Chapter II: Front Matter (2)

All in this page is true, and necessary to be preached. But O! what need is there of holy prudence to preach it aright, that is, at right times to the right ears! Now this is when the doctrine is necessary and thence comfortable; but where it is not necessary, but only very comfortable, in such cases it would be a narcotic poison, killing the soul by infusing a stupor or counterfeit peace of conscience. Where there are no sinkings of self-abasement, no griping sense of sin and worthlessness, but perhaps the contrary, reckless confidence and self-valuing for good qualities supposed an overbalance for the sins,--there it is not necessary. In short, these are not the truths, that can be preached [Greek: eukaírôs akaírôs], _in season and out of season_. In declining life, or at any time in the hour of sincere humiliation, these truths may be applied in reference to past sins collectively; but a Christian must not, a true however infirm Christian will not, cannot, administer them to himself immediately after sinning; least of all immediately before. We ought fervently to pray thus:--"Most holy and most merciful God! by the grace of thy holy Spirit make these promises profitable to me, to preserve me from despairing of thy forgiveness through Christ my Saviour! But O! save me from presumptuously perverting them into a pillow for a stupified conscience! Give me grace so to contrast my sin with thy transcendant goodness and long-suffering love, as to hate it with an unfeigned hatred for its own exceeding sinfulness."

Ib. p. 219-20.

Faith is, and consisteth in, a person's understanding, but hope
consisteth in the will. * * Faith inditeth, distinguisheth and
teacheth, and it is the knowledge and acknowledgment. * * Faith
fighteth against error and heresies, it proveth, censureth and judgeth
the spirits and doctrines. * * Faith in divinity is the wisdom and
providence, and belongeth to the doctrine. * * Faith is the
'dialectica', for it is altogether wit and wisdom.

Luther in his Postills discourseth far better and more genially of faith than in these paragraphs. Unfortunately, the Germans have but one word for faith and belief--'Glaube', and what Luther here says, is spoken of belief. Of faith he speaks in the next article but one.

Ib. p. 226.

"That regeneration only maketh God's children.

"The article of our justification before God (said Luther) is, as it
useth to be with a son which is born an heir of all his father's
goods, and cometh not thereunto by deserts."

I will here record my experience. Ever when I meet with the doctrine of regeneration and faith and free grace simply announced--"So it is!"--then I believe; my heart leaps forth to welcome it. But as soon as an explanation nation or reason is added, such explanations, namely, and reasonings as I have any where met with, then my heart leaps back again, recoils, and I exclaim, Nay! Nay! but not so.

25th of September, 1819.

Ib. p. 227.

"Doctor Carlestad (said Luther) argueth thus: True it is that faith
justifieth, but faith is a work of the first commandment; therefore it
justifieth as a work. Moreover all that the Law commandeth, the same
is a work of the Law. Now faith is commanded, therefore faith is a
work of the Law. Again, what God will have the same is commanded: God
will have faith, therefore faith is commanded."

"St. Paul (said Luther) speaketh in such sort of the law, that he
separateth it from the promise, which is far another thing than the
law. The law is terrestrial, but the promise is celestial.

"God giveth the law to the end we may thereby be roused up and made
pliant; for the commandments do go and proceed against the proud and
haughty, which contemn God's gifts; now a gift or present cannot be a
commandment."

"Therefore we must answer according to this rule, 'Verba sunt
accipienda secundum subjectam materiam.' * * St. Paul calleth that the
work of the law, which is done and acted through the knowledge of the
law by a constrained will without the holy Spirit; so that the same is
a work of the law, which the law earnestly requireth and strictly will
have done; it is not a voluntary work, but a forced work of the rod."

And wherein did Carlestad and Luther differ? Not at all, or essentially and irreconcilably, according as the feeling of Carlestad was. If he meant the particular deed, the latter; if the total act, the agent included, then the former.

Chap. XIV. p. 230.

"The love towards the neighbour (said Luther) must be like a pure
chaste love between bride and bridegroom, where all faults are
connived at, covered and borne with, and only the virtues regarded."

In how many little escapes and corner-holes does the sensibility, the fineness, (that of which refinement is but a counterfeit, at best but a reflex,) the geniality of nature appear in this 'son of thunder!' O for a Luther in the present age! Why, Charles! [3] with the very handcuffs of his prejudices he would knock out the brains (nay, that is impossible, but,) he would split the skulls of our 'Cristo-galli', translate the word as you like:--French Christians, or coxcombs!

Ib. p. 231-2.

"Let Witzell know, (said Luther) that David's wars and battles, which
he fought, were more pleasing to God than the fastings and prayings of
the best, of the honestest, and of the holiest monks and friars; much
more than the works of our new ridiculous and superstitious friars."

A cordial, rich and juicy speech, such as shaped itself into, and lived anew in, the Gustavus Adolphuses.

Chap. XV. p. 233-4.

"God most certainly heareth them that pray in faith, and granteth when
and how he pleaseth, and knoweth most profitable for them. We must
also know, that when our prayers tend to the sanctifying of his name,
and to the increase and honor of his kingdom (also that we pray
according to his will) then most certainly he heareth. But when we
pray contrary to these points, then we are not heard; for God doth
nothing against his Name, his kingdom, and his will."

Then (saith the understanding, [Greek: Tò phrónaema sarkòs]) what doth prayer effect? If A--prayer = B., and A + prayer = B, prayer = O. The attempt to answer this argument by admitting its invalidity relatively to God, but asserting the efficacy of prayer relatively to the pray-er or precant himself, is merely staving off the objection a single step. For this effect on the devout soul is produced by an act of God. The true answer is, prayer is an idea, and 'ens spirituale', out of the cognizance of the understanding.

The spiritual mind receives the answer in the contemplation of the idea, life as 'deitas diffusa'. We can set the life in efficient motion, but not contrary to the form or type. The errors and false theories of great men sometimes, perhaps most often, arise out of true ideas falsified by degenerating into conceptions; or the mind excited to action by an inworking idea, the understanding works in the same direction according to its kind, and produces a counterfeit, in which the mind rests.

This I believe to be the case with the scheme of emanation in Plotinus. God is made a first and consequently a comparative intensity, and matter the last; the whole thence finite; and thence its conceivability. But we must admit a gradation of intensities in reality.

Chap. XVI. p. 247.

"When governors and rulers are enemies to God's word, then our duty is
to depart, to sell and forsake all we have, to fly from one place to
another, as Christ commandeth; we must make and prepare no uproars nor
tumults by reason of the Gospel, but we must suffer all things."

Right. But then it must be the lawful rulers; those in whom the sovereign or supreme power is lodged by the known laws and constitution of the country. Where the laws and constitutional liberties of the nation are trampled on, the subjects do not lose, and are not in conscience bound to forego, their right of resistance, because they are Christians, or because it happens to be a matter of religion, in which their rights are violated. And this was Luther's opinion. Whether, if a Popish Czar shall act as our James II. acted, the Russian Greekists would be justified in doing with him what the English Protestants justifiably did with regard to James, is a knot which I shall not attempt to cut; though I guess the Russians would, by cutting their Czar's throat.

Ib.

'But no man will do this, except he be so sure of his doctrine and
religion, as that, although I myself should play the fool, and should
recant and deny this my doctrine and religion (which God forbid), he
notwithstanding therefore would not yield, but say, "If Luther, or an
angel from heaven, should teach otherwise, _Let him be accursed_."'

Well and nobly said, thou rare black swan! This, this is the Church. Where this is found, there is the Church of Christ, though but twenty in the whole of the congregation; and were twenty such in two hundred different places, the Church would be entire in each. Without this no Church.

Ib. p. 248.

"And he sent for one of his chiefest privy councillors, named Lord
John _Von Minkwitz_, and said unto him; 'You have heard my father say,
(running with him at tilt) that to sit upright on horseback maketh a
good tilter. If therefore it be good and laudable in temporal tilting
to sit upright; how much more is it now praiseworthy in God's cause to
sit, to stand, and to go uprightly and just!'"

Princely. So Shakspeare would have made a Prince Elector talk. The metaphor is so grandly in character.

Chap. XVII. p. 249.

"_Signa sunt subinde facta, minora; res autem et facta subinde
creverunt_."

A valuable remark. As the substance waxed, that is, became more evident, the ceremonial sign waned, till at length in the Eucharist the 'signum' united itself with the 'significatum', and became consubstantial. The ceremonial sign, namely, the eating the bread and drinking the wine, became a symbol, that is, a solemn instance and exemplification of the class of mysterious acts, which we are, or as Christians should be, performing daily and hourly in every social duty and recreation. This is indeed to re-create the man in and by Christ. Sublimely did the Fathers call the Eucharist the extension of the Incarnation: only I should have preferred the perpetuation and application of the Incarnation.

Ib.

A bare writing without a seal is of no force.

Metaphors are sorry logic, especially metaphors from human and those too conventional usages to the ordinances of eternal wisdom.

Ib. p. 250.

Luther said, "No. A Christian is wholly and altogether sanctified. * *
We must take sure hold on Baptism by faith, as then we shall be, yea,
already are, sanctified. In this sort David nameth himself holy."

A deep thought. Strong meat for men. It must not be offered for milk.

Chap. XXI. p. 276.

Then I will declare him openly to the Church, and in this manner I
will say: "Loving friends, I declare unto you, how that N. N. hath
been admonished: first, by myself in private, afterwards also by two
chaplains, thirdly, by two aldermen and churchwardens, and those of
the assembly: yet notwithstanding he will not desist from his sinful
kind of life. Wherefore I earnestly desire you to assist and aid me,
to kneel down with me, and let us pray against him, and deliver him
over to the Devil."

Luther did not mean that this should be done all at once; but that a day should be appointed for the congregation to meet for joint consultation, and according to the resolutions passed to choose and commission such and such persons to wait on the offender, and to exhort, persuade and threaten him in the name of the congregation: then, if after due time allowed, this proved fruitless, to kneel down with the minister, &c. Surely, were it only feasible, nothing could be more desirable. But alas! it is not compatible with a Church national, the congregations of which are therefore not gathered nor elected, or with a Church established by law; for law and discipline are mutually destructive of each other, being the same as involuntary and voluntary penance.

Chap. xxii. p. 290.

Wicliffe and Huss opposed and assaulted the manner of life and
conversation in Popedom. But I chiefly do oppose and resist their
doctrine; I affirm roundly and plainly that they teach not aright.
Thereto am I called. I take the goose by the neck, and set the knife
to the throat. When I can maintain that the Pope's doctrine is false,
(which I have proved and maintained), then I will easily prove and
maintain that their manner of life is evil.

This is a remark of deep insight: 'verum vere Lutheranum'.

Ib. p. 291.

Ambition and pride (said Luther), are the rankest poison in the Church
when they are possessed by preachers. Zuinglius thereby was misled,
who did what pleased himself * * * He wrote, "Ye honorable and good
princes must pardon me, in that I give you not your titles; for the
glass windows are as well illustrious as ye."

One might fancy, in the Vision-of-Mirza style, that all the angry, contemptuous, haughty expressions of good and zealous men, gallant staff-officers in the army of Christ, formed a rick of straw and stubble, which at the last day is to be divided into more or fewer haycocks, according to the number of kind and unfeignedly humble and charitable thoughts and speeches that had intervened, and that these were placed in a pile, leap-frog fashion, in the narrow road to the gate of Paradise; and burst into flame as the zeal of the individual approached,--so that he must leap over and through them. Now I cannot help thinking, that this dear man of God, heroic Luther, will find more opportunities of showing his agility, and reach the gate in a greater sweat and with more blisters 'a parte post' than his brother hero, Zuinglius. I guess that the comments of the latter on the Prophets will be found almost sterile in these tiger-lilies and brimstone flowers of polemic rhetoric, compared with the controversy of the former with our Henry VIII., his replies to the Pope's Bulls, and the like.

By the by, the joke of the 'glass windows' is lost in the translation. The German for illustrious is 'durchlauchtig', that is, transparent or translucent.

Ib.

When we leave to God his name, his kingdom and will, then will he also
give unto us our daily bread, and will remit our sins, and deliver us
from the devil and all evil. Only his honor he will have to himself.

A brief but most excellent comment on the Lord's Prayer.

Ib. p. 297.

There was never any that understood the Old Testament so well as St.
Paul, except only John the Baptist.

I cannot conjecture what Luther had in his mind when he made this exception.

Chap. XXVII. p. 335.

I could wish (said Luther) that the Princes and States of the Empire
would make an assembly, and hold a council and a union both in
doctrine and ceremonies, so that every one might not break in and run
on with such insolency and presumption according to his own brains, as
already is begun, whereby many good hearts are offended.

Strange heart of man! Would Luther have given up the doctrine of justification by faith alone, had the majority of the Council decided in favor of the Arminian scheme? If not, by what right could he expect OEcolampadius or Zuinglius to recant their convictions respecting the Eucharist, or the Baptists theirs on Infant Baptism, to the same authority? In fact, the wish expressed in this passage must be considered as a mere flying thought shot out by the mood and feeling of the moment, a sort of conversational flying-fish that dropped as soon as the moisture of the fins had evaporated. The paragraph in p. 336, of what Councils ought to order, should be considered Luther's genuine opinion.

Ib. p. 337.

The council of Nice, held after the Apostles' time, (said Luther) was
the very best and purest; but soon after in the time of the Emperor
Constantine, it was weakened by the Arians.

What Arius himself meant, I do not know: what the modern Arians teach, I utterly condemn; but that the great council of Ariminum was either Arian or heretical I could never discover, or descry any essential difference between its decisions and the Nicene; though I seem to find a serious difference of the pseudo-Athanasian Creed from both. If there be a difference between the Councils of Nicea and Ariminum, it perhaps consists in this;--that the Nicene was the more anxious to assert the equal Divinity in the Filial subordination; the Ariminian to maintain the Filial subordination in the equal Divinity. In both there are three self-subsistent and only one self-originated:--which is the substance of the idea of the Trinity, as faithfully worded as is compatible with the necessary inadequacy of words to the expression of ideas, that is, spiritual truths that can only be spiritually discerned. [4]

18th August, 1826.

Chap. XXVIII. p. 347.

God's word a Lord of all Lords.

Luther every where identifies the living Word of God with the written word, and rages against Bullinger, who contended that the latter is the word of God only as far as and for whom it is the vehicle of the former. To this Luther replies: "My voice, the vehicle of my words, does not cease to be my voice, because it is ignorantly or maliciously misunderstood." Yea! (might Bullinger have rejoined) the instance were applicable and the argument valid, if we were previously assured that all and every part of the Old and New Testament is the voice of the divine Word. But, except by the Spirit, whence are we to ascertain this? Not from the books themselves; for not one of them makes the pretension for itself, and the two or three texts, which seem to assert it, refer only to the Law and the Prophets, and no where enumerate the books that were given by inspiration: and how obscure the history of the formation of the Canon, and how great the difference of opinion respecting its different parts, what scholar is ignorant?

Chap. XXIX. p. 349.

'Patres, quamquam sæpe errant, tamen venerandi propter testimonium
fidei.'

Although I learn from all this chapter, that Luther was no great Patrician, (indeed he was better employed), yet I am nearly, if not wholly of his mind respecting the works of the Fathers. Those which appear to me of any great value are valuable chiefly for those articles of Christian Faith which are, as it were, 'ante Christum' JESUM, namely, the Trinity, and the primal Incarnation spoken of by John i, 10. But in the main I should perhaps go even farther than Luther; for I cannot conceive any thing more likely than that a young man of strong 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 Grotio-Paleyan scheme of Christian evidence, 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 different 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 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? Am I sure that the Reformers, Luther and the rest collectively, were fanatics?"

Ib. p. 351.

'Take no care what ye shall eat'. As though that commandment did not
hinder the carping and caring for the daily bread.

For 'caring,' read, 'anxiety!' 'Sit tibi curæ, non autem solicitudini, panis quotidianus'.

Ib. p. 351.

Even so it was with Ambrose: he wrote indeed well and purely, was more
serious in writing than Austin, who was amiable and mild. * * *
Fulgentius is the best poet, and far above Horace both with sentences,
fair speeches and good actions; he is well worthy to be ranked and
numbered with and among the poets.

'Der Teufel'! Surely the epithets should be reversed. Austin's mildness--the 'durus pater infantum'! And the 'super'-Horatian effulgence of Master Foolgentius! O Swan! thy critical cygnets are but goslings.

N.B. I have, however, since I wrote the above, heard Mr. J. Hookham Frere speak highly of Fulgentius.

Ib. p. 352.

For the Fathers were but men, and to speak the truth, their reputes
and authorities did undervalue and suppress the books and writings of
the sacred Apostles of Christ.

We doubtless find in the writings of the Fathers of the second century, and still more strongly in those of the third, passages concerning the Scriptures that seem to say the same as we Protestants now do. But then we find the very same phrases used of writings not Apostolic, or with no other difference than what the greater name of the authors would naturally produce; just as a Platonist would speak of Speusippus's books, were they extant, compared with those of later teachers of Platonism;--'He was Plato's nephew-had seen Plato--was his appointed successor, &c.' But in inspiration the early Christians, as far as I can judge, made no generic difference, let Lardner say what he will. Can he disprove that it was declared heretical by the Church in the second century to believe the written words of a dead Apostle in opposition to the words of a living Bishop, seeing that the same spirit which guided the Apostles dwells in and guides the Bishops of the Church? This at least is certain, that the later the age of the writer, the stronger the expression of comparative superiority of the Scriptures; the earlier, on the other hand, the more we hear of the 'Symbolum', the 'Regula Fidei', the Creed.

Chap. XXXII. p. 362.

The history of the Prophet Jonas is so great that it is almost
incredible; yea, it soundeth more strange than any of the poets'
fables, and (said Luther) if it stood not in the Bible, I should take
it for a lie.

It is quite wonderful that Luther, who could see so plainly that the book of Judith was an allegoric poem, should have been blind to the book of Jonas being an apologue, in which Jonah means the Israelitish nation.

Ib. p. 364.

For they entered into the garden about the hour at noon day, and
having appetites to eat, she took delight in the apple; then about two
of the clock, according to our account, was the fall.

Milton has adopted this notion in the Paradise Lost--not improbably from this book.

Ib. p. 365.

David made a Psalm of two and twenty parts, in each of which are eight
verses, and yet in all is but one kind of meaning, namely, he will
only say, Thy law or word is good.

I have conjectured that the 119th Psalm might have been a form of ordination, in which a series of candidates made their prayers and profession in the open Temple before they went to the several synagogues in the country.

Ib.

But (said Luther) I say, he did well and right thereon: for the office
of a magistrate is to punish the guilty and wicked malefactors. He
made a vow, indeed, not to punish him, but that is to be understood,
so long as David lived.

O Luther! Luther! ask your own heart if this is not Jesuit morality.

Chap. XXXIII. v. 367.

I believe (said Luther) the words of our Christian belief were in such
sort ordained by the Apostles, who were together, and made this sweet
'Symbolum' so briefly and comfortable.

It is difficult not to regret that Luther had so superficial a knowledge of Ecclesiastical antiquities: for example, his belief in this fable of the Creed having been a 'picnic' contribution of the twelve Apostles, each giving a sentence. Whereas nothing is more certain than that it was the gradual product of three or four centuries.

Chap. XXXIV. p. 369.

An angel (said Luther) is a spiritual creature created by God without
a body for the service of Christendom, especially in the office of the
Church.

What did Luther mean by a body? For to me the word seemeth capable of two senses, universal and special:--first, a form indicating to A. B. C. &c., the existence and finiteness of some one other being 'demonstrative' as 'hic', and 'disjunctive' as 'hic et non ille'; and in this sense God alone can be without body: secondly, that which is not merely 'hic distinctive', but 'divisive'; yea, a product divisible from the producent as a snake from its skin, a precipitate and death of living power; and in this sense the body is proper to mortality, and to be denied of spirits made perfect as well as of the spirits that never fell from perfection, and perhaps of those who fell below mortality, namely, the devils.

But I am inclined to hold that the Devil has no one body, nay, no body of his own; but ceaselessly usurps or counterfeits bodies; for he is an everlasting liar, yea, the lie which is the colored shadow of the substance that intercepts the truth.

Ib. p. 370.

The devils are in woods, in waters, in wildernesses, and in dark pooly
places, ready to hurt and prejudice people, &c.

"The angel's like a flea,
The devil is a bore;--"
No matter for that! quoth S.T.C.
I love him the better therefore.

Yes! heroic Swan, I love thee even when thou gabbiest like a goose; for thy geese helped to save the Capitol.

Ib. p. 371.

I do verily believe (said Luther) that the day of judgment draweth
near, and that the angels prepare themselves for the fight and combat,
and that within the space of a few hundred years they will strike down
both Turk and Pope into the bottomless pit of hell.

Yea! two or three more such angels as thyself, Martin Luther, and thy prediction would be, or perhaps would now have been, accomplished.

Chap. XXXV. p. 388.

Cogitations of the understanding do produce no melancholy, but the
cogitations of the will cause sadness; as, when one is grieved at a
thing, or when one doth sigh and complain, there are melancholy and
sad cogitations, but the understanding is not melancholy.

Even in Luther's lowest imbecilities what gleams of vigorous good sense! Had he understood the nature and symptoms of indigestion together with the detail of subjective seeing and hearing, and the existence of mid-states of the brain between sleeping and waking, Luther would have been a greater philosopher; but would he have been so great a hero? I doubt it. Praised be God whose mercy is over all his works; who bringeth good out of evil, and manifesteth his wisdom even in the follies of his servants, his strength in their weakness!

Ib. p. 389.

Whoso prayeth a Psalm shall be made thoroughly warm.

'Expertus credo'.

19th Aug. 1826.

I have learnt to interpret for myself the imprecating verses of the Psalms of my inward and spiritual enemies, the old Adam and all his corrupt menials; and thus I am no longer, as I used to be, stopped or scandalized by such passages as vindictive and anti-Christian.

Ib.

The Devil (said Luther) oftentimes objected and argued against me the
whole cause which, through God's grace, I lead. He objecteth also
against Christ. But better it were that the Temple brake in pieces
than that Christ should therein remain obscure and hid.

Sublime!

Ib.

In Job are two chapters concerning 'Behemoth' the whale, that by
reason of him no man is in safety. * * These are colored words and
figures whereby the Devil is signified and showed.

A slight mistake of brother Martin's. The 'Behemoth' of Job is beyond a doubt neither whale nor devil, but, I think, the hippopotamus; who is indeed as ugly as the devil, and will occasionally play the devil among the rice-grounds; but though in this respect a devil of a fellow, yet on the whole he is too honest a monster to be a fellow of devils. 'Vindiciæ Behemoticæ'.

Chap. XXXVI. p. 390.

'Of Witchcraft'.

It often presses on my mind as a weighty argument in proof of at least a negative inspiration, an especial restraining grace, in the composition of the Canonical books, that though the writers individually did (the greater number at least) most probably believe in the objective reality of witchcraft, yet no such direct assertions as these of Luther's, which would with the vast majority of Christians have raised it into an article of faith, are to be found in either Testament. That the 'Ob' and 'Oboth' of Moses are no authorities for this absurd superstition, has been unanswerably shewn by Webster. [5]

Chap. XXXVII. p. 398.

To conclude, (said Luther), I never yet knew a troubled and perplexed
man, that was right in his own wits.

A sound observation of great practical utility. Edward Irving should be aware of this in dealing with conscience-troubled (but in fact fancy-vexed) women.

Ib.

It was not a thorn in the flesh touching the unchaste love he bore
towards Tecla, as the Papists dream.

I should like to know how high this strange legend can be traced. The other tradition that St. Paul was subject to epileptic fits, has a less legendary character. The phrase 'thorn in the flesh' is scarcely reconcilable with Luther's hypothesis, otherwise than as doubts of the objectivity of his vision, and of his after revelations may have been consequences of the disease, whatever that might be.

Ib. p. 399.

Our Lord God doth like a printer, who setteth the letters backwards;
we see and feel well his setting, but we shall see the print yonder in
the life to come.

A beautiful simile. Add that even in this world the lives, especially the autobiographies, of eminent servants of Christ, are like the looking-glass or mirror, which, reversing the types, renders them legible to us.

Ib. p. 403.

'Indignus sum, sed dignus fui--creari a Deo', &c. Although I am
unworthy, yet nevertheless 'I have been' worthy, 'in that I am'
created of God, &c.

The translation does not give the true sense of the Latin. It should be 'was' and 'to be'. The 'dignus fui' has here the sense of 'dignum me habuit Deus'. See Herbert's little poem in the Temple:

Sweetest Saviour, if my soul
Were but worth the having,
Quickly should I then control
Any thought of waving;
But when all my care and pains
Cannot give the name of gains
To thy wretch so full of stains,
What delight or hope remains?

Ib. p. 404.

The chiefest physic for that disease (but very hard and difficult it
is to be done) is, that they firmly hold such cogitations not to be
theirs, but that most sure and certain they come of the Devil.

More and more I understand the immense difference between the Faith-article of 'the Devil' ([Greek: tou Ponaeroù]) and the superstitious fancy of devils: 'animus objectivus dominationem in' [Greek: tòn Eimì] 'affectans'; [Greek: oútos tò méga órganon Diabólou hypárchei].

Chap. XLIV. p. 431.

I truly advise all those (said Luther) who earnestly do affect the
honor of Christ and the Gospel, that they would be enemies to Erasmus
Roterodamus, for he is a devaster of religion. Do but read only his
dialogue 'De Peregrinatione', where you will see how he derideth and
flouteth the whole religion, and at last concludeth out of single
abominations, that he rejecteth religion, &c.

Religion here means the vows and habits of the religious or those bound to a particular life;--the monks, friars, nuns, in short, the regulars in contradistinction from the laity and the secular Clergy.

Ib. p. 432.

Erasmus can do nothing but cavil and flout, he cannot confute. If
(said Luther) I were a Papist, so could I easily overcome and beat
him. For although he flouteth the Pope with his ceremonies, yet he
neither hath confuted nor overcome him; no enemy is beaten nor
overcome with mocking, jeering, and flouting.

Most true; but it is an excellent pioneer and an excellent 'corps de reserve', cavalry for pursuit, and for clearing the field of battle, and in the first use Luther was greatly obliged to Erasmus. But such utter unlikes cannot but end in dislikes, and so it proved between Erasmus and Luther. Erasmus, might the Protestants say, wished no good to the Church of Rome, and still less to our party: it was with him 'Rot her and Dam us'!

Chap. XLVIII. p. 442.

David's example is full of offences, that so holy a man, chosen of
God, should fall into such great abominable sins and blasphemies;
when as before he was very fortunate and happy, of whom all the
bordering kingdoms were afraid, for God was with him.

If any part of the Old Testament be typical, the whole life and character of David, from his birth to his death, are eminently so. And accordingly the history of David and his Psalms, which form a most interesting part of his history, occupies as large a portion of the Old Testament as all the others. The type is two-fold-now of the Messiah, now of the Church, and of the Church in all its relations, persecuted, victorious, backsliding, penitent. N.B. I do not find David charged with any vices, though with heavy crimes. So it is with the Church. Vices destroy its essence.

Ib.

The same was a strange kind of offence (said Luther) that the world
was offended at him who raised the dead, who made the blind to see,
and the deaf to hear, &c.

Our Lord alluded to the verse that immediately follows and completes his quotations from Isaiah. [6] I, Jehovah, will come and do this. That he implicitly declared himself the Jehovah, the Word,--this was the offence.

Chap. XLIX. p. 443.

God wills, may one say, that we should serve him freewillingly, but he
that serveth God out of fear of punishment of hell, or out of a hope
and love of recompence, the same serveth and honoreth God not freely;
therefore such a one serveth God not uprightly nor truly.

_Answer_. This argument (said Luther) is Stoical, &c.

A truly wise paragraph. Pity it was not expounded. God will accept our imperfections, where their face is turned toward him, on the road to the glorious liberty of the Gospel.

Chap. L. p. 446.

It is the highest grace and gift of God to have an honest, a
God-fearing, housewifely consort, &c. But God thrusteth many into the
state of matrimony before they be aware and rightly bethink
themselves.

The state of matrimony (said Luther) is the chiefest state in the
world after religion, &c.

Alas! alas! this is the misery of it, that so many wed and so few are Christianly married! But even in this the analogy of matrimony to the religion of Christ holds good: for even such is the proportion of nominal to actual Christians;--all _christened_, how few baptized! But in true matrimony it is beautiful to consider, how peculiarly the marriage state harmonizes with the doctrine of justification by free grace through faith alone. The little quarrels, the imperfections on both sides, the occasional frailties, yield to the one thought,--there is love at the bottom. If sickness or other sorer calamity visit me, how would the love then blaze forth! The faults are there, but they are not imprinted. The prickles, the acrid rind, the bitterness or sourness, are transformed into the ripe fruit, and the foreknowledge of this gives the name and virtue of the ripe fruit to the fruit yet green on the bough.

Ib. p. 447.

The causers and founders of matrimony are chiefly God's commandments,
&c. It is a state instituted by God himself, visited by Christ in
person, and presented with a glorious present; for God said, 'It is
not good that the man should be alone': therefore the wife should be a
help to the husband, to the end that human generations may be
increased, and children nurtured to God's honour, and to the profit of
people and countries; also to keep our bodies in sanctification.

(Add) and in mutual reverence, our spirits in a state of love and tenderness; and our imaginations pure and tranquil.

In a word, matrimony not only preserveth human generations so that the same remain continually, but it preserveth the generations human.

Ib. p. 450.

In the synod at Leipzig the lawyers concluded that secret contractors
should be punished with banishment and be disinherited. Whereupon
(said Luther) I sent them word that I would not allow thereof, it were
too gross a proceeding, &c. But nevertheless I hold it fitting, that
those which in such sort do secretly contract themselves, ought
sharply to be reproved, yea, also in some measure severely punished.

What a sweet union of prudence and kind nature! Scold them sharply, and perhaps let them smart a while for their indiscretion and disobedience; and then kiss and make it up, remembering that young folks will be young folks, and that love has its own law and logic.

Chap. LIX. p. 481.

The presumption and boldness of the sophists and School-divines is a
very ungodly thing, which some of the Fathers also approved of and
extolled; namely of spiritual significations in the Holy Scripture,
whereby she is pitifully tattered and torn in pieces. It is an apish
work in such sort to juggle with Holy Scripture: it is no otherwise
than if I should discourse of physic in this manner: the fever is a
sickness, rhubarb is the physic. The fever signified! the sins
--rhubarb is Jesus Christ, &c.

Who seeth not here (said Luther) that such significations are mere
juggling tricks? _Even so_ and after the same manner are they deceived
that say, Children ought to be baptized again, because they had not
faith.

For the life of me, I cannot find the 'even so' in this sentence. The watchman cries, 'half-past three o'clock.' Even so, and after the same manner, the great Cham of Tartary has a carbuncle on his nose.

Chap. LX. p. 483.

George in the Greek tongue, is called a 'builder', that buildeth
countries and people with justice and righteousness, &c.

A mistake for a tiller or boor, from 'Bauer', 'bauen'. The latter hath two senses, to build and to bring into cultivation.

Chap. LXX. p. 503.

I am now advertised (said Luther) that a new astrologer is risen, who
presumeth to prove that the earth moveth and goeth about, not the
firmament, the sun and moon, nor the stars; like as when one who
sitteth in a coach or in a ship and is moved, thinketh he sitteth
still and resteth, but the earth and the trees go, run, and move
themselves. Therefore thus it goeth, when we give up ourselves to our
own foolish fancies and conceits. This fool will turn the whole art of
astronomy upside-down, but the Scripture sheweth and teacheth him
another lesson, when Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and not
the earth.

There is a similar, but still more intolerant and contemptuous anathema of the Copernican system in Sir Thomas Brown, almost two centuries later than Luther.

Though the problem is of no difficult solution for reflecting minds, yet for the reading many it would be a serviceable work, to bring together and exemplify the causes of the extreme and universal credulity that characterizes sundry periods of history (for example, from A.D. 1400 to A.D. 1650): and credulity involves lying and delusion--for by a seeming paradox liars are always credulous, though credulous persons are not always liars; although they most often are.

It would be worth while to make a collection of the judgments of eminent men in their generation respecting the Copernican or Pythagorean scheme. One writer (I forget the name) inveighs against it as Popery, and a Popish stratagem to reconcile the minds of men to Transubstantiation and the Mass. For if we may contradict the evidence of our senses in a matter of natural philosophy, 'a fortiori', or much more, may we be expected to do so in a matter of faith.

In my Noetic, or Doctrine and Discipline of Ideas = 'logice, Organon'--I purpose to select some four, five or more instances of the sad effects of the absence of ideas in the use of words and in the understanding of truths, in the different departments of life; for example, the word 'body', in connection with resurrection-men, &c.--and the last instances, will (please God!) be the sad effects on the whole system of Christian divinity. I must remember Asgill's book. [7]

Religion necessarily, as to its main and proper doctrines, consists of ideas, that is, spiritual truths that can only be spiritually discerned, and to the expression of which words are necessarily inadequate, and must be used by accommodation. Hence the absolute indispensability of a Christian life, with its conflicts and inward experiences, which alone can make a man to answer to an opponent, who charges one doctrine as contradictory to another,--"Yes! it is a contradiction in terms; but nevertheless so it is, and both are true, nay, parts of the same truth."--But alas! besides other evils there is this,--that the Gospel is preached in fragments, and what the hearer can recollect of the sum total of these is to be his Christian knowledge and belief. This is a grievous error. First, labour to enlighten the hearer as to the essence of the Christian dispensation, the grounding and pervading idea, and then set it forth in its manifold perspective, its various stages and modes of manifestation. In this as in almost all other qualities of a preacher of Christ, Luther after Paul and John is the great master. None saw more clearly than he, that the same proposition, which, addressed to a Christian in his first awakening out of the death of sin was a most wholesome, nay, a necessary, truth, would be a most condemnable Antinomian falsehood, if addressed to a secure Christian boasting and trusting in 'his' faith--yes, in 'his' own faith, instead of the faith of Christ communicated to him.

I cannot utter how dear and precious to me are the contents of pages 197-199, to line 17, of this work, more particularly the section headed:

How we ought to carry ourselves towards the Law's accusations.

Add to these the last two sections of p. 201. [8] the last touching St. Austin's opinion [9] especially. Likewise, the first half of p. 202. [10] But indeed the whole of the 12th chapter 'Of the Law and the Gospel' is of inestimable value to a serious and earnest minister of the Gospel. Here he may learn both the orthodox faith, and a holy prudence in the time and manner of preaching the same.

July, 1829.

[Footnote 1: 'Doctoris Martini Lutheri Colloquia Mensalia:' or Dr. Martin Luther's Divine Discourses at his Table, &c. Collected first together by Dr. Antonius Lauterbach, and afterwards disposed into certain common-places by John Aurifaber, Doctor in Divinity. Translated by Capt. Henry Bell. 'Folio' London, 1652.]

[Footnote 2: N. B. I should not have written the above note in my present state of light;--not that I find it false, but that it may have the effect of falsehood by not going deep enough. July, 1829.]

[Footnote 3: Charles Lamb.--Ed.]

[Footnote 4:

"Out of the number of 400, there were but 80 Arians at the utmost. The
other 320 and more were really orthodox men, induced by artifices to
subscribe a Creed which they understood in a good sense, but which,
being worded in general terms, was capable of being perverted to a bad
one."

'Waterland, Vindication', &c., c. vi.--'Ed'.]

[Footnote 5: The Displaying of supposed Witchcraft, &c. London. 'folio'. 1677. 'Ed'.]

[Footnote 6: Isaiah xxxv. 4. lxi 1. Ed. Luke iv. 18, 19.]

[Footnote 7:

"An argument proving that, according to the covenant of eternal life,
revealed in the Scriptures, man may be translated from hence, without
passing through death, although the human nature of Christ himself
could not be thus translated, till he had passed through death."

See 'Table Talk. 2nd Edit'. p. 127. 'Ed'.]

[Footnote 8: We must preach the Law (said Luther) for the sakes of the evil and wicked, &c.]

[Footnote 9: The opinion of St. Austin is (said Luther) that the Law which through human strength, natural understanding and wisdom is fulfilled, justifieth not, &c.]

[Footnote 10: Whether we should preach only of God's grace and mercy or not. From "Philip Melancthon demanded of Luther"--to "yet we must press through, and not suffer ourselves to recoil."]

* * * * *

NOTES ON THE LIFE OF ST. TERESA. 1812. [1]

Pref. Part I. p. 51. Letter of Father Avila to Mother Teresa de Jesu.

Persons ought to beseech our Lord not to conduct them by the way of
seeing; but that the happy sight of him and of his saints be reserved
for heaven; and that, here he would conduct them in the plain, beaten
road, &c. * * But if, doing all this, the visions continue, and the
soul reaps profit thereby, &c.

In what other language could a young woman check while she soothed her espoused lover, in his too eager demonstrations of his passion? And yet the art of the Roman priests,--to keep up the delusion as serviceable, yet keep off those forms of it most liable to detection, by medical commentary!

Life, Part I. Chap. IV. p. 15.

But our Lord began to regale me so much by this way, that he
vouchsafed me the favor to give me quiet prayer; and sometimes it came
so far as to arrive at union; though I understood neither the one nor
the other, nor how much they both deserve to be prized. But I believe
it would have been a great deal of happiness for me to have understood
them. True it is, that this union rested with me for so short a time,
that perhaps it might arrive to be but as of an 'Ave Maria'; yet I
remained with so very great effects thereof, that with not being then
so much as twenty years old, methought I found the whole world under
my feet.

Dreams, the soul herself forsaking;
Fearful raptures; childlike mirth.
Silent adorations, making
A blessed shadow of this earth!

Ib. Chap. V. p. 24.

I received also the blessed Sacrament with many tears; though yet, in
my opinion, they were not shed with that sense and grief, for only my
having offended God, which might have served to save my soul; if the
error into which I was brought by them who told me that some things
were not mortal sins, (which afterward I saw plainly that they were)
might not somewhat bestead me. *** Methinks, that without doubt my
soul might have run a hazard of not being saved, if I had died then.

Can we wonder that some poor hypochondriasts and epileptics have believed themselves possessed by, or rather to be the Devil himself, and so spoke in this imagined character, when this poor afflicted spotless innocent could be so pierced through with fanatic pre-conceptions, as to talk in this manner of her mortal sins, and their probable eternal punishment;--and this too, under the most fervent sense of God's love and mercy!

Ib. p. 43.

True it is, that I am both the most weak, and the most wicked of any
living.

What is the meaning of these words, that occur so often in the works of great saints? Do they believe them literally? Or is it a specific suspension of the comparing power and the memory, vouchsafed them as a gift of grace?--a gift of telling a lie without breach of veracity--a gift of humility indemnifying pride.

Ib. Chap. VIII. p. 44.

I have not without cause been considering and reflecting upon this
life of mine so long, for I discern well enough that nobody will have
gust to look upon a thing so very wicked.

Again! Can this first sentence be other than madness or a lie? For observe, the question is not, whether Teresa was or was not positively very wicked; but whether according to her own scale of virtue she was most and very wicked comparatively. See post Chap. X. p. 57-8.

That relatively to the command 'Be ye perfect even as your Father in Heaven is perfect', and before the eye of his own pure reason, the best of men may deem himself mere folly and imperfection, I can easily conceive; but this is not the case in question. It is here a comparison of one man with all others of whom he has known or heard;--'ergo', a matter of experience; and in this sense it is impossible, without loss of memory and judgment on the one hand, or of veracity and simplicity on the other. Besides, of what use is it? To draw off our conscience from the relation between ourselves and the perfect ideal appointed for our imitation, to the vain comparison of one individual self with other men! Will their sins lessen mine, though they were greater? Does not every man stand or fall to his own Maker according to his own being?

Ib. p. 45.

I see not what one thing there is of so many as are to be found in the
whole world, wherein there is need of a greater courage than to treat
of committing treason against a king, and to know that he knows it
well, and yet never to go out of his presence. For howsoever it be
very true that we are always in the presence of God; yet methinks that
they who converse with him in prayer are in his presence after a more
particular manner; for they are seeing then that he sees them; whereas
others may, perhaps, remain some days in his presence, yet without
remembering that he looks upon them.

A very pretty and sweet remark: truth in new feminine beauty!

'In fine'.

How incomparably educated was Teresa for a mystic saint, a mother of transports and fusions of spirit!

1. A woman;

2. Of rank, and reared delicately;

3. A Spanish lady;

4. With very pious parents and sisters;

5. Accustomed in early childhood to read "with most believing heart" all the legends of saints, martyrs, Spanish martyrs, who fought against the Moors;

6. In the habit of privately (without the knowledge of the superstitious Father) reading books of chivalry to her mother, and then all night to herself.

7. Then her Spanish sweet-hearting, doubtless in the true Oroondates style--and with perfect innocence, as far as appears; and this giving of audience to a dying swain through a grated window, on having received a lover's messages of flames and despair, with her aversion at fifteen or sixteen years of age to shut herself up for ever in a strict nunnery, appear to have been those mortal sins, of which she accuses herself, added, perhaps to a few warm fancies of earthly love;

8. A frame of exquisite sensibility by nature, rendered more so by a burning fever, which no doubt had some effect upon her brain, as she was from that time subject to frequent fainting fits and 'deliquia':

9. Frightened at her Uncle's, by reading to him Dante's books of Hell and Judgment, she confesses that she at length resolved on nunhood because she thought it could not be much worse than Purgatory--and that purgatory here was a cheap expiation for Hell for ever;

10. Combine these (and I have proceeded no further than the eleventh page of her life) and think, how impossible it was, but that such a creature, so innocent, and of an imagination so heated, and so well peopled should often mistake the first not painful, and in such a frame, often pleasurable approaches to 'deliquium' for divine raptures; and join the instincts of nature acting in the body of a mind unconscious of them, in the keenly sensitive body of a mind so loving and so innocent, and what remains to be solved which the stupidity of most and the roguery of a few would not simply explain?