1545. But it is in his previous sudden de-
parture from that place, with the causes and the
state of feeling which led to it, that, I conceive,
we trace what has given occasion to the painful
representation, too hastily, as I trust, adopted by
Dr. Robertson. We have before stated, how-
ever, that there is reason to believe that to
have been a passing cloud, shedding a gloomy
influence over the reformer's mind, (such as the
firmest and best regulated spirit may not always
escape,) rather than any thing permanent: and
surely, under all the circumstances of the case,
we may
admit that it calls more for our con-
dolence than for severe censure. Luther was
worne down with care and labour, with disease
and pain. External events also were, at that
juncture, peculiarly harassing and all this
acting upon a temper naturally irritable, and,
it is admitted, not so much softened and sub-
dued as it ought to have been, for a time over-
came him. He was peevish and impatient to
those about him, and he could no longer bear
the scene of his vexations. The course, how-
ever, which he took, was the proper one: he
retired, he relaxed himself, he visited his pious
friends, Amsdorf, George of Anhalt, and others,
and no doubt he communed with his God. The
elector wrote affectionately to him: the uni-
versity solicited his return. He complied, and
we hear no more of his fretfulness and desertion
of his duties.-I trust this is the true account
of the case; which, while, from the censures
entailed upon Luther, it may admonish us, how
much it behoves even the greatest and best of
men never to relax their watchfulness, but to
pray to the last, "Hold thou me up and I shall
be safe," may teach us also candour and for-
bearance in our judgments, and may especially

A. D.

1546.

IX.

CHAP. guard us against confounding what is transient in the feelings of any one, with what is habitual and a part of his character.

His con

Melancthon.

And here, after reviewing these several quanexion with lities of Luther's temper and mind, we may justly take occasion to notice the admirable arrangement of divine providence, in giving him and Melancthon to be so intimately associated together. "Helps meet" for one another they assuredly were, in a very remarkable degree. Maimbourg, indeed, cannot but stand astonished at their close and lasting union. "Was there ever," he is ready to ask, " so extraordinary and almost unnatural a friendship between men, from the contrariety of whose tempers we might rather have expected an irreconcileable antipathy? Luther was daring, imperious, fierce, irritable, prompt to decide, and obstinate in adhering to his opinions, though, among his friends, entertaining and jocose. Melancthon was mild, humble, moderate, exceedingly grave, studious of peace, and ready to concede almost any thing for the sake of it; nay even timid, hesitating, and indecisive in every thing." While giving this somewhat exaggerated description of the points of difference between the two characters, the writer has neglected to observe, that in the great principles which governed them both they were indissolubly united. "The love of Christ constrained" them. Zeal for God, regard for the good of mankind, both spiritual and temporal, and an ardent attachment to divine truth ruled in both their hearts, and prompted their conduct and they in whom such principles prevail are "taught of God to love one another." When

See the passage in Seckendorf, iii. 158, with his remarks.

this great basis of union was laid, it is obvious also that many of the qualities enumerated would adapt them to each other, rather than the contrary. Each was suited to supply somewhat that the other wanted, or to moderate somewhat in which he was prone to excess. Each accordingly felt how much he owed to the other, both personally and in the great work which they were jointly carrying on: and hence their attachment was affectionate and uninterrupted.1

I am willing here to adopt, perhaps with a little reserve in some clauses, the sentences of a modern biographer of Melancthon. "The profound learning and cultivated taste of the one, the vigorous zeal, independent spirit, and dauntless heroism of the other, alike conduced to dissipate the delusions of the age. Both adopted the same general views; and each was equally solicitous of removing that veil of Egyptian darkness that overspread the face of the world yet they were constitutionally different....Truth would undoubtedly have suffered, had the one been less energetic and daring, or the other less moderate and cultivated....If the reformation claimed the steady efforts of true courage and inextinguishable zeal, be it remembered also, that it no less required a proportion of nice discernment, elegant taste, and literary skill: if a superstition, which invested a mortal with the prerogative of infallibility, were to be attacked

'See Melancthon's acknowledgment of his obligations to Luther, in his will, above, pp. 298, 299. Of Luther's reciprocal regard and obligations we may admit Maimbourg's testimony" Luther, in return, loved him so tenderly, and esteemed him so highly, that by him alone would he suffer himself to be admonished and moderated under excessive irritation."-Ubi supra.

A. D.

1546.

CHAP.

IX.

Further qualities

which dis

him.

and levelled with the dust, the ignorance, which, with its characteristic blindness, supported that superstition, was at the same time to be dethroned and demolished: if old abuses were to be removed, and a new order of things to be introduced and systematized, it was desirable to find not only a nervous arm, but a polished mind, at once to clear away the rubbish of error, and clothe unwelcome novelties with attractive beauty: in a word, if existing circumstances called for a MARTIN LUTHER, they also demanded a PHILIP MELANCTHON.” 1

But some of the leading excellencies which distinguished the great father of the reformatinguished tion, and which especially endear him to the truly Christian mind, are wholly passed over in the review which has hitherto been made of his character. We will not affirm quite so much as this of the sterling and uncompromising honesty, which is one of the features that most stands out from the canvass in his genuine portrait: yet even this has not been presented with the prominence that belongs to it. Can any one read over the history of Luther which is now before him, the detail of his actual sayings and doings, without feeling that, if ever honesty and integrity were embodied, it was in his person? He avowed nothing but what he conscientiously believed: he kept back nothing which conscience dictated to be, avowed.

Can

any man of common fairness doubt this? For myself I must confess, that I never read of the man in whom I felt compelled to place a more unreserved reliance, both for the truth of all his declarations and the uprightness of all his intentions.

Cox's Life of Melancthon.

And then, not only was his belief of all he taught most sincere, it was also most thoroughly practical and influential. He himself daily lived upon that bread of life which he broke to others. The doctrines which he preached to mankind were the support of all his own hopes, the spring of all his comforts, the source of his peace of mind, of his strength for service or for suffering in the cause of God, the principles which evermore governed and animated himraised him above the fear of man, and the love of the world, and carried him, with a heroic elevation of soul, through a series of labours and dangers, never perhaps surpassed since the days of the apostle Paul. In the true genuine doctrines of the gospel, and especially in that of our being "justified freely, by God's grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus," and this inestimable benefit appropriated only by a living faith, and not by our own works or deservings, he found that which could alone relieve his own conscience from an anxiety amounting, at times, even to anguish,1 and for want of which he saw the whole Christian world around him groaning under a system of delusion, imposition, and bondage the most intolerable and ruinous: and what he had thus found to be the relief and salvation of his own soul, he could not but proclaim to others also: -"Neither counted he his life dear unto himself, so that he might finish his course with joy, and the ministry which he had received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God." Never, probably, did there exist the man who could more truly say with S. Paul, "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our

1 See above, p. 37, and Milner, iv. 323, 418, 419. (293, 398, 399.)

A. D.

1546.