Martin Luther on the bondage of the will

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Preface

I deem it expedient to put the reader in possession of the circumstances under which this work was written ; for which purpose it is necessary that I premise a rapid sketch of Luther's history, in its connection with Protestantism.

Martin Luther was born in the year 1483, at Isleben, in Saxony. His father, who had wrought in the mines of Mansfield, became afterwards a proprietor in them ; which enabled him to educate his son, not only with a pious father's care, but with a rich father's liberality. After furnishing him with the elements in some inferior schools, he sent him at an early age to the University of Erfurth : where he made considerable proficiency in classical learning, eloquence and philosophy, and commenced Master of Arts at the age of twenty. His parents had destined him for the bar ; but after devoting himself diligently to the study of the civil law for some time, he forsook it abruptly, and shut himself up in a convent at Erfurth.

Here he became remarkable for his diligence, self-mortification and conscientiousness; occasionally suffering great agitation of mind from an ignorant fear of God. Habitually sad, and at intervals overwhelmed with paroxysms of mental agony, he consulted his vicar-general Staupitius ; who comforted him by suggesting, that he did not know how useful and necessary this trial might be to him : f God does not thus exercise you for nothing, said he ; you will one day see that he will employ you as his servant for

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great purposes.' — c The event, adds the historian, gave ample honour to the sagacity of Staupitius, and it is veryevident that a deep and solid conviction of sin, leading the mind to the search of Scripture- truth, and the investigation of the way of peace, was the main spring of Luther's whole after conduct ; and indeed this view of our reformer's state of mind furnishes the only key to the discovery of the real motives, by which he was influenced in his public transactions/

It was npt till the second year of his residence in the monastery, that he accidentally met with a Latin Bible in the library, when he, for the first time, discovered that large portions of the Scriptures were withheld from the people. Being sick this same year, he was greatly comforted by an elder brother of the convent, who directed his attention to that precious article of our creed, ( I believe in the remission of sins/ Staupitius, he afterwards remarked, had spoken to him as with the voice of an angel, when he taught him that f true repentance begins with the love of righteousness and of God ;' but the old monk led him up to the source of this love. — There may be, there is, a breathing after righteousness, and a feeling after God, which prepareth the way for this love ; but there can be no real righteousness wrought, or real love of it and of God felt, till we have the consciousness of his forgiveness. — His aged adviser represented to him, that this article implied not merely a general belief — for the devils, he remarked, had a faith of that sort — but that it was the command of God, that each particular person should apply this doctrine of the remission of sins to his own particular case ; and referred him for the proof of what he said to Bernard, Augustine and St. Paul. — With incredible ardour he now gave himself up to the study of the Scriptures, and of Augustine's works. Afterwards he read other divines, but he stuck close to Augustine $ and held by him, as we find, to his last hour.

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In the year 1507:, ne received holy orders ; and in the next year was called to the Professorship of Divinity at Wittemberg, through the recommendation of his friend Staupitius ; who thereby gave him an opportunity of verifying his own forebodings concerning him. Here arose his connection with the elector Frederic, of Saxony ; which was so serviceable to him in all his after- conflicts. Frederic was tenderly anxious for the credit and success of his infant seminary ; and Luther more than fulfilled his expectations, both as a teacher of philosophy and as a public minister. ( Eloquent by nature, and powerful in moving the affections, acquainted also in a very uncommon manner with the elegancies and energy of his native tongue, he soon became the wonder of his age/

In 1510, he was dispatched to Rome on some important business of his order ; which he performed so well as to receive the distinction of a doctor's degree upon his return. Whilst at Rome he had opportunities of noticing the spirit with which religious worship was conducted there — its pomp, hurriedness and politically ; and was thankful to return once more to his convent, where he might pray deliberately and fervently without being ridiculed. He now entered upon a public exposition of the Psalms and Epistle to the Romans ; studied Greek and Hebrew with great diligence \ improved his taste, and enlarged his erudition, by availing himself of the philological labours of Erasmus (to which he always owned that he had been greatly indebted) ; rejected the corruptive yoke of Aristotle and the Schoolmen, and rested not, like the satirist who had given him a taste for pulling down, in confusion, but sought and found his peace in erecting a scriptural theology upon the ruins of heathenized Christianity. The true light beamed very gradually upon his mind : from suspecting error he became convinced that it was there ; constrained to reject error, he was forced step by step into truth.

Whilst thus employed, with great contention of mind, a2 iv PREFACE.

in studying, ruminating, teaching and preaching \ when now he had been favoured with some peculiar advantages* for ascertaining the real state of religion, both amongst clergy and laity, in his own country, his attention was in a manner compelled to the subject of Indulgences. He had not taken it up as a speculation ; he did not know the real nature, grounds, ingredients, or ramifications of the evil. As a confessor, he had to do with acknowledgments of sin ; as a priest, he was to dictate penances. The penitents refused to comply, because they had dispensations in their pockets. — What a chefd'ceuvre of Satan's was here ! It is not (i Sin no more, least a worse thing happen unto thee ;" but e Sin as thou listest, if thou canst pay for it/ Luther would not absolve. The brass-browed Tetzel stormed, and ordered his pile of wood to be lighted that he might strike terror into all who should dare to think of being heretics. At present Luther only said with great mildness from the pulpit, c that the people might be better employed than in running from place to place to procure Indulgences /f

* In his office of subaltern vicar he had about forty monasteries under his inspection, which he had taken occasion to visit.

f It is not to be inferred that Luther was at this time ignorant of the doctrine of grace, because ignorant of this particular subject. This is the memorable year 1517- In the preceding year, 1516, he thus wrote to a friend. ' I desire to know what your soul is doing ; whether wearied at length of its own righteousness, it learns to refresh itself and to rest in the righteousness of Christ. The temptation 'of presumption in our age is strong in many, and specially in those who labour to be just and good with all their might, and at the same time are ignorant of the righteousness of God, which in Christ is conferred upon all with a rich exuberance of gratuitous liberality. They seek in themselves to work that which is good, in order that they may have a confidence of standing before God, adorned with virtues and merits, which is an impossible attempt. You, my friend, used to be of this same opinion, or rather — of this same mistake ; so was I ; but now I am lighting against the error, but have not yet prevailed. , — ' A little before the controversy concerning Indulgences, George, Duke of Saxony, entreated Staupitius to send him some worthy and learned

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He was sure it was wrong ; he would try to check it ; would try, with canonical regularity, applying to archbishop and bishop for redress : so ignorant of the principals, sub-ordinates and sub-sub-ordinates in the traffic, that he called upon his own archbishop vender to stop the trade !

See how God worketh.. Ambition, vanity and extravagance are made the instrument of developing the abominations of the Popedom, that God may develope himself by his dealings with it. The gorgeous temple, whose foundations had previously been laid, to the wonderment of man, not to the praise and worship of God, must continue to be built ; though not one jot may be subtracted from Leo's pomp, sensuality and magnificence, and though his treasury be already exhausted. Profligate necessity leads him to an expedient, which, whilst it reveals his own spirit, and discloses the principles of the government

preacher. The vicar-general, in compliance with his request, dispatched Luther with strong recommendations to Dresden. George gave him an order to preach : the sum of Luther's sermon was this ; That no man ought to despair of the possibility of salvation ; that those who heard the word of God with attentive minds were true disciples of Christ, and were elected and predestinated to eternal life. He enlarged on the subject, and shewed that the whole doctrine of predestination, if the foundation be laid in Christ, was of singular efficacy to dispel that fear, by which men, trembling under the sense of their own unworthiness, are tempted to fly from God, who ought to be our sovereign refuge/ — Evidence to the same effect may be drawn in abundance from his letter to Spalatinus, written in this same preceding year, containing remarks on Erasmus's interpretations of Scripture, compared with those of Jerome, Augustine, and some of the other. Fathers. — ' When obedience to the commandment takes place to a certain degree, and yet has not Christ for its foundation, though it may produce such men as your Fabricius's, and your Regulus's, that is, very upright moralists, according to man's judgment, it has nothing of the nature of genuine righteousness. For men are not made truly righteous, as Aristotle supposes, by performing certain actions which are externally good — for they may still be counterfeit characters — but men must have righteous principles in the first place, and then they will not fail to perform righteous actions. God first respects Abel, and then his offering.'— Milner, iv. Cent xvi. chap. ii.

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he administers, could scarcely fail to draw some at least into an inquiry, by what authority they Were called to submit to such enormities. This expedient (not new indeed — Julius had adopted it before — but never yet so extensively and so barefacedly practised, as in this instance) was no other than to make gain of godliness, by selling merits for money — by not pardoning only, but even legalizing, contempt and defiance of God, through the distribution of certain superfluous riches of Christ and of his saints, of which the Pope has the key. The price demanded varied with the circumstances of the buyer, so that all ranks of men might be partakers of the benefit. In fact, all orders of men were laid under contribution to ecclesiastical profligacy, whilst the infamous Dominican had some colour for his boast, that he had saved more souls from hell by his Indulgences, than St. Peter had converted to Christianity by his preaching.

Luther inquired, studied, prayed, called on his rulers ; and at length, receiving no help but only silence or cautions from authorities, published his ninety-five theses, or doctrinal propositions, upon the subject : which were spread, with wonderful impression and effect, in the course of fifteen days, throughout all Germany.

Tetzel answered them by one hundred and six ; which gave occasion to sermons in reply and rejoinder ; and so dutiful, so simple-hearted, and so confident in truth, was Luther, that he sent his publications to his superiors in the church, his diocesan and his vicar-general ; and requested the latter to transmit them to the Pope. — The cause was now fairly before the public. New antagonists arose. Luther was elaborate and temperate in his answers. — At length the lion was roused. He had commended brother Martin for his very fine genius, and resolved the dispute into monastic envy — a rivalry between the Dominicans and the Augustinians : but now, within sixty days, he must appear to answer for himself at Rome \

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nay, he is condemned already as an incorrigible heretic, without trial, in the apostolic chamber at Rome, even before the citation reaches him. Through the intercession of his powerful friend the elector, he gets a hearing at Augsburg; if that can be called a hearing, which gives the accused no alternative but admission of his crime and recantation. — Such however was the justice and the judgment which Luther met with at the hands of Cajetan. After going to and beyond the uttermost of what was right in submission — saving nothing but to write down the six letters (revoco), which would have settled every thing — though there were other weighty matters in dispute, besides the Indulgences — he left his imperious, contemptuous judge with an appeal which he took care to have solemnly registered in due form of law, <e from the Pope ill-informed to the same most holy Leo X. when better informed." — Luther had in his several conferences at Augsburg, written and unwritten, stood distinctly upon his distinguishing ground, ' Scripture against all papal decrees :' it is his glory on this occasion, that he maintained it in the very jaws of the usurper's representative; an abject mendicant monk, as the cardinal haughtily termed him, with all due and unfeigned respect for human superiority, took and acted the language, which two apprehended and arraigned Apostles had used before him, i( We ought to obey God rather than men." — Cajetan got no honour at Rome by his negociations at Augsburg ; the papal counsellors complained that he had been severe and illiberal, when he ought to have promised riches, a bishopric, and a cardinal's hat. Such were their hotburning coals to be heaped upon the head of inflexibility ! On his return to Wittemberg, at the close of 1518, Luther meditated to leave Germany and retire into France ; but the elector forbad him, and made earnest application to the emperor Maximilian to interpose, and get the controversy settled. Meanwhile, Luther renewed viii PREFACE.

his appeal to the Pope; which was followed, strange to tell, by a new bull in favour of Indulgences, confirming all the ancient abuses, but not even mentioning Luther's name. In his then state of mind, clinging as he still did to the Pope's authority, this document was opportune ; as serving to make his retreat impossible. Maximilian's death, which took place early in 1519, increased the elector's power of protecting Luther during the interregnum, and led to more lenient measures at Rome. The courteous Saxon knight was sent to replace the imperious Dominican. — c Martin, said he, I took you for some solitary old theologian ; whereas I find you a person in all the vigour of life. Then you are so much favoured with the popular opinion, that I could not expect, with the help of twenty-five thousand soldiers, to force you with me to Rome/ — Luther was firm, though softened : he had no objection to writing submissively to the Pope ; as yet he recognised his authority, and it was a principle with him to shew respect to his superiors, and to obey " the powers that be," in lawful things, if constituted lawfully.

In the month of July, 1519, were held the famous disputations at Leipsic ; where Luther, who had been refused a safe conduct, if he attempted to appear in the character of a disputant, was at length permitted to take up Carolstadt's half-defended cause, and to answer for himself in opposition to one of the most learned, eloquent and embittered of his papal opponents. Eckius, Luther's quondam friend, had come to earn laurels for himself, and strength for the Papacy ; but He who gives the prey assigned it to truth, and made this the occasion of supplying Luther with many able coadjutors. Melancthon's approval of his doctrine and attachment to his person were the offspring of this rencounter. ( At Wittemberg, Melancthon had probably been well acquainted with Luther's lectures on divinity ; but it was in the citadel of Leipsic that he heard the Romish tenets defended by all the arguments

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that ingenuity could devise ; there his suspicions were strengthened respecting the evils of the existing hierarchy; and there his righteous spirit was roused to imitate, in the grand object of his future inquiries and exertions, the indefatigable endeavours of his zealous and adventurous friend/

Here it was, thai the .question of papal supremacy first came into debate. The act of granting Indulgences assumed the right; but the principle was now brought forwards by Eckius, in malicious wilfulness, for the purpose of throwing scandal upon Luther \ who as yet, however, (e saw men, but as trees, walking;" and even maintained the Pope's supremacy, though on inferior grounds. He gave it him by a right founded on human reasons ;

DIVINE PERMISSION, and THE CONSENT OF THE FAITHFUL.

Though Eckius's thirteen propositions, and Luther's adversative ones, had respect chiefly to the papal domination, they comprehended other topics ; and much important matter of a more generally interesting nature was elicited and agitated by the discussion. On all the subjects of debate, Luther shewed a mind opening itself to truth, as in the instance just cited; though it may be doubted whe ther he was yet fully enlightened into any. Even on Justification, and on Freewill, though he held the substance of what he taught afterwards, he did not use the same materials, or the same form of defence. Hear his own account, as given in the preface to his works. c My own case, says he, is a notable example of the difficulty with which a man emerges from erroneous notions of long standing. How true is the proverb, custom is a second nature ! How true is that saying of Augustine, habit, if not resisted, becomes necessity ! I, who both publicly and privately, had taught divinity with the greatest diligence for seven years, insomuch that I retained in my memory almost every word of my lectures, was in fact at that time only just initiated into the knowledge and faith x PREFACE.

of Christ; I had only just learnt that a man must be justified and saved not by works but by the faith of Christ ; and lastly, in regard to pontifical authority, though I publicly maintained that the Pope was not the head of the church by a divine right, yet I stumbled at the very next step, namely, that the whole papal system was a Satanic invention. This I did not see, but contended obstinately for the Pope's right, founded on human reasons ; so thoroughly deluded was I by the example of others, by the title of holy church, and by my own habits. Hence I have learnt to have more candour for bigoted Papists, especially if they are not much acquainted with sacred, or perhaps, even with profane history/ — When the debate was over, Luther calmly reviewed his own thirteen propositions, and published them, with concise explanations and proofs ; establishing his conclusions chiefly by an appeal to Scripture and to ecclesiastical history.

These wrestling-matches of ancient times were the seed-bed of the reviving church : the people heard, the people read; and thus, according to Luther's favourite maxim, the stone which is to destroy Antichrist was

CUT OUT WITHOUT HANDS.

In 1520, Miltitz advised a second letter to the Pope. Advancing, as he now was, towards meridian light, he found it difficult to do this with integrity ; it may be questioned, whether he succeeded in his attempt. Already he had disclosed to his friend that he had not much doubt but the Pope is the real Antichrist. ' The lives and conversation of the Popes, their actions, their decrees, all, said he, agree most wonderfully to the descriptions of him in Holy Writ.' With what consistency could he still approach him as his authorized head and desired protector, flatter his person, and propose terms of mutual silence? True, the tone of his address is much altered from that of his former letter ; he declares many of the abominations of his government ; he expressly refuses to recant ;

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he insists upon his great principle, c perfect freedom in interpreting the word of God.' He is also peculiarly wise, just, plain and forcible in warning him against the big swelling words, with which his flatterers dignified him : " O my people, they which call thee blessed cause thee to err/' But we could be glad to see more of frankness and less of compliment ; the person not so subtilely separated from the office, the man from his court ; wishes and prayers for good suppressed, where he had begun to be persuaded that there could be only curse and destruction. The only plausible defence is, his mind was not yet fully made up as to what the Pope is : he had doubts, he thought himself bound to go to the uttermost in endeavours to conciliate, such an appeal would be a touchstone. In estimating the rectitude of this measure, every thing, it is plain, depends upon the degree of light which had then beamed upon his mind : but it is difficult to conceive, that, writing, as he had done, early in this same year to Spalatinus, and writing, as he afterwards did, in the month of June, his treatise on the necessity of reformation, and, in the month of August, his Babylonish captivity, he should, in the intermediate space, have retained a state of mind which, consistently with simplicity, could dictate his, or indeed any letter of accommodation to Leo.

At length, however, having abundantly proved his David, and convinced him of his foolishness, the Lord took it clean away from him, whilst He sealed up his enemies in theirs. Never was there a more manifest illustration of Jewish blindness and induration — cc He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart " — than in the counsels of the Conclave at this period. Leo disdains to be conciliated. After three years' delay, when Lutheranism has now grown to a size and a strength which no fire can burn, the damnatory bull is issued on the 15th of June, 1520, at Rome, and after a further short interval of mysterious silence is published in Germany. It extracted forty-one xii PREFACE.

propositions out of his writings, declaring them all to be heretical, forbad the reading and commanded the burning of his books, excommunicated his person, and required all secular princes to aid in his arrest.

Luther was now quite prepared to receive it ; prepared through the judgment which the Lord had now enabled him to form concerning the papal usurpation; and prepared, through the willingness which He had given him to suffer martyrdom for the truth, if called to that issue. The trenches were now fairly opened ; the war was begun. His first measure was to publish two Tracts : in one of which he treated the bull ironically, pretending to have some doubts of its authenticity, but still entitling it the execrable bull of Antichrist, and calling upon the emperor and all christian princes to come and defend the church against the Papists ; in the other, he gave a serious answer to the forty-one condemned articles, defending the authority of Scripture, and calling every body to study it, without deference to the expositions of men. Having answered, he acted his reply to it. If the bull were valid, it was not to be answered, but obeyed : he would shew, therefore, that he accounted it an illegal instrument. The Pope was the separatist, not he \ a bull of Antichrist is a bull to be burnt. He therefore takes the bull, together with the papal decretals, and such parts of the canon law as had respect to the pontifical jurisdiction, and with all due solemnity and publicity commits them to the flames : a measure, which he afterwards proved to have been deliberately adopted' — not the effect of heat and rage, but of calm conviction — by selecting thirty articles from the books he had burnt, publishing them with a short comment, and appealing to the public whether he had shewn them less respect than they deserved. The two last of these were, Article 29. 'The Pope has the power to interpret Scripture, and to teach as he pleases ; and no person is allowed to interpret in a different way/ Article 30. c The Pope does

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not derive from the Scripture, but the Scripture derives from the Pope authority, power and dignity/ He had more, he said, of like kind. Assume his cause to be just, and his bold proceedings were unquestionably right. His was not a case for half-measures. He was either a subject for burning, or a vindicator of v the oppressed. What sort of vindicator ? Not by the knight- errant' s sword, but by such acts as should declare him to be in earnest, and such arguments as should shew that he was not in earnest for nought. His publications at this period, and during the two preceding years, were almost without number. He knew that his life was in his hand ; he prized the short interval, as he anticipated, which was allowed him ; the cause of Christ, so evidently committed into his hands, was to be maintained, extended, and at length made triumphant, only by the bloodless sword of the Spirit. That sword therefore he would wield with all his might, without cessation, faintness, or weariness. His main expectation was from the word of God simply and intelligibly set forth. He added short practical and experimental treatises — appeals to plain sense and Scripture — but the expounded word was his stay. Hence his great labour in the Epistle to the Galatians ; which he first published in the year 1519, and, after fifteen years of additional research, having made it one material subject of his public lectures during all that period, revised, corrected, enlarged, and reedited in 1635.

f I have repeatedly read and meditated on this treatise, says his pious, laborious and philosophical historian, and, after the most mature reflection, am fully convinced, that, as it was one of the most powerful means of reviving the light of Scripture in the sixteenth century, so it will, in all ages, be capable of doing the same, under the blessing of God, whenever a disposition shall appear among men to regard the oracles of divine truth, and whenever souls shall be distressed with a sense of in-dwelling sin. For I perxiv PREFACE.

fectly despair of its being relished at all by any but serious, humble and contrite spirits, such being indeed the only persons in the world, to whom the all-important article of justification will appear worthy of all acceptation. The Author himself had ploughed deep into the human heart, and knew its native depravity ; he had long laboured, to no purpose, to gain peace of conscience by legal observances and moral works, and had been relieved from the most pungent anxiety, by a spiritual discovery of the doctrine just mentioned. He was appointed in the counsels of Providence — by no means exclusively of the other reformers, but in a manner more extraordinary and much superior — to teach mankind, after upwards of a thousand years' obscurity, this great evangelical tenet — compared with which how little appear all other objects of controversy ! namely, that man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Christ/

I cannot deny myself the satisfaction of inserting one extract from this truly spiritual work. — 'This doctrine, therefore, of faith must be taught in its purity. Namely, that as a believer, thou art by faith so entirely united to Christ that he and thou are made as it were one person. That thou canst not be separated from Christ; but always adherest so closely to him, as to be able to say with confidence, I am one with Christ ; that is, Christ's righteousness, his victory, his life, death, and resurrection, are all mine. On the other hand, Christ may say, I am that sinner ; the meaning of which is, in other words, his sins, his death, and punishment, are mine, because he is united and joined to me, and I to him. For by faith we are so joined together as to become one flesh and one bone. We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones ; so that, in strictness, there is more of an union between Christ and me, than exists even in the relation of husband and wife, where the two are considered as one flesh. This faith, therefore, is by no means an ineffective quality ; but possesses so great excellency,