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.1 "Therefore, my brethren, since you have received from the Lord so precious a talent, go on and look not back: give glory to God by living righteously, soberly, and piously. Let not the flesh prevail, to your destruction, but let it be subdued, to his glory. For, if we lose our life here for Christ, we shall find it in the resurrection of the just to eternal life :—which, may it be granted to us all by the grace of Christ! "I entreat you not to despise this brotherly admonition: for I would not speak or write any thing which I thought Christ would disapprove. Our beloved and much to be respected brother in Christ, George Maurel, will relate to you other things by word of mouth.Intreat God on behalf of us and our church: 1 I cannot here refrain from expressing my admiration of the wisdom of this great man in treating with these plain people on such abstruse subjects. He simply asserts what is clearly scriptural on both sides: "We cannot deny predestination: but what then? is God unjust," in holding us accountable? or "is he untrue," in the declarations and promises of his word? He calls them off from curious questions, and prying into things "too high" for them, and probably for any man in the present state of existence: "You are not called to attend to the secret things of God, but to his" revealed "word, which we ought to believe" implicitly, and by believing which "we shall be saved." And, finally, he wraps up the whole in the pious and practical position, which involves all that the profoundest minds have been able to attain to upon these points-" that our perdition is from ourselves, our salvation only from the Lord our God." A. D. 1530. CHAP. II. and we also will be mindful of you in the Lord. -Basle 13 October, 1530."1 Ecolampadius wrote four days after to Bucer, concerning his visitors, who were proceeding to Strasburg: "You will be visited by the Waldenses, exceedingly pious men, who wish to hear your sentiments on certain points. They will shew you the answer I have given them. That you may not waste your time, read what I have written, and either give them better counsel, or sanction mine; that so they may depart in peace, and commence their reformation. You will receive them with the kindness which belongs to you: but, if through the pressure of business you cannot enter into the subject, desire Capito to undertake it."2 The result of these communications appears to have been highly gratifying, except as it was connected with further sufferings on the part of this persecuted people of God.-Latomus was seized, on his way home, at Dijon, and thrown into prison. Maurel reached Merindol, in Provence, in safety, with the books and papers which he had brought from the German churches.3 He informed the people of all that had passed, and publicly declared "the many errors into which they had fallen." In consequence, so earnest a zeal for reforming their church was excited, that they sent for some of 1 Scultet. 163-166. ex Epist. Ecolam. tom. i. Gerdesius, Hist. Ref. ii. 401-418, has copied these interesting papers from Scultetus. 2 Scultet. 166. 3 Ruchat makes both the deputies to reach their home in safety; but many of the Waldenses are stated to have been imprisoned on this occasion, and Martin Goninus, who had been sent to Farel, a reformed minister at Neufchatel, to have been drowned in a sack at Grenoble, the capital of Dauphiny. Gerdes. ii. 417. their older and more experienced brethren from Calabria aud Apulia, (the south of Italy,) to consult with them on the subject: but, this coming to be known, the governor of the province, the bishops, priests, and monks raised fresh persecution, against them, which was carried on with great cruelty, "notwithstanding the more favourable intentions of Francis I. towards them," till the death of that monarch.2 A. D. 1531. We will now close the present chapter with Writings of some notice of the writings of Luther about Luther. this period. In the year 1531, he published nothing of consequence in addition to the works which have been already mentioned. He was much occupied in preaching at Wittemberg, in the absence of Bugenhagius Pomeranus, who had gone, by invitation, to Lubeck, to establish a reformed ministry in that place.3 The next year he printed various expositions, sermons, and other minor pieces, which would be very 1 Scultet. 166.-Perrin mentions a meeting held in the valley of Agrogno, in Piemont, September 12, 1535, at which the ministers and heads of families from "all their valleys," assembled, and in which, after considering the communications of Ecolampadius, Bucer, and others, they agreed to certain articles, to be received and observed of the whole people. It appears to have been included among these articles, that they should administer the two (only) sacraments among themselves. The first consequences of this meeting are said to have been, that the popish priests, despairing of reclaiming the people, silently withdrew from the valleys, and that the Vaudois proceeded, the following year, to print, in Switzerland, a translation of the whole Bible into the French language-the first that had ever been printed.-Persecutions, however, soon followed.-Luther's Forerunners, Lond. 1624, ii. 57-62, where the substance of the Vaudois articles is given. 2 Jones. 3 Seck. iii. 16, 17. II. CHAP. edifying to the churches, but need not be particularly specified in this place. Some brief quotations, however, may be given. Evidences of Grace. Let the following passages, on the evidences of a state of grace, be combined with the writer's well known and constant assertion of the doctrine of justification by faith only.-In his lectures on the Sermon on the Mount, he says: "Our forgiving our neighbour is an external proof that we are ourselves forgiven by God. Where there is not this proof, I cannot be certain of the internal blessing of justification: rather, I deceive myself and others. But, if I find that I truly forgive my neighbour, then I may conclude thus: "This proceeds not from myself: I perceive that by the grace of God I am a new man.'"2-Again, in his discourses on the Christian armour, (Ephes. vi.) speaking of "the breastplate of righteousness," which it appears he understood to mean a holy walk and conversation, he says: "When I live a holy life before men, and can repel all charges against me, I become certain of my faith; as the tree is proved to be good by good fruit: and thus faith increases and is confirmed. But this is not the case with those who live in sin : for thus faith is staggered; and the mind rendered incapable of the confidence and consolation that God is pacified towards it, and forgives those sins in which it still continues." 3 The term faith seems to be here not quite properly applied to confidence of personal acceptance, (to which "those who live in sin" cannot be entitled, whereas faith, properly so called, is every man's duty;) but well would it have been for the church, had the ground of our accept 1 Seck. iii. 33-38. 2 Ib. 33, 34. 3 Ib. 36. ance, and the proof that we are accepted, been always thus clearly distinguished. A. D. 1532. Speaking of the advent of Christ he says; Advent of “O God, were not that day to be looked for, Christ, I would rather never have been born! See what is the existing state of things, and how the gospel is treated in the world: what persecutions, calumnies, hatred, and contempt! And then, among ourselves, how many false and deceitful, wayward and wicked!... These things wound and wear down the hearts of Christians. Why then do we not cry to God to terminate the present state of things? We should be most miserable, could we not hope for deliverance." 1 Times. In discoursing on the second Psalm, he thus His own notices what he had himself witnessed: "In our time, the success of the gospel was at first great; and all hoped, as the apostles did, before they were enlightened by the Spirit of God in the nature of his kingdom, that our doctrine would introduce public liberty and tranquillity: but, when disturbances arose, and the true character of the spiritual kingdom was discerned, with the infirmities of good men, and the like; then many drew back, and began to hate the gospel. What was the cause of all this, but ignorance of the nature and conditions of the kingdom of Christ-which is of that kind, that it is every where exposed to the opposition of the world and of Satan. They who are not aware of this will fail when dangers arise, and will condemn the gospel as a seditious doctrine."2 He elsewhere complains of the conceit and arrogance both of the nobles and the common |