CHAP.
IV.

Advice to

theology.

mercy only and yet this is highly necessary." -From the second series of sermons here mentioned, an extract has been given above.1— On the apostles' creed, he speaks of it as a thing "extremely difficult, and to human reason next to impossible, sincerely to say, I believe in Jesus Christ." "Submit the article," he says, "to reason; she is utterly confounded by it, and comes to regard the whole as a fable. Hence in Italy scarcely any thing is believed about it; and our countrymen, alas! have learned to copy that kind of wisdom."-What would he say, were he now to revisit many parts of Germany?

With this passage we may connect the folstudents of lowing advice to students of theology, which occurs in his commentary on the forty-fifth Psalm, published soon after. "You, who apply yourselves to sacred learning, be admonished, above all things, to settle in your minds what you should believe as the truths of the Christian religion; and have the articles of your faith well considered, and confirmed by apposite texts of scripture and then, when the devil, or heretics, his instruments, would make you doubt them, oppose to them those texts, and leave them, saying, I will not listen to your cavils and speculations; for thus hath the Holy Spirit directed, who commands me to hearken and incline mine ear.' The doctrine, that all our own righteousness must be renounced, and our confidence placed only in Christ and his righteousness, will appear new and strange, so that many will be offended at it. So also will the doctrine, that Christ himself is God, and to be worshipped as such. But in the way described I shall be assured that I do not err

1 Above, p. 154.

concerning it; and the objection from the first
commandment, and other scriptures concerning
the unity of God, will be answered. For, if
they urge, You make more gods than one:'
I answer, I do not: the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit are the same God: the sub-
stance and essence are one, though the persons
are three.' How the persons differ, I do not
indeed understand: sufficient for me is the
authority of scripture, which names the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost, in the last chap-
ter of S. Matthew. If I could comprehend the
subject by my reason, what need would there
be of faith? But, if I will admit nothing
which by my reason I cannot comprehend, I
must soon give up baptism, the Lord's supper,
the word, grace, original sin, and every thing:
for reason comprehends none of these things. "1
-Many such passages shew, both how much his
mind was exercised respecting every doctrine
that he received, and, at the same time, what
implicit submission he yielded to the authority
of holy scripture. Thus, speaking of some who
had written against the doctrine of the Trinity,
he says, (6
They seem not to be aware that
others, as well as themselves, have had their
temptations concerning this doctrine; but it
avails nothing to oppose my reasonings to the
word and Spirit of God." 2 In the same spirit
Melancthon, referring to Servetus and his ar-
guments against the divinity of Christ, observes,
"I turn my thoughts to those scriptures which
teach me to pray to Christ, that is to pay him
divine honour, and find comfort."3

A. D. 1533.

In some lectures on Isaiah, of the same date, On his own which were taken down from his mouth, (for

times.

1 Seck. iii. 83.

Ib. 40 (8). 3 Epist. iv. 140.

CHAP.

IV.

he delivered his expositions extempore,1) he
quotes, on c. viii. v. 12, the sentiment of the
elector Frederic on confederacies: "That
they often emboldened the parties to attempt
things which they would not otherwise have
ventured upon; and then, when difficulties
arose, they fell away, and deserted one another:
which induced the elector to stand aloof from
them." 2 Again, (xxix. 8.) on "the hungry
man dreaming that he eateth," he applies
the passage to persecutors flattering them-
selves that they had devoured and destroyed
the church; mentioning first the persecutions
of pagan Rome, and then those of Rome papal.
"But all," he says, "is mere illusion: it is not
devouring, but only dreaming that they devour.
And so in ten years' time you shall see the
princes and bishops, who now rage against the
word of God, all come to nothing, and the
gospel and its professors in safety."3
If not
within ten years, yet within twenty, the truth
of both these passages was strikingly illustrated.

On c. xxxix, he has a striking passage on the sins and miseries of human life. "The sense of the sins, with which they are tempted and defiled, is the greatest of all afflictions to the righteous. Every age has its besetting evils. In youth passion domineers; in advancing years, covetousness; and then, if a man has performed his part well in life, in old age comes self-applause. Every period also is exposed to its peculiar outward dangers. Yet even all this cannot bow the stubborn neck of man to humility and submission. It is hopeless to think of living without sin. We must cast ourselves simply on Christ, and say, O Lord Jesus, pardon me!

1 Seck. iii. 120 (27). 2 lbid. 80. 3 Ibid. iii. 81.

How often and how grievously I have sinned, thou knowest: I myself cannot trace it!"1

On c. xlix. 8, he laments, as we have seen him doing elsewhere, the conceit and fastidiousness of the people. "The time was, when I would have preferred the right understanding of a single psalm to all the riches of the world. But the heaven was then brass to us, and the earth iron. Now, when the windows of heaven have been opened, we are grown fastidious. He, who has once perused the New Testament, thinks he has nothing more to learn. The word of God, therefore, will be taken from us, and given to a nation whom perhaps we know not." 2

Here too again, after having strongly asserted his doctrine concerning justification, in treating of the fifty-third chapter, he, on the fifty-eighth, insists on good works as the evidence of a justified state: "Righteousness shall go before thee thy good works shall assure thy own conscience...Thus Peter says, that good works assure men of their calling... We are not here treating the question of justification." 3

A. D.

1533.

He published also at this time lectures on various other parts of scripture, and prefixed prefaces to different works of other authors; and particularly, in the year 1533, to the Confession of faith of the Waldenses; concerning The Walwhom, after inquiry, he had become satisfied denses. "that they were not heretics," but sound though imperfectly-instructed Christians.5-A letter to Joachim, prince of Anhalt, who was ill and depressed in mind, is particularly specified under the year 1534. He recommends to him cheerful conversation with his pastor, Hausman, music, and even facetious discourse: observ3 Ibid. 82.

Seck. iii. 81.
Ibid. 84--86.

2 Ibid. 82.

5 Ibid. 62, 63.

IV.

CHAP. ing that God "allowed exhilaration of that kind within proper limits, and would not be displeased at our thus dispelling melancholy, and enjoying the blessings he had bestowed upon us for both soul and body."

Second

tary on Galatians.

In 1535 his renewed commentary on the Commen- epistle to the Galatians appeared. It is not 'a new edition' of his former work, but the substance of a new series of lectures on the epistle.2 Of this important work Dr. Milner has spoken so largely, in connexion with Luther's former publication on the same subject, that a few gleanings are all that shall here be added.

On c. iii. 10, he thus explains what it is "to fulfil the law," in the only sense in which it can be done, or indeed the law of God truly obeyed at all, among sinful men. "We must in the first place listen to the promise, which proposes Christ to us: embracing him, we receive the Holy Spirit for his sake. God and our neighbour are then truly loved, good works are performed, the cross is borne. This is truly to fulfil the law, which otherwise remains for ever unfulfilled." 4

A subsequent passage may be quoted as opposed to the notion, to which fresh currency has been recently given, that we are first brought, indeed, into a justified state by faith, but can be continued in it only by obedience. "Faith perpetually" (or to the end) "justifies

1 Seck. iii. 86.

2 Ibid. 116-124.

3 Milner, iv. 509-524. (493-508.)

Of course the term "fulfilling the law," is here used in a less strict and proper sense: not for the absolute fulfilling of it in all its "exceeding breadth," (as it must be if we would be justified by our own obedience to it,) but in the only sense in which it is ever obeyed by fallen man. And scripture itself seems to warrant this qualified sense of the term. Rom. viii. 4, &c.