our minds, which without such a practice contract rust as it were, and lose their tone. We see into what snares men continually fall and what else is the reason of it, but that they are secure, they do not pray, they do not hear and meditate on the Divine word; they are content with having it in the book, where they may read it when they please. Hence satan imperceptibly instils into their hearts a contempt for the word; and this leaves them exposed to despair, or other great dangers. For with what shall a man defend himself against the enemies of his soul, when he has lost the sword of the Spirit?" p. 325

On predestination and final perseverance, Luther thus writes:"In this and similar sentences, the mercy of God is offered generally to all :.. here we ought to rest; and believe, since God sends us his word, that we are among the predestinated; and then, on the ground of this promise, to call upon him, and be assured (in so doing) of the salvation which he thus expressly promises. With respect to perseverance, Luther, Bugenhagius, and Melancthon jointly assign their reasons, in the year 1536, for disapproving, and dissuading the publication of a book written by a Thuringian divine, because he had treated dangerously on predestination, and affirmed that the Holy Spirit was not lost by the elect, even if they fell into manifest crimes.' They assert that they had always unanimously taught the contrary in all the churches; namely, that if any saint and believer knowingly and wilfully offended, he was no longer a saint, but had cast away true faith and the Holy Spirit; though God would receive him again if he repented. They add, (what will meet the concurrence of all sober-minded persons,) that we are not commanded to inquire whether we are elect, but to believe that he who perseveres to the end in repentance and faith is elect and saved."" p. 241.

The following was the advice of Ecolampadius to the churches of the Vaudois when they sent deputies to propose to him a variety of questions.

"Concerning the mode of instructing the people, it is not for us to prescribe. Only let those things be taught which conduce to faith and love, and let them be adorned by humility and endurance of the cross. Let things unrevealed (apocrypha, secret things) be avoided, with contentious and curious questions, which gender pride, and strife, and hatred. Let the one object be, to set forth the glory of Christ, to produce a holy life, and to banish vice, hypocrisy, and spiritual pride, the source of heresies, and of perdition to numbers."

"All that doctrine which magnifies the grace of Christ we willingly embrace.

Free will, as far as it derogates from grace, we do not approve. Yet we do not by this introduce a necessity of sinning: for they who sin do it voluntary, and of their own accord. Original sin has its own proper province (suam rationem). Our virtue is not the greater because of many commands being delivered to us: but great is the power of the Spirit, by which we perform the will of God; great also our backwardness, on account of which we are adjudged unworthy. There is such a thing as fate, or necessity, (fati ratio) with God, which is immutable, though all things appear to you uncertain. But you are not called to attend to the secret things of God, but to his word, which we ought to believe, and by which we shall (then) be saved.-We cannot deny predestination: and that it cannot fail is most certain: but what then? is God unjust? is he untrue? Let us humabases the proud, while his mercy enble ourselves before his Majesty, which courages the contrite in heart, who seek help from him alone, and not from the flesh and their own will; that in all things the praise may be God's. — What have we to do with the contentions of Erasmus and Luther?--Our perdition is from ourselves; our salvation only from the Lord our God." pp. 147-149.

It is of great importance, in forming a right judgment on the spirit of the Reformation, to recollect these and similar instances of prudence in conduct and moderation in opinion and doctrine. The Reformation was not effected by heat, extravagance, over-statement, enthusiasm, mere novelty, or the exaggeration of minute points, or a spirit of party. If the ardour and intrepidity of the great divines of that period had spent themselves chiefly on these things, or had been materially tarnished by them, the incipient reform would have per rished in its birth, as the folly at Munster did. It was the unparalleled boldness and courage of the reformers, sustained by the plain, undoubted truth of the doctrines they taught, relieved, in the manner of propagation, by gentleness of carriage and the meekness of wis dom and forbearance, which convinced men of the purity of their intentions, and disarmed the force of the misrepresentations and calumnies of their opponents. Holy moderaunited with fortitude and tion, patience in suffering, elevated the

cause above the most bitter opposition, and gradually identified it, in the mind of every conscientious and enlightened judge, with the interests of truth and piety. Even on the question of toleration many of the reformers, especially Luther, were not uninformed.

This topic leads us to another. The wisdom of the reformed leaders was much aided by the influence of the personal piety of the princes of Europe, and especially of the electors of Saxony. One cannot lay down this volume without admiration at the mercy of God, toward many of the princes who had the greatest sway in Germany and other parts of Christendom. The piety and wisdom of John of Saxony was most remarkable, and seems to have gradually strengthened as he advanced in life and in the study of the Scriptures. He threw protection around, not merely the person of Luther at the diet of Augsburg, but all the Protestant divines and the Gospel itself, as it were, by his calm, cautious, discreet, and yet immoveably firm conduct in that critical juncture. The whole force of the irritated and crafty opposition of the papal powers was directed against him Threats and promises were by turns employed. His very life was endangered. But he stood unshaken, and never swerved for a moment from what he conscientiously judged to be his duty. We cannot here refrain from giving the following illustrations of his character.

"He took such delight in the Holy Scriptures, that he would frequently have them read to him, by youths of noble families, as much as six hours in the day; an exercise which, with such an example before their eyes, must have tended as much to the benefit of his youthful readers as to his own. He was accustomed also to take down the sermons which he heard with the greatest accuracy......His deadness to the world also was very admirable.

When he was informed of the rebellion of

the rustics, which led to so afflictive a war in Germany, he said, If it be the will of God that I should continue a prince, as I have hitherto been, his will be done; but, if otherwise, I can descend to a lower station: fewer horses and a hum

bler equipage will serve me very p. 127.

well.'

We wonder not that Luther, in his nervous manner, should say of such a prince, "With him probity expired, as with his brother Frederick

wisdom had done."

It is observable that, in more than one instance, the princes saw further, and acted with more vigour, than The reader will easily agree with us the reformed divines themselves. in this, on recollecting their conduct as to the preaching at Augsburg (p. 15), and as to the pacification of Nuremberg (p. 112).

character, and deference to his exTheir judgment also of Luther's perience, are fine traits of their humility and piety.

"The elector and the landgrave both scrupulously abstained from checking him in what he thought proper to write and publish: so high an opinion did they enhis writings. Even when king Ferdinand, having read his book against the Pope,' published this year, observed, that, if the language were but softened, it was not in

tertain of his wisdom, and of the effect of

other respects to be found fault with ;' the elector replied, Dr. Martin is a man of a singular spirit, which suffers not itself to be restrained in these matters. No doubt he has weighty reasons for this strong language. He is stirred up in an extraordinary manner against the Papacy, to overthrow it, not to amend it-for that is impossible. Mild language therefore would be out of place.' When the offensiveness of a picture prefixed to the book was further represented, the elector still replied, that

Luther's spirit was extraordinary, and he had further views in the particular means he employed, than all could penetrate; on which account neither his (the elector's) father, John, nor his uncle Frederick would at all prescribe to him; nor would he himself presume to do it. pp. 521, 522.

An expression of Pontanus, the elector's chancellor, is too appropriate to be passed over.

6

"Then,' he says, there will be need for Luther to seize the great axe, and lay about him manfully. For that sort of work he has, by the gift and grace of God, a spirit superior to that of other men."". p. 433.

John Frederick, in 1540, to be unNeither ought the noble spirit of noticed.

"No one,' said he, would more gladly see peace established in Germany than I should do; but I would not for the sake of it yield any thing contrary to the

will of God and the dictates of my own conscience; and he, I trust, will keep me free from all such sin. Peace established on those terms would be a judgment from God, and would prove the occasion of irreconcileable discord.' He reprobated the counsels of those who put religion and outward peace on the same footing; whereas, when the two came in competition, the latter ought always to give way to the former.' He looked with great jealousy upon a sort of middle party which he thought had risen up among the Frotestants, and in which he reckoned the elector of Brandenburg; and he feared much more, he said, the caresses of Ratisbon than the severity of Augsburg. He would have his representatives, therefore, adhere to the very terms, as well as to the sense of the confession, and reject all ambiguous language which might be twisted to opposite meanings.' He declares that, even if Luther himself should give way, which he trusted would never be the case, it should not be with his concurrence. p. 290.

But not merely the electors of Saxony, but many other princes also throughout Germany, as well as in Denmark and Sweden, were raised up with extraordinary piety and courage, at this critical moment. We should gladly extract the history of the venerable Herman count de Wied, archbishop of Cologne and elector of the empire; but it is too long for citation, and would not well bear abridgment. But the eminent Christian excellencies of the prince of Anhalt must not be entirely concealed, though at the risk of weakening the effect by extracts. He was born in 1507. The guardians of his youth were devoted supporters of the papal superstition. The account of him proceeds in this

manner :

"With good conscience,' he declares, " he could say with St. Paul, that from his early youth he had felt an ardent zeal for the law of his fathers; for the ceremonies, the customs, and the doctrines in which he had been brought up. Against those principles, therefore, which were opposed to them, and tended, as he conceived, to subvert every good institution, and to introduce all sorts of evil, he had cherished the most uncompromising hostility; as many who were yet living could attest. He had thrown every obstacle in his power in the way both of the success and the advancement of those whom he considered as in this point of view suspected persons; and in accomplishing this he felt an un

feigned pleasure, as doing God service. But all the time he was acting only upon hearsay and ex-parte evidence; for he avoided, with a degree of horror, the reading of books which he understood to be surcharged with poison. He began, however, to reflect, that, as a member of the church and of the ecclesiastical order, it behoved him to employ himself in a more efficient manner in opposing the dangerous efforts of those who were enemies to both. He determined, therefore, to lay aside for a time more amusing and more lucrative studies, and as far as his indispensable engagements would permit, (for from his youth up he had never been idle,) to apply himself to the study of the Scriptures and of ancient ecclesiastical writers, whom, he was confidently persuaded, he should find interpreting the Scriptures in a widely different manner from the modern innovators. Accordingly he had recourse to the doctors and the canons of the church, with no other view than that of triumphantly exposing the errors of the new teachers, for the conviction of some whom he

esteemed, but who had been misled, and obedience and attachment to the Catholic church. But, he exclaims O God, what shall I say? When I examined on all sides and in all parts the writings of the approved doctors, and the ancient canons, I could no where find that interpretation, and these traditions which I sought, and of which I had boasted; nor, when I applied to persons who had the authority of the fathers constantly in their mouths, could they point out any thing of the kind to me! On the contrary I discovered, not only that numberless practical abuses, repugnant to the Scriptures and the determinations of the fathers, were defended among us, but that we had departed widely indeed from the pure Christian doctrine. I saw that many articles taught by the fathers, and sanctioned by councils, were after a long oblivion, by those very teachnow restored and brought to light again, ers whom we were denouncing as heretics; and that the reasonings, by which our doctors now opposed them, were precisely those of the ancient heretics upon similar questions, which the fathers of the church had refuted and rejected. However this was to be accounted for, I saw that it might be demonstrated from these writings, and especially from those of Augusprincipal points now in controversy, the tine against the Pelagians, that, in the

for the confirmation of others in their

sentiments of our writers differed little from the dogmas of the heretics; as, for instance, on the article of justification, on the cause of salvation, on free will, human merits, the grace of God and the remission of sins, faith, good works, and other topics connected with them." pp. 390-392. Of such a man, thus taught, the conduct would soon become, in the

highest sense, Christian. Accordingly he was for many years a most firm upholder of the Gospel; and he died in 1553, at the age of 46, in the peace of Christ.

These are only specimens of the sort of character among the princes of Europe, which the grace of God formed at this era. The importance of this blessing was not only great as respects their salvation as individuals, and the triumph of the grace of God in their conversion, but also in respect of the powerful sway which, in those ruder times, the personal dispositions of the prince had upon the government of his states and the general opinions and conduct of his subjects. At a period when the force of public sentiment, and the restraint of inter-national law, and the usages of a free people, were either unknown or feeble; there were no visible means for maintaining the Reformation but the real conviction and illumination of the personages who swayed the sceptres of nations. Let any one compare the mischiefs done by George Duke of Saxony, with the benefits accruing from the Electors Frederick, John, and John Frederick, in their government of their states; and he must instantly admit the truth of this remark.

We should be acting a disingenuous part if we did not advert, in the next place, to a painful and afflicting topic, suggested by the portion of history now before us,-the errors of the reformers, and of the Reformation. For there were, after all, considerable errors in the character and in some of the proceedings of the reformers. Luther was undoubtedly irrascible, hasty, severe in his animadversions, far too strong in his language, and at times obstinate in his own opinions. He was, indeed, never vindictive or malicious, never crafty or insincere; but he was choleric, vehement, impetuous. He was also, in his hours of relaxation, too apt to yield to mirth and jocoseness and a cheerfulness of humour bordering on levity, and not

entirely consistent with the gravity of the character which he sustained. And these failings seem to have produced, towards the close of life, a depression of spirits and an irritability which, for a season, cast a cloud over his fine powers. These occasional failings were trivial, indeed, compared with the weighty and substantial exceliencies of his character; and they were acknowledged, resisted, lamented, watched against, overcome. But they were faults which are by no means to be palliated. The errors of Melancthon, Bucer, and the other reformers, were of a different class, and need not be noticed in detail. The connexion of these several defects, especially those of Luther, with the errors committed in the conduct of the Reformation, is obvious. One of the most frequent was the asperity, the exaggeration, and the grossness of terms employed in controversy, which cannot be concealed, and ought not to be vindicated. The mistakes which arose, principally from human infirmity in general, need scarcely be mentioned;--such as the expecting too much from diets and a general council; the not protesting openly in the case of the bigamy of the landgrave of Hesse against that unlawful act; the concession made by Melancthon, and not disavowed by Luther at the conference of Ratisbon, in 1541; and a spirit of intolerance in the case of the Jews. (p. 511.) These and similar faults, however, sink into insignificancy before the capital error in the Reformation-the sacramentarian controversy. Here Luther and his colleagues were obstinate in the extreme, and led the German churches after them. They believed most fully, and continued to believe to their dying day, that from the words of our Lord, Hoc est corpus meum, was necessarily to be deduced the monstrous doctrine of consubstantiation; the presence in the eucharist of the actual body and blood of Christ corporally in conjunction with the elements of bread and wine,

that body and blood being received by the ungodly as well as the true believer. Here Luther was the most violent of all. The same mind which mastered by its gigantic powers almost every other subject, which penetrated the mysteries of popish superstition, and which, in the general exposition of Scripture, could unravel with the utmost sagacity the varying laws of human language, and the just rules of interpreting figurative expressions, was incapable of perceiving a point which for two centuries past hardly any tyro in Scripture criticism has for a moment doubted. But this was not the worst of the case. The first proposal of the true and simple interpretation came from so suspicious a quarter, and was connected with so much enthusiasm and violence, and even folly (we allude to Carolstadt), that our reformer unhappily pledged himself at once, and without any reserve, to his own view of the question; and, when once committed, maintained his opinion with a pertinacity and severity, and a want of charity, which were quite indefensible. Had a little more wisdom and love governed Luther and his associates on this topic from the first, as was really the case on almost every other, they might have imposed just as firmly their own sense on our Redeemer's words, but they would have left to the Swiss churches (to which the English joined herself on this point) the same liberty which they claimed themselves: they would not have made this subordinate matter prominent and essential; nor would they have separated and estranged the Protestant communities, and exhibited them to the popish body as divided by controversy, and weakened by schism.

No historical topic can be more instructive to every class of readers, and especially to those whose opinions may have weight in a revival of religion, than this lamentable discussion. The only question on which Luther lost his temper, betrayed his cause, injured the progress of re

formation, grieved the Spirit of grace, and split the infant church, was that in which he was most clearly wrong; so wrong, that, after three centuries, the Lutheran and Calvinistic churches have admitted the charge, by agreeing to bury the recollection of it in an ecclesiastical union. Let those who are in danger of magnifying points of dispute be warned by this example. Let them see how prone to error are the greatest and purest minds; let them be slow in committing themselves beyond the exact prescriptions of revealed truth; and, above all, let them dread creating such points into terms of communion, and erecting a lasting division in the affections of Christians.

Mark only the fatal consequences in the case before us. When the league of Smalkald was formed by the Protestant princes, after the unjust decree of the diet of Augsburg, and most of the cities wished the Swiss to be admitted as parties to it, Luther refused, on the ground of this one speculative difference on the subject of the sacrament. From this time, asperity, estrangement of mind, and dispute, too much prevailed; and all intercourse between churches engaged in a common cause, and sincerely loving the same Master, was cut off. Then, after a lapse of years, when an opening for reconciliation took place, ambiguity and insincerity were unhappily admitted in the partial concord of Wittemberg-infinitely more injurious than if each party, retaining its own views without any dishonest compromise, had united on the common ground of charity and peace. In the mean time, the Church of Rome gloried in the rupture, and unknown injury was done to souls inquiring after truth, at that important juncture, by the plausible advantage thus given to the papal divines. Indeed, if we weigh calmly the one single mischief arising from Bossuet's use of this schism in his work on the Va. rieties of the Protestants, to which our author has frequently referred,