthon's Consilium, which is 
 drawn up with characteristic ability, is the very same. 
 It is properly entitled, De Divortio Henrici VIII. not 
 De Digamia : the latter title gives an erroneous impres- 
 sion of its object. Taking the same ground with Luther, 
 though treading more gently, Melanchthon refutes the 
 arguments alledged in favour of the divorce ; and then 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 255 
 
 adds : " But what if the public good render a new 
 marriage advisable for the sake of the succession, as is 
 the case with the King of England, where the public 
 benefit of the whole kingdom would be promoted by 
 a new marriage ? Here I answer, if the King desires 
 to provide for the succession, how much better is it 
 to do so without throwing any stigma on his previous 
 marriage ! And this may be done without peril to any 
 one's conscience or reputation by a second marriage. 
 For although I would not concede polygamy generally, — 
 for I said above that we are not laying down laws, — yet 
 in this case, for the great benefit of the kingdom, and, it 
 may be also, for the sake of the King's conscience, I hold 
 that the safest course for the King would be to marry a 
 second wife, without casting off the first ; because it is 
 certain that polygamy is not prohibited by the Divine 
 Law ; nor is it a thing any way unprecedented. Abra- 
 ham, David, and other holy men had a number of wives ; 
 whence it appears that polygamy is not contrary to the 
 Divine Law. We read too of more recent instances. 
 For the Emperor Valentinian enacted a law allovnng of 
 having two wives together, and himself married Justina, 
 without casting ofi'his prior wife Severa. The Popes too 
 have formerly granted such permissions, as to one George, 
 an Englishman." Thus Melanchthon's ConsiUum also is 
 very far from sanctioning bigamy as a practice, but 
 merely as an exception or dispensation, as he repeats, 
 " vel propter conscientiae periculum, vel propter regni 
 periculum." In a letter to Bucer three months after 
 (No 1016), he says, with reference to this opinion, " We 
 cannot sanction the divorce. They who give a difi'erent 
 opinion, terribly strain the Divine Law. We on the 
 contrary in political matters would rather strain the 
 authority of the magistrate, which assuredly is not 
 
256 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 slight : and many things are justifiable on account of the 
 authority of the magistrate, which otherwise are ques- 
 tionable. If the King were sufficiently instructed in this 
 matter, his conscience might be satisfied, as it seems to 
 me." Hence we see how Sir W. Hamilton's violence 
 against the Reformers drives him to and fro from one 
 errour to another, without allowing him to stop at the 
 resting-point of truth. Even his excuse of them is only 
 a fresh accusation, and just as illfounded as the first. 
 
 But though we must reject the plea that the advice 
 given to the Landgrave is an instance of the predilection 
 which the Reformers on principle entertained for poly- 
 gamy, the evidence adduced abundantly proves that, in 
 sanctioning a dispensation in what appeared to them a 
 case of pressing need, they were not acting inconsistently, 
 but in thorough consistency with the principles which 
 they had avowed for years before. To us indeed the 
 notion of such a dispensation will still be very offensive ; 
 but we must beware, as I have already remarkt, of 
 transferring the moral views and feelings of our age to 
 Luther's. The canon law admitted the necessity of 
 dispensations, which in matrimonial cases were especially 
 numerous. One of the main objects of the scholastic 
 casuistry was to determine under what limitations they 
 are admissible, as may be seen in our own authors in this 
 branch of practical theology, such as Taylor ; and the 
 great importance of casuistrj' is beginning to be recog- 
 nised anew by recent writers on ethics. The ignorant 
 prater may cry, that Luther . ought to have thrown all 
 such things overboard, along with the other rubbish of 
 Romanism. But it was never Luther's wont to throw 
 things overboard in a lump. His calling, he felt, was to 
 preach Christ, crucified for the sins of mankind, Christj 
 of whose righteousness we become partakers by faith. 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 257 
 
 Whatever in the institutions and practices of the Church 
 was compatible with the exercise of this ministry, he did 
 not assail, unless it was flagrantly immoral. The sale of 
 dispensations, the multiplication of cases for dispensations 
 in order to gain money by the sale of them, he regarded 
 as criminal ; and the abolition of such dispensations, 
 where they have been abolisht, the reprobation they He 
 under, are owing in no small measure to him. But the 
 idea of Law which manifested itself to him, convinced him 
 that positive laws can only partially express the require- 
 ments of the supreme Law of Love, for the sake of which 
 they must at times bend : and when he consulted his one 
 infallible authority, he found that his Heavenly Master's 
 chief outward conflict during His earthly ministry was to 
 assert the supremacy of the Law of Love, which the Pha- 
 risees were continually infringing, while they stickled 
 pertinaciously for the slightest positive enactment. 
 
 Nor is it irrelevant to mention here, that the church at 
 Erfurt, where Luther spent his youth in the convent, 
 contains the monument of the Count of Gleichen, and of 
 the two women said to have been his wives. The Count's 
 story has afibrded a subject for several works of fiction. 
 Wordsworth, in his poem on the Armenian Lady's Love, 
 represents the second lady as living with him in the 
 relation of a sister. But the tradition was, that the 
 Count, having been taken captive in the Holy Wars, 
 gained his freedom by the help of his master's daughter, 
 whom he married, and that, on his return to Europe, 
 finding his former wife alive, he obtained a dispensation 
 to live with them both. Whatever may be the historical 
 value of this tradition, the frequent sight of the monu- 
 ment, and the story connected v?ith it, could not but 
 familiarize the mind with the notion of bigamy as having 
 been allowed in a case of peculiar emergency : and there 
 
 s 
 
258 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 seems to be a reference to it in that passage of Melanch- 
 thon's opinion, where he speaks of a captive in a forein 
 land (bp). 
 
 With regard to the other case mentioned, that of 
 bodily infirmity, it is manifest that, even if a license 
 were ever allowable, the strictest care would be indis- 
 pensable to avert the grossest abuses. That such allega- 
 tions were at times made in confession, probably in miti- 
 gation of penances for fornication, we may infer from 
 the way in which Luther speaks on the subject in two of 
 the Marriage-Sermons mentioned above, those of 1522 
 and 1525 ; where, touching on the grounds of divorce, he 
 says : " But how is it if a person has a sick partner 
 unfitted for conjugal duties ? may he not take another ? 
 On his life, no. But serve God in thy sick partner, and 
 nurse her : think that God sends thee a holy thing into 
 thine house in her, that thou mayst gain heaven. Blessed 
 and twicer blessed art thou, if thou recognisest this gift 
 and grace, and waitest on thy sick wife for God's sake. 
 Sayst thou, it is dangerous to live thus ? No ; for if 
 thou wilt faithfully wait on thy sick wife, and recognise 
 that God has sent her to thee, and beseech Him to 
 preserve thee, let Him take care of the rest : assuredly 
 He will give thee grace, that thou shalt not hAve more to 
 bear than thou canst bear. He is much too faithful to 
 deprive thee of thy wife by sickness, and not also to take 
 away the wantonness of thy flesh, if thou dost indeed wait 
 on her dutifully." It may be that this had been main- 
 tained to be a valid ground of separation, among the 
 other extravagances at Wittenberg while Luther was in 
 the Wartburg. The peculiar case of leprosy however is 
 mentioned as a valid ground for a dispensation in the 
 letter to Clemens Ursinus quoted above in p. 250. In like 
 manner, when consulted by Amsdorf on a matrimonial 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 259 
 
 case, Luther writes, in December 1528, " I much wish 
 that this were settled and determined by the Govern- 
 ment, that, when one party in a marriage is a leper, the 
 other shall be free, saving the right of alimony and the 
 promise for life. I, in a case of conscience, should 
 declare that such persons are free, seeing that by the 
 Law of Moses a leper is civilly dead, and ordered to be 
 separated from the congregation. But now, if we were 
 to lay down the same rule, who would carry it into effect? 
 who would uphold it, when our Government thinks other- 
 wise ? Therefore, if he will marry at his peril, he may 
 marry, I hold, conscientiously. But we promise him no 
 protection or defense. We grant a secret right (jus 
 occultum concedimus) : let him look where he can obtain 
 a public right; since that does not He in my power," 
 Here, in the case of certain unknown persons, we find 
 Luther allowing of a secret dispensation, jus occultum, 
 the very thing deemed a mark of conscious guilt in that 
 of the Landgrave, whose position naturally led Melanch- 
 thon to urge the point more prominently. At the same 
 time the Landgrave's office as a soverein would be deemed 
 by the Reformers a ground for special indulgence, as we 
 have just seen in Melanchthon's apology for his counsel 
 to Henry the Eighth ; not however from any base per- 
 sonal motive, as the Pamphleteer would insinuate ; but 
 from divers palpable peculiarities both in his private and 
 public relations, and above all because the instances of 
 polygamy recorded without censure in the Old Testament 
 occur mainly in the lives of the Patriarchs and the Kings. 
 The Reviewer indeed asserts of the Reformers, that, in 
 their conduct on this occasion, though " renouncing the 
 Pope, they arrogate the power of the Keys to an extent 
 never pretended to by any successor of St Peter." This 
 however is only another instance of his unthinking 
 
 s 2 
 
260 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 rashness. He who reads through Melanchthon's Opinion, 
 as quoted above, will perceive that they arrogate nothing : 
 they do not assume any right of granting a dispensation : 
 but when their counsel is sought, when they are appealed 
 to as spiritual advisers, when a case of conscience is laid 
 before them, what can they do but give such counsel as 
 the emergency seems to them to require ? They were 
 consulted as confessors ; and as confessors they returned 
 their answer. Will any one say that they ought to have 
 declined giving an answer, for fear of the shame they 
 might incur by it ? He who would recommend such 
 cowardly conduct, must be utterly incapable of under- 
 standing Luther's heroic faith and love, which would 
 never shrink from any shame to be incurred by endea- 
 vouring to "relieve the conscience of a brother. More- 
 over, as it is plain on the face of the document that the 
 authors of it were not arrogating any power to them- 
 selves, so do we know from other evidence that Luther 
 deeply regretted the necessity, which the condition of the 
 German Church imposed on him, of entertaining and 
 deciding matrimonial causes, and that he was anxious to 
 remove this burthen from the shoulders of the clergy, by 
 the establishment of appropriate tribunals for the inves- 
 tigation of such cases in the consistories, to the end that 
 the ministers of Christ might not be needlessly distracted 
 and hindered in their great work of preaching the Gospel. 
 His feelings on this point are exprest in the following 
 passage of his Tahletalh, which I translate from the Ger- 
 man, c. XLiii. § 97, because the old English version qften 
 misrenders the original, and frequently omits whole 
 sentences, even such as are requisite to bring out the full 
 meaning of the context. " When Dr Martin Luther was 
 askt, what the ministers w^re to do, and how they should 
 behave with regard to matrimonial causes, whether they 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 261 
 
 miglit get rid of such vexation and trouble, he said : I 
 advise by all means that we do not take such a yoke and 
 burthen upon us ; first, because we have enough of other 
 things to do in our office ; secondly, because marriage 
 does not pertain to the Church, but is out of it, a tem- 
 poral, worldly thing ; wherefore these questions belong 
 to the magistrate ; thirdly, because such cases are innu- 
 merable, very high, wide, and deep, and occasion great 
 offense, which would tend to the shame and dishonour of 
 the Gospel. For I know how often in these matters we 
 with our counsel have been put to shame, when we have 
 allowed secret contracts, to prevent great evils, on condi- 
 tion that they should be kept secret, so that they might 
 not become precedents for others to follow. But people 
 deal unfriendly-wise with us, draw us into these miserable 
 affairs; and, when they turn out ill, the fault must all 
 be ours. Therefore we will leave these matters to the 
 civil magistrate and the jurists, who will know how 
 to give account of them, and, if they decide them well, 
 will be better thought of. The ministers should merely 
 counsel the conscience out of God's word, where need is : 
 but as to disputes, we vrill let the jurists and consistories 
 fight them out and settle them. Dr Christian Beyer, the 
 Saxon Chancellor, wanted to impose on us divines, that 
 we should hear, examine, and weigh matrimonial causes, 
 and should refer them to the judgement of the jurists, 
 who were then to pronounce. This I woxild not do. 
 On the contrary they ought to hear, and to await judge- 
 ment from us ; although Master Philip advised me and 
 Master Cellarius that we should serve the poor distracted 
 Churches in these cases for a season (bq)." 
 
 A further question may still be askt, whether, even 
 allowing that Luther acted in conformity to his own 
 opinion, that a second marriage might be entered into in 
 
262 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 a case of extreme urgency, without a sinful violation of 
 the Divine law, the reasons in the Landgrave's case were 
 adequate. This however is a question on which we have 
 not sufficient data for pronouncing. We have the Land- 
 grave's application for advice indeed, which he sent by 
 Bucer to the Wittenherg divines ; and this, I may re- 
 mark, as printed hy Bretschneider (iii. 851 — 856) from 
 . the Palatine Manuscript, does not contain the offensive 
 declaration ascribed to him by the Reviewer, that "he 
 did not wish to abstain from his adultery.'' Not how- 
 ever that these words were fabricated by the Reviewer : 
 he foiuid them in Bossuet's version, where they occur 
 thrice over ; and Bossuet naturally lays great stress on 
 them. The "copy too publisht by Arcuarius (Beger) in 
 1679, from which Bossuet's version is taken, has some ex- 
 pressions which might easily be understood to imply such 
 an assertion, but which, if they are genuine, must needs 
 bear a different meaning (br) ; since the ground which 
 the Landgrave assigns for his application, was his earnest 
 desire to relinquish his sinful practices : and he . was a 
 man who had several fine qualities in his character, 
 though his life, like that of many illustrious princes and 
 captains, was not in accordance with the demands of 
 Christian purity. Among the publisht documents, — for 
 some still remaining have never been printed, though 
 there would seem to be no sufficient reason for still 
 suppressing them, — we also have the Landgravine Chris- 
 tina's consent to her husband's taking a second wife. 
 But, in addition to the written argument, the Landgrave 
 also sent a confession, to be delivered orally by Bucer to 
 the Wittenberg divines ; and of this we only know, from 
 divers allusions, that it contained matters unfit for any 
 ear but those of a confessor. Therefore we will not 
 attempt to pry into them. We may safely trust that he. 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 26S 
 
 the strength of whose faith never allowed him to fear man 
 on any other occasion, would not be swayed by the fear 
 of man into sinning against his conscience on this. In a 
 beautiful letter written in the following month of June, 
 1540, to Melanchthon, who was grievously opprest by 
 the scandal occasioned, when the Landgrave, in opposi- 
 tion to their counsel, let his second marriage be known, 
 Luther thus reminds him of the principles which had 
 guided them in their opinion. " You know it was told 
 us in that matter, that it was a case of extreme necessity, 
 to which a law does not apply, or which at least requires 
 a modification of it. Wherefore I beseech you for 
 Christ's sake, be of a calm and qtdet mind ; and let them 
 whose concern it is do something, and bear their own 
 burthens, and not throw the whole weight on us, whom 
 they know to be candid and faithful, and whom they 
 cannot charge with any crime, except compassion, or a too 
 indulgent facility." 
 
 In this time of trouble Luther's heroic faith shines 
 forth still more brightly from its contrast with Melanch- 
 thon's weakness. The latter was quite crusht, and 
 brought to the very verge of death. " No words can 
 explain to you (he says to Camerarius in a letter of Sept. 
 1, 1540), what horrible pangs I have suffered, which 
 sometimes revive. I perceived that our teacher was in 
 an agony of mind ; but he represt his grief, lest he should 
 increase mine ; and he tried to raise me up with the 
 greatest magnanimity, not only by comforting me, but 
 often by reproving me severely. Unless he had come to 
 me, I should have died." Luther on the other hand feels 
 strong as ever from his unshaken trust in his Heavenly 
 Supporter. " Why are we killing ourselves to no pur- 
 pose (he says in the letter just quoted to Melanchthon), 
 and by our sadness disturbing our knowledge of Him who 
 
264 REPLY TO sia w. Hamilton's 
 
 is the Conqueror of every death and every sorrow ? For 
 He who overcame the devil, and judged the Prince of this 
 world, did He not at the same time judge and overcome 
 this scandal ? For if this present scandal pass away, there 
 will hereafter be other and perhaps greater crowds of 
 scandals, which, if we live, we shall still overcome through 
 the same Conqueror, and shall laugh at them. There is 
 no evil, no power of hell, of which He did not say, and 
 purpose to be understood as saying, / have overcome 
 the world : he of good cheer. — Let Satan avaunt : he 
 shall not make us mourn or despond : let us rejoice and 
 exult in Christ the Lord : He will bring all our enemies 
 to nought. We are not in David's condition, whose cause 
 was far more desperate ; yet he did not fall : nor shall this 
 cause fall. Why then do you torment yourself? since 
 our ultimate cause is sure to stand, that is, Christ's 
 victory, although our formal and intermediate cause is 
 somewhat disgraced by this scandal. — We, who love you 
 sincerely, wiU pray for you diligently and effectually. 
 Farewell in Christ ; and be not fearful or anxious ; cast 
 all your care upon Him, who desires to be careful for us, 
 a,nd has commanded and requires us to believe this. — His 
 word shall stand: I have overcome the world; and ye shall 
 live, because I live. Again farewell ; and be cheerful and 
 calm, I beseech you, as we seek to be, yea, as our Lord 
 commands us to be." This is the man whom the Re- 
 viewer audaciously charges with a " skulking compromise 
 of all professed principle," and with violating the Gospel, 
 " trembling only at discovery." 
 
 The reluctance to have the matter known, it is plain, 
 was unmixt with any personal consideration in Luther ; 
 though it was otherwise with Melanchthon, whose utter 
 abashment on this occasion shews how thoroughly Luther 
 understood his character, when he said to him years before. 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 265 
 
 Fecca fortiter (bs). It was just after this last letter of 
 Luther's, that Melanchthon, as he tells Camerarius in 
 the words just cited, was at the point of death, and was 
 restored to life in an almost miraculous manner, as it 
 seemed, through the intensely fervent prayers, and the 
 energetic, friendly comfort, and friendly rebukes of Luther. 
 "When Luther, who had been sent for on account of 
 Melanchthon's dangerous illness, arrived, he found, the 
 historian tells us, " that his eyes were sunk, his senses 
 gone, his speech stopt, his hearing closed, his face fallen 
 in and hollow, and, as Luther said, fades erat Mippo- 
 cratica. He knew nobody, ate and drank nothing. Wben 
 Luther saw him thus disfigured, he was frightened above 
 measure, and said to his companions, God forfend! how 
 has the devil defaced this Organon! He then turned 
 forthwith to the window, and prayed fervently to God. 
 Then, said Luther, Our Lord God could not but hear me ; 
 for I threw my sack before His door, and wearied His ears 
 with all His promises of hearing prayers, which I could 
 repeat out of Holy Writ; so that He could not hut hear me, 
 if I were ever to trust in His promises. Hereupon he 
 graspt Philip by the hand: Bono animo esto, Philippe; 
 non morieris. Although God has reason to slay, yet He 
 willeth not the death of a sinner, but that he should he con- 
 verted and live. He has pleasure in life, not in death. If 
 God called and received the very greatest sinners that ever 
 were upon earth, Adam and Eve, again into favour, much 
 less will He reject thee, my Philip, or let thee perish in sin 
 and despair. Therefore give no place to the spirit of sor- 
 row, and he not thine own murderer ; hut trust in the Lord, 
 who can slay and make alive again, can wound and hind up, 
 can smite and heal again. For Luther well knew the 
 burthen of his heart and conscience. Being thus taken 
 hold of and addrest, PhiHp began to draw breath again, 
 
266 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 but could not say anything for a good while. Then he 
 turned his face straight upon Luther, and began to beg 
 him for God's sake not to detain him any longer, — that 
 he was now on a good journey, — that he should let him 
 go, — that nothing better could befall him. By no means, 
 Philip, said Luther ; thou must serve our Lord God yet 
 longer. Thus Philip by degrees became more cheerful, 
 and let Luther order him something to eat ; and Luther 
 brought it himself to him ; but Philip refused it. Then 
 Luther forced him with these threats, saying : Hark 
 Philip, thou must eat, or I excommunicate thee. With 
 these words he was overcome, so that he ate a very 
 little : and thus by degrees he gained strength again." 
 See the account cited by Bretschneider in his edition of 
 Melanchthon, iv. p. xvii. I enter into these details of 
 Luther's conduct connected Avith this affair, because it has 
 often been represented as utterly disgraceful, and destruc- 
 tive of his moral character ; whereas on this, as on every 
 other occasion, the best vindication of him is the truth. 
 The more one knows of him, the grander he becomes, the 
 more too he wins not merely reverence, but love. 
 
 Hence we may perceive that the reasons which made 
 the Reformers insist so strongly upon secrecy, as an in- 
 dispensable condition, were those which they themselves 
 give out, first, lest the act should be regarded as a pre- 
 cedent, and secondly, the scandal which its publication 
 was sure to occasion. Yet this by no means implies that 
 the act itself was wrong. Jeremy Taylor, in his Rule of 
 Conscience (B. ii. C. ii. R. 3), speaking on a cognate 
 matter, says, of an act which he deems permissible, that, 
 "if that which is not of good report be done, and offered 
 to the report of all them who can condemn the folly and 
 impurity, but cannot judge of the necessity or the cause, 
 the fact, by becoming scandalous, is criminal." In fact 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 267 
 
 the same rule holds with regard to all those acts which 
 marriage sanctifies, but which, if exposed to public view, 
 would bestialize human nature (bt). This is the ground 
 which Luther himself takes, in a letter to the Landgrave 
 written in July 1540, parts of which have been publisht 
 by Bretschneider in the Zeitschrift fur die historische 
 Theologie, ii. i. 286 — 288, and are reprinted by Marhei- 
 neke in his History of the German Reformation, iv. pp. 
 31 — 34. " I have received your princely Grace's letter, 
 which in some measure, methinks, has been written in an 
 irritated mind, such as I am not conscious of having 
 deserved. For it seems to me that your Grace regards 
 this affair, as though we had acted for our own sakes, and 
 not for your Grace's faithful, loyal service, to save your 
 Grace from future distress. Therefore I will here declare 
 to your Grace from the bottom of my heart, it is not for 
 my own sake that I entreat and warn you so earnestly 
 against the publication of the opinion. Your Grace 
 should be fully convinced of this, and not fancy that it 
 is for my sake. Even if all the devils were resolved to 
 publish the counsel, I should know, through God's grace, 
 how to make answer, so that they shall have no hold upon 
 me. For I have the advantage that your Grace, and all 
 the devils themselves, must testify and confess, first, that 
 it is a secret counsel; next, that I entreated with all 
 earnestness that it might not be publisht ; thirdly, if it 
 come to the worst, yet I am sure that it is not publisht 
 through me. So long as I have these three arguments, 
 I would not advise the devil himself to set my pen stir- 
 ring. God will help me. Through God's grace I know 
 how to distinguish what may be conceded out of grace in 
 a stress of conscience before God, and what, without this 
 necessity before God, is not right in our outward conduct 
 upon earth; and I should be sorry that your Grace 
 
268 
 
 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON S 
 
 should enter into a pen-combat with me. Your Grace has 
 enough of other things to do ; and so have I. But this is 
 the state of the case, that, since we are of the same Con- 
 fession, I cannot and will not, so far as lies in my power, 
 let your Grace fall into danger and distress ; and I ac- 
 knowledge myself bound as a Christian to give my 
 neighbour my best counsel and service. For, though 
 your Grace publish the opinion, it does not affect me ; 
 but your Grace's objects are not gained and accomplisht 
 thereby : only your Grace will drag down a heavier load 
 on your own neck, so that we shall not be able hence- 
 forward to help your Grace again, however gladly we 
 might do and wish it. For this your Grace will not be 
 able to effect, that the world shall recognise this your 
 Grace's secret marriage as an open marriage, even though 
 many hundred Luthers and Philips and others declared it 
 so. People will still say, Luthers and Philips have no 
 power to establish anything against public and wholesome 
 laws, although they are bound to give secret advice under 
 a pressure of conscience." 
 
 In the preceding April Luther had written to the 
 Elector, that he had burnt the Landgrave's letter, in 
 order that the matter might remain secret, begging him 
 also to keep it secret, and expressing a wish that, since 
 the Landgrave deemed it so important to his soul's health, 
 God might prosper his act. It no way distrest him that 
 the excellent John Frederic should know what had 
 happened. What pained him was, that it should become 
 notorious to those who would not have the information 
 requisite for understanding the peculiar nature of the 
 case ; and this information he would not consent to give. 
 In June 1540, on hearing that the Landgrave meant to 
 publish his marriage, Luther exprest his strong disap- 
 proval in a letter to Eberhard von der Tann, and added : 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 269 
 
 " I shall keep what the Landgrave disclosed to me in the 
 way of confession through Bucer, entirely secret, even to 
 my own shame. It is better, people should say, Luther 
 has played the fool (for much wiser men than I have 
 played the fool ; and the saying is, a wise man does not 
 commit a small folly), than that I should publish the 
 reasons which induced me to comply with the Landgrave : 
 for this would bring him much greater shame, and make 
 the scandal far worse." 
 
 Such then is the amount of Luther's sin, or rather 
 errour, — for sin I dare not call it, — in this affair, in which 
 the voice of the world, ever ready to believe evil of great 
 and good men, has so severely condemned him, without 
 investigation of the facts ; although the motives imputed 
 to him are wholly repugnant to those which governed his 
 conduct through life. He did not compromise any pro- 
 fest principle, as the Reviewer accuses him of doing : he 
 did not inculcate polygamy, as the Pamphleteer charges 
 him with doing. But inasmuch as he could not discover 
 any direct, absolute prohibition of polygamy in the New 
 Testament, while it was practist by the Patriarchs, and 
 recognised in the Law, he did not deem himself warranted 
 in condemning it absolutely, when there appeared in 
 special cases to be a strong necessity, either with a view 
 to some great national object, or for the relief of a 
 troubled conscience. Here it behoves us to bear in mind 
 on the one hand, what importance Luther attacht, as all 
 his writings witness, to this high ministerial office of re- 
 lieving troubled consciences : and it may mitigate our 
 condemnation of his errour, — which after all was an 
 errour on the right side, its purpose being to substitute a 
 hallowed union for unhallowed license, — if we remember 
 that Gerson had said openly a century before, expressing 
 the common opinion of his age, that it was better for a 
 
270 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 priest to be guilty of fornication than to marry. Such 
 was the moral degradation of the Church under the 
 Egyptian bondage of ordinances, that even so wise and 
 good a man could deem it expedient to sacrifice the 
 sacred principles of right and purity, the sense of duty, 
 and the peace of the soul, for the sake of upholding the 
 arbitrary enactment of a tyrannical hierarchy. Indeed 
 the clamour which has befen raised against Luther for this 
 one act by the Romish polemics, is perhaps, among aU 
 cases of the beam crying out against the mote, the grossest 
 and the most hypocritical (bu). 
 
 Nor should we forget what difiiculties have in all 
 ages compast the settlement of special matrimonial cases. 
 They may perhaps be less now in England than in 
 other countries, notwithstanding the grievous scandals 
 which attend them even here : and there is always a 
 prejudice inclining men to suppose that their own con- 
 dition is the normal one for the whole human race. But 
 if we compare the laws of marriage which prevail in the 
 various branches of Christendom, and know anything of 
 their moral effects as manifested in family hfe, we shall 
 perceive how hard it is to lay down any one inviolable 
 rule. What the obscurity and uncertainty of the law 
 was in Luther's time, we may estimate from the conflict- 
 ing answers which were returned to the questions mooted 
 with reference to Henry the Eighth's divorce. On the 
 other hand we should try to realize what the Bible was to 
 Luther, the source of all wisdom, the treasurehouse of all 
 truth, the primordial code of all law, the store-room from 
 which, with the help of the Spirit, he was to bring forth 
 every needful weapon to fight against and to overcome 
 the world and the devil, — how, if the Bible had been put 
 in the one scale, and all the books of all the great thinkers 
 of the Heathen and Christian world had been piled up in 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 271 
 
 the Other, they would not have availed in his judgement 
 to sway the balance so much as a hair's breadth. It was 
 not much the practice of his age, — least of all was it 
 Luther's, — to estimate the lawfulness and propriety of an 
 act by reference to its general consequences. He did 
 indeed bethink himself of the evil that would ensue, if 
 the dispensation were regarded as a precedent ; and there- 
 fore did he insist on its being kept secret. But he did 
 not duly consider how impossible it was that such a step 
 taken by a man of so impetuous a character should be 
 kept secret, — nor how terrible the evils would be if every 
 pastor were to deem himself authorized to give similar 
 counsel, — nor how perilous it is to take the covering of 
 secrecy for any acts, except such as are sanctioned by the 
 laws of God and man, while the moral feeling of society 
 throws a veil over them. Perhaps he acted overhastily in 
 a matter of such difficulty and moment : for in a letter of 
 the 9th of December 1539, Melanchthon speaks of Bucer 
 as just arrived; and the answer is dated on the 12th. 
 But however severely we may blame Luther for these 
 errours of judgement, for his allowing himself to be in- 
 fluenced in such a matter by misericordia and humanissima 
 faciUtas, still, when the secret is disclosed, when the 
 scandal gets wind, how does the heroic grandeur of his 
 character, the might of his invincible faith rise out of the 
 trial ! The rain descended, and the floods came, and the 
 winds blew, and beat upon his house : but it stood fast, 
 because it was founded upon a Rock. And so, God 
 willing, it shall still, in despite of all his blustering 
 revilers and undermining detracters (bv). 
 
 Nay, what man of right mind would not infinitely 
 rather bear the burthen of all Luther's wrong on this 
 occasion, than that of the unblushing falsehood, the 
 trampling upon truth, the abject prostration of the 
 
272 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMIIiTON's 
 
 conscience implied in Bossuet's sentence upon it ? " Tout 
 ce que la Reforme avoit de plus renomm^ en AUemagne 
 consentit a cette iniquite : Dieu les livroit visiblement au 
 sens reprouve ; et ceux qui crioient centre les abus, pour 
 rendre I'Eglise odieuse, en commettent de plus etranges et 
 en phis grand nombre des les premiers temps de leur 
 Reforme, qu'ils n'en ont pu ramasser ou inventer dans la 
 suite de tant de slides, oH Us reprochent d, I'Eglise sa 
 corruption." Ou inventer ! Witli what a wanton defiance 
 of truth are these words thrown in ! When a lie is of 
 infinite magnitude, no matter how much more one stuiFs 
 into it. In reading Bossuet's fierce invective on occasion 
 of the Landgrave's double marriage, — the first volley of it 
 in the Histoire des Variations, the second more furious still 
 in the Fourth Avertissement in answer to Jurieu, and the 
 third in the reply to Basnage, — if we call to mind what 
 was the state of the French court during the sixteenth 
 and seventeenth centuries, and what at so many periods 
 in the preceding eight centuries had been the moral con- 
 dition of Rome, it would almost seem as though a preacher 
 had come out of Sodom to rail against Abraham for 
 taking Hagar to his bed. With good reason might Seck- 
 endorf reply (Lib. iii. p. 277), that the French writers on 
 this question "prudentius cautiusque fecissent, si came- 
 rinam banc non movissent: habent enim domi, si tanta 
 lubido est Principum mores in censuram vocare, unde 
 magna compleant volumina ; nee minora de dispensatione 
 Pontificum vel sacerdotum, qua flagitia non arcana solum, 
 sed et pubHca, vel concedere vel dissimulare solent ex 
 causis quas Deo et conscientiae minime probabunt." 
 
 Indeed, if anything were surprising among the number- 
 less irapaXoyct of literature, one should marvel at the inor- 
 dinate reputation which the Histoire des Variations has 
 acquired,, not merely with the members of a Church glad 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 273 
 
 to make the most of any prop for a rotten cause, but 
 among Protestants of learning and discernment. One 
 main source of its celebrity may lie in tbat spirit of 
 detraction which exercises such a baneful power in all 
 classes of mankind, ever since Cain slew his brother on 
 account of his righteousness, — in the eagerness with 
 which all listen to evil-speaking and slander, finding 
 little diminution of their pleasure though it be strongly 
 seasoned with lying, — in that want of sympathy with 
 heroic and enthusiastic spirits, which is so prevalent 
 among men of the world, and the great body of men 
 of letters, and their consequent satisfaction at seeing 
 what towers beyond their ken cast down to the ground. 
 Able as the Histoire des Variations doubtless is, if re- 
 garded as the statement and pleading of an unprincipled, 
 and unscrupulous advocate, it is anything but a great 
 work. For no work can be great, unless it be written 
 with a paramount love of truth. This is the moral ele- 
 ment of all genius ; and without it the finest talents are 
 worth little more than a conjuror's sleight of hand. 
 Bossuet in this book never seems even to have set himself 
 the problem of speaking the truth, as a thing to be desired 
 and aimed at. He pretends to seat himself in the chair of 
 judgement, but without a thought of doing justice to the 
 persons he summons before him. He does not examine 
 to ascertain whether they are guilty or not. His mind is 
 made up beforehand that they are guilty; and his only 
 care is to scrape together whatever may seem to prove 
 this, that he may have a specious plea for condemning 
 them. Never once, I believe, from the first page to the 
 last, did he try heartily to make out what the real fact 
 was (bw). He is determined to say all possible evil of 
 the Reformers, to shew that they went wrong at every 
 step, in every deed, in every word, and in every thought, 
 
 T 
 
274 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 to prove that they are all darkness, with scarcely a gleam 
 of light. Hence his representation of Luther is no more 
 like him, than an image made up of the black lines in a 
 spectrum would he like the sun. Bossuet picks out all 
 the bad he can find, and leaves out aU the good : but, as 
 even this procedure would poorly serve his purpose, the 
 main part of his picture consists of sentences torn from 
 their context, which by some forcible wrench, some pro- 
 cess of garbling, by being deprived of certain Umiting or 
 counterbalancing clauses, by being made positive instead 
 of hypothetical, or through some of the other tricks, 
 of which we have seen such sad instances in these 
 pages, are rendered very offensive. With regard to the 
 Landgrave's marriage, his treatment of Luther is more 
 like the ferocity of a tiger, tearing his prey limb from 
 limb, and gloating over it before he devours it, than the 
 spirit which becomes a Christian bishop. 
 
 Let me give one instance of the mode in which he 
 perverts the truth. It may serve as a sample of the 
 whole work. In the Latin translation of the Landgrave's 
 brief, which Bossuet gives as an appendix to his sixth 
 Book, he is represented as saying, " Quidquid me jusserint 
 quod christianum et rectum sit, sive monasteriorum bona, 
 seu alia concernat, ibi me promptum reperient." In the 
 Palatine Manuscript, as publisht by Bretschneider, there 
 is nothing answering to these words, though an equivalent 
 German sentence is found in the text given by Arcuarius. 
 Hence, if Bretschneider's conjecture be correct, we may 
 conclude that Bucer omitted this passage from a fear that 
 Luther and Melanchthon might regard it with jealousy, 
 as an attempt to biass their decision by the introduction 
 of extraneous motives. Still the meaning of the passage 
 in the Latin version is quite plain : the Landgrave pro- 
 mises that whatever they may require, consistently with 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 275 
 
 the principles of Christianity and justice, whether it relate 
 to the goods of the monasteries or to other matters, they 
 shall find him ready to comply with their wishes. Now 
 no one acquainted with the history of the times, who was 
 not blinded by ill-will, would be obtuse enough to mis- 
 understand that the Landgrave engaged hereby to take 
 care that the property of the dissolved monasteries should 
 be applied, as the Reformers wisht, to religious purposes. 
 Luther was well aware from the first that there were a 
 number of rapacious persons, princes and nobles, who 
 would be eager to seize on the property of the dissolved 
 monasteries. Indeed the work of pillage had already 
 been begun in some provinces which retained their alle- 
 giance to Rome, as it was in England about the same time, 
 though with a better object, by Wolsey. In August 1523, 
 when publishing the Rules for the Public Chest at Leiss- 
 nig, Luther in the Preface expresses his fears that the 
 property of the monasteries would be seized by greedy 
 plunderers, and urges that, after ample provision has 
 been made for the present inmates, it should be employed 
 in works of charity. In November 1526 he wrote a 
 pressing letter to the Elector John, recommending that 
 it should be devoted mainly to the objects of supplying 
 ministers and schools, and, if there were any surplus, 
 to other charitable uses. Again in a letter to Spalatin, 
 of January 1527, he says : " Seria sunt valde de rapina 
 monasteriorum ; et crede, macerat res ista me vehementer. 
 Ego scriptis egi jamdudum quod petis. Hoc non con- 
 tentus irrupi, dum hie erat Princeps, invitis omnibus 
 etiam in cubile Principis, ut solum convenirem super 
 hac re." The Landgrave too had himself written to 
 Luther on the subject in 1526; and it was very natural 
 that he should recur to it in 1539 ; more especially 
 as it must doubtless have been a matter of discussion 
 
 T 2 
 
276 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 at some of the conferences held in the preceding three 
 years (bx). 
 
 In Bossuet's French translation however the passage 
 assumes a totally different meaning : " De mon cote, je 
 ferai tout ce qu'ils m'ordonneront, selon la religion et la 
 raison ; soit qu'ils me demandent les Hens des monasteres, 
 soit qu'ils desirent d'autres choses." When the words are 
 rendered thus, they sound as if the Landgrave meant to 
 offer the Reformers a brihe, a share in the pillage of the 
 monasteries. He who knows anything of them, or even 
 of the Landgrave, will indeed recoil from such a thought. 
 To bribe Luther to give an opinion ! One might as reason- 
 ably think of bribing the sun to shine tomorrow, by 
 promising him a good breakfast. But such is Bossuet's 
 sordid spirit, and such was the spirit of the persons he 
 was familiar with, he makes the meaning, which he has 
 put into the words by his own mistranslation, the ground 
 of a most spiteful, but ill-aimed sneer. " On voit comme 
 il insinue adroitement les raisons dont il savoit, lui qui les 
 connoissoit si intimement, qu'ils pouvoient 6tre touches." 
 One would have thought that any man with ordinary 
 delicacy of mind would have been ashamed of casting out 
 such an imputation, — that he would have lookt again and 
 again to ascertain whether it could really be true. But 
 Bossuet's coarseness leads him to repeat the charge more 
 scurrilously in his Reply to Jurieu : " Le prince — pour 
 ne rien oublier, et gagner ces ames venales par les interets 
 les plus bas, leur propose de leur accorder pour prix de 
 leur iniquite tout ce qu'ils lui demanderoient ; soit que ce 
 fut les Mens des monastires, ou d'autres choses sembldbles." 
 Here the falsifier has introduced a fresh word, " sembla- 
 bles,"" into his own translation, to strengthen his perver- 
 sion of the original. Again in his Reply to Basnage he 
 spits out more of the same venom, while refuting a feeble 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 277 
 
 excuse, that the Reformers had been compelled to yield. 
 " On leur promit des monasteres k piller : que la Reforme 
 en rougisse : le landgrave, Vhomme du monde qui avoit le 
 phis converse avec ces Riformateurs, et qui les connoissoit 
 le mieux (this clause is foisted in as a superfetation of 
 falsehood), les gagne par ces promesses : et voilk toute la 
 violence qu'il leur fait." If any one is to blush, it is the 
 Chiurch that sets up such an advocate : the advocate 
 himself must be incapable of doing so (by). 
 
 For this malignant calumny, be it observed, there is no 
 sort of ground, except in his owa mistranslation. If he 
 had lookt a second time with open eyes at the Latin, he 
 must have perceived that the Landgrave \?as speaking of 
 the employment of the property for public, not for private 
 ends : the very word jusserint implies this ; much more 
 the expressions, quod Christianum et rectum sit. Indeed 
 Bossuet could not have gone wrong, unless he had set out 
 with the persuasion that the Reformers and their princes 
 were a set of rogues and liars, and with a determination 
 to prove them so. He who metes such measure to his 
 brethren, and to men far greater and holier than himself, 
 has no claim to indulgence ; and for this reason I have 
 allowed myself to express the indignation which such 
 conduct deserves. The imputation of sordid motives to 
 our adversaries is one of the paltriest tricks of contro- 
 versy, which no rightminded man will avail himself of, 
 without conclusive evidence that it is justified by the 
 general life and character of the person against whom it is 
 brought. But Bossuet, while he was engaged in his 
 History, must have examined a considerable part of the 
 documents which shew what Luther was and did. He 
 quotes his letters, whenever he fancies they supply him with 
 materials for slander. Where, in what act, in what word, 
 did he find anything to warrant him in suspecting that 
 
278 
 
 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON S 
 
 Luther would have belied his conscience for a bribe ? 
 nay, that he was desirous of the riches of this world ? 
 Nay, he must have met with abundant evidence that 
 Luther was utterly careless about it, that, so far from 
 seeking, he shunned it. 
 
 To purify these pages, which have been defiled by 
 Bossuet's insinuations, let me here insert a prayer, which 
 Luther offered up when he was believed to be dying, in 
 July 1527. Bugenhagen, who records it, says : " The 
 Will which he drew up and gave to his wife, then with 
 child, and to his infant son, was as follows : My most dear 
 God, I thank Thee from my heart that Thou hast willed 
 that I should he poor and a beggar upon earth ; therefore I 
 can leave neither house nor fields, estates, money, or pro- 
 perty, to my wife and child after me. As Thou hast given 
 them to me, so I restore them to Thee again. Thou rich, 
 faithful God, feed them, teach them, preserve them, as Thou 
 hast hitherto fed, taught, and preserved me, O Father of 
 the orphans and Judge of the widows" (Walch, xxi. 163.) 
 
 The following letter to the Elector John, in August 
 1529, may serve as one proof out of a multitude that this 
 was not merely a feeling awakened by the solemn antici- 
 pation that earth and its gifts were passing away, but that 
 it abode with him in the same strength amid the temp- 
 tations of active life. " I have long delayed to thank 
 your Electoral Grace for the clothes and gown your 
 Grace has sent and given to me. But I will humbly beg 
 your Grace not to believe those who say that I am in 
 want. I have unhappily more, especially from your 
 Grace, than I can reconcile to my conscience. As a 
 minister too, it does not behove me to have any super- 
 fluity ; nor do I desire it. Therefore, when I see your 
 Grace's overkind and gracious favour, I am straightway 
 afraid; for I would not willingly be found here in this 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 279 
 
 life among those to whom Christ says, fFo to you that are 
 rich ! for ye have received your consolation. Moreover, to 
 speak of this world's matters, I would not willingly he 
 burthensome to your Grace, knowing that your Grace 
 has so many calls for giving, that your Grace can scarcely 
 have anything over to maintain your own rank ; for too 
 much bursts the bag. Therefore, although it would not 
 beseem me to wear the liver-coloured cloth, yet, that I 
 may be thankful to your Grace, I will wear the black 
 coat in honour of your Grace, though it is much too 
 costly for me ; and were it not your Grace's gift, I could 
 never wear such a coat. I beg therefore that your Grace 
 wiU wait till I myself complain and ask, so that, through 
 this overreadiness on your Grace's part, I may not be 
 shamed out of asking for others, who are much worthier 
 of such favours. For your Grrace, without this, does too 
 much for me. Christ will repay it graciously and richly : 
 this I pray from my heart." Yet Luther's largest income 
 is said to have been two hundred florins, about twenty 
 pounds, a year (bz). 
 
 Such is the man whom Bossuet calls " venal" whom 
 he charges with selling his soul for a bribe. This is in- 
 deed a peculiarly flagrant example : but he who will take 
 the trouble of examining the statements in the Histoire 
 des Variations, will flnd a number of passages where the 
 truth is distorted by similar misrepresentations ; and I 
 doubt whether he will find a single instance of candour 
 in the whole book. It is fuU time that a work, which 
 has been exalted so far beyond its worth for a century 
 and a half, should be cast down to its proper place (ca). 
 
 I have dwelt thus long on this matter of the Land- 
 grave's marriage, because Luther's conduct on this occa- 
 sion is commonly supposed to be the one great blot 
 in his life, and has been deemed indefensible even by 
 
280 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 many of his friends. Having endeavoured to set this 
 matter in a right light, to shew what he actually did, and 
 by what motives he was determined, I may hasten to the 
 close of this Vindication. Some of Sir W. Hamilton's 
 charges indeed, and very heinous ones, are still unre- 
 futed. " Luther and Melanchthon (he says), great and 
 good as they hoth were, would, had they been permitted 
 by the wisdom of the world to carry their theological 
 speculations into practice, have introduced a state of 
 things, which every Christian — will now confess, would 
 not only have turned the Reformation into a curse, but 
 have subverted all that is most sacred by moral and 
 religious law. Among other points of Papal discipline, 
 the zeal of Luther was raised against ecclesiastical celibacy 
 and monastic vows ; and whither did it carry him ? Not 
 content to reason against the institution within natural 
 limits and on legitimate grounds, his fervour led him to 
 deny explicitly, and in every relation, the existence of 
 chastity as a physical impossibility ; led him publicly 
 to preach (and who ever preacht with the energy of 
 Luther !) incontinence, adultery, incest even, as not only 
 allowable, but, if practist under the prudential regu- 
 lations which he himself lays down, unobjectionable, 
 and even praiseworthy. The epidemic spread ; a fearful 
 dissolution of manners throughout the sphere of the 
 Reformer's influence, was for a season the natural result. 
 The ardour of the boisterous Luther infected, among 
 others, even the ascetic and timorous Melanchthon." 
 These words are followed by the passage quoted above 
 in p. 233 about Polygamy. 
 
 Now, after the cross-examination to which Sir W. 
 Hamilton has been subjected, even Mr Ward will hardly 
 assert any longer that " his name is a sufficient voucher " 
 for the accuracy of anything that he may say. Will Sir 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 281 
 
 W. Hamilton himself assert that it is ? Will he vouch 
 for the accuracy of his own quotations ? of his own 
 statements ? His own ! We have seen that many of them 
 are not his own, — that, with all his ostentatious preten- 
 sions to a familiarity with Luther's writings, he has 
 borrowed extracts, without acknowledgement, from Bos- 
 suet, or from some other of Luther's violent enemies, 
 and has not even attempted to ascertain their correctness. 
 In like manner, I believe, the charges brought against 
 Luther in the passage just quoted are not the result of 
 Sir W. Hamilton's own researches : I believe that they 
 are taken in the main from such books as the Histoire 
 des Variations, and that too without examination. But, 
 from whatever source they may be drawn, on whatever 
 ground or quicksand they may be erected, I see not 
 why I should hesitate to assert that, so far as they 
 bear upon Luther, they are, one and all, utterly false. 
 If Sir W. Hamilton has not hitherto publisht the second 
 part of his Address to the Scotch Church, in which he 
 calls upon its members. Be not Schismatics, be not Martyrs 
 hy mistake, he might perhaps employ his time more profit- 
 ably both for himself and for the noble company of 
 authors, were he to substitute a pamphlet, illustrated by 
 copious examples out of his own experience, to deter men 
 from retailing the falsehoods they find in others ; and the 
 pamphlet might fairly be entitled. Be not Calumniators, 
 he not Slanderers by mistake. For such facts his name 
 might safely be regarded as a sufficient voucher; and 
 thus he might regain his lost laurels : while Mr Ward 
 might adorn an appendix to his Jc^ea^ with long extracts for 
 his own edification, and that of other Romanizers ; unless 
 indeed he be of opinion that it pertains to the essence of 
 an Ideal to keep at a respectful distance from the truth. 
 At all events I trust I may now assume that Luther's 
 
282 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 character does not need to be vindicated from such heinous 
 charges, brought forward thus vaguely, and without a 
 tittle of evidence, by such an accuser. A couple of 
 remarks may suffice to dispose of them. 
 
 In the first place the whole passage implies a total 
 misconception of Luther's character, and of the influence 
 he exercised, whether generally on his countrymen, or on 
 Melanchthon personally. We have seen how far beyond 
 him Melanchthon went in his counsel to Henry the 
 Eighth. "We have seen how Luther from the Wartburg 
 wrote to repress his friend's ardour for precipitate inno- 
 vations. Several times too in the course of these pages 
 we have been led to remark how averse Luther was to the 
 hasty and violent change of any outward institution, — 
 how he desired that the Reformation of Christianity 
 should advance, like its original establishment, not by 
 the forcible assault and subversion of anything previously 
 existing, but by the winning and transformation of men's 
 minds through the power of Divine truth brought home to 
 them by the operation of the Spirit. Mackintosh, when 
 speaking of the Reformation, in his History of England 
 (ii. 147), has observed that Luther's conduct, at the time 
 of the insurrection of the peasants, " was unexception- 
 able ; " and that " such disorders are incident to the 
 greatest and most beneficial movements of the human 
 mind." They are the almost inseparable accompaniments 
 of such a movement ; but it would be sheer confusion to 
 hold its authors responsible for them (cb). 
 
 One of the chief merits of Ranke's History is his 
 having set these parts of Luther's character in their true 
 light, so clearly and incontrovertibly, that the empty 
 talk about his violent conduct, which may probably have 
 arisen primarily from the vehemence of his language, and 
 which has been greatly fostered by Bossuet's caricature, 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 283 
 
 will ere long be exploded among the intelligent, as much 
 so as the Xiivian declamation against the Roman plebeians. 
 In the former extracts from Ranke we found representa- 
 tions of Luther's salutary and tranquillizing working in 
 the earlier part of his public career. At a later period in 
 his History, when the Reformed Churches had already 
 assumed a certain consistency, in the Introduction to the 
 seventh Book, he inserts the following remarks, which 
 may stand here to set their foot on Sir W. Hamilton's 
 misrepresentations. " The Reformers, even in religion, 
 with regard both to ceremonies and to doctrine, notwith- 
 standing their departure from the ordinances of the hier- 
 archy, still kept as close to whatever was traditional, as 
 seemed reconcilable with the original records of their 
 faith, to which they went back. Around them destruc- 
 tive tendencies, which had long been working under- 
 ground, and were now suddenly set free by the mighty 
 convulsion, came forth in a form peculiarly fascinating 
 for the age, from the confusion of religion vsdth politics, 
 and threatened the civilized world with a universal disso- 
 lution and revolution. The Reformers had sufficient 
 calmness and self-possession to resist these tendencies 
 from the very first moment. Throughout we see Luther 
 directing his weapons on both sides, — against the Papacy, 
 which sought to reconquer the world then struggling for 
 its emancipation, — and against the sects of many names, 
 which sprang up beside him, assailing Church and State 
 together. In the region of the spirit, in the province of 
 intellectual conviction, the Protestants contributed the 
 most to their subjugation. Not that they cautiously 
 weighed in each particular case what was practicable, and 
 what not. It was rather their own essential character, 
 that led them to this conduct. They were thoroughly con- 
 vinced of the correctness of that view of the Scriptures, 
 
284 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 which lay at the foundation of the theology of the 
 Latin Church : they merely desired to remove those arbi- 
 trary decisions and ordinances of the Hierarchy, which 
 were repugnant thereto : and how could Luther, to whom 
 the confounding of the spiritual with the temporal ele- 
 ment was one of the things most hateful in the Papacy, 
 allow a like confusion to gain ground on the opposite 
 side ? In so doing he would have given up himself. In 
 this very respect does a mind truly called to take an 
 active part in the development of the world mani- 
 fest that its internal nature and the secret necessity of 
 thingS concur. The great Reformer, if we may use 
 an expression of our days, was one of the greatest 
 Conservatives that ever lived." 
 
 In the next place, to touch on the more specific charges 
 in the last extract from Sir W. Hamilton's Pamphlet,— 
 the first, that Luther " denied explicitly, and in every 
 relation, the existence of chastity as a physical impossi- 
 bility," may easily be proved to be utterly false by the 
 citation of passages in which he " explicitly " asserts the 
 contrary. For instance, in the Sermon On Married Life, 
 preacht in 1522, he begins with speaking on Matthew xix. 
 12, and, coming to the third class of men there mentioned, 
 says, " these are the high, rich spirits, whose passions 
 are bridled in by God's grace, — who say, — I will beget 
 children in the Kingdom of Heaven, that is, spiritual children 
 in the Gospel" In the latter part of the same Sermon, 
 after speaking of the benefits of marriage, he adds, 
 " Hereby I do not mean to reject virginity, nor to entice 
 people from it to a married life. Let each continue in 
 the state which suits him, and which he feels to be 
 appointed for him by God." The same thing is said in 
 nearly the same words in the Sermons on Genesis pubUsht 
 in 1527. In the later Commentary on Genesis ii. 22, we 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 285 
 
 find the words, Non autem nego, quin aliqui sint qui sine 
 conjuffio possint caste vivere; words which might seem 
 expressly chosen to give a flat contradiction to Sir W. 
 Hamilton's assertion. A sentence might perhaps be 
 pickt out here or there, which, when taken alone, may 
 appear to assert the contrary ; but if we look at it in its 
 original place, we shall find something in the context 
 to limit it (cc). 
 
 Sir W. Hamilton may contend that the passages which 
 1 have quoted come from writings subsequent to the dis- 
 turbances at Wittenberg, and that he was speaking of 
 writings anterior, inasmuch as he ascribes these disturb- 
 ances to their influence. But we have seen above that 
 his knowledge concerning the chronology of the German 
 Reformation is no less accurate than on every other 
 matter pertaining to it. In fact this itself is a fresh 
 proof that he is dealing out his words at random : for in 
 the Marriage Sermon of 1519, the only one prior to those 
 disturbances, Luther, as has already been stated in p. 157, 
 was still under the Romish prejudices in favour of celibacy. 
 On the other hand it is quite true that Luther did often 
 most earnestly contend that vows of celibacy, imposed on 
 any except those who by a peculiarity of physical or 
 moral constitution were qualified for observing them, 
 were contrary to Nature, and to God's holy ordinance, 
 so contrary, that Nature would infallibly assert her rights, . 
 and rise up against them : and of this he had the most 
 appalling evidence in the practice of concubinage, which 
 seems to have been very common among the clergy, 
 except where far worse profligacy prevailed in its stead. 
 When we find official statements that among fifty priests 
 scarcely one was not a notorious fornicator, — that, among 
 a hundred priests in Bavaria, it had been ascertained 
 upon enquiry, scarcely three or four did not live in open 
 
286 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 concubinage, or in secret or open marriage (cd), — how 
 could a righteous man dwelling among them do otherwise 
 than vex his righteous soul with the filthy conversation of 
 the wicked ? How could he do otherwise than protest 
 with all the fervour of holy indignation against the 
 unhallowed imposture which was breathing its pestilential 
 vapours into every nook and comer of the Church ? 
 
 The other charges, that Luther " publicly preacht 
 incontinence, adultery, incest even, as not only allowable, 
 but, if practist under the prudential regulations which 
 he himself lays down, unobjectionable, and even praise- 
 worthy," cannot be refuted in the same summary manner. 
 I might cite a number of passages against incontinence 
 from his writings : I might shew that he often exprest a 
 wish that adultery were punisht capitally. But I will 
 not waste words upon such accusations proceeding from a 
 witness whose testimony has been proved again and again 
 to be utterly worthless. When a dear friend, whose 
 faith and righteousness have been approved during a long 
 life, under many severe trials, is said to have committed 
 unheard of enormities, without any specification of when, 
 where, how, or what, one is fully warranted in replying 
 that the assertions cannot possibly be true. Therefore 
 I will merely defy Sir "W. Hamilton to bring forward 
 evidence in support of these atrocious charges. Should 
 he attempt to do so, and adduce any passages beyond 
 those which have been satisfactorily explained by Harless 
 in the seventh Volume of his Journal, I shall deem myself 
 bound to use my best endeavours to set them on a right 
 footing. At the same time let me remark, that I trust 
 he will not have the assurance to quote certain sayings, 
 which explicitly refer solely to cases of impotence, as 
 substantiating his allegations. Should he shrink from this 
 test, finding that he cannot stand it, what can a generous. 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 287 
 
 nay, what can an honest man do in his place, but come 
 forward with an open recantation and a humble acknow- 
 ledgement of the wrong he has done to one of the noblest 
 pillars of Christianity, one of the greatest benefactors of 
 mankind (ce) ? 
 
 Herewith I will wind up this Vindication of Luther, 
 which has grown to a bulk far beyond what I originally 
 contemplated. But the question of Luther's character is 
 intimately connected with the miserable controversies 
 which are now disturbing our Church : and though the 
 decision of those controversies ought to turn on wholly 
 different points, the enemies of Protestant truth have 
 always felt they were gaining an advantage, if they could, 
 by whatsoever artifices, detract from the fame of its first 
 and greatest champion. Hence it seemed desirable, not 
 merely for the sake of historical justice, but with a view 
 to checking and dispelling the delusions which have been 
 so busily propagated of late years concerning the Refor- 
 mation and its authors, that the charges brought against 
 Luther, such at least as come from assailants of any mark, 
 should be carefully scrutinized, and that their ground- 
 lessness should be thoroughly exposed. To do thus 
 much appeared to be due, not only to Luther, but also 
 to our Church, which is so deeply indebted to him, and 
 which will have to rue the day, should she ever cease to 
 revere him. If in doing it I have been too prolix, I 
 must plead that love is wont to be garrulous. How then 
 can it be otherwise, when it has such an object, and sees 
 him so scandalously traduced? Must it not do what 
 it can to replace him on his rightful throne ? That my 
 vindication of him has not been entirely unsuccessful, 
 I may trust without much presumption. Several of the 
 charges have been clearly shevni to rest on no foundation 
 whatever, others to be grossly exaggerated. Indeed to 
 
288 REPLY TO SIR w. Hamilton's 
 
 some readers it may seem that they were too futile, too 
 monstrous, to need so elaborate a refutation. Such an 
 objection would be welcome as a token that I have not 
 failed in my aim. At the same time let me remark 
 that the persons against whom I have been contending, 
 are not men of no name, gablers and railers out of the 
 rabble of literature, but most of them among our most 
 eminent writers of the day ; so that it might have been 
 deemed a rash venture to encounter them, but for the re- 
 collection that even Patroclus became a match for the fore- 
 most heroes, when he went out to the battle in the armour 
 of Achilles. That armour will assuredly enable us still 
 to gain many a victory over Romanists and Romanizers. 
 
 Of late years however Luther's enemies have been on 
 the advance in England, Frivolous and fallacious as the 
 charges here examined have been proved to be, they have 
 been caught up eagerly and repeated by many ; and it is 
 impossible to estimate by how many they have been swal- 
 lowed readily, as flattering their previous antipathies, — 
 or how many more must have deemed, albeit reluctantly, 
 that what was so confidently asserted, and remained with- 
 out contradiction, could not but be true. Nor have they 
 been repeated merely by such writers as Mr Marshall, 
 who, in his Notes on the Episcopal Polity (p. 387), appeals 
 to Mr Hallam as an authority for pronouncing Lutheran- 
 ism to be the parent of Anabaptism, an assertion the total 
 incorrectness of which we have seen above. For this is 
 just of a piece with the rest of a book, which would 
 almost seem to have been made up out of the sweepings 
 of a public library, interlarded with those of a reading- 
 room, quoting all manner of books of all ages, bygone 
 libels, and the ephemerals of the day, and retailing 
 gossip, anecdotes, arguments, statements at third or 
 fourth hand, and by bitter adversaries, without any critical 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 289 
 
 discrimination ; its object being the laudable one of 
 proving that, wherever the episcopal form of government 
 has not been retauied, Churches have sunk into "nurseries 
 of heresy and unbelief." A writer who can charge Cal- 
 vin with " a vast number of sayings which savour almost 
 of infidelity" on the unexamined assertions of the Jesuit 
 Maldonatus (p. 406),* has surrendered his linderstanding 
 
 * A dozen passages of Maldonat's Commentary on St Matthew 
 are referred to as vouchers for this assertion ; and it is added that 
 " a host of such evil comments is noticed by the same writer in his 
 remarks upon the other Gospels." Now what purpose of edification, 
 of judgement, or even of the barest information, can be served by 
 persons telling us that Pelagius accused Augustin, or that Augustin, 
 in a score or five score of passages, accused Pelagius of heinous 
 errours t If it be necessary that we shoiild know the errours and 
 faults of great and holy men, and if such knowledge may in some 
 cases be profitable to us in the way of caution and warning, this can 
 only be when we understand what the errour was, and how they 
 were led into it. Let us not build up our judgements on the husks 
 and dregs of the invectives of former generations. Hardly any man 
 that ever hved has spoken the truth of his opponents, has treated 
 them with justice, much less with charity. Why then do we not 
 leave these untruths, these injustices, these uncharitablenesses, to 
 moulder and rot with the other earthly particles of those who 
 uttered them 1 Blessed must Maldonat's portion be, if he has been 
 allowed to embrace Calvin among the Communion of Saints, and to 
 receive his forgiveness for having sinned against him more than 
 seventy times seven. Let us not revive and prolong the carnal 
 animosities of those who may now be at one in the unity of their 
 common Lord. Li the list of passages referred to by Mr Marshall, 
 there is only one where he enables us to judge what the saying im- 
 puted to Calvin, " which savours almost of infidelity," was. " In 
 Maldonat's Note on Matth. xxvn. 46 (he tells us), Calvin is quoted 
 as referring our Lord's exclamation on the Cross to ' despair,' — a 
 sentiment, as Maldonat justly says, almost too shocking to be re- 
 peated, even for the sake of admonition." Maldonat's words are, 
 " Occludendae hoc loco aures sunt haereticorumblasphemiae, quorum 
 magister Calvinus desperationis vocem hanc fuisse dicit, impium 
 
 u 
 
290 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 SO tlindly to blind guides, that I have not thought it 
 requisite to take notice of his allegations against Luther. 
 But Sir W. Hamilton's reputation, however undeserved, 
 for accuracy has gained credence for his statements among 
 
 errorem impio etiam errore confirmans, oportuisse Christum, in 
 quern ira Dei hominibus debita efiundebatur, omnes damnatorum 
 experiri poenas, inter quas una est nuUam sperare salutem." Now 
 what does Calvin really say 1 Let us turn to his admirable Com- 
 mentary. "Certe hie praecipuus fait conflictus, at omnibus aliis 
 tormentis durior, quod in suis angustiis adeo levatus non est Patris 
 auxilio vel favore, ut se quodammodo alienum sentiret. Neque 
 enim. corpus solum in pretium nostrae cum Deo reconcUiationis 
 obtulit, sed in anima etiam pertulit debitaa nobis poenas : atque 
 ita vere factus est Vir dolorum, sicut Jesaias loquitur (un. 3). Et 
 vero nimis insulsi sunt, qui, hac redemptionis parte posthabita, 
 tantum in externo carnis supphcio insistunt ; nam, ut pro nobis 
 satisfaoeret Christus, reum ad Dei tribunal sisti oportuit. Nihil 
 autem magis horribUe quam Deum sentire judicem cujus ira mortes 
 omnes superat. Ergo cum species tentationis Christo objecta est, 
 quasi Deo adverse jam esset exitio devotus, horrore correptus est, quo 
 centies cunoti mortales fv,issent absorpti, ipse autem mirifica Spiritus 
 virtute viator emersit. Nee vero ficte vel theatrice conqueritur se a 
 Patre relictum. — Sed absurdum videtur, Christo elapsam esse despe- 
 rationis vocem. Solutio faoilis est, quanqiiam sensus carnis exitiwm, 
 apprehenderet, fixam tamen stetisse fidem, in ejus corde, qua Deum 
 praesentem intuitus est, de cuJus absentia conqueritur. Diximus alibi, 
 quomodo Deltas locum cesserit carnis infirmitati, quatenus salutis 
 nostrae interfuit, ut omnes Kedemptoris partes Christus impleret. 
 Discrimen etiam notavimus inter naturae sensum et fidei notitiam : 
 quare nihil obstat quominus Dei alienationem mente conceperit 
 Christus, prout sensus communis dictabat, et simul fide retinuerit 
 Deum sibi esse propitium. Quod satis clare patet ex duobus queri- 
 moniae membris. Nam antequam tentationem exprimat, praefatw 
 se ad Deum confugere tanquam Deum suum, atque ita cbypeo fidei 
 fortiter repellit illam, quae se ex opposito ingerebat, derdictionis 
 speciem. Denique in hoc diro cruciatu illaesa fuit ejus fides, ut se 
 relictum esse deplorans, propinquo tamen Dei auxilio confideret. Quis- 
 quis autem reputat, hac lege susceptam faisse a Christo mediatoris 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 291 
 
 men of a different order. Thus it was probably on the 
 strength of those statements that Mr Newman, in his Ser- 
 mon on The Theory of Developments, took upon himseli 
 to say that " Protestantism has at various times unexpec- 
 tedly developt into an allowance or vindication of poly- 
 gamy" (p. 321). He has since shewn with what singular 
 ingenuity he can develop anything out of anything ; and 
 philosophy as well as experience teaches us how close is 
 the conjunction between opposites. But while there is a 
 latent principle of unity between opposites, notwith- 
 standing their apparent remoteness, on the other hand 
 there is often an outward proximity between contraries, 
 such as is implied, for instance, when the Prince of Peace 
 declared that He came to bring a sword. Such is the 
 proximity which is often found in this world between 
 those two contraries, Freedom and Licentiousness. When 
 Freedom would manifest and establish itself, the worlc 
 brings forth Licentiousness to ape it, and to usurp its 
 place. Hence, whenever there has been any freedom oi 
 speculation, licentiousness has dogged its heels, and bark( 
 in its train. Thus it may have happened that some Pro- 
 testant writers at various times may have pleaded in favour 
 of polygamy : this however is no more imputable to Pro- 
 testantism than all the immoral paradoxes broacht by wri- 
 ters in Romish countries are to the Church of Rome. 
 Assuredly too we may reply that to the Reformation, anc 
 in no small measure to Luther, do we owe the true deve- 
 
 personam, ut reatum nostrum tam in anima quam in corpore subiret 
 non mirabitur Uli certamen fuisse cum mortis doloribus, quasi Dec 
 irato in labyrinthum malorum projectua foret." Tiiis ia a sample o 
 the trustworthiness of Maldonat's statements aa to the opinions o 
 the Eeformers. The only way in which such books as the Notes 01 
 the Episcopal Polity could do any good, would be if the author him 
 self were to gather all the copies, and make a holocaust of them t( 
 Truth. This fire might purify him for better works hereafter. 
 
292 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON'S 
 
 lopment of the sanctity of marriage and of family life, the 
 conviction that it is not a state essentially partaking of 
 impurity, any more than virginity, that in the sight of 
 God it is equally acceptable, equally pure. The noto- 
 rious diiferences which prevail with regard to the sanctity 
 of the marriage-tie between Romish and Protestant coun- 
 tries, is the completest answer to the imputation that Pro- 
 testantism has any affinity with polygamy. The whole 
 tone too of our literature, except during that dark period 
 after the Restoration when Romish principles were gain- 
 ing ground, shews a reverence for marriage, which is com- 
 paratively rare in the light Kterature of Romish countries. 
 With us, except during that period, the adulterer has 
 seldom been represented as an object of sympathy and 
 admiration, or the injured husband as an object of ridicule 
 and contempt. How different is the literature of France, 
 and of Italy ! But to return to our subject : that the 
 Christian Remembrancer should hail Sir W. Hamilton's 
 pamphlet with delight, might be expected. In the igno- 
 rance of our Romanizers concerning the theology of Ger- 
 many, and the German Reformation, they snap at what- 
 ever promises to pamper their desire of decrying them. 
 Still one would hardly have thought that even they would 
 have called that pamphlet " valuable for the exposition of 
 Lutheranism which it contains" (Vol. ix. p. 603)-: when 
 in fact it contains nothing about Lutheranism, but merely 
 the passages quoted above, ascribing certain extravagances 
 to Luther and Melanchthon individually, which, even if 
 they were true, would no more affect Lutheranism, than 
 the errours and sins of Christians affect tbe Creeds of the 
 iphurch. It is however a matter of surprise and regret 
 that the learned and candid writer of the Article on Mr 
 Ward's book in the Quarterly Review should refer to the 
 "recent and remarkable pamphlet of Sir W. Hamilton," 
 
ATTACKS ON LUTHER. 293 
 
 citing his monstrous charges against the German Reform- 
 ers, without even intimating a suspicion that they might 
 perhaps be untrue. When falsehood is thus rampant, and 
 spreading thus rapidly, it is high time to arrest its pro- 
 gress, and to hurl it back into its native abyss. 
 
 To some readers it may seem that I have spoken with 
 exaggerated admiration of Luther. No man ever lived 
 whose whole heart and soul and life have been laid bare as 
 his have been to the eyes of mankind. Open as the sky, 
 bold and fearless as the storm, he gave utterance to all his 
 feelings, all his thoughts : he knew nothing of reserve : 
 and the impression he produced on his hearers and friends 
 was such, that they were anxious to treasure up every 
 word that dropt from his pen or from his lips. No man 
 therefore has ever been exposed to so severe a trial : per- 
 haps no man was ever placed in such difficult circum- 
 stances, or assailed by such manifold temptations. And 
 how has he come out of the trial ? Through the power of 
 faith, \mder the guardian care of his Heavenly Master, he 
 was enabled to stand through life, and still he stands, and 
 will continue to stand, firmly rooted in the love of all who 
 really know him. A writer quoted by Harless (vii. 2) 
 has well said, " I have continually been more and more 
 edified, elevated, and strengthened by this man of steel, 
 this sterling soul, in whom certain features of the Christian 
 character are manifested in their fullest perfection. His 
 image, I confess, was for some years obscured before my 
 eyes. I fixt them exclusively on the ebullitions of his 
 powerful nature, imsubdued as yet by the Spirit of the 
 Lord. But when, on a renewed study of his works, the 
 holy faith and energy of his thoroughly German character, 
 the truth of his whole being, his wonderful childliness and 
 simplicity, revealed themselves to my sight in their glory, 
 then I could not but turn to him with entire, pure love. 
 
294 REPLY TO SIR W. HAMILTON. 
 
 and exclaim, His weaknesses are only so great, because his 
 virtues are so great." 
 
 None of God's servants was ever more earnest in dis- 
 claiming all honour to himself. " Neque enim, (he says 
 in the Preface to his Commentary on Genesis, in 1544,) 
 ego is simi de quo dici possit, fecit ; neque is de quo di- 
 cere possis, faciehat. In ultimo consisto ordine, qui vix 
 dicere audet, volui facere. Et utinam essem dignus in 
 hoc ordine ultimo ultimus esse." In like manner, when 
 publishing a collection of his Theses, in 1545, not a year 
 before his death, he says, he allows them to be publisht, 
 " Ne me extoUat magnitudo causae, et successus in ea 
 divinitus mihi datus. Nam in his palam ostenditur mea 
 ignominia, id est, infirmitas et ignorantia, quae me in prin- 
 cipio coegerunt rem tentare cum summo tremore et pavore 
 — Vides hie, si licet saltem hoc gloriari, ex quanta infir- 
 mitate me Dominus provexerit in virtutem, ex quanta 
 ignorantia in scientiam, ex quanto tremore in fortitudinem. 
 ■ — Summa, nos nihil sumus, Christus solus est omnia, qui 
 si avertat faciem suam, nos perimus, et Satan triumphat, 
 etiam si S. Petri et Pauli essemus." Therefore in him 
 has the divine law been fulfilled, that he who loses his life 
 shall find it. 
 
295 
 
 Note A : page 4. 
 
 The following remarks on Luther are taken from the first 
 section of a treatise on German Protestantism, by Hemdes- 
 hagen, which has recently been exciting a good deal of 
 interest in Germany. They give one of the truest pictures I 
 have ever seen of Luther and of his work : — 
 
 "When Our Lord was going about in the towns and 
 villages of His home, according to the flesh, and was teaching 
 in the schools, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and 
 healing all manner of diseases, and all manner of sicknesses 
 among the people, then He saw the people, and He had com- 
 passion upon them ; for they were famished, and scattered 
 like sheep that have no shepherd. Priests, Pharisees, and 
 Scribes, had led the people in the way of error, had cheated 
 them of the highest blessings of life, and made them sub- 
 servient to their wUl. And yet the people was not there 
 either for the sake of the Priests, nor of the Pharisees, nor yet 
 of the Scribes, but for its own sake, and for God's sake, who 
 had created even the least after His image, and had called 
 them to His fellowship. Therefore the Saviom: Himself 
 called this a sign of the appearance of the kingdom of God, 
 that the Gospel was preacht to the poor. He declared that 
 the poor in spirit are blessed ; He called the weary and heavy 
 laden to him ; and He gave thanks to the Father, that He had 
 revealed to babes what He had hidden from the wise. 
 
 " It was a seed of this Evangelical spirit, turning with self- 
 devoting love to the poor forsaken people, that found the 
 good ground in an honest Germaii heart, and from which the 
 tree of our Eeformation grew less mightily. Our Luther, out 
 of a melancholy monk, had become a young doctor, fervent, 
 and rejoicing in the Scriptures, well versed in his Augustin, 
 Aquinas, Occam, Jaulre, and Gersom, familiar with all the subtle 
 
296 NOTES. 
 
 theological and philosophical controversies of his day, was 
 already spoken of honourably in wider circles as a good, clever 
 thinker, as a victorious assailer of the supremacy of Aristotle ; 
 took a lively interest in the struggles of the Humanitarians 
 against the ancient barbarism, was esteemed by the most cele- 
 brated champions of the freedom of science, was exalted by the 
 approbation of his sovereign, of his colleagues, of the students 
 that flocked to his lectures, — in a word, was advancing with 
 rapid steps to the highest honours of literary renown. We 
 take pleasure in this position of Luther, and in his success, 
 not as though he had received the impulses to his subsequent 
 work from thence, but because they did not spoil him for it ; 
 because, in spite of them, when the time came, he did not let 
 them divert him from it. His academical chair had not 
 raised him beyond the wants and the yearnings of the com- 
 mon people ; in the service of science, the aims, the ideas, 
 after which the monk had striven, had not receded or turned 
 pale. In the splendour of his new career, in the light of his 
 brighter knowledge, those who were still destitute of that 
 knowledge had not become strange or indifferent to him ; no 
 self-aggrandizing desire for literary glory had bound his fresh, 
 free, strong spirit, under its yoke. The poor miner's boy, who 
 once went singing for his bread from house to house, had pre- 
 served a great, large, true heart for his people. It was no 
 learned vanity, any more than the vulgar jealousy of his order, 
 nor was it any other merely speculative interest, however 
 noble, that drove Luther into the course of a Eeformer. 
 Luther became a Eeformer, because in his confessional he 
 had learned to know the spiritual necessities of the people ; 
 because he had compassion on the poor people, even as the 
 Saviour had compassion upon them. It was a hearty pity for 
 the simple and ignorant whom he, too, saw given up to the 
 Priests and Pharisees and Scribes, and cheated of the highest 
 blessings of life ; it was a deep, manly sorrow over the mis- 
 taken road of salvation, along which the poor misled multi- 
 tude were wandering, whereby Luther was inspirited to his 
 
NOTES. 297 
 
 first half-timid attempts; whereby, as he advanced, he was 
 strengthened to stedfast perseverance, whereby at length he 
 was raised and arrayed as the mighty champion of Evangelical 
 freedom. Luther had rusht deep into the gulf of moral cor- 
 ruption, which was diffused among the lay commonalty, by 
 the Eomish doctrine of justification by works. He knew from 
 the liveliest experience the miserable condition to which the 
 sincerest souls, the devoutest spirits, are reduced by this doc- 
 trine. He had found an escape from himself out of this tribu- 
 lation, a path leading securely to the peace of the soul with 
 God, in the righteousness of faith. Therefore he could not, 
 and would not, keep silence at that which was going on around 
 him. The princes and priests, indeed, the learned and edu- 
 cated, did not need, for the most part, that he should teach 
 them the meaning of indulgences, but the common unedu- 
 cated people urgently demanded his help. This people, 
 Luther esteemed as standing exactly on the same level — as 
 requiring, just like all other classes, to be led to the light of 
 a purer knowledge of salvation ; he neither deemed himself 
 too high, or the multitude too low, to devote his services to 
 them. In this state of mind, he boldly and powerfully tore 
 down the wall of separation which had been built up in the 
 course of centuries, between the clergy and the laity ; the mass 
 of the laity, who hitherto had only been considered as a help- 
 less body, to be moulded by the priests at pleasure, and to be 
 interceded for by the church before God, he roused, by the 
 doctrine of repentance and of justification by faith, and gave 
 them a living principle of spiritual independence and per- 
 sonality, supplying them with inexhaustible materials for 
 contemplation in the scriptural ideas of sin and of Divine 
 grace, and thus, out of the despised objects of an arbitrary 
 sway, he fashioned a living organized congregation of Chris- 
 tians, who had become free through their faith in their Re- 
 deemer." 
 
 Thus Luther's reformation reverted to the same moral 
 basis, to that warm personal love for the people froni which, 
 
298 NOTES. 
 
 in the first age of Christianity, the preaching of the Gospel 
 had proceeded. Again, as before, the lifeless tools of the 
 hierarchy were to be converted into free moral persons. Again, 
 as before, the love for the people rested upon the true moral 
 estimate of the worth of the very meanest. This is the cha- 
 racteristic of the Keformation as an act of the German mind ; 
 this is the pledge of its continuance, whereby it has far out- 
 lasted, and, in the extent of its operation, exceeded, whatever 
 has taken place in other countries more or less akin to it. 
 
 We should be guilty of great injustice if we refused to re- 
 cognize the features of a proportionately deeper Christian 
 knowledge, of a freer spirit, of a livelier moral earnestness in 
 the leaders and spokesmen of that reformation of the Church, 
 both in its head and members, which was an object of so 
 many desires during the fifteenth century. It is known how 
 highly Luther prized Gerson ; but what duration could a re- 
 formation promise itself which, in its real essence, merely 
 aimed at placing the claims of the lower ecclesiastical aris- 
 tocracy in a correcter balance with those of the higher ? What 
 notions of the essence of the Christian life had cotmcils which, 
 on the one hand, did indeed depose popes, but on the other, 
 proclaimed prohibitions of the Scriptures, confirmed sacra- 
 mental privileges, and burnt the champions of the people 
 against the hierarchy ? In like manner, the House of Valois 
 had indeed deserved thanks for bringing forward the tiers-etdt 
 in its contest against the Court of Eome. In the edict of 
 Bourges, France establisht an important principle for the 
 whole of Christian Em-ope, long before the other nations. 
 But the idea of the people is wider and more comprehensive 
 than that of the tiers-etdt, and the act of awakening the con- 
 sciousness of an mdividual conscience, of a spiritual per- 
 sonality, of the rights of a personal inherited and inalienable 
 priesthood in those whose consciences men, hitherto under 
 subjection, surrendered to the guidance of strangers, is of 
 greater importance than that of granting political rights to the 
 tiers-etdt. This grant, not being accompanied by that awaken- 
 
NOTES. 299 
 
 ing of a moral and religious self consciousness, by that 
 inward emancipation which, at the same time, is an inward 
 discipline, did not, therefore, prevent Francis I., half a cen- 
 tury afterwards, from squandering away the ecclesiastical 
 Uberties of his countiy, which had been obtained by the 
 councils, to the Pope, thus establishing that system of French 
 policy, which has continued to this day, according to which, 
 the knowledge and conscience of the people are of no account 
 with the grandeur and unity of the monarchy. Or, if we turn 
 to the national efforts of the French and Bohemians, the 
 emancipation of their specific race from the oppression of the 
 oecumenical Church, was indeed both justifjdng and ennobling. 
 But as these national efforts were rendered subservient in 
 France to the interests of the absolute monarchy, in Bohemia 
 to a kind of Jewish exclusive nationality, and were stronger 
 in their hatred of foreign influences than in their love for 
 what was domestic, they were destitute of that true moral 
 basis on which Luther's intense love, as well as his frequent 
 severe reprehension of his mad, wild Germans, rested. Luther, 
 by his personal conduct, and by placing us at the head of a 
 spiritual revolution in the world, contributed greatly to pro- 
 duce that mixture of cosmopoUsm with patriotism which pre- 
 vails amongst us to this day; and if, at times, the former 
 element has acquired a dangerous preponderance amongst us 
 over the latter, this disease of ours has not been so injurious 
 to the general developement of our nation, as the confusion 
 and immaturity of the Hussite movement, in many respects 
 so valuable to the Bohemians ; whUe on the other hand, from 
 the indestructible germs of a free moral consciousness, it is 
 not so incurable as the vain self -exaltation of our neighbours 
 across the Ehine. 
 
 As to the efforts for the improvement of taste, for a partial 
 or complete emancipation of science, we fuUy recognise what 
 was good, right, stirring and preparatory for the Eeformation 
 therein. We can appreciate that purification of the air which 
 had been effected by the doubts of the authority of the 
 
300 NOTES. 
 
 Church, excited long before the publication of Luther's 
 Theses, and already widely diffused. We deny not, that the 
 more or less clearly apprehended principle of the uncon- 
 trouled movement of thought was already lying in the at- 
 mosphere of the sixteenth century, and thus was among the 
 impelling causes of the Eeformation ; but we do deny that it 
 was the primary and dominant among those causes, still more 
 that it was the only one. It is not the way of that class of 
 men of letters, such as the revivers of the classical languages, 
 art and philosophy men, to apply with zeal to practical aims. 
 Earely does any desire of acting immediately upon life arise 
 in such circles ; still more rarelj' a spirit which ventures upon 
 a bold defiance of that which is establisht. Entirely devoted to 
 the fascination of following and searching out dim intima- 
 tions of knowledge, of ingeniously detecting long-concealed 
 and deeply-inwrought errours, of continually bringiug forward 
 new treasures out of the mines of the past, of spreading out 
 the riches thus acquired agreeably, of placing them in a clever 
 artistical form before their compeers, and thus ever gathering 
 fresh laurels for their own heads, the men of letters were 
 indeed essentially opposed to the traditional institutions and 
 notions, had risen intellectually beyond them, and were fond 
 of turning the point of their spear against them, but never- 
 theless had nothing in them to effect a real Eeformation ; for 
 the science of science is much less a sincere science of truth, 
 than a science of one's own mind, a self gratification, a deUght 
 in one's own literary personality, and its occupations the finest, 
 most specious form of selfishness. Now this self complacent 
 devotion to learned musings, this indulgence in the pleasures 
 of literary pursuits, requires a quiet, secure, comfortable, out. 
 ward state of things. Hence the tendency of the men of 
 letters was far from attempting to attack any powerful es- 
 tablisht authority, unless it was assm'ed of having its retreat 
 covered by another no less powerful. The leaning for support 
 not merely on secular, but also on spiritual potentates, on 
 Popes, Cardinals, Bishops, and other prelates, of whom none 
 
NOTES. 301 
 
 was willLng to go beyond the limits of self irony, or to allow 
 the results of the new civilization to produce any practical 
 effect upon himself, is a pervading feature in their history. 
 Their evidence, therefore, is full of anticipatory regards for 
 authority. The circle of their intellectual movements seldom 
 extends with any vehemence, at least, not openly, into spheres 
 which require forbearance, and are able to enforce it. Their 
 struggle with antiquated barbarism was no serious battle for 
 hfe and death with a deep-rooted pernicious evil, but was 
 much more a satirical tilt, a jovial sport of youthful wanton- 
 ness with the comic elements of the pedantic obsolete past ; 
 and even where the contest seemed to burn more violently, 
 we must distinguish between the irritation of literary sensitive- 
 ness, and the expressions of a moral feeling, outraged by the 
 violation of truth. Thus, the fine, free spirit of this kind of 
 culture was not united even in its gravest and worthiest re- 
 presentatives with that bold, dauntless corn-age, to which alone 
 it is granted to bring about the great work of a Reformation. 
 
 Note B : p. 9. 
 
 I am speaking here of Mr Hallam's second edition. In 
 the third he has inserted a couple of passages taken from 
 my Note. Of these I shall have to speak in another Note. 
 
 Note C : p. 13. 
 Stephen, p. 355, and remarks thereon. 
 
 Note D : p. 15. 
 
 Hume, iv. p. 35 ; Voltaire, xiii. p. 328 ; Audin, i. 139. 
 Mosheim does not even allude to it. See Maclane's Note. 
 Niebuhr. 
 
 Note E : p. 16. 
 Lutheri Opera, ii 259 a. 
 
302 NOTES. 
 
 Note P : p. 30. 
 Audin, i. p. 73. 
 
 Note G : p. 33. 
 Luther Briefe, ii. p. 8 ; iii. 10, 31, 63, 439. 
 
 Note H : p. 39. 
 This question recurs in p. 869. See Stephen, p. 335, 346. 
 
 Note I : p. 33. 
 
 What is the real difference with regard to Justification? 
 Has Mr Hallam ever examined the Articles to ascertain this ? 
 Compare Newman, Justification, p. 11. 
 
 Note J: p. 38. ( 
 
 Luther's Letters, iii. 311, 315, 358 ; iv. 103. He avoided 
 the common fault of preaching to the people about the vices 
 of their superiors. Coleridge, Eemains, iv. 34. Tischreden, 
 i. 49. 
 
 Note K: p. 41. 
 Note to p. 683. 
 
 Note L : p. 46. 
 
 Dialogue between Luther and Melanchthon. Briefe, iii. 315 ; 
 v. 96, 147. Tabletalk, p. 309-10. 
 
 Note M : p. 46. 
 Luther's controversy with Agricola, Opera, i. p. 517. 
 
 Note N : p. 55. 
 Coleridge, Eemains, iv. 31, 33, 34, 37, 64. 
 
NOTES. 303 
 
 Note : p. 89. 
 Mr H. has corrected this errour. Would that he had in 
 like manner corrected the far more important ones ! See 
 Opera, in Genesim, i. p. viii. 
 
 Note P : p. 66. 
 Coleridge. Jeremy Taylor. 
 
 Note Q : p. 70. 
 Jiirgens, i. p. 451, fol. 
 
 Note R : p. 73. 
 Jiirgens, iii. 18 ; and passages quoted there. 
 
 Note S : p. 72. 
 Answer to Hallam's Note. 
 
 Note T : p. 80. 
 
 Luther's opinion of the Fathers: Genesis i. 8, 152, 153; 
 xxii. p. 184. Tischreden, 68. 
 
 Note U: p. 85. 
 Note in p. 712. 
 
 Note V : p. 86. 
 Laurence's Lectinre. 
 
 Note W: p. 88. 
 Tischreden, 69. Luther on Genesis, Letters, Preface to 
 his works ; Admiration of Melanchthon. 
 
3G04 NOTES. 
 
 Note X : p. 88. 
 On Newman's view of Faith. 
 
 Note Y: p. 91. 
 Note in p. 717. 
 
 Note Z : p. 91. 
 Note and references in p. 7 J 8. 
 
 Note AA : p. 93. 
 Passage of Mory on Eomish Missions. 
 
 Note AB : p. 93. 
 Eeferences in p. 719. 
 
 Note AC : p. 100. 
 On Newman's Lectures since. 
 
 Note AD: p. 113. 
 Extract from Nitzsch. 
 
 Note AE ; p. 115. 
 Baur Symbolik, p. 144. 
 
 Note AF : p. 133. 
 Opera, i. 16. 
 
 Note AG : p. 138. 
 Passages of Shakspeare. 
 
 Note AH : p. 128. 
 Similar declarations of Luther's. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 Note AI : p. 130. 
 Jeremy Taylor, xi. 110. Sewell. 
 
 Note AJ : p. 135. 
 Moehler, &c. 
 
 Note AK: p. 144. 
 Confessio Augustana, p. 33, 35, 36, 37. 
 
 Note AL: p. 146. 
 Extracts from Luther. 
 
 Note AM : p. 148. 
 Ficinus. Gersen. 
 
 Note AN p. 149. 
 Extracts from Luther. 
 
 Note AO : p. 159. 
 Hallam. Audin. 
 
 Note AP : p. 162. 
 Hallam. Stephen, &c. 
 
 Note AQ ; p. 166. 
 Luther. Coleridge. 
 
 Note AR : p. 173. 
 On Moehler. 
 
 Note AS : p. 174. 
 Religiones, Field. 
 
 305 
 
3C06 NOTES. 
 
 Note AT : p. 177. 
 Chemnitz. Luther. Field. 
 
 Note AU : p. 183. 
 Coleridge. Mill. 
 
 Note AV : p. 185. 
 Mill. 
 
 Note AW: p. 187. 
 Mill, &c. 
 
 Note AX : p. 188. 
 Hallam. 
 
 Note AY: p. 190. 
 Hallam. Baur. Luther. Waddington. 
 
 Note AZ : p. 193. 
 Mill. 
 
 Note BA : p. 194. 
 Numerical exaggeration. 
 
 Note BB : p. 196. 
 On Schelling. 
 
 Note BC : p. 196. 
 Mill. 
 
 Note BD : p. 198. 
 Chillingworth. 
 
 Note BE : p. 200. 
 MiU. 
 
NOTES. 307 
 
 Note BF : p. Sll. 
 
 Coleridge, &c. 
 
 Note BG : p. 217. 
 Epistle of St James. 
 
 Note BH : p. 818. 
 Tabletalk. 
 
 Note BI : p. '220. 
 Book of Esther. 
 
 Note BJ : p. 221. 
 Esdras. 
 
 Note BK: p. 225. 
 Jonah. 
 
 Note BL : p. 229. 
 Briefe, &c. 
 
 Note BM : p. 242. 
 Luther. Olshausen, Augusti. 
 
 Note BN : p. 244. 
 Luther. 
 
 Note BO : p. 254. 
 Luther. 
 
 Note BP : p. 258. 
 Note BQ : p. 261. 
 Note BR : p. 262. 
 
 Note in p. 851. 
 
3(308 NOTES. 
 
 Note BS •■ p. 365. 
 
 Mill. 
 
 Mill. 
 
 Mill. 
 
 Note BT : p. 367. 
 
 Note BU : p. 270. 
 Note BV: p. 371. 
 Note BW : p. 373. 
 Note BX ; p. 276. 
 Note BY : p. 377. 
 
 Note BZ -. p. 379. 
 Note OA : p. 379. 
 Note CB : p. 283. 
 Note GO : p. 288, 
 Note CD : p. 386. 
 Note CE : p. 387. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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