the
Ob
and
Oboth
of Moses are no authorities for this absurd
superstition, has been unanswerably shewn by Webster
.
Chap. XXXVII. p. 398.
To conclude, (said Luther), I never yet knew a troubled and perplexed
man, that was right in his own wits.
A sound observation of great practical utility. Edward Irving should be
aware of this in dealing with conscience-troubled (but in fact
fancy-vexed) women.
Ib.
It was not a thorn in the flesh touching the unchaste love he bore
towards Tecla, as the Papists dream.
I should like to know how high this strange legend can be traced. The
other tradition that St. Paul was subject to epileptic fits, has a less
legendary character. The phrase
thorn in the flesh
is scarcely
reconcilable with Luther's hypothesis, otherwise than as doubts of the
objectivity of his vision, and of his after revelations may have been
consequences of the disease, whatever that might be.
Ib. p. 399.
Our Lord God doth like a printer, who setteth the letters backwards;
we see and feel well his setting, but we shall see the print yonder in
the life to come.
A beautiful simile. Add that even in this world the lives, especially
the autobiographies, of eminent servants of Christ, are like the
looking-glass or mirror, which, reversing the types, renders them
legible to us.
Ib. p. 403.
Indignus sum, sed dignus fui—creari a Deo, &c. Although I am
unworthy, yet nevertheless I have been worthy, in that I
am created of God, &c.
The translation does not give the true sense of the Latin. It should be
was
and
to be
. The
dignus fui
has here the sense of
dignum me habuit Deus
. See Herbert's little poem in the Temple:
Sweetest Saviour, if my soul
Were but worth the having,
Quickly should I then control
Any thought of waving;
But when all my care and pains
Cannot give the name of gains
To thy wretch so full of stains,
What delight or hope remains?
Ib. p. 404.
The chiefest physic for that disease (but very hard and difficult it
is to be done) is, that they firmly hold such cogitations not to be
theirs, but that most sure and certain they come of the Devil.
More and more I understand the immense difference between the
Faith-article of
the Devil
Greek: tou Ponaeroù
and the
superstitious fancy of devils:
animus objectivus dominationem in
Greek: tòn Eimì
see previous image
affectans
;
Greek: oútos tò méga órganon Diabólou hypárchei
see previous image
.
Chap. XLIV. p. 431.
I truly advise all those (said Luther) who earnestly do affect the
honor of Christ and the Gospel, that they would be enemies to Erasmus
Roterodamus, for he is a devaster of religion. Do but read only his
dialogue De Peregrinatione, where you will see how he derideth
and flouteth the whole religion, and at last concludeth out of single
abominations, that he rejecteth religion, &c.
Religion here means the vows and habits of the religious or those bound
to a particular life;—the monks, friars, nuns, in short, the regulars
in contradistinction from the laity and the secular Clergy.
Ib. p. 432.
Erasmus can do nothing but cavil and flout, he cannot confute. If
(said Luther) I were a Papist, so could I easily overcome and beat
him. For although he flouteth the Pope with his ceremonies, yet he
neither hath confuted nor overcome him; no enemy is beaten nor
overcome with mocking, jeering, and flouting.
Most true; but it is an excellent pioneer and an excellent
corps de
reserve
, cavalry for pursuit, and for clearing the field of battle,
and in the first use Luther was greatly obliged to Erasmus. But such
utter unlikes cannot but end in dislikes, and so it proved between
Erasmus and Luther. Erasmus, might the Protestants say, wished no good
to the Church of Rome, and still less to our party: it was with him
Rot her and Dam us
!
Chap. XLVIII. p. 442.
David's example is full of offences, that so holy a man, chosen of
God, should fall into such great abominable sins and blasphemies;
when as before he was very fortunate and happy, of whom all the
bordering kingdoms were afraid, for God was with him.
If any part of the Old Testament be typical, the whole life and
character of David, from his birth to his death, are eminently so. And
accordingly the history of David and his Psalms, which form a most
interesting part of his history, occupies as large a portion of the Old
Testament as all the others. The type is two-fold-now of the Messiah,
now of the Church, and of the Church in all its relations, persecuted,
victorious, backsliding, penitent. N.B. I do not find David charged with
any vices, though with heavy crimes. So it is with the Church. Vices
destroy its essence.
Ib.
The same was a strange kind of offence (said Luther) that the world
was offended at him who raised the dead, who made the blind to see,
and the deaf to hear, &c.
Lord alluded to the verse that immediately follows and completes his
quotations from Isaiah
. I, Jehovah, will come and do this. That he
implicitly declared himself the Jehovah, the Word,—this was the
offence.
Chap. XLIX. p. 443.
God wills, may one say, that we should serve him freewillingly, but he
that serveth God out of fear of punishment of hell, or out of a hope
and love of recompence, the same serveth and honoreth God not freely;
therefore such a one serveth God not uprightly nor truly.
Answer. This argument (said Luther) is Stoical, &c.
A truly wise paragraph. Pity it was not expounded. God will accept our
imperfections, where their face is turned toward him, on the road to the
glorious liberty of the Gospel.
Chap. L. p. 446.
It is the highest grace and gift of God to have an honest, a
God-fearing, housewifely consort, &c. But God thrusteth many into the
state of matrimony before they be aware and rightly bethink
themselves.
The state of matrimony (said Luther) is the chiefest state in the
world after religion, &c.
Alas! alas! this is the misery of it, that so many wed and so few are
Christianly married! But even in this the analogy of matrimony to the
religion of Christ holds good: for even such is the proportion of
nominal to actual Christians;—all
christened
, how few baptized!
But in true matrimony it is beautiful to consider, how peculiarly the
marriage state harmonizes with the doctrine of justification by free
grace through faith alone. The little quarrels, the imperfections on
both sides, the occasional frailties, yield to the one thought,— there
is love at the bottom. If sickness or other sorer calamity visit me, how
would the love then blaze forth! The faults are there, but they are not
imprinted. The prickles, the acrid rind, the bitterness or sourness, are
transformed into the ripe fruit, and the foreknowledge of this gives the
name and virtue of the ripe fruit to the fruit yet green on the bough.
Ib. p. 447.
The causers and founders of matrimony are chiefly God's commandments,
&c. It is a state instituted by God himself, visited by Christ in
person, and presented with a glorious present; for God said, It is
not good that the man should be alone: therefore the wife should
be a help to the husband, to the end that human generations may be
increased, and children nurtured to God's honour, and to the profit of
people and countries; also to keep our bodies in sanctification.
(Add) and in mutual reverence, our spirits in a state of love and
tenderness; and our imaginations pure and tranquil.
In a word, matrimony not only preserveth human generations so that the
same remain continually, but it preserveth the generations human.
Ib. p. 450.
In the synod at Leipzig the lawyers concluded that secret contractors
should be punished with banishment and be disinherited. Whereupon
(said Luther) I sent them word that I would not allow thereof, it were
too gross a proceeding, &c. But nevertheless I hold it fitting, that
those which in such sort do secretly contract themselves, ought
sharply to be reproved, yea, also in some measure severely punished.
What a sweet union of prudence and kind nature! Scold them sharply, and
perhaps let them smart a while for their indiscretion and disobedience;
and then kiss and make it up, remembering that young folks will be young
folks, and that love has its own law and logic.
Chap. LIX. p. 481.
The presumption and boldness of the sophists and School-divines is a
very ungodly thing, which some of the Fathers also approved of and
extolled; namely of spiritual significations in the Holy Scripture,
whereby she is pitifully tattered and torn in pieces. It is an apish
work in such sort to juggle with Holy Scripture: it is no otherwise
than if I should discourse of physic in this manner: the fever is a
sickness, rhubarb is the physic. The fever signified! the sins
—rhubarb is Jesus Christ, &c.
Who seeth not here (said Luther) that such significations are mere
juggling tricks? Even so and after the same manner are they
deceived that say, Children ought to be baptized again, because they
had not faith.
For the life of me, I cannot find the 'even so' in this sentence. The
watchman cries, 'half-past three o'clock.' Even so, and after the same
manner, the great Cham of Tartary has a carbuncle on his nose.
Chap. LX. p. 483.
George in the Greek tongue, is called a builder, that buildeth
countries and people with justice and righteousness, &c.
A mistake for a tiller or boor, from
Bauer
,
bauen
. The
latter hath two senses, to build and to bring into cultivation.
Chap. LXX. p. 503.
I am now advertised (said Luther) that a new astrologer is risen, who
presumeth to prove that the earth moveth and goeth about, not the
firmament, the sun and moon, nor the stars; like as when one who
sitteth in a coach or in a ship and is moved, thinketh he sitteth
still and resteth, but the earth and the trees go, run, and move
themselves. Therefore thus it goeth, when we give up ourselves to our
own foolish fancies and conceits. This fool will turn the whole art of
astronomy upside-down, but the Scripture sheweth and teacheth him
another lesson, when Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and not
the earth.
There is a similar, but still more intolerant and contemptuous anathema
of the Copernican system in Sir Thomas Brown, almost two centuries later
than Luther.
Though the problem is of no difficult solution for reflecting minds, yet
for the reading many it would be a serviceable work, to bring together
and exemplify the causes of the extreme and universal credulity that
characterizes sundry periods of history (for example, from A.D. 1400 to
A.D. 1650): and credulity involves lying and delusion—for by a seeming
paradox liars are always credulous, though credulous persons are not
always liars; although they most often are.
It would be worth while to make a collection of the judgments of eminent
men in their generation respecting the Copernican or Pythagorean scheme.
One writer (I forget the name) inveighs against it as Popery, and a
Popish stratagem to reconcile the minds of men to Transubstantiation and
the Mass. For if we may contradict the evidence of our senses in a
matter of natural philosophy,
a fortiori
, or much more, may we be
expected to do so in a matter of faith.
In my Noetic, or Doctrine and Discipline of Ideas =
logice,
Organon
—I purpose to select some four, five or more instances of
the sad effects of the absence of ideas in the use of words and in the
understanding of truths, in the different departments of life; for
example, the word
body
, in connection with resurrection-men,
&c.—and the last instances, will (please God!) be the sad effects on
the whole system of Christian divinity.
must remember Asgill's book
.
Religion necessarily, as to its main and proper doctrines, consists of
ideas, that is, spiritual truths that can only be spiritually discerned,
and to the expression of which words are necessarily inadequate, and
must be used by accommodation. Hence the absolute indispensability of a
Christian life, with its conflicts and inward experiences, which alone
can make a man to answer to an opponent, who charges one doctrine as
contradictory to another,—"Yes! it is a contradiction in terms; but
nevertheless so it is, and both are true, nay, parts of the same
truth."—But alas! besides other evils there is this,—that the Gospel
is preached in fragments, and what the hearer can recollect of the sum
total of these is to be his Christian knowledge and belief. This is a
grievous error. First, labour to enlighten the hearer as to the essence
of the Christian dispensation, the grounding and pervading idea, and
then set it forth in its manifold perspective, its various stages and
modes of manifestation. In this as in almost all other qualities of a
preacher of Christ, Luther after Paul and John is the great master. None
saw more clearly than he, that the same proposition, which, addressed to
a Christian in his first awakening out of the death of sin was a most
wholesome, nay, a necessary, truth, would be a most condemnable
Antinomian falsehood, if addressed to a secure Christian boasting and
trusting in
his
faith—yes, in
his
own faith, instead of
the faith of Christ communicated to him.
I cannot utter how dear and precious to me are the contents of pages
197-199, to line 17, of this work, more particularly the section
headed:
How we ought to carry ourselves towards the Law's accusations.
to these the last two sections of p. 201
. the last touching St.
opinion
especially.
, the first half of p. 202
. But indeed the whole of the 12th chapter 'Of the Law and the
Gospel' is of inestimable value to a serious and earnest minister of the
Gospel. Here he may learn both the orthodox faith, and a holy prudence
in the time and manner of preaching the same.
July, 1829.
Doctoris Martini Lutheri Colloquia Mensalia:
or Dr.
Martin Luther's Divine Discourses at his Table, &c. Collected first
together by Dr. Antonius Lauterbach, and afterwards disposed into
certain common-places by John Aurifaber, Doctor in Divinity. Translated
by Capt. Henry Bell.
Folio
London, 1652.
N. B.
I should not have written the above note in my
present state of light;—not that I find it false, but that it may have
the effect of falsehood by not going deep enough. July, 1829.
Charles Lamb.—
Ed
.
"Out of the number of 400, there were but 80 Arians at the utmost. The
other 320 and more were really orthodox men, induced by artifices to
subscribe a Creed which they understood in a good sense, but which,
being worded in general terms, was capable of being perverted to a bad
one."
Waterland, Vindication
, &c., c. vi.—
Ed
.
The Displaying of supposed Witchcraft, &c. London.
folio
. 1677.
Ed
.
Isaiah xxxv. 4. lxi 1.
Ed
. Luke iv. 18, 19.
"An argument proving that, according to the covenant of eternal life,
revealed in the Scriptures, man may be translated from hence, without
passing through death, although the human nature of Christ himself
could not be thus translated, till he had passed through death."
See
Table Talk. 2nd Edit
. p. 127.
Ed
.
We must preach the Law (said Luther) for the sakes of the
evil and wicked, &c.
The opinion of St. Austin is (said Luther) that the Law
which through human strength, natural understanding and wisdom is
fulfilled, justifieth not, &c.
Whether we should preach only of God's grace and mercy or
not. From "Philip Melancthon demanded of Luther"—to "yet we must press
through, and not suffer ourselves to recoil."
Contents / Index
Notes on The Life of St. Theresa1
Pref. Part I. p. 51. Letter of Father Avila to Mother Teresa de Jesu.
Persons ought to beseech our Lord not to conduct them by the way of
seeing; but that the happy sight of him and of his saints be reserved
for heaven; and that, here he would conduct them in the plain, beaten
road, &c. * * But if, doing all this, the visions continue, and the
soul reaps profit thereby, &c.
In what other language could a young woman check while she soothed her
espoused lover, in his too eager demonstrations of his passion? And yet
the art of the Roman priests,—to keep up the delusion as serviceable,
yet keep off those forms of it most liable to detection, by medical
commentary!
Life, Part I. Chap. IV. p. 15.
But our Lord began to regale me so much by this way, that he
vouchsafed me the favor to give me quiet prayer; and sometimes it came
so far as to arrive at union; though I understood neither the one nor
the other, nor how much they both deserve to be prized. But I believe
it would have been a great deal of happiness for me to have understood
them. True it is, that this union rested with me for so short a time,
that perhaps it might arrive to be but as of an Ave Maria; yet
I remained with so very great effects thereof, that with not being
then so much as twenty years old, methought I found the whole world
under my feet.
Dreams, the soul herself forsaking;
Fearful raptures; childlike mirth.
Silent adorations, making
A blessed shadow of this earth!
Ib. Chap. V. p. 24.
I received also the blessed Sacrament with many tears; though yet, in
my opinion, they were not shed with that sense and grief, for only my
having offended God, which might have served to save my soul; if the
error into which I was brought by them who told me that some things
were not mortal sins, (which afterward I saw plainly that they were)
might not somewhat bestead me. *** Methinks, that without doubt my
soul might have run a hazard of not being saved, if I had died then.
Can we wonder that some poor hypochondriasts and epileptics have
believed themselves possessed by, or rather to be the Devil himself, and
so spoke in this imagined character, when this poor afflicted spotless
innocent could be so pierced through with fanatic pre-conceptions, as to
talk in this manner of her mortal sins, and their probable eternal
punishment;—and this too, under the most fervent sense of God's love
and mercy!
Ib. p. 43.
True it is, that I am both the most weak, and the most wicked of any
living.
What is the meaning of these words, that occur so often in the works of
great saints? Do they believe them literally? Or is it a specific
suspension of the comparing power and the memory, vouchsafed them as a
gift of grace?—a gift of telling a lie without breach of veracity—a
gift of humility indemnifying pride.
Ib. Chap. VIII. p. 44.
I have not without cause been considering and reflecting upon this
life of mine so long, for I discern well enough that nobody will have
gust to look upon a thing so very wicked.
Again! Can this first sentence be other than madness or a lie? For
observe, the question is not, whether Teresa was or was not positively
very wicked; but whether according to her own scale of virtue she was
most and very wicked comparatively. See post Chap. X. p. 57-8.
That relatively to the command
Be ye perfect even as your Father in
Heaven is perfect
, and before the eye of his own pure reason, the
best of men may deem himself mere folly and imperfection, I can easily
conceive; but this is not the case in question. It is here a comparison
of one man with all others of whom he has known or heard;—
ergo
,
a matter of experience; and in this sense it is impossible, without loss
of memory and judgment on the one hand, or of veracity and simplicity on
the other. Besides, of what use is it? To draw off our conscience from
the relation between ourselves and the perfect ideal appointed for our
imitation, to the vain comparison of one individual self with other men!
Will their sins lessen mine, though they were greater? Does not every
man stand or fall to his own Maker according to his own being?