СНАР. IX. Letters. Controversy with the Jews. 1543. From his letters of this period it appears that he wished to decline the exemption, which the elector ordered to be allowed him, from the assessments levied for the Turkish war. He desired to do something against the common enemy of Christendom; and would have been glad, he says, had not age and infirmities forbidden him, to go out as a chaplain with the army; for he "feared that the Germans would prove too confident and secure, and, without truly turning to God themselves, would despise the enemy-who, however, was not to be despised, supported as he was by all the power of Satan. Little, therefore, was to be hoped for, unless God were propitiated and took their part."1 The next year Luther engaged in the controversy against the Jews. When it became known that Hebrew studies were cultivated at Wittemberg, it gave spirits to the members of the Jewish communion; which were further raised by some of the German fanatics embracing their profession. In consequence three of their learned men came to dispute with Luther. He treated them kindly till he found their obstinacy and virulence; and then he wrote with some severity "against the Jews and their falsehoods." He thinks it useless to discuss the Christian mysteries with them, their prejudice and hardness are so great: he would rather employ arguments against them drawn from their circumstances during fifteen hundred years past, which were such as had been predicted by Jesus Christ, and evidently shewed the anger of God resting upon them. Their boasted privileges and distinctions were to be treated as worthless, when separated from faith and piety. Nothing was to be 1 Seck. iii. 416. expected from them, till, softened by their calamities, they should listen to the proofs that the Messiah was come: and the fact of his being come he argues from the usual passages, Genesis xlix, Daniel ix, Haggai ii.-Provoked by their blasphemies and crimes, he is ready, with respect to them, even to relinquish his general principles of toleration, and to sanction, not only stopping their usurious practices, and silencing their open revilings of Christ and his religion, but even, depriving them of their books, pulling down their synagogues, and compelling them either to labour for their subsistence, or to quit the country!-This is the only instance, which I have met with, of Luther's direct deviation from those tolerant principles which he habitually asserted and maintained; and it never went beyond mere words, perhaps rather hastily uttered.-He makes a vivid and striking display, however, of the difference between the sort of Saviour whom the Jews expect, and that spiritual Redeemer in whom we rejoice, and may well rejoice even amid poverty, affliction, and oppression. In a second piece which he published, and in which he particularly considers the genealogies of our Lord given by S. Matthew and S. Luke, he avows his belief that the blindness of the Jews will be perpetual, and that the apostle, in the eleventh chapter of Romans, treats of a different subject than their conversion!-He declares himself anxious, however, for the progress of Hebrew studies, and longs to have the grammars of that language purified from Jewish perversions. Here he speaks with great modesty of his own version of the scriptures, and is sensible that it needs much improvement. 2 1 Seck. iii. 458-460. 2 Ib. 460-463. A. D. 1543. СНАР. On the last words of David. Preface to declama Elector's sons. The latter of these publications led him to a third, on "the last words of David," 2 Samuel xxiii; in which he considers at some length the doctrine of the Trinity, the addressing of our worship to the several persons, distinctly or conjointly, and the person of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This work is highly commended by Seckendorf. 1 Among the minor writings of Luther at this tions of the period, a preface may deserve to be mentioned, which he wrote to some Latin declamations composed and delivered by the elector's sons, boys of thirteen and fourteen years of age. Luther here expresses great joy at the progress of learning, (so different than under the papacy!) at the elector's manner of training his sons, and the good hopes which they afforded him; and concludes with offering fervent prayers for them, and for others of their rank, adapted particularly to the times in which their lot was cast. On the whole it is a very pleasing spectacle which this little publication presents to us, both of the elector's family, and of the regard which Luther bore to them.2 Elevation of the Sa Elements. Several passages of Luther's correspondence cramental about this time turn upon the question of the elevation of the elements in the eucharist. This he ever held to be a ceremony which might be retained or discontinued as circumstances should suggest. When Carolstadt demanded its abrogation, and called Luther "a murderer and crucifier of Christ," if he continued it, he would not give it up. Afterwards, when most protestant bodies had dropped it, he did the same, being resolved not to differ from them in a practice which he esteemed 1 Seck. iii. 463, 464. 2 Ib. 465-467. altogether indifferent. In other cases, where the omission gave offence, and occasioned prejudice, he recommended that it should be retained: and such was also the conduct of George of Anhalt. 1 On this subject the bishop of Meaux very harshly and groundlessly insults the memory of Luther, as if he had been influenced in his varying practice by corrupt motives; whereas the unvarying and liberal principle by which he was guided is obvious. The bishop particularly insinuates that he was overawed by the landgrave of Hesse, who, he says, became after his double marriage "the patriarch of the reformation," and dictated to Luther as he pleased! Nothing can be more contrary to fact. 2 A. D. 1544. versy. In the year 1544, Luther published again on Sacramenthe eucharist, treating the Zuinglians with tal contro. much severity, and especially declaring himself shocked at what Zuinglius had written concerning the heathen. 3-He also published some sermons. In one on Michaelmas day, speaking Sermons. of the divinity of Christ, he declares that he who does not learn to believe in him as God incarnate, and to rejoice in him accordingly, can learn nothing rightly concerning Christianity, and had better give up the Bible. 4— Another of his sermons was delivered at the consecration of the chapel in the castle at Torgau, the first that had been consecrated 1 Seck. iii. 380, 469-471, 497, 593. "On the elevation of the sacramental elements," he writes to Spalatinus, 10 November, 1542, "Do as you please. On such indifferent matters I would put no snare in any man's way. So I write, have written, and will write to all who daily tease me upon that question." Buddeus, p. 276. 2 See Seck. iii. 470. 3 lb. 515. See Milner v. 524, 525. (1125, 1126.) 4 Seck. iii. 516. IX. CHAP. since the reformation, and with prayer and preaching alone, apart from the exploded superstitious rites. 1 Letters. Letter on the memorials of the Saints. Among his letters of this date, we find the excellent consolatory one to Spalatinus, quoted by Dr. Milner, iv. 418, 419: and a very pious one to the electress, while the elector was absent at the diet of Spires-in which he says of himself, "I have lived long enough: may God send me a happy dismissal from this vile body! I have seen whatever is best to be seen upon earth: things appear inclining to the worse may God be our helper!" In another to Corvinus, superintendant of the dutchy of Hanover, he mentions Elizabeth of Brandenburg, widow of the duke Eric, having come to Wittemberg, with her son, and sending for Luther to dine with her; on which occasion he had catechised the young prince, and been greatly pleased with his progress in religious knowledge. He prays for him, and charges Corvinus and others to do the same, sensible to what dangers he would be exposed on coming out into life. 2 A letter of Luther's to Spalatinus, prefixed as a preface to a collection which that worthy person had made of the examples and sayings of pious men, contains many excellent sentiments. "I am much pleased, my dear Spalatinus, with your design of collecting the acts and sayings of the saints of God; and I doubt not that it will be acceptable to God himself, and to the people of God. Things of this kind tend not only to stop the mouths of those who reproach us as introducing new doctrines, but also to confirm our own minds by the testimony 1 Seck. iii. 516. 2 lb. 519, 520. Above, p. 359. |