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The Suppressed Evidence:
Or, Proofs of the Miraculous Faith and Experience of the
Church of Christ In All Ages From Authentic Records, Fathers, Waldenses,
Hussites, Reformers, United Brethren, and etc. An Historical Sketch
Suggested by the Hon. and Rev. B.W. Noel's Remarks on the Revival of
miraculous powers in the Church.
By The Rev Thomas Boys, M.A.
Published -- 1832
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THE REFORMERS. 115
PART II.
In the course of Mr. Noel's argument on Mark xvi. 17, 18, he alleges the authority of the Reformers in the following passage :
" Calvin on this passage writes thus : ' We are not to refer to individuals this gift (of miracles) bestowed upon believers; for we know that the gifts were variously distributed, so that the power of miracles belonged only to a few.. ..The possession of the power by a few, was sufficient to testify the glory and Deity of Christ... .Although Christ has not expressed whether he meant the gift to be temporary or perpetual, it is more probable that it was to be temporary.... Certainly, we see that the working of miracles ceased not long after; or, at least, that the instances were so rare as to justify the conclusion that they were not to be common to all ages.'
" P. Martyr.—' Whence their argument fails who say, that because we find in Mark that certain signs were to follow them that believe, which do not take place among us, we must acknowledge that the church of our day is without faith. They are deceived. Miracles were like the trumpets and heralds by which the Gospel was recommended : for as the Law of Moses received authority by means of various miracles wrought at Sinai and throughout the wilderness, which ceased after the people entered the land of promise, so miracles have ceased now also, since the Gospel is diffused through the world. The promise, then, in Mark did not relate to all times.'—(Comment on 1 Cor. xii.)
" Bucer__' Both this text (John xiv. 12) and Mark
xvi. 17 are to be understood, not of any believers, but of those in the Apostolic age.'—{Comment on John xiv. 12.)
'' Pellican.—' In the beginning of the church miracles were necessary, that their faith might be confirmed and nourished; but, the faith of the church being confirmed, they are no longer necessary.'—{Comment on Mark xvi. 17.)*"
* Remarks, pp.15,16.
116 THE REFORMERS.
To this passage Mr. Noel refers in the following sentence.
" We have already seen, that, among the Reformers of the sixteenth century, Calvin, Bucer, Peter Martyr, and Conrad Pellican, expected them not: to these I may add Beza, Musculus, Bullinger, and Luther : nor do I believe that the name of a single Reformer of eminence, either in this country or on the continent, can be adduced as holding a contrary belief *."
And in reference to the four additional names here given, we have the following note.
" Beza.—See his Homilies on the Passion of Christ.
" Bullinger.—See his Commentary on Matt. x. 1, at large.
" Luther was accused, by Maimbourg and others, of attempting in vain to cast out a devil. The true narrative is preserved by Seckendorf. ' Puellam octodecim annorum ad Lutherum adduxerant quam obsessam a daemone esse aiebant... .inde Lutherus populum affatus est, monuitque, miraculis expellendi damonia hoc tempore locum non esse, neque plantatamjam ecclesiam opus itlis habere, ritum quo-que pontificium non esse sequendum, sed orationibus po-tius contra hunc spiritual utendum.... Deo etiam tempus et modum poni non debere, quo deaomonem ejicere vellet, ita enim Deum tentari; sed continuendas esse preces, et hoxam, quam Deus liberationi destinaverit, patienter ex-pectandam.'—{Seckendorf: Historia Lutheranismi, lib. iii. p. 633).
" Musculus.—' Divino itaque consilio factum est ut non miracula, sed Evangelii prsedicatio duraret in orbe alioqui si in miraculis esset Electorum fides, male nobiscum age-retur ante quorum tempora miracula... jam diu cessarunt. Usus eorum erat ut doctrina apostolorum confirmaretur.' (Musculus on John vi. 60.) +."
Each of these citations demands a separate
* Remarks, pp. 17,18. +. Ibid. p.18.
THE REFORMERS. 117
consideration. But, with regard to the first four— namely, those bearing the names of Calvin, Martyr, Bucer, and Pellican—I beg to have it particularly observed, that these, as well as the remainder, are alleged by Mr. Noel in reference to the general question : in other words, that, though they are adduced by him, in the first instance, in support of his argument respecting a particular passage of Scripture, he afterwards appeals to them as having a more general bearing upon the controversy respecting miracles, saying, " We have already seen, that, among the Reformers of the sixteenth century, Calvin, Bucer, Peter Martyr, and Conrad Pellican, EXPECTED THEM NOT." I would also make, in this place, another observation: namely, that having myself had occasion to cite from various authors, nor always at first hand, and being fully aware that, in such a variety of renderings and references, I may have made mistakes, I should be sorry to be understood as speaking of any inadvertence in Mr. Noel's citations, which I may have to point out, except in that spirit of candid allowance of which, through our common liability to error, we all stand in need : and I beg that this remark may be understood both with regard to what goes before and what is yet to come.
The first citation leads us to inquire what were the sentiments really entertained on the subject of miracles by CALVIN.
" Calvin on this passage writes thus : We are not to refer to individuals this gift (of miracles) bestowed upon believers; for we know that the gifts were variously distributed, so that the power of miracles belonged only to a
118 THE REFORMERS.
few...The possession of the power by a few, was sufficient to testify the glory and Deity of Christ... Although Christ has not expressed whether he meant the gift to be temporary or perpetual, it is more probable that it was to be temporary.. ..Certainly, we see that the working of miracles ceased not long after; or, at least, that the instances were so rare as to justify the conclusion that they were not to be common to all ages."
In this citation, as it here stands, there are one or two expressions that I should like to see rendered differently, although the difference may not be very material. But there is one little word in the original entirely overlooked by Mr. Noel, and a word whose omission or introduction totally alters the bearing of the passage. We are taught in the last sentence, as he gives the passage, that miracles " were not to be common to all ages:" but it ought to be, " were not to be EQUALLY common to all ages." Such are the words of Calvin *; so they stand also in the French edition +. ; and in the same sense they are rendered in the old English version ++. Observe, then, the great difference made by this little word. As the passage stands in Mr. Noel's work, Calvin plainly draws the conclusion, that miracles, in some ages of the world, were not to be looked for. Well may Mr. Noel afterwards refer us to the same passage as a proof that Calvin " expected them not." But, as the passage stands in Calvin him-
*" Ut colligere liceret non PEBJEQUE omnibus seculis esse com-munia."
+ " Qu'on pouvoit bien apper^evoir que l'intention de Dieu n'etoit pas nu'ils fussent EOALEMENT communs k tous ages."—French Edition (of Geneva?) 1563.
++. —thaithfy were not LIKE common to all ages."—London, 1584.
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self, there is no conclusion of the kind! He merely argues for the inference that they were not in all ages to be equally common, which I have no wish to deny. This is a great danger; and it is one of those things in which the later Puritans, and the Religious World, who have taken their theology from them, have the furthest departed from the doctrines of the Reformation : I mean, by taking things absolutely, which the Reformers advanced only with certain qualifications: for example, by alleging that we have no reason now to expect any miracles, whereas the Reformers alleged only that we have no reason to expect so many.
That Calvin was not entirely without miraculous faith or miraculous experience, I hope to satisfy the reader before we proceed to Mr. Noel's next citation (from Martyr). But the very passage before us, to which Mr. Noel appeals as unfavourable to miracles, will shew us, when viewed in connection with the context, that Calvin was by no means the decided opponent of all post-Apostolic miracles. The parts now first given I include in brackets.
" [17. These signs shall follow them that believe. As the Lord had accredited his Gospel by miracles while he was in the world, so he now extends the same power to the time to come, lest his disciples should imagine that it was made dependent on his bodily presence. For it was of great importance that that Divine power of Christ should flourish amongst believers, in order that his resurrection from the dead might be fully evinced, so that his doctrine might survive, and his name abide for ever.] But, though he endows believers with this gift, we must not refer it to every believer in particular : for we know that the gifts were variously distributed, so that miraculous power belonged
120 THE REFORMERS.
only to some *. [But because that which was given to a few was the common property of the whole church, and ' the miracles which one performed were effectual to the confirmation of all, Christ fitly speaks of them that believe, without limitation. The meaning, then, of the passage is this: That believers should administer the same power, which had previously been so wonderfully manifested in Christ, in order that, in his absence, the Gospel might be more surely attested : as, in John, he promises that they should do the same things, and greater. To attest, however, the glory and Deity of Christ, it was sufficient that a few of the believers should be furnished with this power. But although Christ does not expressly state whether it be his pleasure that this gift should be but for a time, or always abide in his church, it nevertheless is more probable that miracles are not promised but for a time, [in order that they might give publicity to the Gospel while new and as yet but little known. It is possible, indeed, that the world has been deprived of this honour, through the fault of its own ingratitude. I, however, am of opinion, that this was appointed as the proper object of miracles, that the Gospel, towards its beginning, should not in any respect want attestation.] And we certainly see that the practice of them ceased not so very long after ; or, at least, that the instances of them were so rare, as to justify the conclusion that they are not [EQUALLY] common to all ages +."
• In Mr. Noel's version, " to a few." " la the hands of some;" English Translation. " En guelgues'uns;" French Edition.—I do not dwell upon this difference, because Calvin himself twice says " a few," just after. But it is as well to be correct in matters affecting the question at issue.
+ " 17. Signa cos qui crediderint, hac, &c. Sicuti miraculis Evan-gelii sui fidem sancierat Dominus quamdiu versatus erat in mundo, ita nunc eandem virtutem in futurum tempus propagat, ne putent discipuli alligatam corporali ejus prsesentiae fuisse. Magnopere enim intererat vigere inter fideles divinam illam Christi potcntiam, ut certo constaret resurrexisse a mortuis, quo superstes maneret ejus doctrina, et immortale esset nomen. Porro quod fideles hoc dono instruit, ad singulos trahen-dum non est. Scimus enim distributa varie fuisse dona, ut miraculorum potestas nonnisi penes quosd.im fuerit. Sed quia commune totius Eccle-
THE REFORMERS. 121
I give this passage as I find it, for miracles and against them. The reader, however, will perceive, that on the principle of selection, more especially if we might also have recourse to the principle of verbal omission, it would be easy to compose from it a paragraph almost as strong in favour of post-Apostolic miracles, as Mr. Noel's is against them. But the sentiments of a voluminous writer are not to be learnt from one extract; especially if that extract was written by him under peculiar circumstances which we do not bear in mind, as Calvin wrote the above passage with a peculiar reference to the use made by Papists of the text to which it refers. We must search, rather, and look further. We must see what he says under different circumstances, and in other places; and not form our general conclusion respecting his sentiments, without a general view of his statements upon the subject in debate.
One clue to the real sentiments of Calvin on the subject of miracles, will be found in his opinion, more than once expressed, on a subject
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siae fuit quod paucis dabatur, et quae unus miracula edebat, in omnium confirmationem valebant, merito indefinite credentes nominat Christus. Sensus ergo est, fideles ejusdem virtutis, quse prius in Christo admira-bilis fueral, fore ministros, ut eo absente certior constet Evangelii ob-signatio : sicuti apud Joannem promittit eadem et majora facturos (a.). Porro ad testandam Christi gloriam et Deitatem satis fuit paucos ex credentibus fuisse hac facultatc ornatos. Quamquam autem non ex-primit Christus velitne hoc temporale esse donum, an perpetuo in Ecclesia sua residere, magis tamen probabile est nonnisi ad tempus pro-mitti miracula, quse novum et adhuc obscurum evangelium illustrent. Fieri quidem potest, ut ingratitudinis suae culpa mundus hoc honore privatus sit. Ego tamen statuo, miraculis hunc proprium impositum fuisse finem, ne qua Evangelii doctrinse sub initium deesset approbatio. Et certe videmus eorurn usiim non ita multo post cessasse, vel saltern adeo rara fuisse eorum exempla, ut colligere liceret non PERAEQUE omnibus seculis esse communia."—Ed. Amstel. 1667.
(a) Marg. " Joan 14. vert. 12."
122 THE REFORMERS.
on which commentators differ. I refer to the spurious or satanic miracles, spoken of in more than one passage of Scripture; which some writers suppose to be merely conjurors' tricks; others to be really supernatural operations, though of an inferior kind : for instance, where St. Paul tells us of the coming of the wicked one as being " after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders*." Now Calvin, it will be found, maintains the latter view, and regards the wonders as supernatural and real. Thus on the " lying wonders," spoken of by St. Paul, he says;
" He not only calls those ' lying wonders,' which are deceitfully and mendaciously contrived by adroit persons to deceive the simple (with deceptions of which kind the whole Papacy abounds, for they are a part of its ' power,' which he has touched upon just before): but herein he places the lie, that Satan perverts the things which otherwise are truly the works of God, and miss-employs miracles to obscure God's glory +."
That Calvin here means to represent Satan as really working miracles is clear from what follows:
* 2 Thess. ii. 9.
+ " Signa mendacia appellat, non tantum quae falso et mendaciter finguntur ab astutis hoimnibus ad ludendos simplices (cujusmodi falla-ciis scatet totus Papatus: sunt enim pars ejus potentirc quam prius attigit) sed mendacium in eo statuit, quod Satan, quse alioqui vere sint Dei opera, in adversum finem trahit, et miraculis abutitur ad obscuran-dam Dei gloriam."—On 2 Thess. ii. 9. Ed. 1667.
" Il appelle, miracles de mensonge, non seulement ceux qu'on con-trefait faussement et par illusions, et par lesquels les affronteurs depoy-ventles simples: (comme on voit tout la Papaute estre remplie de telles piperies : car se sont une partie de ceste puissance, de laquelle il a fait mention ci-dessus) maig aussi il prend le raensonge en ce que Satan tire a une fin du tout contraire les oeuvres qui autrement sont a la vcrite oeuvres de Dieu, et abuse des miracles pour obscurcir la gloire de Dieu."
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" Nevertheless, it is not in the mean time doubtful but that he can deceive men by delusions; of which we have an example in Pharaoh's magicians *."
I mention this subject, because there are certain views which go together. In modern times, when even Divine miracles are not conceded, men of course regard all such works as we are now speaking of as mere deceptions, or conjurors' tricks. But, in former times, these latter were supposed to possess a supernatural quality; and the persuasion was attended with more or less of belief in real miracles. I shall have far more to say on this subject, on coming to speak of the opinions of some other Reformers.
But if Calvin was disposed to depreciate mira-
* " Non tamen interea dubium est quin pnestigiis illudat: ut in Magis Pharaonis habemus exemplum."
" Cependant toutes-fois il ne faut point douter qu'il ne trompe par enchantemens: comme nous en avons un exemple es Magiciens de Pharao, Exode7. b.ll."
The reader must not suppose, however, that Calvin means, even in the cage of the magicians, to allege mere tricks of legerdemain. He does not think, indeed, that the magicians of Pharaoh actually effected the changes recorded of them in the Bible (though this, surely, is a point in which less credit is due to Calvin than to Moses); but he still, even on his lower supposition, maintains a satanic operation. " Whether the change was real or imaginary, I venture not to assert; only that it is more probable that the eyes of the ungodly were deceived by an artifice of Satan."
" Verane an imaginaria fuerit mutatio, non audeo asserere: nisi quod magis consentaneum est Satanic artifieiodelusos fuisse impiorum oculos." On Ex. vii. 22.
Having been led to make this extract, I must now be permitted to express my own conviction, that Calvin's view of this particular passage is altogether wrong; and that we can on no sound principle of interpretation understand such words of Scripture as " the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments," to intimate merely that by the aid of the devil they deceived men's eyes, or anything less than that they actually did the works which they are said to have done. No doubt there was something inferior in their performances. Some things they could not do; and, again, " Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods." Yet, if words have a meaning, we must believe that the rods were changed into serpents, as well in one case as in the other.
124 THE REFORMERS.
culous claims in contending with the Papists, we certainly find him speaking of passing events as miraculous, on other occasions and under other circumstances. Thus, with regard to the danger of the exiled believers at Geneva, and their wonderful deliverance:
" By this time a great number of worthless characters had taken arms. One cry prevailed on all sides, that the Gauls were to be killed, and that they had betrayed the city. But the Lord, marvelously keeping watch for his poor exiles, partly cast them into a deep slumber, so that they continued sleeping soundly in their beds in the midst of the horrid outcries; partly kept them within, so that they should not be affected by threats and the dread of danger. It is certain that not one of them went out of doors ; and the assault of the ungodly was defeated by this miracle of God alone, that no one presented himself for the combat. For they had determined (as it afterwards became notorious), if any of them had made an attack, to stand on the defensive; and thus, having killed some, to advance on the others, as if the fray had begun with us *."
It is certain, also, that Calvin occasionally predicted future events; and the fulfillment of his predictions is distinctly recorded by Beza, in the character of his biographer. For example : Matthaeus Gribaldus, a follower of the heresy of Servetus, having been brought to him, Calvin predicted to him that a heavy judgment was about
* " Erant jam in armis plurimi nebulones. Una vox ubique sonabat, trucidandos essc Gallos, et urbem ab ipsis proditam esse. Dominus autem, pro miseris suis exulibus incredibiles excubias agens, partim sopore eos perfudit—ut, inter horridos strepitus, suaviter, in lectis dormirent— partim continuit, ut minis et pericuh timore non fuerint perculsi. Nemo, certe, domo egressus est. Atque hoc uno Dei miraculo fractus fuit im-piorum impetus, quod nullus ad conflictum se obtulit. Statuerant enim (ut postea facile innotuit), si qui aggressi essent, se defendere : occisis quibusdam, grassari in alios, quasi a nobis exorta esset seditio."— Letter to Martyr. Calvini Epistols et Response. Ed. Genev. 1775. pp. 164, 165.
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to befall him for his impiety. On this Beza observes,
" Accordingly, what Calvin at that time predicted to him, namely, that a heavy judgment from God was about to befall him for his obstinate wickedness, that he after-wards actually experienced*."
Thus the event confirmed the prediction.
But one of the most remarkable circumstances of a supernatural kind, recorded in the life of this Reformer, is the manner in which he was miraculously made acquainted, at Geneva, with a battle that was being fought near Paris. That is, he was miraculously made acquainted with it at the time of its occurrence, and many days before the arrival of the intelligence.
" One thing must not be omitted, that on the nineteenth of December" (1562), "Calvin lying in bed sick of the gout, it being the Sabbath-day, and the north wind having blown two days strongly, he said to many who were present, Truly I know not what is the matter, but I thought this night I heard warlike drums beating very loud, and I could not persuade myself but it was SO. Let us therefore go to prayers, for surely some great business is in hand.' And this day there was a great battle fought between the Guisians and the Protestants not far from Paris, news whereof came to Geneva within a few days after +."
On this narrative it seems necessary to make a few observations.
1. Though I have taken it from an English work, it will be found, with no material variations, in Calvin's Life by Beza ++. Beza himself, also, evidently records the occurrence as believing it,
* " Itaque quod ei jam turn pradixit Calvinus, grave nimirum Dei judicium pertinaci ipsius impietati imminere, hoc reipsa postea expertus est."—Beza's Life of Calvin, prefixed to his Epistles.
+ Lives of Luther and Calvin, 2d edition. London. 1740. p. 123.
++ " Neque hie pigebit quidquam animadversione non indignum com-memorare Jacebat ex podagra Calvinus in lecto xix Dec. qui dies erat
126
THE REFORMERS.
and as recognizing its supernatural character. Here, then, we see the belief of two, among the most eminent Reformers, in such miraculous occurrences.
2. The circumstance of the wind's blowing violently* from the north, seems to be mentioned for the purpose of more strongly marking, what indeed is of itself sufficiently evident, that the sounds could by no possibility have reached Geneva in a natural way. The mention of the fact also proves to us, that the extraordinary occurrence must have attracted notice at the time, while it admitted of examination, and while it was possible to ascertain how the wind was on the day specified.
3. Calvin related what he had experienced in the hearing of many individuals +.
4. The sound which he heard was not faint or doubtful, but as loud as possible ++.
5. He seems to have been fully conscious of the possibility of self-deception; nay, to have been disposed to think himself under a delusion; but could not bring himself to that persuasion §.
6. The deliberate conclusion, to which he had come when he addressed his friends, was, that some great business was certainly in hand §§.
Sabbathi, et boreas jam totum biduum flabat quam vehementissirne. Turn Calvinus multis audientibus, Equidem, inquit, nescio quid hoc rei sit, videbarmihi hocnocte audire tympanabellicaquamfortissime perspnantia, nee poteram mihi persuadere, quin ita se res haberet. Precemur obsecro, nam omnino magni aliquid geritur. Atque hoc ipso die accidit ille apud Bruydas acerrimus conflictus, de quo aliquot post diebus Geneve fuit renunciatum."—Beza's Life of Calvin.
* " Quam vehementissime."
+ " Multis audientibus."
++" Tympana bellica quam foitissime personantia."
§ " Nee poteram mibi persuadere, quin ita se res haberet.''
§§ " Nam omnino magni aliquid geritur."
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7. On this conclusion he solemnly acted, proposing prayer *.
8. The news of the battle, which had actually been fought at the time, coming to Geneva some days after, must have made a solemn impression on all those who bad heard, or had been informed of, Calvin's words.
In short, Calvin, and the other Reformers, seem to have been often dealt with, in respect to their views upon supernatural and miraculous occurrences, too much according to the feelings and preferences of those who have professed to give a representation of them. Such persons are themselves hostile to all belief in occurrences of the kind referred to: and consequently, under the influence of this feeling of dislike, and acting from it, they lay hold on a few of the strongest expressions on one side of the question, I mean, on their own; present us with these as affording a fair " representation of the writer's general sentiments ; overlook (for I really do not think they would in every case willfully secrete and keep back), overlook, through strong prejudice, preference, and antipathy, all that makes against them; and thus totally mislead those who trust to them for information, deceive the church, and leave it in error. Who, that reads the above account, will pretend to tell us, or even to prove to us by any expressions which can be produced, that either Calvin or Beza had no belief in supernatural and miraculous occurrences? If I am asked, how,
* " Precemur obsecro."
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after all, it comes to happen that such expressions can be found in their writings ; expressions confessedly, if viewed alone, unfavourable to the doctrine of miracles ; my reply is, that I really do not feel myself called upon to solve the difficulty. Perhaps the case is, that the experience of the Reformers in this matter lay above some of their technical statements. This, we shall find great reason to think, was the case especially with Luther. It is the case, indeed, with many Christians. Their religious system, and their religious experience, are often quite different things. The one they have from man, or hold by the sufferance of man ; the other they have from God. Much, as I have shewn in the First Part of this Chapter, is to be explained by the peculiar circumstances in which the Reformers were placed with respect to Papists and fanatics; much by their peculiar views on another subject—namely, that of the Apostolic commission. But, after all, the difficulty is one for which I am not bound to find a solution. The fact is before us. Whatever Calvin may have written with a view to particular points of controversy, or upon particular texts, it is proved to demonstration, by the narrative now cited, and given in Beza's Life of him, that miraculous occurrences were not totally excluded either from his creed or from his experience. Nor, unless he had gone more or less with some other Reformers, and with some of the Fathers, in the idea that the evangelizing of mankind was peculiarly the work of the first ages, should we ever have met with such expressions against miracles,
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as I readily admit that his works after all contain, from a pen that could set forth the spiritual benefit of miracles in such terms as the following :
" Yet must we notice this benefit of the miracle, that they who had witnessed it, moved with admiration, inquire whether Jesus be the Christ. For, the power of God being thus recognized, they are led as it were by the hand to faith. Not that they had suddenly made all the proficiency that they ought (for they speak with a degree of hesitation) ; but yet even this is no small proficiency, when they bestir themselves to consider more attentively the glory of Christ*."
The Reformer next appealed to by Mr. Noel is MARTYR.
" P. Martyr.—' Whence their argument fails who say, that because we find in Mark that certain signs were to follow them that believe, which do not take place among us, we must acknowledge that the church of our day is without faith. They are deceived. Miracles were like the trumpets and heralds by which the Gospel was recommended ; for as the Law of Moses received authority by means of various miracles wrought at Sinai and throughout the wilderness, which ceased after the people entered the land of promise, so miracles have ceased now also, since the Gospel is diffused through the world. The promise, then, in Mark did not relate to . all times.' — (Comment on 1 Cor.xii.)+"
On this passage I will simply offer a few observations.
1. As I find Martyr's words in the original, this is not a sufficiently exact translation of them. For
* Cseterum notandus est miraculi fructus, quod admiratione tacti qui viderant, secum inquirunt numquid Jesus sit CKristus. Nam agnita Dei virtute, quasi manu ducuntur ad fidem: non quod repente profe-cerant quantum oportebat (dubitanter enim loquuntur): sea hie tamen non exiguus est profectus, duni sese expergefaciunt ad considerandam attentius Christi gloriam."—On Matt. xii. 23.
+ Remarks, p. 15.
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instance, instead of the words " by means of various miracles," it would be more correct to say, "by means of a great many miracles*;" and again, instead of " after the people entered the land of promise," " when the people had reached, or had come to, the land of promise +" and " since the Gospel is diffused through the world," might be more correctly rendered, a little stronger, " since the Gospel is diffused through the whole world ++." Each of these little discrepancies, as we shall see presently, somewhat affects Martyr's argument.
2. Martyr alleges an analogy: but that analogy can never be used to prove that miracles are now wholly and absolutely withdrawn. He reasons thus: that as, on the arrival at the promised land, the miracles ceased which the Israelites had in Sinai and in the wilderness, so miracles are now also withdrawn, the Gospel having been generally diffused. So reasons Martyr. But miracles did not entirely cease on the arrival at the promised land—witness the walls of Jericho, witness Gibeon and the valley of Ajalon, witness the fleece of Gideon, witness the angel that came at the prayer of Manoah, &c.:—therefore his analogy does not go the length of implying that miracles were entirely to cease after the Gospel was established, but only that they were to become less numerous. The reader may depend upon it that this was the whole of Martyr's meaning, as in fact it is the whole that his analogy can prove. Thus, on another
* " Compluribus rairaculis."
+ " Cum ad terram promissionis ventum est."
++ " Cum Evangelium per universum orbem diffusunrest."
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passage of Scripture, after remarking on the Jews asking a sign from heaven, he adds,
" But we ought not hence to think, that to seek miracles of God it forbidden altogether *."
Then, after some examples from Scripture, and some further observations, having remarked on the sin of making a vain or presumptuous request, he adds,
" As, on the other hand, no small sin would be committed, if God were to offer miracles for the confirmation of his promises, and we were to decline accepting them +."
And again, arguing that miracles should not be exacted as a satisfactory evidence of a true pastor, he says,
" Yea, rather, as they may be wrought even by the ungodly, they are not an adequate test for the ministry
++."
It is clear, then, that Peter Martyr did not mean to deny all miracles under the Christian dispensation : and, in fact, his argument, cited by Mr. Noel, was never intended to go that length. Let us reconsider it.
" For as the law of Moses received authority by means of a great many miracles at Mount Sinai and throughout the wilderness, which afterwards ceased, when the people had come to the land of promise, so " (similarly, after the same manner §) " miracles have now also been withdrawn, since the Gospel is diffused throughout the whole world §§."
* " At non debemus hinc existimare, interdictum omnino esse a Deo miracula poscere."—Ed. Tigur. 1579. On 1 Cor. i. 22—24.
+" — quemadmodum e diverso non leviter peccaretur, si Deus miracula offerret ad suas promissiones constabiliendas, et ilia recusaremus accipere."
++ " Imo cum possint etiam fieri ab impiis, non sunt idonea probatio ministerii."—On 1 Cor. if. 19.
§ " Eadem ratione." .
§§ " Ut enim lex Moyses compluribus miraculis in monte Sina et per desertum authoiitatem sibi conciliavit, quse portea destituerunt, cum ad terram promissionis ventum est, eadem ratione miracula nunc quoque sublata sunt, cum Evangelitun per universum orbem diffiusum est."
132 THE REFORMERS.
That is, as the miracles of the wilderness ceased, when the people reached the promised land ; so the miracles of the Gospel ceased, when the Gospel was diffused. But (we may add), after their Teaching the land, there were still some miracles; and so also, carrying on the analogy, there are still some miracles after the diffusion of the Gospel: or, as Martyr, we have seen, himself expresses it in another place, " we ought not hence to think that to seek a miracle of God is forbidden altogether:" and, as Bucer also reasons, in a passage to be noticed presently, the Lord commended the Gospel at its commencement to the whole world, as he did the Law to the Jews, by signs and wonders: but after the one became sufficiently known to the children of Israel, and the other to all mankind, signs and wonders did not appear in such large numbers*. Thus both these Reformers held, that, after the first ages of the Gospel, the number of miracles became less; neither of them, that miracles entirely ceased, and were no longer to be expected.
3. Observe, then, how our somewhat closer rendering of Martyr, than that given in Mr. Noel's abstract, tends to confirm these views of the passage. Where Martyr speaks of "a great many" miracles wrought in the wilderness, this points more directly, in the way of contrast, to the smaller number afterwards: but if we substitute " various" for " a great many," the antithesis is lost, and we discern his aim less clearly. Again, when Martyr tells us of miracles, " which ceased, when the people had reached the land of promise," we understand clearly that he means the mi-
* " Non tarn frequentia apparuerunt." -
THE REFORMERS. 133
racles of the wilderness—such as the manna, and the smitten rock;—and the expression leaves out the miracles immediately attend ant on the entry into the land, so that they remain to strengthen our argument from some miracles afterwards, and to support the inference from analogy, of some miracles subsequent to the first spread of the Gospel. But if, instead of this, we render the words, with Mr. Noel, " which ceased after the people entered the land of promise," this tends rather to take in those first miracles ; so that our argument for subsequent miracles is proportionately weakened.
4. Lastly, Martyr's argument, after all, goes upon the supposition which, as I have already shewn, was entertained by many of the Reformers, that the evangelizing of the world was the work of the first ages exclusively : whence it was very natural for them to infer that there was less need of miracles afterwards. Martyr's view is not quite so strongly marked indeed, if we represent him as merely saying that "the Gospel is diffused through the world," as it will be if we render him closely, and say, "throughout the whole world." As he regards the Gospel as having been diffused throughout the whole world, we perceive an additional reason why he should see less need of present miracles in confirmation of the Gospel. And as, even with these views, unfavourable as they are to the continuance of miracles in the church, we still find him teaching that to decline accepting miracles would be "no small sin," that miracles may be wrought " even by the ungodly" and that we must by no means imagine the asking of miracles to be "forbidden altogether?' there is no telling how much
134
THE REFORMERS.
more decidedly he would have alleged the miraculous character of the Christian dispensation, how much more decidedly he would have urged us now to plead for miracles, had he been strongly impressed with the conviction, that to evangelize the heathen is still the church's work. On the whole, be that as it may, we cannot surely conclude, from a view of the whole subject, that miracles, according to Martyr's opinion, had absolutely ceased—nor is it quite clear, I think, that he " expected them not."
Mr. Noel's next witness is BUCER.
" Bucer.—' Both this text (John xiv. 12) and Mark xvi. 17, are to be understood, not of any believers, but of those in the Apostolic age.' (Comment on John xiv. 12) *."
The nearest words to these, which I find in Bucer himself, run thus :
" Both concerning believers in the Apostolic age, in which it was expedient that the glory of Christ should be SPLENDIDLY MANIFESTED by signs and wonders, and not concerning any believers +."
There seems, then, the greatest reason to conclude that Bucer did not mean to deny all miracles in subsequent times, but merely to urge that the first ages required a peculiar display. In the course of the same passage, again, he says:
" I consider it clear, therefore, that the things which the Lord here promised to those who believe in him, namely, that they should do greater things than He himself did, he chiefly promised to his disciples ++"
* Remarks, p. 15.
+ " Utrumque de credentibus saeculo Apostolorum, in quo signis et portentis gloria Christi illustrari debuit, et non de credentibus quibus-libet."—Enarrationes in 4 Evang.
++" Liquere ergo puto, quse hie credentibus sibi Domiuus pollicitus est, majora scilicet facturos, quam ipse fecerit, potissimum discipulis suis poliicitum esse."
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And again, employing terms to which I have already referred,
" For Divine Providence was pleased, at the beginning, to recommend, as the Law to the Jews, so the Gospel to the whole world, by signs and wonders; which, after the former had become sufficiently known to the Jews, and the latter to all the Gentiles, did not appear in such large numbers *."
Not to mention, that, in the latter of these passages, it is clear that Bucer argues only upon the supposition, already so often noticed, that the Gospel was fully communicated, at first, to all mankind, it is manifest in both of them, that he argues not for the total cessation of miracles, but only for their diminished frequency: and accordingly we find Bucer himself expecting miracles when he really wanted them, and requesting Calvin to join with him in asking for them: for he thus writes to him:
" What they are now to do, the Lord knoweth. Without miracles we cannot escape. Do thou pray with us +."
When we find one Reformer writing about miracles to another in such terms as these, we must have further evidence before we can admit that either " expected them not." If it be said, of the above expressions, that they are only a way of speaking, I answer, that the Reformers were serious men, and not like some light professors of modern days, that pretend to be their followers : and therefore I suppose that when they spoke of miracles, they really meant miracles, and nothing else.
* " Nam quemadmodum Judsis legem, ita toti orbi Evangelion cum gignis et prodigiis initio voluit commendare Divina Providentia, qu« postquam ma Judseis, et hoc omnibus gentibus satis innotuit, non tam frequentia apparuerunt."
+" Nunc quid facturi sint, novit Dominus. Non nisi miraculis scrvari potuerimus. Tu ora nobiscum."—Calvini Epitt. et Respons. p. 99.
136 THE REFORMERS.
With respect to Bucer, it may be proper to make one further remark; namely, that, with due qualifications of the Popish notions, he believed both in demoniacal possession and in exorcism. Thus, in his " Censure," though he condemns the practice of exorcising all persons who are baptized, he does not by any means condemn all exorcism, or treat demoniacal possession as a mere fancy; but, after referring to Scripture as the chief authority and the proper rule, he says,
" Therein, however, they only are commanded to exorcise
on whom has been conferred the power; and these, also,
are commanded to expel devils, not from any man, but only
from demoniacs, which, God be thanked, all are not, nor
many, even, of those, who are brought or come to baptism*."
I do not suppose there are now many readers, with whom a passage from an old Reformer, proving that he believed both in possession and in exorcism, will carry much weight. It is well, however, to let some persons see in how many points they differ from a class of divines, whom they make it their boast to follow.
The next witness called into court by Mr. Noel is PELLICAN.
" Pellican.—' In'the beginning of the church miracles were necessary, that their faith might be confirmed and nourished ; but, the faith of the church being confirmed, they are no longer necessary.' (Comment on Mark. vi. 17) +."
* " Eo vero illi lantum jubentur imperare'deemonibus, quibus donum collocatum est (Greek omitted), jubenturque hi depellere dsemones non ab hominibus quibusvis, sed tantum a dsemoniacis, quales, gratis Domino, non sunt omnes, nee multi quidem eorum qui adferunturvel acccduntad Baptisma."—M. Buceri Scripta Anglican;* fere omnia. Ed. Basil. 1577. (Censura super Libro Sacrorum).
+ Remarks, pp. 15,16.
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Here again we have an instance of a Reformer, who thought that the great work of establishing the Gospel was done once for all at the beginning; and who therefore was of opinion that miracles, afterwards, were not wanted. But, though he thus speaks of miracles as unnecessary, we shall soon see that he did not deem them wholly out of the question; but that, on the contrary, he alleges some miracles, as occurring in his own time. First let us turn to his remarks on another passage (John xiv. 12). This verse Pellican expands, in commenting on it, into a sort of paraphrase. First he represents the Saviour as speaking with a particular reference to those present: then as adding, with a more general reference,
" Yea, whosoever, by evangelical faith, shall have united himself to me, as I am always united, by my very nature, to the Father, he, through me, shall do greater works than I do, as often as the glory of God requires a miracle: for I will work by you, as the Father now works by me *."
Here Pellican certainly seems to regard the promise as general. Nay, he by no means speaks of miracles as past and gone, in the very context of the passage cited by Mr. Noel himself, but rather as still occurring. It runs thus:
" In the beginning of the church miracles were necessary, that faith by them might be confirmed and nourished ; but, the faith of the church being confirmed, they are not necessary. Therefore miraculous grace was given not only to Apostles, and Fathers in the church, but also to private
* " Imo quisquis se mihi junxerit per fidem evangelicam, quemadmo-dum ego per naturam a patris consortio nunquam sejungor, is per me majora facturus eat quam ego facio, quoties gloria Dei poscit miraculum : nam ipse per vos operator, quemadmodum Pater operatur nunc per roe." —Ed. Tiguri, 1582.
138 THE REFORMERS.
believers. Nor is any one who works miracles directly set down for a saint and a believer; for even Judas received the power, and used to work such miracles as were to be per- formed by him *."
Of this passage, Mr. Noel's quotation is the first sentence. It is evident that, in the last sentence, Pellican is far from speaking of miracles as one who deems all miraculous power withdrawn, for he intimates that they might be wrought by some who were not believers. There is a weakness also in his argument, to prove that miracles are now unnecessary, where he says, in general terms, that " In the beginning of the church miracles were necessary, that faith by them might be confirmed and nourished:" because an objector might instantly reply, ' If miracles were then necessary to confirm and nourish faith, they are equally so now.' This weakness, however, is somewhat remedied in the version of Mr. Noel (who seems to have read fides illorum, not, as I find it in the Zurich edition, fides illis) ; " that their faith, might be confirmed and nourished ; " making Pellican to admit, merely, that miracles were necessary for their faith, not for ours. But, not to dwell on trifles, the strongest testimony to Pellican's belief in the continuance of miracles will be found in the words almost immediately preceding those from which Mr. Noel makes his citation. Mr. Noel's citation is from Pellican's .remarks on the words,
* " In exordio ecclesise necessaria fuerunt miracula, ut fides illis con-firmaretur et nutriretur: fide autem ecclesite confirmata, lion sunt necessaria. Ideo miraculorum gratia nedum apostolis et majoribus in ecclesia data est, sed etiam simplicioribus credentibus. Nee quis protinus sanctus etfidelis habetur, qui miracula operatur, quandoquidem et Judas potestatem accepit, et exercuit conficienda miracula."
THE REFORMERS. 139
"They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." In hunting for what made against miracles, he appears to have done that which, I suppose, another might do in hunting for what makes for them : that is, he has totally disregarded a sentence opposed to his own opinions. I refer to Pellican's remarks on the words, " If they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them," immediately preceding. On this clause, Pellican writes:
" Histories proclaim the fulfillment hereof in John the Evangelist: beyond a doubt it is accomplished in many other persons, informer times and now; as Jacobus Stapulensis relates, upon this passage *."
So little is proved by Mr. Noel's citation from Pellican.
If the reader is no better acquainted than myself with Jacobus Stapulensis (though the question is not respecting his opinions, but Pellican's), he will perhaps wish to know something of his character. Gesner's account of him is as follows :
"Jacobus Faber Stapulensis, a most celebrated philosopher of the present-day, and an ornament of all France +." [Then follows a long list of his works, including his Commentary on the four Gospels ++, in all probability the work referred to by Pellican.]
As, then, with respect to the promise, " If they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them," we have just seen that Pellican felt no doubt that miracles still took place, we cannot, upon the
* Mortiferum si quid biberint non eis nocebit. Id in Joanne Evan-gelista impletum historic canunt, haud dubium in multis aliis olim et nodie contingit, ut narrat hoc loco Jacobus Stapulensis."
+ " Jacobus Faber Stapulensis, celeberrimus nostri seculi philosophus,. ac totius (jalliae decus."—Gesner's Bibliotheca, by Frisius. Ed. Tiguri 1688.
++ " Commentarii initiatorii in quatuor Erangelia, excusi Basileee apud Cratandrum, A.D. 1523; et Colonise, apud Cervicornum, A.D. 1541."
14 0
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strength of any evidence yet adduced, admit that he " expected them not,"
The next witness against miracles called by Mr. Noel from amongst the Reformers is BEZA. " Beza.—See his Homilies on the Passion of Christ*." Let us begin by referring to the work of Beza here cited; for the loan of which, as well as for that of Bullinger's Commentary on St. Matthew, I am indebted to the candour and urbanity of my Hon. and Rev. Brother, whose quotations we are now examining.
I must at once state, that there are expressions in Beza as unfavourable, when viewed alone, to modern miracles, as any that I have met with in the writings of the Reformers. He says (for I wish my readers to form their judgment from a fair view of both sides of the question; and, as Mr. Noel has not quoted from him, I will)—
" But as to their demanding new miracles from us, when it is beyond a doubt that the gift of miracles was conferred only for a time, we make the same answer to them as Christ made to the Scribes and Pharisees of his own time, Matt. xii. 39, and xvi. 4; although they appear to have had a more plausible pretence for asking them than men of the present age, wherein we have long since received the Gospel, sufficiently, and more than sufficiently, confirmed by infinite miracles +."
We find him, again, using similar language in
* Remarks, p. 18, note.
+ " Quod autem a nobis nova miracula postulant, quum extra dubium sit miraculorura donura fuisse ad tern pus tantum concessum, idem illis respondemus quod sui teniporis Scribis et Pharisseis Christus respondit, Matt. xii. 39, et xvi. 4; quanquam illi speciosiorem ilia petendi videantur occasionem habuisse quam nostri seculi homines, quo jampridem acce-pimus Evangelium, infinitis miraculis satis superque confirmatum."— In llistoriain Passionis, &c. Homiliae. Ed. Genev. 1598. p. 576.
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another part of the work. Describing a public conference, or disputation, which he once held with a Roman Catholic, who challenged him to produce miracles, he tells us that he answered him by a two-fold argument :
" One, that those who profess the same doctrine with Christ- and his Apostles need no other miracles than those handed down to us on record by the Evangelists, concerning which he could have no doubt: the other, that he himself was well aware (for I had to do," says Beza, " with a distinguished doctor of the Sorbonn'e) that the gift of miracles had ceased in the church : and no wonder, the Evangelical doctrine having been quite sufficiently attested *."
Here we find Beza alleging, as beyond a doubt, that the gift of miracles was conferred only for a time, and had ceased. But there are two things to be observed.—
First, Beza, in the context of the former of the two' passages now cited, so limits the idea of miracles, that his assertion is not by any means intended in so comprehensive a sense as at first it appears to be : and, accordingly, but a few pages before he distinctly recognizes occurrences, as actually taking place, which, in common parlance, would now be called supernatural and miraculous. For example: he enumerates three kinds of impostors + who exhibit false or spu-
* "Quarum una est, eandem doctrinam cum Christo et Apostolis profitentes nullis aliis indigere miraculis quam quae ab Evangelistis monumentis ad nos transmissa sunt, de quibus nullo modo possit dubitari : altera, probe nosse ipsum (nam erat mihi res cum quodam ex Sorbornu non ultimis doctbribus) donum miraculorum in ecclesiil desiisse; nee abs re, quum Evangelic;! doctrina satis sufticienter obsignata sit."— p. 753.
+ P. 564, &c.
142 THE REFORMERS.
rious miracles: first, those who exhibit nodding , and speaking idols, a trick of heathen and Popish priestcraft: secondly, charlatans*, who display sleights and legerdemain: but thirdly, those who deal with devils. Now, in connection with the third case, he mentions various instances which we should certainly call supernatural or miraculous : for example, that of an evil spirit speaking in a corpse, or in a living person.
" One thing more I will mention, that, according as God, in his righteous judgment, grants liberty to the spirit of error, it is not difficult to evil spirits to misemploy a corpse; and, for the purpose of deceiving some one, to speak in it: exactly as he uses the tongue of living demoniacs +."
This is a case for which Beza has a solution; but not the solution, probably, that would now be given. He calls it a deception, indeed : not, however, as if nothing of the kind really took place, but because it is the evil spirit that speaks, and not the corpse.
" Herein, however, there is also an illusion, namely, that the subject is dead, and neither is animated itself, nor speaks like a living man, but that a malignant spirit has entered into the corpse ++."
And afterward he observes,
" So also it often occurs in profane histories, that brutes, and even idols, have spoken : which indeed is by no means to be rejected as false §."
* Serlatanos.
+ " Addam aliquid amplius, prout justo suo judicio Deuglaxashabenas spiritui erroris permittit, non esse difficile malignis spiritibus cadavere abuti, et in eo ad aliquem eludendum loqui: non aliter ac lingua viven-tium daemoniacorum utitur." p. 567.
++ " ID quo tamen etiam inest illusio, re nimirum mortua, nee in se viva, nee loqnente, viventis hominii instar, std maligno spiritu cadavere induto." p. 567.
§ " Sic in prophanil historiis ssepe occurrit, brata animantia imo et idoli fuisse loquuta; quod minimfe quidem tanquam falsum rejiciendum ecu" p. 70.
THE REFORMERS. 143
Here, however, he again denies a miracle (ac-cording to his limitation of the term), on a similar plea to the last, namely, that the brutes or idols have not themselves spoken, but only the evil spirit, by God's permission ; as he once (says Beza) spoke in the serpent* to Eve. It is clear, then, that many supernatural and extraordinary occurrences entered into the creed of Beza, which modern theology, as much below him in sound doctrine, as it thinks itself above him in discernment, rejects. In fact, his whole argument is one which reduces itself to the second of the three cases which I specified, when I was pointing out the circumstances which influence the Reformers in speaking of miracles. He is fighting against the Papists; and, to make good his argument, he so draws his line and lays his definition as to exclude the occurrences which they alleged as miracles, but not so as to deny their actually taking place. We see that he plainly admits and recognizes such things as demoniacal possession; -and brutes, idols, and corpses, speaking by means of unclean spirits: so that, in saying that miracles have ceased, he means only in a particular sense. And if, instead of contending against the deniers of all supernatural occurrences, we now had to argue with Beza, the question would come to this—a subject already opened in the preface —whether, supposing, in any particular age of the church, the existence of spurious miracles, wrought by diabolical power, or of miracles in any other way inferior, it is not reasonable to expect
* " In serpente loquebatur."
144 THE REFORMERS.
that true miracles would also be granted, to manifest the greater power of God. I say reasonable, but the reader will understand that I mean Scriptural : for, with the wonders of Pharoah's magicians, we have the miracles of Moses ; and with the exorcisms of the Jews, recognized by our Lord himself, we have the expulsions wrought by our Lord's own word and power. Thus Beza's views might be matter of argument; but that Beza believed and maintained possession, and other instances of diabolical power, as occurring in his own days, is matter of fact, as we have just seen.
But, secondly, the reader will probably have noticed another circumstance, which influenced the language of Beza. The Reformers, as we have already observed, were compelled to use the greatest caution in speaking on the subject of miracles, "by the continual challenges, so often addressed to them by their opponents, to prove by miracles the truth of their doctrines;" and, had they once been betrayed into attempting to give a proof of this kind, or even admitting the necessity of it, they would, by that act, have immediately conceded the point for which their opponents contended, namely, that their doctrines were new, and consequently needed miracles in proof of them : and therefore, in the above passages, Beza writes, that even the Scribes and Pharisees had a more plausible pretense for asking miracles than the men of the present age, " wherein we have long since received the Gospel, sufficiently and more than sufficiently confirmed by infinite miracles :" and, " that those who profess the same
THE REFORMERS. 145
doctrine with Christ and his Apostles, need no other miracles than those handed down to as on record by the Evangelists:" and that the evangelical doctrine has been " sufficiently and more than sufficiently attested." Thus we are not to wonder that he occasionally speaks as not alleging miracles, when any allegation of them would have been taken as an admission of the charge, urged by the Romanists, that they preached a new doctrine, and that the gospel of the Reformers was not the gospel which had already been authenticated by the miracles of Paul, of Peter, and of Christ himself.
But let us turn to other writings of Beza. I refer, especially, to his Annotations on the New Testament, where we shall discover yet further explanations of the language which he holds with respect to miracles.
And here comes in that other consideration, already mentioned: namely, that many of the Reformers had peculiar notions on the Apostolic commission to evangelize the world; considered this a work assigned more or less exclusively to the Apostolic age, and then accomplished once for all; and gave up miracles, only in the same proportion that they gave up missions: so that, in common fairness, we cannot avail ourselves of expressions occasionally occurring in them, unfavourable to miracles, unless we would admit the weight of those unfavourable to missions in the same degree. Now these views of the Apostolic commission were held by Beza; and thus we find a further explanation of his occasionally speaking against miracles. Thus, on the
14G THE REFORMERS.
words, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature," he writes, as we bate , already seen, speaking of the "Apostolic function," "Yet this office was not either committed to Peter alone, or perpetual in the church of God." So also, on the words, " Go ye therefore, and teach all nations," he limits this work exclusively to the Apostles, explaining the word which we render " teach," as signifying " make disciples." " Make disciples, (Greek omitted) , that is, make me disciples out of all nations. The Vulgate has docete (teach), (Greek omitted) , a too loose interpretation. For the latter office is imposed on all pastors and teachers in the church ; but the former, by a proper and peculiar command, belongs to the Apostles, as those who were to lay the foundation of the general church by promulgating the new covenant, and who are therefore distinguished, as architects from those who raise the superstructure, 1 Cor, iii. 10, and Ephes. ii.21*." (20).
No wonder, then, that Beza should be found occasionally speaking against modern miracles, if he thought a work, in aid of which miracles were given, belonged not to his day, but, by a proper and peculiar command, to the Apostles only.
Yet, after all, Beza will not be found uniformly denying post-Apostolic miracles, in any sense of the word. On the contrary, we often find expressions in which he appears still to admit their possibility, though anxious to obviate the abuse
* " Ditcipulai facite, (Greek omitted), id est, discipulos mihi facite ex omnibus gentibus. Vtilg. Docete, (Greek omitted), nimium general! interpre-tatione. Est enim hoc munus omnibus pastoribus et doctoribus in ecclesia impositum: illud vero proprio et peculiar! mandate ad Apos-tolos spectat, utpote fundarnentam Ecclesne Catholic* jacturos per novi exhibit! fcederil promulgationem, qui propterea tanquam architect! a superstructoribus distinguuntur, 1 Cor. 3. 10. et Ephes. 2. 21."—On Matt, xxvirl. 19. Ed. Cantab-1048.
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of them, and to* detect counterfeits. Thus, on the clause " the Lord forking with them, and confirming the word with signs following" he writes :
" From the signification of this word, however, we must take notice, that with signs should always be joined doctrine : and so, indeed, that we should always give it the precedence, as being that for the confirmation of which they are employed: so that, if the doctrine be false, we must conclude the same concerning the signs and wonders themselves, as the Lord teaches, Deut. xiii. 1 *."
Plainly admitting, that if the doctrine be true, the signs and wonders may be true also. Moreover, his reference to Deut. xiii. will teach us what he means by signs and wonders being false. For we there find it written, " If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder "— and it is added in the next verse—" and the sign or the wonder come to pass." So that he speaks of their being false, only as he speaks of the doctrines being false: not in the sense of their being unreal, but in the sense of their being delusive and fallacious in their tendency. And in ' his Annotations, again (as we have already seen in his Homilies), we find him plainly recognizing the doctrine of demoniacal possession as a thing occurring in his days; and, indeed, contending for it. For where, amongst the sick persons brought to Christ, those are mentioned " which were possessed with devils," Beza writes—it seems there were Neologians also in his days—
* " Ex significatione vero hujus vocabuli observandum est, oportere cum signis semper conjungi doctrinam: et ita quidem ut ei priores partes semper tribuamus, cui nimirum confirmanda ista adhibeantnr; ut si falsa, jest doctrina, idem quoque de signis et prodigiis ipsis statuamus, quemad-modum docet Dominus, Deut. 13.1.'1—On Matt, xxriii. 20.
148 THE REFORMERS.
" Those which were possessed with devils, (Greek omitted). Some one has of late rendered it madmen, a term certainly too loose, and even a dangerous rendering. For, indeed, there are not wanting persons, with whom demon or devil means nothing more than madness; that is to say, a natural malady, and one which may be cured by physic. Such persons, however, are refuted both by sacred and profane histories, and by frequent experience *."
As, therefore, we find Beza admitting demoniacal possession, and not only admitting it, but contending for it against those deceivers who in his day explained away the word of God, and appealing for evidence of it to frequent experience; as we find him recognizing and maintaining other extraordinary and supernatural things effected by the power of Satan, both in the human frame, alive or after death, in the inferior animals, and even in images ; and as, moreover, we have seen him recording a miraculous intimation, conveyed to Calvin, of an event occurring afar off which he could not know by natural means, and announced by him to many individuals long before the intelligence came: "we must infer, that, though he uses some expressions confessedly unfavourable to our argument, those expressions are to be taken, as employed by him, with great limitations; and it may be doubted, whether even of Beza, strongly as he sometimes seems to speak, in controversy, against miracles, we can justly say, in the full sense of the term, that he " expected them not."
* " Dsrmoniacos, (Greek omitted) Quidam nuper vertii furiosos, vocabulo certe nimium generali, et periculosa etiara versione. Nee enim desunt, quibus deemonium sive diabolus nihil aliud est quam mania, mor-bus videlicet naturalis, et qui pharmacis sanari possit: qui tamen turn sacris turn profanis histotiis, et frequente experientia refelluntur."—On Matt. iv. 24.
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Beza steps down, and the next witness that enters the box is BULLINGER.
" Bullinger.—See his Commentary on Matt. x. 1, at large*."
Having been enabled, by Mr. Noel's friendly assistance, to do what he here directs, I am constrained to say that I find nothing in the note referred to, even when viewed alone, which places the testimony of Bullinger on a footing materially different from that of other Reformers already examined : and, when we turn to other parts of his writings, we shall find him as evidently bearing testimony to miraculous manifestations, occurring in his own days, as any of the rest. In the passage now referred to by Mr. Noel, he certainly speaks of the miracles of the Apostles as sufficient evidence of the Gospel to us ; and argues hence, that it is now enough, if we have spiritual miracles, i. e. grace, or the operations of the Holy Spirit in our hearts:
" So that those who now preach Christ will have wrought signs quite great enough, if they bring us the Apostolic doctrine, long since made most sure by signs most evident +."
In the same strain, after referring to Jerome, he ends by saying,
" But even at the present time, also, there is granted to preachers a mighty power of the word against unclean spirits, whom they cast out by the efficacy of the truth : they also remedy the most grievous maladies of the soul, and cure them by the Gospel's healing balm ++;"
• Remarks, p. 18, note.
+ " Ut jam abunde satis magna patrarint signa qui hodie Christum predicant, si doctrinam apostolicam confirmatissimam signis evidentis-simis jam olim redditam afferant."—Ed. Tiguri, 1554.
++ " Jam vero concessa est etiam hodie magna concionatoribus verbi potestas adversus spiritus immundos, quos virtute veritatis ejiciunt, morbosque animae gravissimos curant, atque Evangelii medela salubri sanant.
150 THE REFORMERS.
where I readily admit that he refers chiefly, if not exclusively, to gracious or internal miracles. "Presently, however, I shall have to cite another note of Bullinger's, where, while he brings for-ward this same idea of spiritual operation, he also distinctly alleges literal miracles as occurring in his own days: and besides this, the reader, probably, will have already observed, that, even in the passage before us, Bullinger is arguing with a particular aim—namely, that to which I have already so often adverted, of maintaining the primitive character of the doctrine which the preachers of the Reformation taught, and of guarding it from the imputation of novelty ; to which it would at once become liable, if he for a moment seemed to concede that it needed miracles in proof of it: therefore he refers, and most soundly, to the miracles wrought by the Apostles as its most proper evidence, seeing it is the doctrine which the Apostles taught. This passage, then, even if viewed alone, would justify no general inference in disproof of Bullinger's belief in miracles. His argument goes only to shew, that they are not wanted for the particular purpose of proving a doctrine proved already: and of course, to those at any rate who believe the New Testament, which records primitive doctrines and primitive miracles together, the latter are quite sufficient evidence of the former, without further need of signs to that express end, as far as such persons are concerned.
But after all, I say, Bullinger, argue how he would when he had a particular point to guard, did certainly believe in miraculous manifestations, as
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occurring in his own days. In proof of this we need only turn to another part of his Commentaries—namely, that on Mark xvi. 15, &c.—where we have the command, to go forth into all the world to preach the Gospel; and the accompanying promise, of signs following. And it will be well for us to give this passage particular attention: for we have had many instances of writers who speak of the missionary, work of the church as finished, and therefore speak less favorably of modern miracles; but here we have one who urges the command to go forth and preach the Gospel as still in force, and therefore decidedly maintains miraculous manifestations. I mention this for the consideration of those who accept the command, and support Missionary Societies, but reject miracles, and so lay the promise aside.
First, Bullinger shews that the command is for all ages. Beginning the note by giving a summary of what St. Mark has recorded in the preceding part of his Gospel, he adds,
" Now, however, in order to teach that this salvation, and all the benefits peculiar to it, belong not to a few, or to the Jews only, but to the church, that is, to all believers and each, he, finally, records the final commandment, which the Lord gave to the Apostles—namely, the institution or arrangement of ecclesiastical order. For he prescribes the method by which .the salvation obtained and offered by Christ may become known to all men, and how those, who desire to be saved, may be made partakers of salvation in Christ, For in vain shall we hear all things that are recorded and read concerning the words and deeds of Christ, unless we understand that they relate to us; I say, that our sins are remitted through Christ, and that
152 THE REFORMERS.
we are made heirs of the kingdom of God by faith in , Christ *."
On preaching the word to every creature, he adds,
" For God excludes no one, no age, no sex, no condition. He gives command to preach the most saving Gospel to all men, of every race and degree. Here then you have the manner in which the Lord will have his salvation become known to the world, namely, by the preaching of the Gospel +."
Afterwards, having shewn what the Gospel is, he proceeds,
" But of all things which we have said this is the sum: that the Lord will have the salvation obtained by Christ to become known to the whole world by the preaching of the Gospel, but to be partaken of by faith in Christ ++."
Such is Bullinger's view of the command, to preach the Gospel to every creature; in full accordance with the sentiments and practice now prevailing in the religious world, with respect to MISSIONS. But now mark his opinion on the pro-
* " Jam vero ut salutem illam et omnia beneficia sua, non ad paucos, vel ad Judteos duntaxat, sed ad ecclesiam, id est ad omnes et singulos fideles pertinere doceret, ultimo ultimum Domini mandatum, apostolis datum eommemorat, institutionem videlicet sive ordinationem (Economise ecclesiastics. Prescribit enim modum per quern salus parta et oblata per Ctiristum omnibus innotescat hominibus, ac quomodo salutis in Christo participes fiant, qui salri esse cupiunt. Frustra cnim audiuntur omni.i ilia quse de Christi dictis et factis recitata leguntur, nisi intelli-gamus ilia ad nos pertinere, nobis inquam peccata esse remissa per Christum, nos heredes regni Dei effectos esse per fidem in Christum."—Ed. Tiguri, 1545.
+ " Nam neminem excludit Deus, nullara eetatem, nullum sexum, conditionem nullam : jubet omnibus omnis generis et status hominibus salutissimam proclamare evangelium- Habes jam modum per quem vult Dominus salutem suam mundo innotescere, per pradicationem vide-licet evangelii."
++ " Summa vero omnium que diximus hsec est, Dominum velle toti mundo partam per Christum salutem innotescere per prsedicationem evangelii, participari autem per fidem in Christum."
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mise, contained in the seventeenth and eighteenth verses, and relating to MIRACLES ; " These signs shall follow," &c.
" These words, indeed, relate to the recommending of the evangelical doctrine; which the Paraphrast skillfully-expounding says, ' Lest, however, your preaching should want credit, there shall be added, also, miraculous power, provided only evangelical faith be present, and the occasion itself demand a miracle. The main force of evangelical grace is in the heart; yet, nevertheless, on account of those who are slow to believe and weak, these things also shall be at hand, where the progress of the Gospel requires a miracle. Those who shall have believed in me, shall cast out devils, not in their own name, but in mine; shall speak with new tongues; shall drive away serpents ; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them ; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. When these things are accomplished in men's minds, a greater miracle is performed, though a hidden one. Avarice, lust, ambition, hatred, wrath, malice, are to the mind deadly poisons and diseases; these they shall drive away in my name, and do it constantly. But, on account of the weak, and those who are slow to believe, the former also shall sometimes be done, that even the dullest may perceive that in them is the Spirit, mighty beyond human power.'— Thus he. These words, then, of the Lord," adds Bullinger, " teach us what is the effect, what the power and majesty, of the word of God, and of faith in Christ. It drives out the devil, prepares and creates new tongues, deprives poison of its peculiar power, and removes diseases of every kind *."
*" Haec quidem pertinent ad doctrinam evangelicam commendendam, quae eleganter enarrans paraphrastes, ' Ne vero vestra prae dicatio,' inquit, ' fide careat, addetur et miraculorum vis, si modo adsit evangelica fidu-cia, et res ipsa miraculum poscat. Prucipua vis evangelica: gratiae in animis est, sed tamen ob incredulos et infirraos, liace quoque presto erunt, ubi profectus evangebi requirit miraculum. Qui in me poguerint fiduciam, ejicient daemonia non in suo nomine, sed in meo, linguis lo-
154 THE REFORMERS.
Then, adopting the Paraphrases * twofold division, Bullinger, first, ingeniously shews how this may be done as to the minds of men : next, as to the body;
'' If, however, we refer these things to the body, they are wrought by a miracle both in the teachers and in the disciples themselves. For believers, through the power of Christ in whom they believed, drave out and overthrew the devil, and were accustomed to speak with new tongues— both the Lord's disciples, and the disciples of the Lord's disciples +."
He then cites various instances of miracles in former times, recorded in the New Testament, &c. and adds,
" To this the Acts of the Apostles bear witness. Ecclesiastical History bears witness to the same. Lastly, the present times bear witness; wherein, through confidence in the name of Christ, numbers, greatly afflicted and shattered with disease, are restored afresh to health ++."
He then goes on to shew the use of miracles ;
quentur novis, serpentes abigent, et si quid lethal? biberint, non nocebit illis, wgrolis imponent manus, et bene habebunt. Htec cum in animis fiunt majus prsestatur miraculum, sed occultum. Avaritia, libido, ara-bitio, odium, ira, livor, venena morbique lethales sunt animo; hsec abigent in nomine meo, idque facient perpetuo. Propter infirmos autem etad credendum diflicile.s, nonnunquam fient et ilia, ut homines crassi videant in illis esse Spiritum, humanis viribus potentiorem.' Hactenus ille. Proinde declarant nobis hsec Domini verba, quis sit eft'ectus, qua vis et majestas verbi Dei et fidei in Christum. Pellit diabolum, instruit et efficit linguas novas, eripit veneno suam vim, tollit omnis generis morbos."
*The Paraphrast here cited by Bullinger is Erasmus. See his Works, vol. vii. col. 272, on Mark xvi.) Leyden, 1706. Vol. I. 1703.
+" Porro si ilia referamus ad corpus, fiunt ea per miraculum cum in doctoribus turn in ipsis discipulis. Fideles enim per virtutem Christi, cui crediderunt,pepulerunt diabolum ac supplantarunt,linguisperegrinis loquebantur et discipuli Domini, et discipulorum Domini discipuli."
++ " Testantur hoc Acta Apottolorum, testatur idem historia ecclesiastic*, testantur denique prtesentia tempora, in quibus per fiduciam no-minis Christi permulti admodum affecti et confracti morbis, denuo sanitati justae restituuntur."
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namely, that they are " for the purpose of obtaining credit * ; " and afterwards observes, that " these signs, therefore, are, as it were, a kind of credentials, as they are called + : " adding, that they succeed, " with the tractable, and not with impious despisers ++," who say that they are wrought by the chief of the devils ; and—to prevent misconception—
" Nor are signs wrought continually, but as often as it shall have pleased God and seems necessary: whence it is evident that to work signs depends not on the option of man, but on the will of God +++."
Here, then, we have clearly the deliberate opinion of Bullinger, that while, in the church, miracles of grace are wrought continually, external, visible, and material miracles are also wrought occasionally, as it pleases God and the occasion requires.
But really, without turning to his commentary on St. Mark, we might in some measure have drawn the same inferences from passages in that very commentary on St. Matthew, for the sight of which I am indebted to Mr. Noel, and to which he himself refers us. On the dream of Pilot's wife, Bullinger writes;
" These words teach us that dreams are not all vain, nor always to be despised. But concerning dreams elsewhere.
* " Fidei parandte gratia."
+ " Sunt itaque signa htec veluti liter* queedam credentialei, ut vocant."
++ '' Apud tractabiles, et mm apud impios conteraptores."
+++ " Nee semper fiunt signa, sed quofies Deo visuin fuerit et necesse videtur : unde signa facete non in arbitrio hominis, sed in Dei voluntate positum esse constat."
156 THE REFORMERS.
The same words teach us, that God uses various means to teach and actuate the minds of men *."
And, after citing a passage from Jerome, he adds,—
" A passage which I therefore wish to add to these remarks of my own, because I perceive that some persons are anxiously inquiring whether bad or impious persons can achieve miracles, whether they can prophesy in the name of the Lord? For, from the words of Jerome, so piously deduced from Scripture examples, it is apparent that such a degree of power is manifestly granted to evil men +."
On the whole, though it is very possible that Bullinger saw no necessity for miracles to confirm the doctrine which the Reformers taught, inasmuch as it was that doctrine which had already been confirmed by the miracles of the Apostles, yet, as we still find him asserting that miracles might be wrought even by evil men ; as he maintains, also, that dreams are not all vain, nor always to be despised; and, above all, as he distinctly alleges not only ecclesiastical history, but the present times, the times in which he lived, as bearing witness to miraculous manifestations, especially to the heating power of the name of CHRIST in bodily maladies, we must place his testimony respecting miracles with that of the other
* " Docent hsec non orania somnia esse vana, neque semper con-temnenda, sed de somniis alias. Docent eadetn Deum variis uti mediis ad erudiendas impellendasque hominum mentes"
+ " Id quod ideo his nostris adpendere volui, quod videam anxie a quibusdam quscri, An mali sive impii possint patrare roiracula, an possint prophetare in nomine Domini?-Nam ex Hieronymi verbis e scripturarum exemplis pie depromptis, liquet palam conccssum esse id facultatis malis hominibus.
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Reformers, and can by no means admit that he " expected them not."
Mr. Noel's next witness is LUTHER.
" Luther was accused by Maimbourg and others, of attempting in vain to cast out a devil. The true narrative is preserved by Seckendorf. ' Puellam octodecim annorum ad Lutherum adduxerant quam obessam a dee-mone esse aiebant... .inde Lutherus populum affatus est, monuitque, miraculis expellendi damoniu hoc tempore locum non esse, neque plantatam jam ecclesiam opus illis habere, ritum quoque pontificium non esse sequendum, sed ora-tionibus potius contra hunc spiritum utendum.... Deo etiam tempus et modum poni non debere, quo daemonem ejicere vellet, ita enini Deum tentari; sed continuendas esse preces, et horam, quam Deus liberationi destinaverit, pa-tienter expectandam *.' "—Seckendorf: Historia Luther-anismi, lib. iii. p. 633.
On this citation, little more seems necessary than to give the bulk of what I have already written concerning it elsewhere. A few repetitions will, I trust, be pardoned.
" This quotation from Seckendorf, as it here stands, abridged, we now beg leave to translate. And let the reader observe, even in the present or abridged form of the passage, and that a passage containing a very strong clause against miracles, and quoted to oppose miracles, how much there is that makes in their favour.
" ' They had brought to Luther a girl eighteen years old, saying that she was possessed with a devil.... Then Luther addressed the people, and reminded them, that it was now no season for casting out devils by miracles, nor had the Church, now that it was established, need of them; and moreover that the popish ceremonial was not to be followed, but that prayers rather should be used against this
spirit......and that they ought not to assign to God the
time and manner in which he should please to cast out the
* Remarks, p. 18, note.
158 THE REFORMERS.
devil, for that thus God would be tempted; but that prayer must be persevered in, and the hour which God had appointed for deliverance, patiently waited for.'
" Here then, we say, let the reader observe how many things there are that make for us. It is true, the expressions used by Luther, ' that it was now no season for casting out devils by miracles, nor had the Church, now that it was established, need of them,' seem very strong against us. But we say seem, because, when we come to know how peculiarly the Reformers were circumstanced with respect to the subject of miracles, much of the strength is lost. The case was this. The Papists, in their contests with the Reformers, were continually boasting of their own alleged miracles, as a proof of theirs being the true church and the true doctrine, triumphing over their opponents, and charging them with the want of the same mark. What course, then, best became the Reformers, under such circumstances? Were they, also, to attempt miracles in evidence of their doctrine? No, by no means; for that would have been a concession. It would have afforded room for the imputation, that theirs was a new doctrine, and, therefore, like the Gospel at its first promulgation, required miracles in proof of it. But this they denied. They denied, that is, that their doctrine had any novelty whatever. They asserted that it was the Gospel, the very Gospel proved by miracles at the beginning. Consequently, the attempting, or even the alleging, a single miracle to prove their doctrine, would have been a surrender of the position which they occupied, a departure from the ground which they had taken up : would, in fact, have been granting what they rather had to deny, that their doctrine was new. And this circumstance we ought continually to bear in mind in reading their works, or we can never understand their full and proper meaning, when they use such expressions as these : that there is no need of miracles now, that the church was established by miracles at the beginning, or that miracles are not at present called for in proof of its doctrines. We shall be better prepared to understand their language on this-subject.
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when we see the Fathers saying, in answer to the heathen who demanded such miracles as when the Gospel was first preached, that, in their days, no such miracles were to be looked for; and yet, perhaps, the same Father, in another passage, alleging miracles as actually wrought in the Church, at the time when he wrote; and appealing to this fact, as notorious. But now let us observe, what things there are which make for us even in the abridged form in which the passage from Seckendorf stands above, and though that passage is brought against us, as containing expressions, already noticed, so unfavourable to the doctrine of miracles. It will be observed, then,
" 1. That the sufferer was brought to Luther as being possessed with a devil.
" 2. That this idea is by no means rejected by him.
" 3. That, so far from rejecting it, he fully recognizes it, and gives directions for acting accordingly; saying, ' that prayers should be used against this spirit,' and ' that prayer must be persevered in,' and that they must not assign to God the time ' in which he should please to cast out the devil.'—He does not, be it observed, call the case ' brainular,' and refer them to physical or metaphysical remedies, as if he denied the doctrine of Satanic possession, and doubted that of Satanic agency; but he recommends prayer. And with regard to this circumstance, there is one consideration which makes it more remarkable than We may at first perceive. In declining exorcism, and recommending prayer, he seems, on a careless view, to decline all attempts to cast out the devil in a supernatural manner. But the fact is, he only conforms the more to the method suggested by our Lord himself. For when the disciples had failed in their attempts to cast out a devil, it may have been by exorcism, and asked the Lord why they had not succeeded, he gave them the reason, and said, ' This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.' So that when Luther declined the way of exorcism, and recommended the way of prayer, we may infer, that, while he declined the former because it might seem the adoption of a popish practice (ridiculed also by Erasmus in one of
160
THE REFORMERS.
his dialogues), he recommended the latter because conformable to our Lord's directions. Thus do we gain a little light upon the subject—a little light—even from that compendious form in which Mr. Noel has given us such a passage as could be found in Seckendorf, to prove that Luther expected not miracles.
" But come. Seckendorf is not a scarce book; and why should we not have the passage entire?—First, however, it may be necessary for us to inform our readers, what is the character of Seckendorf's work.
" The work is not properly Seckendorf's History of Lutheranism, but Seckendorf's Commentary on a History of Lutheranism. The History of Lutheranism is the work of Maimburg, a Jesuit, and is scurrilous enough, as may well be supposed. Seckendorf's plan, then, is this: he gives a short section of Maimburg's History, and then subjoins a commentary at large with documents, references, &c.—and a most valuable store he has thus presented us with. Maimburg, then, brings the following charge against Luther. Having stated that he wished to pass for an apostle (' apostoli loco haberi,' which, by the way, illustrates the popish charge against the Reformers of their bringing a new doctrine), he adds,
"' Accidit tamen ei hoc ipso tempore aliquid, ex quo satis apparebat, talem ilium non esse. Cum enim dsemo-nem ex corpore puellae arreptitise ejicere vellet, ad maximas et pudendas extremitates, metu a diabolo injecto, com-pulsus fuit, qui clauso ostio in eum irruerat, et hac occa-sione ludibrio ilium exponere volebat, totique mundo ostendere, vera miracula extra ecclesiam non fieri.'—Lib. iii. Sect. 36.
" ' But something befell him at this very time, which made it sufficiently evident that he was nothing of the kind. For, being desirous to cast out a devil from a girl possessed, he was completely and shamefully embarrassed, being intimidated by the devil, who shut the door, ran at him, and was satisfied, for this once, with making him ridiculous, and with manifesting to the whole world, that no true miracles are wrought but in the Church.'
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" [This last clause, be it observed, throws further light on what we have already said respecting Protestant disavowals of miracles, as being occasioned by challenges, on the part of the Papists, to perform miracles in proof of their belonging to the true Church."}
" So far the Jesuit Maimburg. And, now, before the entire account as given by his Protestant commentator, we will say ' The true narrative is preserved by Seckendorf.' The parts now given for the first time, we include in brackets.
" [Breviter sic se habet.] Puellam octodecim annorum ad Lutherum adduxerant, quam obsessam a deemone esse dicebant. [Recitare earn jussit symbolum apostolicum. Id cum facere ccepisset, simul atque ad verba, lit in Jesum Christum, fye., venisset, obmutuit, et misere a deemone agitata est. Tune Lutherus : Novi, ait, te, Satan. Velles, ut hie magna cum pompa exorcismum instituerirn j sed id nolo facere. Sequenti die in templum, dum Lutherus concionaretur, ducta fuit, et, post concionem, in sacellum ; ibi statim in humum procidit, manibus pedi-busque renitens et calcitrans, erecta tamen a studiosis, qui aderant.] Inde Lutherus populum affatus est, mo-nuitque, miraculis expellendi dcemonia hoc tempore locum non esse, neque plantatam jam ecclesiam opus ill is habere : ritum quoque pontificium non esse sequendum, sed ora-tionibus potius contra hunc spiritum utendum [ejusque superbiam contemnendam esse] : Deoenim tempus et" mo-dam poni non debere, quo dsemonem ejicere vellet, ita enim Deum tentari, sed continuandas esse preces, ethoram, quam Deus liberationi destinaverit patienterexpectandam. [Postea Lutherus manum capiti puellee imposuit, symbolum fidei et orationem Dbminicam pronunciavit, ut et dictum, John xiv. 12. Qui credit in me, opera quae ego facio, et ipse faciet, et majora horum faciet. Preces postea ad Deum una cum ceeteris ecclesias ministris fudit, ut propter Christum, dsemonem ex puella ilia ejicere vellet. Ipsam postea pede tetigit, additis his verbis: ' Superbe daemon, tu quidem cupered, ut pompa insigni adversus te
162 THE REFORMERS.
nunc agereni, sed id non faciam. Scio caput tuum con-tritum esse, et tie ad pedes Domini nostri Jesu Christi jacere, iisque subditum esse:' et sic decessit; puella vero ad suos reducta est, qui postea per literas significarunt, illam non amplius a dsemone vexari. Haec, ait D. Mollerus, nihil habent, quod Evangelico Doctore indignum sit; et fidem merentur licet decem monachi, totidemque Jesuitae aliud referrent. Eandem sententiam de precibus, in talibus casibus adhibendis, Lutherus anno 1536aperuerat, ut supra dictum est. § L.]—Lib. III. § CXXXIII. 2.
" In giving the English of this passage, we distinguish the parts which do not appear in the abridged extract, and which, to us at least, seem particularly worthy of the reader's attention, if he would have a right view of the case, by placing them in Italics.
" The matter stands shortly thus. They had brought to Luther a girl eighteen years old, saying that she was possessed with a devil. He ordered her to say the Apostles' Creed. Having begun to do so, the moment she came to the words, ' and in Jesus Christ, &c.,' she stopped and was miserably agitated (or convulsed) by the devil. Upon this Luther said, I know thee, Satan. Thou wouldest have me begin exorcising with great parade; but I will do no such thing. The next day she was brought into the church, while Luther was preaching, and, after sermon, into a small chapel. She there immediately fell prostrate on the ground, struggling and kicking; but was raised by the students, who were present. Then Luther addressed the people, and reminded them, that it was now no season for casting out devils by miracles, nor had the Church, now that it was established, need of them ; and moreover, that the popish ceremonial was not to be followed, but that prayers rather should be used against this spirit, and that his pride should be contemned: for that they ought not to assign to God the time and manner, in which he should please to cast out the devil, for that thus God would be tempted; but that prayer must be persevered in, and the hour which God had appointed for her deliverance pa-
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tiently waited for. After that, Luther laid his hand on the gift's head, repeated the creed and the Lord's prayer, as also the words, John xiv, 12, ' He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do.' He then prayed to God with the rest of the ministers of the church, that, for Christ's sake, he would cast the devil out of the girl. He then with his foot touched the girl herself, with these words: Proud devil, thou wouldst, indeed, that I should now proceed against thee with, great parade, but I will do no such thing. I know that thy head is crushed, and that thou liest prostrate at and under the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ. He then went away; and the girl was taken home again to her friends, who afterwards wrote, that she was no more troubled by the devil. There is nothing in this account, says Muller, unworthy of our evangelical doctor: and it deserves credit, though ten monks, and as many Jesuits, tell the story differently. The same opinion, namely, that prayer is the proper remedy in such cases, Luther had given in the year 1536, as we have already mentioned, § '
" We drew some inferences from the narrative in its abridged form. Let us now see what further may be gathered from it; as it stands before us at full length. Observe,
"1. The remarkable symptoms which took place when the sufferer attempted to say the Apostles' Creed.- On coining to the part, where she had to declare her belief in Jesus Christ, she stopped, and the evil spirit miserably convulsed or agitated her.
" 2. The design, apparent in Luther's telling her to say the creed. For when she came to the name of Jesus, and such terrible symptoms ensued, he exclaimed, ' I know thee Satan;' or perhaps, -if we might give our translation the full meaning of the original, ' Now I discover thee, Satan,' as if by this method he had detected his presence.
"3. The probable reason why Luther used prayer, already suggested by us. He would not follow the popish method of exorcism, but rather that suggested by our
164 THE REFORMERS.
Lord. It appears from the narrative, as now given by us at full length, that he did not have recourse to this method on the same day that the sufferer was brought to him, but on the morrow. It is not impossible that he arranged this delay, in order to spend the interval in fasting ; as the Lord mentions fasting with prayer.
" 4. The solemn circumstances not only of deferring the proceedings for a day, but also of the sufferer's being brought into the church while he was preaching, and afterwards into the small chapel. This place, sacellum, was probably not a vestry, as it is somewhere rendered. Indeed, in most Lutheran churches, a friend informs us, there is no such place. The minister puts on his canonicals at home, and has no place peculiarly assigned to him in the church, except a pew somewhat more private than others. But there is often, in such churches, a small chapel, called in German sacristey, where service is occasionally performed when the congregation is small, as on week-days, at sermons before the Lord's supper, &c Into such a chapel, probably, the sufferer was conducted ; and this, we may suppose, was a very solemn part of the proceedings, and far different from the mere following of a minister into the vestry, after service, as a matter of course.
" 5. The violence of the sufferer, and her struggles on the ground, in the chapel, at the time when Luther was about to lay his hand on her, repeat the creed and Lord's Prayer, repeat the text of Scripture, join with the' other ministers in prayer, touch her with his foot, and address the evil spirit. This violence, occurring at such a time, may remind us of what we find recorded in the New Testament. ' And as he was yet a coming the devil threw him down and tare him.' Luke ix. 42 : and, as St. Mark writes, ' And they brought him unto him; and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming.' Mark ix. 20.
" 6. That short clause, now restored, in which Luther observes that the pride of the evil spirit should be contemned. This expression serves more strongly, to mark the reality of the conflict in which Luther was now engaged ;
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and must not be overlooked, if we would understand the true character of the narrative.
"7. The mode of proceeding adopted by Luther, plainly shewing, that though he would not have recourse to exorcism, he acted in all things as one bent upon accomplishing the deliverance of a person really possessed with a devil. Let it be observed, in particular, that he repeats the creed, which, the day before, the sufferer herself had not repeated. The united prayer is expressly to this purpose; that God would cast out the devil, (without any mention of conditions in the prayer,) and that for Christ's sake. In imitation, apparently, of our Lord's mode of proceeding, he uses external signs, employing, for this purpose, both his hand and his foot. He speaks of and to the evil spirit, throughout, as really present.
" 8. The evidence, from the concluding sentence, that Luther's conduct on this occasion was no sudden procedure, from the mere impulse of the present emergency, but that he acted according to his deliberate views; inasmuch as, having been consulted on a former occasion respecting a case in some measure similar, he had already stated his opinion, (to Ebert of Frankfort,) that the proper remedy in such cases is prayer.
" There are two more circumstances, especially observable, that are lost to the passage in its compendious form.
" 9. The remarkable use made of a text of Scripture. He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do.' The use of such a text, on such an occasion, plainly proves that Luther, whatever technical statements he may have made,
WAS NOT ENTIRELY WITHOUT BELIEF IN THE PERMANENT CHARACTER OF SUCH PROMISES, AND DID NOT REGARD THE SUPERNATURAL CHARACTER OF GOD'S DEALINGS WITH HIS CHURCH AS ENTIRELY SET ASIDE.
Certainly, whatever may be said of the passage from Seckendorf in its compendious form, it affords no satisfactory proof, as a whole, and especially as a record of Luther's having quoted this text under such circumstances, that he expected not miracles.... To us the circumstance of Luther's
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quoting the above promise of our Lord, that such as believe in him shall do the works that he did, and greater, and quoting it with the possessed person before him, and indeed with his hand, as it appears, upon her head at the time, throws more light upon his views, and upon the whole character of the transaction, than any other particular that is mentioned, But some persons, perhaps, will think the last feature to be noted in the case more remarkable still.
"10. THE RECOVERY OF THE SUFFERER.
" Such is the true narrative, preserved by Seckendorf. Our readers have now seen, what may be learnt from a passage, quoted, in a compendious form, against us. Perhaps they may some time have an opportunity of drawing a few inferences from the passages, many of which we have already transcribed or noted, as making for us.
" Every candid person will of course understand, that in thus bringing forward the passage from Seckendorf entire we fully acquit Mr. Noel of every wish, but that of establishing his own views by such means as he himself deemed most expedient. We naturally took the very earliest opportunity of privately pointing out, in the proper quarter, the omission of such an important circumstance as the sufferer's recovery; and received an intimation, in return, that this was done because the cure was regarded as merely an answer to prayer. To this we might answer many things.—First, as we have already seen, Christ himself recommended prayer, with fasting, as a proper remedy for the deliverance of possessed persons.—Secondly, God seems to have done better than Luther's expectations in this matter. Luther, as it appears from Seckendorfs narrative, hardly ventured to anticipate any immediate or speedy amelioration in the sufferer's case, saying only, that the hour which God had appointed for her deliverance must be patiently waited for. But, as far as we can gather, her recovery, though not instant, was rather prompt than tardy. She was taken home, and her friends ' afterwards wrote, that she was no more troubled by the devil.' The word postea, afterwards, is used several times before in the narrative, and used to express something that was done
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at once, or on the occasion. 'After that, Luther laid his hand on the girl's head'—' He then prayed to God'— ' He then with his foot,' &c. &c.—But, thirdly, granting the case to have been an answer to prayer, the narrative is not on this account the less extraordinary, nor are its circumstances less supernatural. Add to this, that prayer is one of the methods of working miracles sanctioned in the Bible : as in the instances already referred to, in the Old Testament, of Elijah and Elisha : that of Elijah adopted and held up for our imitation by St. James in the New; and that of the mode appointed to the Church, for the healing of the sick, by the same Apostle: to which we may add the very remarkable instance in the case of Elisha, 2 Kings iv. 32—35, where the life of the dead child was not obtained without considerable waiting after prayer: and that in the case of Peter, who in raising Tabitha had recourse to prayer, Acts ix. 40. Hence, granting the damsel, in the case recorded by Seckendorf, to have been dispossessed by means of prayer, this circumstance makes no essential distinction; but, if any one attempted to set it up, would amount only to another of those evanescent lines, so many of which have already disappeared before us in the course of the present remarks, and by means of which it is so vainly attempted to make a separation between the miracles of the word of God and the miracles of the Church of Christ. If however it be said, that the damsel was merely the subject of some natural affliction or infirmity, and that she was cured, through prayer, of this, we answer, that this was not what Luther and the other ministers prayed for. They prayed, that, for Christ's sake, God would cast the devil out of the girl.'—These things, as we said, we might answer, to the reason given for omitting the not insignificant circumstance of the damsel's recovery ; namely, that it was an answer to prayer. But, nevertheless, let the plea have its full weight, at any rate, as an explanation of the course adopted. We can readily believe that a writer decided in his own views, and anxious to commend them to others, might deem it perfectly warrantable. Neither was any advantage to be gained by
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withholding part of the narrative; for, as is very well known, the principal circumstances of it are given in Mr. Scott's history, which is accessible to all. By the way, it may be mentioned, that we observe one omission of importance in this latter work. For the author does not give those words of our Lord which, according to Seckendorf, were repeated by Luther from St. John, but states only, that Luther recited ' some passages of Scripture :' and we the more lament this omission, because, as this circumstance is mentioned or withheld, the character of the whole transaction is considerably varied. We mean, especially, as the account bears upon the question whether miracles were not expected by Luther.—And to conclude : since the quotation from Seckendorf is after all of a mixed character; and since (though, for a passage quoted against us, it contains some things which rather tell in our favour), it cannot at the same time be denied that one clause in it which makes against us reads very strong ; we will close the whole subject by asking one question. Suppose that what Luther did then, had been done by any individual now: suppose that, as a person was brought to him in the character of one possessed with a devil, as he received the sufferer in that character, as he spake of her and dealt with her in that character, as in that character he laid his hand upon her head, repeated formularies of the Church, repeated a text of Scripture containing the Lord's promise of miracles, prayed for her, addressed the evil spirit as personally present, &c.;—suppose, we say, that as Luther did all this, so, in the present day, any person were to act in the same manner; what judgment would now be formed of such conduct by the bulk of religious professors? To which of the adverse views on the subject of miracles would such a person be supposed to belong? Would any one pretend to say of him, that he was opposed to the doctrine of miracles? Rather, would such a procedure on his part be tolerated? Would it not raise a clamour against him? Should we not instantly have the cry of folly, superstition, enthusiasm, and fanaticism? Yes. The character of Luther, indeed, is established : he died, according
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to his own prophecy, before that rapid declension from, the first doctrines of the Reformation followed, the fore-knowledge of which caused him so much sorrow: and, in a compendious form, the narrative of a public occurrence in which he was engaged, in which, by the course that he pursued, a devil was cast out from a person brought to him to be dispossessed, and in which he cited, as applicable to the occasion, our Lord's promise of miracles to such as believe in him: this narrative, in a compendious form, is quoted to prove that he expected not miracles. But, were Luther himself to be now living, and were he still to express the same sentiments, and to act as he then acted, not all that, as matter of controversial or doctrinal statement, he may have occasionally said concerning the need-lessness of modern miracles to prove revelation, would have withheld some of us, who call ourselves professors of evangelical truth, from loading him with the same reproach, which he endured, while alive, from the deceivers and Jesuits of his day *."
On this subject I will now add but a single observation. At least one writer, since the above remarks were published, has made the columns of a religious periodical the vehicle for violent charges against the advocates of the miraculous character of the Christian dispensation, for an » over-confident and uncandid spirit; and has extolled Mr. Noel's " Remarks," as affording such a sufficient and satisfactory answer to them.
But would it not be more just in such assailants, to abandon hard names, and look more clearly into the subject? Not one word is said, by this accuser, of the above exhibition, which was given in the Jewish Expositor, long before he wrote, which some of his expressions seem to be-
* Jewish Expositor for May, 1831, pp. 145—153..
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tray that he was well acquainted with, and which shews how different a view may be taken of Mr. Noel's citations, from that which they bear while unexamined and unquestioned. No one, aware of this circumstance, can appeal to the " Remarks on the Revival of Miraculous Powers in the Church" as settling the question, without being guilty of a literary fraud. Equal is the cheat of those, who know well, and to their own shame, how thoroughly I have exposed the falsehoods and delusions, coined in order to set aside the miraculous cure of Miss Fancourt; and who nevertheless go on speaking of that cure as fanciful, at the same time sinking all mention of my statement. What real difference is there between a Religious Periodical that acts thus, and the Times Newspaper, that suppresses intelligence unfavourable to its politics?
But now, having examined the evidence, adduced in proof of Luther's not expecting miracles, it will be necessary, as in the case of the other Reformers, to go a little further; and to inquire what more can be learned from other passages. First, however, there is need of explanation. Other expressions have been cited by other writers, in which Luther appears to deny or disclaim all supernatural or miraculous aids, as vouchsafed to himself, or extended to the latter ages of the church: and it becomes us rather, as sincere searchers after truth, to pause and examine such passages, giving them their full weight, than to pass them by, and select only what makes for our own side of the argument. It must be observed, however, that in addition to those three causes
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already referred to, which tended to affect The language of the Reformers when they spoke concerning miracles, there were some, in the case of Luther, of a peculiar character. We have seen already that he is accused by Maimburg of having wished "to pass for an Apostle;" and he seems also to have suffered from other charges of the same kind, which would naturally make him cautious. Thus Seckendorf informs us that, at the death of Nesenus,
" Luther, greatly moved at his death, having said, ' O that I could raise the dead,' suffered a slanderous charge, to the effect that he had seriously attempted to raise him: a lie with which some of his calumniators were marvelously delighted, as affording them the opportunity to charge him with having arrogated to himself, without any grounds whatever, the gift of miracles *."
In connection, then, with these accusations to which Luther was exposed, we may observe two things: first, that he sometimes speaks very moderately and cautiously on the subject of miracles; but secondly, that he by no means denies all miracles. First I say, we find him sometimes speaking very moderately and cautiously upon the subject of miracles. I proceed to offer a few examples, at the risk of their being quoted "alone, by some opponent of miracles, who has no other means of getting at what Luther actually wrote, as a fair specimen of Luther's opinions upon the subject. For example, as Seckendorf observes,
* " Lutherus cum, morte ejus valde turbatus, dixisset, ' O utinam possem resuscitare mortuos,' calumniam passus est, ac si resuscitationem ejus serio tentasset: quo mendacio aliqui ex ejus insectatoribus mire dilectati sunt, ut eum summa vanitate miraculorum donum sibi arrogasse criminarentur." Seckendorf, lib. I. § CLXXXII. Add. i. b.
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" He became wise, therefore, not through sudden inspirations or enthusiasm, (he neither boasted this himself, nor gained credit with others by such a pretext), but by proficiency, and according to the measure of the grace imparted to him by God, to discern the light of Scripture*.".... (Hence he says, in the Preface to his Works), " Remember, that I have been one of those, who (as Augustine writes of himself) got on by writing and teaching; not of those, who, from nothing, suddenly become eminent +."
Again, with a more express reference to miracles, but still having in mind the accusations of his enemies, he writes,
" I have often said, that I desire not that God should have bestowed on me the grace to work miracles, but congratulate myself that I can abide strictly by the word of God, and work with that instrument; for otherwise they would immediately say, The devil does it by him ++." And, on Joseph's dream, he says of himself, " I have made a compact with the Lord my God, that he shall not send me either visions, or dreams, or even angels §." Such are the strongest expressions which I find of Luther's, unfavourable to miracles : and it is undeniable that, taking them alone, those who oppose the doctrine would have, as far as the sentiments of this reformer are concerned, a very-strong case. But, if we sometimes find him
* "Sapuit igitur non per subitas inspirations aut enthusiasmum, (quem nee ipse jactavit, nee eo praetextu fidem apud alios invenit) sed ex profectu, et secundum mensuram impertitae sibi ad scripturse lumen agnoscendum a Deo gratiae."
+ " Memeuto, me unum fuisse ex illis, cjui, (ut Augustinus de sescribit) scribendo et docendo profecerim, non ex illis, qui de nihilo repente fiunt summi." Lib. I. § XIII
++ " Ichhabe offt gesagt, dass ich nicht begehre, dass Gott mir solte die gnade verliehen haben miracul zu thun, sondern freue mich, das ich stracks bey dem wort Gottes bleiben mag, und damit umgehen, deun sonst wurde man bald sagen; der teuffel thuts durch ihn." On John ii. See Seckendorf, lib. iii. § LXXVIII. 3.
§ " Pactum feci cum Domino Deo meo, ne vel visiones, vel somnia, vel etiam angelos mihi mittet."
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speaking thus moderately and cautiously concerning miracles, we observe, secondly, that he by no means denies all miracles. Thus, immediately after the passage last quoted, (which therefore, should any friend borrow it, I beg him not to borrow alone,) having observed that he is contented with Scripture, in which he finds all things necessary, he goes on to shew that he spoke only with reference to himself; adding,
" Not, however, that I derogate from the gifts of others, if haply to any one, over and above Scripture, God should reveal ought by dreams, by visions, or by angels *."
Presently after, he gives his peculiar reasons for being less anxious for such gifts in his own case, in terms already quoted :
" For I am actuated by that infinite multitude of illusions, sleights, and impostures, with which, under the Papacy, the world has long been horribly duped by Satan."
Yet, as we have seen, he again guards himself against the supposition of denying the gifts of others.
" But, as I said, this consideration is for myself alone. I would not venture, in alleging it, to lay down restrictions for others."
In a word, this is exactly the spirit that Luther manifested, when consulted, concerning a supernatural case, by Ebert; namely that of a maidservant, possessed with a devil, and having the power of producing pieces of money in her hand, and swallowing them. He displays the greatest caution, but by no means treats the case as imaginary. In other words, he warns Ebert of the
* " Neque tamen aliorum donis derogo, si cui forte prater scripturara aliquid revelaret Deus per sorania, per visiones, per angelos."
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delusions of superstition*, but directs the case to be most strictly investigated, and tells what should be done, if it should be found real.
" 'I beseech you,' he writes to Ebert,' as this is a matter which deserves to be made publicly known, that you will most accurately investigate all the particulars, lest some delusion be concealed +.'"
The expression "this is a matter which deserves to be made publicly known," proves that Luther felt no hostility to a believing view of the case, provided it were properly authenticated. And we learn from Seckendorf, that the method of treatment suggested by Luther, was attended with complete success.
" The advice of Luther was attended with success, although Satan for some time resisted, and foully reviled Ebert, when he called on the name of Christ ++."
We need only read what was the " advice " referred to, as given by Luther, to perceive that he viewed the matter quite seriously; and that, however great might be his caution, he fully believed in demoniacal possession, and in prayer as the proper method for expelling the evil spirit.
" Grace and peace in Christ. The things, which you write, to many appear incredible; and, before you wrote, I myself thought, when they were related here, that I was hearing some jest or fable. But if the matter is as you write, I think that it is a prodigy (or supernatural manifestation, ostentum), by which God may suffer.Satan to ex-
*In terms already quoted, Part i. of this chapter.
+ " Rogo te, quandoquidem res ista digna est evulgari, omnia velis certissime explorare, ne subsit aliquid doli." Luthers Briefe. Ftinfter Theil.p. 12.
++ " Consilium autem Lutheri successum habuit, licet aliquandiu re-niteretur Satanas, et Ebertum, cum Christi nomen invocaret, foedis pro-scinderet convitiis."
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hibit a representation and likeness of certain princes, who snatch and devour wealth from all quarters, and yet are nothing the better. But since this spirit is disposed to mirth, and by this sport of his derides our unconcern, our part is, first, to pray seriously for the girl, who, for our instruction, is compelled to suffer such things. Secondly, that spirit must in his turn be despised and derided, nor must we make the attempt against him by any exorcisms or ceremonies, because the pride of the devil derides all such things. But let us persevere in prayer for the damsel and in contempt for the devil, and at length, with Christ's help, he will desist *."
These few citations, and the considerations connected with them, clearly prove that Luther's occasional expressions, unfavourable to miracles, were not intended by him in an unqualified sense; and that, however great his dread of the delusions of Popery, and however strict his determination, as far as he himself was concerned, to take Scripture in all things for his guide, he nevertheless was ready to allow that others might possess gifts or receive communications that he had not; while he fully admitted and recognized the power of the devil, not only in actuating the hearts of men, but in personally possessing them; and looked to prayer, and calling upon Christ, as the proper method of expulsion. We may add two
• " Gr. et P. in Christo. Multis videntur incredibilia quae tu scribis, mi Andrea, et antequam tu scriberes, cum hie narrarentur, ipse quoque putabam, me audire jocum quendam aut fabulam. Sed si ita res habet uti tu scribis, arbitror ostentum esse, quo Deus permittat, Satanam osten-dere figuram et imaginem quorundam principum, qui rapiant et vorent undecunque opes, et tamen nihil proficiant. 'Cum ergo jocularis sit iste spiritus, et otio suo securitatem nostram rideat, nobis primum est serio pro puella orandum, quae propter noa cogitur ista pati. Deinde iste spiritus vicissim est contemnendus et ridendus, nee ullis exorcismis aut seriis tentandus, quia omnia ista ridet superbia diabolica. Sed perseveremus oratione pro puella et contemtu* in diabolum, et tandem, favente Christo, cessabit.'
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other reasons why Luther stood so much on Scripture : the first, that this he felt to be peculiarly his ground in contending against Popery: the second, that his own official appointment was one which engaged him to vindicate the truth of God's word ; and that often, as it is well known, when he felt disheartened and dispirited, and almost disposed to doubt whether he had really been called to the tremendous conflict in which he was engaged, he found encouragement in that reflection, that the defense of scriptural truth was a work to which he was bound by official ties; and that therefore, come what would, he was always, while doing that work, in his appointed sphere, and could not be transgressing his proper line of duty *. All this Luther might feel, and all this he did feel, consistently with the recognition of some miraculous powers still manifested in the church, and consistently, as we shall presently see still further, with their occasional experience and exercise in his own person.
These matters being premised, let us now proceed to exhibit in detail the views of Luther on the subject of miracles. The English reader will meet with some things, which he has not met with in the writings of Luther's professed biographers. In fact, I once put the question to a friend, a Lutheran minister, " Why is it that, in most of the lives of Luther, his miraculous experience is in a great measure kept back?" His reply is worth recording: " Because every writer who has given
* See Life of Luther, in Die Weisheit D. M. Luthers.—Nurnberg, 1818. Vol. ii. p. 9.
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an account of Luther, has drawn him according to his own standard." Now then, let us proceed to consider the opinions or experience of Luther, under four heads ; namely, Satanic agency, Predictions, Views of Prayer, and Healings.
1. What really were the sentiments of Luther respecting Satanic agency, we have seen, in some measure, from the two cases of possession already considered. The reality of possession he fully recognizes ; and for the expulsion of the evil spirit he enjoins or employs suitable means, which in each case prove successful. Under this head, therefore, there is little need of further evidence. The statement of Razebergius, that Luther, one evening as he stood praying, saw " an apparition of the devil *," would not perhaps of itself be entitled to so much attention, especially as, according to Seckendorf, the account existed only in manuscript, were it not for the confirmatory circumstance, that Luther himself related the occurrence to J. Jonas and Michael Caelius ; and that Caelius, in his funeral sermon, himself records the fact, in a passage to which Seckendorf refers + The particulars of the occurrence it is not so necessary to detail; our principal concern being with the fact, that Luther made such a statement. This is clearly proved by the evidence; and it sufficiently evinces what were Luther's sentiments, the point at present under consideration. They may now be ridiculed. But it is better to be an avow-
*" Spectrum daemonis."
+ " Cselius ipse in condone funebri, Tom. viii. Alt.fol. 860. ex ore Lutheri sed eatenus tantum narrat, quod spectrum. illud diducto ore ei illuserit, cetera coram metu reticuit. '—Lib. III. § cxxxiv. 1.
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ed believer in Satanic agency, than personally to be a standing monument of it by unbelief. I might also refer to what is recorded by J. Jonas: that on the twenty-fourth of October, 1533, from eleven to twelve at night, there appeared to Luther, in company with many others,
" In the four quarters of the heavens many thousands of small fiery torches, flying about, really of a flame and fire colour; and that Luther said, that he had never seen any thing similar before: and that another day, about the same time, sounds were heard in the air as of armies joining battle. On these things Jonas observes, that Luther, who was a contemner (hater) of the devil, and experienced in temptation, regarded them all as the devil's sleights, he terrifying men with false terrors, when not able to do so with real ones *."
The Aurora Borealis will probably supply to many persons a solution of the former of these phenomena; on which subject I shall content myself with this general observation,—That some modern solutions of extraordinary phenomena, offered for the purpose of obviating superstition and credulity, seem really to be the solutions which require more credulity in those who receive them, and betray more in those who offer them, than any others that could be given. The point now under consideration, however, is Luther's sentiments. Luther, who held the great and cardinal doctrine of justification, held also the doc-
* " Lutliero....multis adstantibus, in quatuor coeli partibus et regionibus volitare visa esse multa millia facularum ignearum, vere flammei et ignei coloris, et Lulherum dixisse, se nihil in vita simile vidisse ; alio die, eodem fere tempore, strepitus in aere concursantium quasi exercituum auditos fuisse. Ad liaec notat Jonas, Lutherum, contemtorem diaboli et tentationis expei turn, omnia pro diaboli prsestigiis habuisse, falsis terrorjbus, cum veris non posset, homines exterrefacientis."—Lib. III. § xxvi. 13.
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trine of Satanic possession, and of Satanic agency in visible and external things; and if professors of the present day doubt the latter doctrines, I hope, at any rate, they are sound in the former.
2. We pass on to Luther's predictions: on which subject, before we come to particular instances, it may be well to say a few words respecting his general views. These we might partly gather from the circumstance of his relating a prediction concerning himself. Staupitz, he says, informed him,
" That he heard at Rome, in 1510 or 1512, that a certain Franciscan minorite had predicted, that a certain eremite should assail the Papacy; and Staupitz acknowledged, that this was fulfilled in Luther, who was of the order of the Augustine eremites*."
This circumstance Luther would not surely have left in manuscript, unless he had believed in the reality of the prediction: and we have seen in a former chapter, that he refers to and recognizes the predictions concerning him uttered by Huss. But I must mention another circumstance, which throws light on the subject: namely, Luther's persuasion of a divine + impulse, or spiritual instigation, by which he was moved to attack the Papacy ; and that, be it observed, before his views had become clear or definite, and before his mind was made up on grounds of conviction and scriptural demonstration, on many points connected with
* " A Staupitio relatum sibi esse dicit Lutherus in scheda MS. (Reg. N. fol. 44, lit. S.) quod Romse anno 1510 aut 1512 audierit, Francis-canum quendam Minoritam vatidnatura esse, ' fore, at eremita qui-dam Papatum sit aggressurus,' idque Staupitium in Luthero, qui e eremitarum Augustini ordine erat, completum esse agnovisse."—Lib. I, VIII
+ " Instinctus."
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the controversy. This circumstance is highly deserving of attention. In his commentary on Genesis xxv. 28, he first tells us generally, concerning such an impulse,
" That it is not hastily to be admitted, unless it be grounded on the word of God, or afterwards proved genuine by the event. He goes on to say, concerning himself, that he himself indeed, at first, without the word, or a particular revelation, by instinct (or spiritual impulse) attacked the Papacy, without thought or method, but that now it was evident, that he was divinely inspired. For Luther, when in his theses he attacked the indulgences published in 1517, was so far from impugning the Papacy itself, or the pontifical function, that he would rather have defended it, (as he afterwards more than once declared,) with great zeal, and even at the peril of his life. Subsequently, however, he felt a certain impulse against the pontifical authority ; and began to suspect, that it had no foundation of Divine right, yea, that, in the way it was exercised, it was antichristian. Nor had he, at the time, discovered what things might be brought against it from the word of God; but, when further enlightened by more diligent meditation, and the futile arguments of his antagonists, he for the first time discovered that impulse to have been truly Divine; and, by a more accurate consideration of Scripture, he was confirmed in it*."
• " Ad v. 28. fol. 20. b. de instinctu monet, quod non temere sit pro-bandus, nisi verbo Dei nititur, aut postea ex eventu probatur, et de se dicit; ' Se quidein ab initio sine verbo' sive revelatione singulari, ' ex instinctu aggressum esse Papatum, sine cogitatione et consilio, sed jam constare, quod divinitus fuerit instinctus.' Lulherus nempe, cum pu-blicatas anno 1517, thesibus indulgentias improbaret, Papatum ipsum, sive munus pontincium adeo nonimpugnabat, ut potius magno cum zelo, et vel cum vitae suse discrimine, (ut postea non semel professus est,) tueri id cuperet. Sensit tamen postmodum instinctum quendam contra pon-tilicum dominatum, et suspicari coepit, ilium jure Divino non niti, iramo eo, quo exercebatur, modo, antiehristianum esse. Neque tamen statim perceperat, quse ex vetbo Dei illi opponenda essent, sed diligetitiori me-ditatione et adversariorum futilibus argumentis majori luce respersus, primum ilium instinctum revera divinum fuisse deprehendit, et ex verbo accuratius considerato in eo confirmatus fuit."—Seckendorf, Lib. III. § CXL. 1.
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Thus, though Luther, in other passages, shews that he felt as strongly as any man the necessity of abiding by the written word, he plainly recognizes the possibility of a Divine impulse existing independent of that word. Of the genuineness of inward impulses, therefore, he gives two different tests: if they be grounded on the word of God, or, if they be afterwards authenticated by the event. And, though he gives a caution against rashness in acknowledging them, yet he maintains, in his own case, that he had such an impulse, independent of Scripture ; not, indeed, an impulse opposed to Scripture, an impulse, however, whose agreement with Scripture, at the time when it first actuated him, he had not discovered, and was not aware of. This is a matter of no trifling moment. It lies at the bottom of his warfare with the Papacy, the most distinguished feature of his important life. The beginning of that warfare between Luther and the Pope, which issued in the Reformation, was, according to Luther himself, a Divine impulse, spiritually communicated, independent of the written word, though afterwards found to be in accordance with it.
But since, when we come to particular predictions of Luther's, there will probably be in many minds a strong disposition to explain them away (precisely as some, indeed, have the audacity to explain away the prophecies of the Old Testament), as sagacious conjectures, happily confirmed by the result, it may be proper to clear this point still further; and therefore, I will, in the first place, give one prediction, in which
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Luther expressly intimates that he regarded himself as speaking by the Spirit. He did not, indeed, set himself on the footing of the prophets of old ; but what he did claim to himself is highly deserving of our attention. Let us hear Seckendorf. " I am aware that my countrymen are deemed ridiculous, when they attribute to Luther the gift of prophecy : nor did he so claim it, as to make himself equal to. the Old or New Testament prophets. One most remarkable passage, however, I must record, from his letter to Lincke." (Seckendorf shews that the date was probably 1522, and that Luther was speaking of the hostility to the truth manifested by Duke George of Saxony. He then proceeds) : " Luther, then, writes to Lincke, ' I am extremely afraid, if the princes continue to regard that blockhead Duke George, that there will be a sedition, which will destroy princes and magistrates throughout all Germany, and at the same time involve the whole of the clergy. For thus this matter appears to me.'" (Then, after observing that the people are already in a state of agitation, he goes on to say), " It is the Lord who does these things, and hides these threatening appearances and coming dangers from the eyes of the princes : yea, through their blindness and violence he will accomplish such things, that I seem to myself to see Germany swimming with blood." (He then exhorts Lincke to join with him in intercession, saying, " It is a serious matter, and close at hand ;" and to warn the princes, through the senators, to act less oppressively and violently: for, says he,) " Let them know, that the sword of civil war is most assuredly suspended over their own necks. The object of their measures is, to destroy Luther: but most assuredly, the object of Luther's is, that they may be preserved. That destruction which they devise threatens themselves, not Luther; so far am I from fearing them. I CERTAINLY AM OF
OPINION THAT I SPEAK THESE THINGS IN THE
SPIRIT." (Then, referring to Frederick, he adds,) " But
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if wrath be altogether decreed in heaven, and can be hindered neither by prayer nor counsels, we will pray that our Josiah may sleep in peace, and the world be left to its own Babylon*."
Seckendorf adds,
" But that Luther was not erroneously of opinion that he spake in the Spirit, was proved by the result. For, when the sedition of the rustics followed, three years after, it is well known what calamities befell the princes and the clergy : and Frederic, whom he calls Josiah, was withdrawn by a peaceful death from the sight of that misery +."
To this Seckendorf adds,
" Nor were his prophecies less true, concerning the fate of Germany, and concerning the Emperor Charles ++."
Seckendorf then gives Luther's letter to Spalatinus containing the prediction, and shews how the event accorded with it § : and upon this subject I will only add, as a further proof of Secken-
* " Ridiculos haberi nostrates scio, cum prophetise donum Luthero tri-buunt; neque is sibi eo modo id anogavit, ut se prophetis V. aut N. Testament! tequaret. Non possum tamen non locum summe notabilem,
ex epistola ejus ad Lutecium Lib. II. p. 10. adscribere......Scribit
igitur Linccio Lutherus: ' Vehementer memo, si pergant principes au-dire stolidum illud cerebrum Duois Georgii, futurum esse tumultum, qui tota Germania principes et magistrate perdat, et simul clerum universum
involvat: sic enim res ista mihi apparet......Dominus est qui facit
haec) et has minas et intentata pericula adscondit ab oculis principum : immo per ccecitatem et violentiam eorum talia consummabit, ut videar
mihi videre Germaniam sanguine natare......sciant, gladium domesti-
cum suis cervicibus certissime impendere. Ipsi agunt, ut Lutherum per-dant; sed certe Lutherus agit, ut ipsi serventur. Non Luthero sed ipsis instat perditio, quain moliuntur; tantum abest, ut eos timeam. Haec
CERTE IN SPIRITU LOQUI ME ARBITROR......Quod si omnino definita
est ira in coelo, ut nee orationibus nee consiliis impediri possit, impetra-bimus ut Josias noster in pace dormi.it, et mundus sibi relinquatur in suam Babylonem."
+ " Quod autem in Spiritu se loqui non vane putaverit Lutherus, eventu probatum est. Nam tumultu rusticorum post triennium sequuto, quse damna principibus et clero illata fuerint, notum est, et Fredericus, quern Josiam nominat, placida morte miserix illius spectaculo fuit sub-tractus."—Lib. I. § cix. l.
++ Non minus vera sunt, quae de Germanise fato et Carolo iinperatore vaticinatus est." '
§ Lib. I. § cix. 2.
184 THE REFORMERS.
dorf's view of the subject, that the former passage is designated, in his margin, " Luther's prediction concerning the rural war, and the death of the Elector Frederic * ;" and the latter, " another prediction, of what should befal Charles V.+." But the proof of LUTHER'S views lies in the Words, " I CERTAINLY AM OF OPINION THAT I SPEAK THESE THINGS IN THE SPIRIT." In saying that he is of opinion, he does not, it seems, so much intend to express uncertainty, as to adopt the Apostle's mode of speaking, " I think also that I have the Spirit of God ++:." And, should these words of St. Paul be read by any evangelical professor of a Neologian or Socinian turn, let him not imagine that the Apostle himself, in saying, " I think," speaks doubtingly. The word " think" is the same that our Lord himself uses, for the purpose of expressing the highest degree of certainty and assurance. It is different, indeed, in our English version, " Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I TROW not." But, in the original, the word is the same in both passages §. Paul, then, uses the same word as our Lord, and Luther a word answering to Paul's, as expressing confidence and certainty. We say we think, when we feel quite sure. " Did Luther deny all post-Apostolic miracles?" "I think not."—" Is it fair to take advantage of the present controversy, to introduce the notion that all post-Apostolic
* " Prsedictio Lutheri de bello rustico et morte Friderici Elect."
+ " Alia de fortuna Carpli V. prsedictio."
++1 Cor. vii. 40.
§ " (Greek omitted)," Luke xvii. 9. "(Greek omitted)" 1 Cor. vii. 40.
THE REFORMERS. 185
miracles are unreal; and so to sink the faith of the church lower than it was before? " "I think not."
And the fact is, that if Luther did not regard himself as altogether a prophet, this might partly be because he conceived that he held another office expressly given to him, namely, that of a preacher or evangelist: and he knew very well that God hath set different offices in the church (1 Cor. xii. 8—11, & 28). Thus, in his book against the Pope, he first calls himself a Preacher*. " But," it is added,
" If he should also assume the title of Evangelist, he writes that he should do so more justly than any of the bishops could prove his own title; and that he was sure he was so named, and as such regarded, by Christ himself, who was the Master from whom he had learned his doctrine, and would in the last day be the Judge of it +."
This, be it observed, was Luther's opinion, at the time when the Pope and the Emperor had stripped him of his titles of presbyter and doctor : consequently he is not referring to any merely human ordination ; and, as the words themselves, indeed, very clearly evince, he calls himself Evangelist, because he conceives himself to have been especially designated to that office by the great Head of the Church. Hence there would be the less reason for his assuming another title, namely, that of Prophet; though, nevertheless, at the same time, we find him uttering particular
* " Ecclesiastes."
+ " Quod si etiam Evangelist* titulum sumeret, majore id jure facturutn se esse scribit, quam ullus episcoporum suum titulum probare possit, certumque se esse, a Christo ipso sic nominari, et pro tali haberi, qui doctrines sue magister, et in novissimo die testis futurus sit."—Lib. I. § CXXIII. 1.
186 THE REFORMERS.
predictions, as we have seen already, and now go on to see still further.
* There is something very awful, for instance, in Luther's denunciations against Emser; and the event fully bore them out. Emser was secretary to Duke George of Saxony ; he opposed Luther, published a version of the New Testament against his, and greatly withstood his words, Luther writes thus respecting him to Hausmann.
" No answer, good Nicolaus, is to be returned to Emser, for it is of such an one that Paul says, He is subverted and condemned of himself; and he is to be shunned, for he sinneth the sin unto death. Yet a little, and I will pray against him, that the Lord may render to him according to his works. For it is better that he die, than that he go on thus blaspheming Christ against his own conscience. Therefore let him alone ; the wretched man, too swiftly for him, will be effectually quieted. But do thou also cease to pray for him *."
Seckendorf adds,
" These things came to pass, not long after, as we shall observe in the proper place +."
In his next book, accordingly, Seckendorf relates the particulars; and it will be observed that another prediction, besides Luther's, stands connected with the catastrophe. The account is given from Schneider, a preacher of Dresden, where the event took place. Alexius Crosner,
* " Emsero nihil est respondendum, optime Nicolae, quia is est, de quo Paulus dicit, subversus est, et suo judicio damnatus, et vitandus, peccat enim peccatum ad mortem. Adhuc modicum et orabo contra eutn, ut reddat ei Dominus secundum opera sua; melius est enim ut moriatur, quam ut sic pergat contra conscientiam suani Christum blasphemare. Sine ergo eum, velociter nimis satis compescetur miser ille. Sed et tu desine pro eo orare."
+" Hsec non multo post eventum habuerunt, ut in loco notabimus."— Lib. I. § cxxvii.
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for three years a pious preacher in the same city; had been much persecuted for his sermons, and was at length sent away*.
" Emser, riding by, and seeing him setting out with his moveables, broke, forth into the following words; Gladly do I behold this day, because the sermons of a heretic are put a stop to. Go in the devil's name: I remain here. Alexius answered, In God's name, you should say, Emser. I was in Misnia before you, and shall remain there, when you are no more. What followed? That evening, Emser, having partaken of a splendid entertainment with a certain citizen, a chief man of Leipzic, and others, and going aside when the guests had departed, after horrible words and contortions, was taken off by a sudden death +."
* " Dimissus est."
+ " Abiturum cum suppellectile conspicatus Empserus, equo prieter-vectus, in hoec erupit verba: Diem liunc la-tus adspicio, quod hseretici concionibus finis impositus est; abi in malam rem, (ins teuffels nahmenj ego hie maneo. Kespondit Alexius: I mo in nomine Domini dicere de-bebas Kmsere (in Gottes nahmen ware auch ein wort). Ego prius quatn tu in Misnia fui, mansurus etiam, cum tu non eris. Quid fit? Eo vespere cum cive aliquo Lipsiensi primario aliisque laute coenatus Emserus, di-gressis hospitibus in sella considens, posthorrenda verba et gestus subita morte sublatus fuit."—Lib. II. § xxxiv. Add. II. e.
With this occurrence should be related one which happened at Utrecht. " On the 29th of July, 1660, (that is to say, during the time of the De Witts), Abraham Van der Velde and Johannes Teeling, ministers at Utrecht, and both of them faithful watchmen on the walls of Zion, were ordered, by a written sentence of the magistracy, to leave the city before six o'clock that evening, and the province within four-and-twenty hours; although the Consistory gave them, the same day, an attestation, by which it was declared that (in their opinion) they were both sound in doctrine and faithful in their ministry. The reason of this aristocratical sentence was, that Van der Velde, having preached that day, had by his zeal and earnestness bitterly offended a burgomaster of Utrecht, who drank hard, and whom on that account he had censured (according to the discipline of the church). But as one of his children was then lying dead in his house, he sent in a request to the burgomaster, that he might be allowed to defer his departure till he had buried his child. He received, however, this cruel answer: ' That his request was refused, but that he might have the dung-cart of the burgomaster to carry his child to the grave !' The minister was therefore obliged to leave the city with the body of his child; and the burgomaster immediately repaired to his country-seat on the side of the canal, in order to amuse himself with mocking the banished and mourning minister as he passed. But ' the ways of a man are before the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings;' and it deserves to be recorded that, just as Van der Velde passed by in the boat, the burgomaster was seized with a fit. The gardener, seeing this, called his servant: they judged it necessary to convey him to the city again, without a moment s delay; and, finding no conveyance at hand but the dung-cart, placed him thereon, in order to bring him to Utrecht; where he arrived dead, having died by the way, as an awful example that there is a God in heaven who pleads "the cause of his servants. '— Christian Review, 1830, p. 220.
188 THE REFORMERS.
On another occasion, we find Luther recording a saying, which proved to be prophetic, concerning the city of Erdford. The saying was Martinus Sangerhausen's ; and is cited by Luther, to shew that, however prosperous a state, it must suffer, unless it have fit men for governors. It was, he tells us, to the following effect; that Erdford
" would continue invincible, with respect to its riches and fortifications: but that, though both powerful and opulent, the state would experience a deficiency with respect to men *."
And on this, be it observed, Seckendorf writes thus: that Luther
" records a memorable saying, not his own indeed, but some other learned man's, concerning the loss to which a state is subject, even though not deficient in respect to wealth, provided it want fit men ; and mentions a city by name, whose predicted fate," says Seckendorf, " is in my time fulfilled +."
Here we may observe, then,
1. That such a saying had been prophetically spoken by Sangerhausen, respecting Erdford.
2. That, before the time of its fulfillment, Luther recorded it, in a public lecture on Psalm cxxvii.
* " —mansuram invictam quod ad opes et munitiones attineret; sed defuturos potenti et opulenUe Reipub. homines."—Luther on the Psalms of Degrees. Ps. cxxvii. Op.Tom. III. Witteb. 1583. p. 550 (over).
+ " Memorabile non suum quidem, sed alterius cujusdam viri docti dictum refert de damno, quod Respublica patitur, etiain opibus non in-firma, sed viris idoneis destituta, et civitatem nominat, cujus fatum praedictum nostro tempore impletum est."—lib. III. t LXXXI. 11.
THE REFORMERS. 189
3. That, in the time of Seckendorf, the contemporary and friend of Luther's great-grandson, it was fulfilled.
Many things, indeed, were foretold, by Luther himself, which did not come to pass till after his decease. For instance, the restoration of Popery in parts where the Reformation had taken place.
" There will be persons who will again cry up works ; and all things will be much worse than they now are. Nothing is well-pleasing to. God, but the work of Christ. As therefore it has already happened to us under the Papacy, so it will happen, the clear light of the Gospel being again darkened and extinguished. The tonsures and ropes of the Franciscans will be adored again; and it will be said, these things please God. But it will be idolatry and the work of the devil *."
On this Seckendorf observes,
" What he dreaded, in conclusion, concerning the bringing back again of that worship, which he so much censures, and how prophetically he speaks, the event has proved in very many places +."
With equal truth, Luther predicted the evils which would arise after his death at Wittemberg.
" There is extant a writing or protocol, from which it appears that he, had made known to the Elector, that it would come to pass, that after his own death, there would arise discord in the university of Wittemberg, and a change would be made in his own doctrine ++."
* " Erunt qui opera denuo commendabunt, et multo deteriora erunt omnia, quam nunc sunt. Deo nihil placet, nisi opus Christi. Ut igitur nobis evenit sub papatu, ita et eveniet, iterum obscurata et extincta clara Evangelii luce. Aaorabuntur iterum tonsure et funes Franciscanorum, et dicetur: Hsec placent Deo ; erit tamen idololatria et opus diaboli." —Lib. II. § xxv. 22.
+" Quse in fine de iterata cultus illius, quam tantopere culpat, re-ductione, metuit, et quodammodo vaticinatur, rnultis sane Jocis eventus comprobavit."—Lib. II. § xxv. 23.
++" Scriptum sive protocollum extat, ex quo intelligitur, ipsum Elec-tori indicasse, ' Fore, ut post mortem suam discordia in Academia Wit-tembergensi oriretur, et doctrinse suse mutatio fieret.'"—Lib. III. § LX.4.
190 THE REFORMERS.
This was not a mere apprehension, but a prediction ; and caused such alarm to the Elector, that he went to Wittemberg, and conferred with Luther and Pomeranus on the occasion : expressing his willingness to dismiss Melancthon, though he was the great ornament of the university, from an apprehension that the evil might come from his concessions, and alterations of the Augustine Confession. Seckendorf adds,
" It is apparent, also, that Luther was not a false prophet, when he foretold the discords which afterwards took place, and to which it cannot easily be denied that the yielding of Melancthon gave occasion *."
It is observable that, in connection with the coming evils, Luther clearly foretold that he himself should die before they took place. For example :
" Often therefore do I pray God, that he will suffer the present generation to die when I do; for, when I am taken away, most perilous times will ensue +."
Again :
" He foresaw (nor did he make any secret of it with his friends) ++, that religion was threatened with the utmost danger, and specially in Saxony §."
Razeburg also relates his premonitions to Pomeranus, Melancthon, &c. : and especially that he
*" Apparet etiam, non falsum vatem fuisse Luiherum, cum secutas discordias prsedixit, quibus ansam Melanchthonis indulgentiam dedisse, negari haud facile potest."—Lib. III. § LX. 5.
+ " Stepe igitur Deum oro, ut generationem nostram sinat nobiscum mori, propterea, quod, nobis sublatis, periculosissima sequentur tempora." Lib. III. § cxxxix. 10.
++ This expression shews, that Seckendorf is not speaking, merely, as of something which might be anticipated by sagacity, for then Luther would not have had it so peculiarly to himself: but of something so discovered to Luther alone, as it was not to others, and by him communicated or announced to them.
§ "Pravidebat, nee id apud amicos celabat, summum religioni et speciatim in Saxonia periculum instare."
THE REFORMERS. 191
" uttered many predictions concerning the schism, that would take place after his own death, among the evangelical believers *."
It is observable, also, that this declaration of what should follow after his death was founded on no vague conjecture, nor merely on any sagacious calculation. It was a definite view, accompanied with all the precision of an event clearly foreseen. He said, for instance,
" As long as I live, there will, God willing, be no danger, and a good' measure of peace will continue in Germany; but, when I am gone, pray. There will be need, truly, of prayers; and our children will be forced to seize their spears, so bad will be the state of Germany +."
And afterwards, not long before his death, at the end of a sermon,
" Having unfolded, in many words, the things which some years after came to pass, when the doctrine of the theologians of Wittemburg was changed to suit the times, he besought his hearers, that, if a report should reach them, of his keeping his bed from sickness, they would pray to God," fee. ++
And again, on his commentary on Genesis, having described the happy death of the righteous,
" He expressly foretells, as afterwards it came to pass too, So I shall die in peace, before evil and adversity come upon Germany §."
So much for the predictions of Luther, from
* " — multaque ipsum de schismate inter evangelicos post mortem suam secuturo praedixisse."
+ " Dum vixero, Deo rolente periculum non erit, et pax satis bona manebit in Germania, sed cum decessero, orate. Precious opus erit pro-fecto, et liberi nostri hastas arripere cogentur, malus erit Germanise status."
++ " Cum pluribus explicasset, quae post aliquot annos, mutata ad tempus doctrina Wittenbergensium Theologorum, eventum habueruDt, rogavit auditores, ut, si fama ad eos provemret, se sgrotum decumbere, Deum orarent," &c. Lib. III. § cxxxiv. 5.
§ " — diserte de se prtenunciat, quod et eventu probatum est: sic nos moriemur in pace, antequam veniat malun et calamitas super Ger-maniam." (On Gen. xxv. 7, &c.) Lib. III. § exxxix. 28.
192 THE REFORMERS.
which it is evident that he was in the habit of so speaking concerning future events, as to prove that he not merely formed sagacious conjectures respecting them, and divined them by superior discernment, but that he foresaw and foretold their real character, and the order of their succession; and that he was persuaded, in speaking of things to come, that he spake in the Spirit.
3. From the predictions of Luther, we pass on to his views of prayer. Luther regarded prayer as obtaining not only spiritual, but temporal and perceptible answers. That is, he used prayer not only for those things, in which the evidence of its success admits not of being tried by any external test, but for those things in which the test is open and immediate. For example, he looked to prayer for prompt delivery from urgent sickness and bodily pain; he frequently realized such benefits; and he attributed the delivery, when obtained, to prayer so offered to that end. Luther's views of the efficacy of prayer may be gathered, indeed, from his manner of expressing himself to Melancthon :
" It is marvelous, how earnestly I desire to see you; and God, who doeth wondrous things, never and nowhere despises my prayers *."
The following is from an account written to his wife, of his recovery from a painful and dangerous attack of a dreadful malady. Three things are to be noted in it: first, that he was at the point of death, so that his wife, it appears, being at a distance, was sent for to see him ere he should
* " Mirum est, quam desideramus te videre, et Dens, qui mirabilia facit, semper et ubique non contemnit preces nostras." Briefe. Ster Theile. p. 293.
THE REFORMERS. 193
actually die; secondly, that he considers his fife to have been saved through prayer ; and thirdly, that he expressly states, concerning the remedies tried, that they were of no service to him whatever, and had not the least share in his recovery. After describing the extremity and miserable state of suffering, to which he was reduced, he adds,—
"In one word, I was a dead man: and had committed you with the children to God, and to my good master, as if I were never to see you again. I felt great compassion on your behalf, but had reconciled myself to the grave. But they prayed so hard for me to God, that the tears of many people proved successful on my behalf;" (he then describes in what manner relief came;)" and I seem to myself to have experienced a new birth. Therefore thank God; and let the dear children, with aunt Helen, thank the true Father, for you would certainly have lost the earthly father. The good prince made them run, ride, fetch, and exerted himself to the utmost, to obtain (medical) relief for me, but it was not so to be. Your remedy, also, was equally inefficacious. GOD has already wrought a miracle on me this night, and does so still, through the intercession of good people.
" I write this to you, because I suppose that my gracious master has commanded the bailiff to send you to me, as now dying on the road, in order that you might first speak to me or see me. This, however, is now unnecessary; and you can continue at home, as God has so abundantly restored me, that I expect to come with joy to you #."
* " 1st bis auf diese nacht vom ersten Sonntag nil kein tropfleio wasser von mir gelassen, hab nie geruget noch geschlaffen, kein trfnken noch essen behalten mogen. Summa, ich bin tod gewest, und hab dich mit den Kindlein Gott befohlen und meinetn guten herrn, als wurde ich euch nimmermehr sehen; hat mich euer sehr erbarmet, aber ich hatte mich dem grabe beschieden. Nu hat man so hart gebeten fur mich zu Gott, dass vieler leute thranen vermucht haben, dass mir Gott der blasen gang hat geoffnett, und in zwo Stunden wohl ein stiibigen von mir gnngeu ist, und mich diinket, ich sey wieder von neuen geboren.
194 THE REFORMERS.
Writing to Melancthon, on the moment of his recovery, he begins his letter thus :
" Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and of all consolation, my most beloved Philip, who, in this second hour of the night, has had compassion on your prayers as well as tears * ;'' and so he proceeds to describe his recovery.
On another occasion Luther had so violent an attack, that he writes to Melancthon,
" I greatly wonder, how my head, worn out as it is already with old age and labour, could endure such monsters within it; and that apoplexy, vertigo, epilepsy, and the like, did not rather instantly and suddenly fell me to the earth +."
In this instance, again, he attributes his recovery to prayer; and that as the only possible remedy in so bad a case.
" They had so beset my head, yea, my very life, that, through the insufferable pain, I began to shed tears, (which I am not easily brought to, though they flowed less
" Darumb danke Gott, und lass die lieben kindlein mit Muhmen Lenen dem recliten Vater danken; derm ihr h'attet diesen vater gewisslich ver-lohren. Der frome Furst hat lassen laufen, reiten, holen, und mit allem vermogen sein hohestes versucht, ob mir mocht geholfen werden ; aber es hat nicht wollt seyn. Deine kunst hilft mich aucli nicht mit dem mist. Gott hat wunder an mir gethan diese nacht, und thuts noch durch fromer Leute furbitt.
" Solches schreib ich dir darumb, denn icb halte, dass mein gnadigster Herr habe dem Landvogt befohlen, dich mir entgegen zu schicken, da ich ja unterwegen stiirbe, dass du zuvor mit mir reden oder mich sehen modi test; welchs nu nicli noth ist, und mogst wolil daheim bleiben, weil mir Gott so reichlich geholfen hat, dass ich mich versehe frohlich zu dir komen." Briefe, Fiinfter Theil. pp. 58, 59.
* " Benedictus Deus et Pater Domini nostri JesuChristi, Pater mise-ricordiarum et universal consolationis, mi charissime Philippe, qui hac hora secunda noctis vestras miscrtus et-pieces et lacrimas, aperuit mihi," &c.p. 57.
+ " — mirer vehementer, quomodo caputjam senio et labore fractum ista monstra apud se intus ferre potuent, et non potius gingulishoris apoplexia, vertigo, epilepsia, et si qua similia, me subito prottraverint." ,.p. 342.
THE REFORMERS. 195
freely than I could wish), and I said to the Lord, Either put an end to my sufferings, or put an end to ma *." The next day brought relief; and he adds, " I write not these things, that you should attribute all to myself, but that you may understand, that the Lord is life in death. I attribute this cleansing" (of the. head) "to the prayer of the church; otherwise, it would have been impossible to endure that dungeon of a head of mine so long+."
Thus the efficacy of the Church's prayers for the healing of the sick, was evidently a part of Luther's creed. To the Elector John Frederic, again, who had kindly sent him medical aid in his illness, he writes, thanking him, announces his recovery, but expressly intimates, though he appears to admit that the medical men did their utmost, that his cure was owing to the intercessions of Pomeranus.
" I could gladly have seen, that our dear Lord Jesus had graciously removed me ; for I am now of little use on the earth. But Pomeranus by his persevering intercession in the church, defeated my expectation; and I am now, thank God, better ++."
4. Such were Luther's sentiments on the subject of prayer for the sick: and he did not experience the benefit of them in his own case only, but was made the instrument of recovery to others by the same means; and so regarded himself, in at least
* " Caput, imo vitam meam ita invaserant, ut prs dolore intolerabili obortis lacrimis (quod non facile soleo, etsi minus fluebant, quam yeltem) dicerem Domino: Aut ista desinant, aut ego desinam."
+ " Non hffic scribo, ut tu mihi omnia ex hoc facias, sed ut seiasj Do-minum ease in morte vitam. Orationi Eccleiiae hanc purgatiooem im-puto, alioqui impossibile fuerit istam camerinam capitis mei tam diu ferre."p 342.
++ " Ich hatte wohl gern gesehen, dass mich der lieber Herr Jesus hatte mit Gnaden weggenomen, der ich doch numehr wenig nutze bin au'f Erden. Aber der Poraer hat mit seinem anhalten mit furbitten in der Kirchen solchs (meins achtens) verhindert, and ist, Gott lob, besser worden." p. 348.
196 THE REFORMERS.
three cases of healings. The first is that already considered, of the girl that was brought to him as being possessed with a devil. We have already seen that he fully recognized this her state, gave directions suitable to it, and himself acted accordingly : that he addressed the evil spirit as present in the possessed person; used prayer for his expulsion and perhaps fasting; repeated the promise of our Saviour respecting miraculous powers in his Church ; and succeeded, promptly as it appears, in obtaining the recovery of the sufferer.
The next is the case of Mecum or Myconius. Mecum, lying at the point of death, had actually written to Luther a farewell letter, so fully was he convinced that his end approached. Luther, however, wrote a letter in reply, which was the means of raising the dying man. That this was the -conviction of Mecum himself, is evident from his manner of speaking upon the subject; for he describes himself as having been
" raised up in the year 1541, by the mandates, prayers, and letter of the reverend father, Luther, from death *.".
The prayer of Luther, also, for Mecum's recovery, was absolute and unconditional, so as to leave himself no hole to creep out of in case of its failure; for he writes,
'' May the Lord never permit me to hear of your taking your passage, while I remain behind, but make you the survivor. So I ASK, AND SUCH IS MY WILL, AND MY 'WILL BE DONE, AMEN :—Because this will seeks the
* " Excitatus anno 1541 per mandata, preces, et literas Reverendi Patris Lutheri a motte." Seckendorf, Lib. III. § cxxxii, Add. i. b.
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glory of God's name, certainly not my own pleasure or advantage *."
I have taken occasion, in a former work, to point out another circumstance which proves that Mecum considered his life restored by Luther; namely, that, six years after, when again at the point of death, be wrote to Luther not to detain him by his prayers.
" Afterwards," says he, " my health began to fail, and I took to my bed with loss of voice," (a symptom of his former malady,) "and satiated with life; indeed so satiated, that I would Tather cease to live, than so live when I am of no service. I wrote to the reverend father (Luther), as to one who has up to this time kept me here by his mandates and letters.... I pray him therefore to dismiss me with his blessing, yet so, that the Lord's will may be done+."
All these particulars are worthy of notice. Mecum, at the point of death, writes a farewell letter to Luther. Luther replies, desiring him, as with authority, not to depart, and the interposition is effectual. And so convinced is Mecum that the injunctions and prayers of Luther are the means of his continuance in life, that, when a second time at the point of death, desiring to depart and to be with Christ, he writes to Luther, lest, this time, he should again interpose to prevent his decease ! " Yet," he exclaims, after expressing his acquiescence in the Lord's will, "yet, if it dis-
* "Dominus non sinat me audire tuum transitum me vivo, sed te su-perstitem faciat mihi. Hoc peto, hoc volo, et fiat mea voluntas. Amen : —quia hsec voluntas gloriara nominig Dei, certe non mean voluptatem nee copiam quserit." Briefe. 5ter Theil. p. 327.
+ " Postea ccepi eegrotare, et decumbo mutus et satur vitse, atque adeo satur, ut optem non vivere, quam sic vivere, ubi mei nullus est usua. Scripsi reverendo patri (Luthero) ut qui me suis mandatis et literis hac-
tenus detinuit.....Oro ergo ut demittat me cum henedictione; ita tamen,
ut fiat, quod Domino placeat." Seckendorf, Lib. Ill § cxxii. Add. i.b.
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pleased not God, ah, how could I wish to depart and to be with Christ, rather than be, as now, a useless and speechless mass of earth. I beseech thee, my Rorarius, press the Doctor for his reply*." So fully was he persuaded, by miraculous experience, of the power of Luther's prayers, if offered, to detain him again, that he presses for his consent and reply, as if it were impossible for him to depart without it!
In this transaction, however, there is something to be told, yet more extraordinary. Luther had predicted to Mecum, that he himself should die before him. Mecum, on the other hand, again at the point of death, while Luther is yet living, writes to him, as we have seen, expressing his own wish to depart, now that he is again ill, without further delay. And, so wonderful are the ways of God, BOTH these things, thus apparently clashing, are accomplished: for Luther, taking his departure, dies, as he had predicted, first; and Mecum also, according to his prayer, receives his release, but a few weeks after. Hearing of Luther's death, Mecum writes to Justus Menius, " at the death of Luther, which, he predicted to me six years since, would take place before my own transit, I certainly am very much struck +."
The cause of Mecum's surprise at Luther's death, in conformity with his prediction, before his own, seems to have been, that he himself was
* " Tamen si non displiceret Deo, ah! quam vellem dissolvi et esse cum Cliristo, quam sic esse inutile et mutum pondus terra. Te oro, mi Rorari! ut a Domino doctore exigas responsum."
+ " De morte Lutheri, quam ille milii ante annos sex pnedixit, ante meum transitum futuram,certe vehementer perculsus sum." Ibid. c.
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so near his end. Within one month after writing this letter, Mecum departed*.
Luther's death took place Feb. 18th, 1546. Mecum's letter to Menius, in which he speaks of it, bears date March 9th, of the same year: and, on April 7th, Mecum also died.
The third case is that of Melancthon, who, as well as Mecum, was raised by Luther when in a dying state.
The particulars are preserved by Seckendorf: Melancthon fell ill on a journey, and the Elector sent for Luther to comfort him. It will be well to note on what authority Seckendorf relates the facts; though at the same time they are sufficiently attested, by the words, to be cited presently, of Melancthon and Luther themselves.
" The rest," says Seckendorf," I will relate in the words of Solomon Glasse, Superintendent-General of Gotha, of blessed memory, a consummate theologian, whom, when a youth of fourteen, studying in the school of Gotha, I had, nearly two years, as my spiritual adviser. Him, even then, indeed, I highly esteemed, so far as I was capable of appreciating him; and while, on account of the weakness of his voice, very few could understand him when preaching, or cared to listen to him; I for my part took down his discourses, and felt the highest admiration for his doctrine, which was most accurate, and in exposition almost unrivaled. But so great a man needs not my commendation +.
* "Post has literas Myconius unum adhuc irensem vixit, et, ut alibi notavimus, d. 7. Aprilis decessit." Ibid.
+ " Narrabo reliqua verbis D. Salomonis Glassii, superintendents Go-thanigeneralis, b. m. quo quatuordecim annorum adolescens, cum in Gyin-nasio Gothano literis operam darefn, patre spirituali duobus prope annis usus sum, theologi consummatissimi. Eum sane jam turn procaptu meo venerabar, et cum concionantem ob exilitatem vocis paucissimi vel intelligent, vel attentionem ei prastare vellent, ego quidem sermones ejus calamo excepi, et doctrinam viri accuratissimam, et in exegesi pene in-comparabilem, in summa habui admiratione. Sed non opus eat tanto viro inea commendatione." Lib. iii. § LXXXIII. 11.
200 THE REFORMERS.
The following, then, is the account of Melancthon's
recovery, as related by Seckendorf from so respectable an authority.
" Luther arrived, and found Philip about to give up the Ghost. His eyes were set *, his understanding was almost gone, his speech had failed, and also his hearing, his face had fallen, he knew no one, and had ceased to take either solids or liquids. At this spectacle Luther is filled with the utmost consternation, and turning to his fellow-travelers, says,' Blessed Lord, how has the devil spoiled me this instrument !' Then, turning away towards the window, he called most devoutly upon God."
His German " parrhesia," as Seckendorf calls it (i.e. his free, confident, and unreserved petition), which he despairs of giving in Latin, will hardly bear a close translation into English. The sense is, that he besought God, in mercy to him, to forbear : that he struck work +, in order to urge upon Him in supplication, with all the promises of hearing prayer that he could repeat out of Scripture, that he must hear and answer the prayer now offered, if ever he would have the petitioner trust his promises again on other occasions. (Here, probably, Luther had in mind Augustine's address to the Lord, which was also followed by a miraculous answer to prayer, as we have seen in the
* " I venture to give this as what appears to me the most probable rendering of the expression," Fracti erant oculi;" (in Roos," Die Augen waren ihm gleich gebrochen." Reformations-Geschichte, vol. ii. p. 471, ed. Tiibigen, 1782 : a German phrase, when the patient is at the point of death). The breaking of the eyes seems to mean, that the muscles which move the eyeballs, lose, on the approach of death, the power of fixing the view on any object; the consequence of which is, that the two lines of sight no longer converge, as when we look at any thing in health, but break, or become parallel, so that the eyes of the dying person seem to be fixed or set, as if he were gazing on vacancy.
+ There is, I believe, a different account of Luther's words, which would make their purport to be, that he cast before the Lord a whole load of his gracious promises.
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second chapter. " Lord, what prayers of thine own children wilt thou ever grant, if thou grant not these?")
" Glasse proceeds: after this, taking the hand of Philip, and well knowing what was the anxiety of his heart and conscience, he said, Be of good courage, Philip, thou shalt not die. Though God wanteth not reason to slay thee, yet he willeth not the death of a sinner, but that he may be converted and live. He takes pleasure in life, and not in death. Inasmuch as God has called and taken back to his favour the greatest sinners that ever lived on earth, namely, Adam and Eve, much less, Philip, will he cast off thee, or suffer thee to perish in thy sin and sorrow. Wherefore give not place to the spirit of grief, nor become the slayer of thyself; but trust in the Lord, who is able to kill, and to make alive. While he thus utters these things, Philip begins as it were to revive and to breathe, and, gradually recovering his strength, is at last restored to health*," &c.
* " Adveniens Lutherus Philippum jam animam acturum comperit. Fracti erant oculi, intellectus pene amissus, lingua defecerat et auditus, vultus conciderat, neminem agnoscebat, cibo et potu abstinebat. Hunc ob aspectum sumrae Lutherus conterretur, et ad comites iteneris conversus ait, Bone Deus, ut nobis "diabokis hoc organon dehonestavit 1 (wie hat mir der Teufel dot organon getckdndet). Ad fenestras porro vulto averso devotissime Deum invocabat, (Allda, sagte Lutherus, muste mir unser Gottvertialten, den ichwarffihm den sack fur die thvr, und riebe ihm die okren mit idle promissionibus exaudiendarum precum, die ich aus der hei-ligen schrift xu erzekn wuste, doss er mich mustc erhoren, wo ich andcrsC scincn verheissungen trauensuite. Parrhesia hoc vix exprimi Latine po-test. Sensus est: Se cum Deo magna cum confidentia egisse, omneique ei objeciue et veluti inadcasse, qua ex Scripturis allegari poterant, promis-sionet de audiendis precibus, itaque cogebatur (ait) me exaudire si fiduciam meant in promissionet suas conservare vellet. Pergit Glassius : Post hsec manum Philippi prehendens, (bene autem cognita ipsi cordis et consci-entire ejus soticitudo erat), Bono animp esto, Philippe, ait, non morieris. Qnamvis occidendi causa Deo non desit, tamen non vult mortem pecca-toris, sed ut convertatur et vivat: delectatur vita et non morte. Quia Deus maximos peccatores, qui unquam in terris vixerunl, Adam scilicet et Evam, in gratiam suam vocavit et recepit, multo minus te, Philippe, vult abjieere vel permittere, ut in peccato et mcerore tuo pereas. Quare spiritui tristitiae locum ne dato, nee tui ipsius fias homicida, sed confide Domino, qui mortificare et vivificare potest. Haec dum ita proloquitur, reviviscere quasi et spiritum ducere Philippus incipit, p'aulatimque viribus resumptis, tandem sanitati restituitur, &c." Lib. iii. § LXXXIII. 11.
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The effect of the words of Luther on a man who was already in a dying state, who had on him the visible signs of death, and whose hearing, as well as his sight and power of knowing those about him, was gone, is not to be accounted for on any natural principles: and accordingly let us listen to the opinion given by the two parties principally concerned; namely, Melancthon and Luther themselves. Melancthon, writing to Burcard Mithobius, says,
" I should have been a dead man, had I not been recalled from death itself by the coming of Luther *."
And Luther's language is to the same effect. To Joh. Lange he writes,
" Philip is very well after such an illness, for it was greater than I had supposed. I found him dead; but, by an evident miracle of God, he lives +: " and, to a friend resident in his family, referring to his attendance at the diet,
" Toil and labour have been lost, and money spent to no purpose: nevertheless, though I have succeeded in nothing else, yet have I fetched back Philip out of hell; and I intend to bring him, now rescued from the grave, home again with joy, if God will, and with his grace, Amen++."
Since then it is clear, not only that Luther both recognized and believed the doctrine of demoniacal possession, and acted on this belief; not
* " Fuissem extinctus, nisi adveutu Lutheri ex media morte revoca-tus sum."—Lib. III. § ixxsm. 11.
+ " Philippus satis pro tanta segritudine valet: major euim fuit, quant putassem. Mortuum eum invenimus : miraculo Dei manifesto vi vit."— Briefe, 5terTheil. pp. 297, 298.
++ " 1st muhe und arbeit verloren und unkost vergeblich; doch, wo wir nichts mehr ausgericht, so haben wir doch M. Pliilipps wieder aus derHelle geholetund wieder ausdem grabe frolicli heimbringen wollen, ob Gott will und mit seiner gnaden, Ameu."—p. 299.
THE REFORMERS. 203
only that he uttered predictions, that the things which he predicted came to pass, and that he regarded himself as uttering them in the Spirit; not only that he viewed the prayers of the church as efficacious for the healing of the sick, and experienced their efficacy; but also, that he himself, in repeated instances, wrought works of healing for the recovery of others; we may bear, for the future, to hear a few clauses from his works, in which, writing with a view to particular objects of caution or controversy, he seems to speak in depreciating terms of miracles, without being blindly hurried to the general conclusion, that he " expected them not *
* Having so often referred, in the course of the preceding remarks on Luther, to the authority of Seckendorf, I am here induced to add a portion of the account of this excellent writer, given by the Rev. J. Scott in his continuation of Milner's Church History.
" He has been pronounced ' not only a great statesman, but one of the brightest ornaments of the republic of letters.' He was also a man of the strictest uprightness and piety; and, having applied himself much to the study of divinity and ecclesiastical history, when he retired from public life id the year 1682, he was solicited by the Duke of Saxony to write the history of the Reformation, at least as far as related to that country. On his assenting to the proposal, the archives and the libraries of most of the German princes were opened to him, and learned men were ready to tender him their assistance. His great work is entitled ' Commentaries Historicus et Apologeticus de Lutheranisrao,' &c. The particular form which it assumed was owing to the popular but fallacious' History of Lutheranism,' then recently published in the French language by Maimbourg the Jesuit; which Seckendorf translates into Latin, and then examines from section to section, detecting its errors and misrepresentations, and amply supplying its deficiencies from the rich stores of original papers .which were open to him. This excellent work comprises the period of Luther's public life, from the year 1517 to 1546. The author would have carried it further, had not age and infirmities forbidden the attempt. It is attended especially with the four following advantages: 1. It presents the Papal as well as the Protestant accounts, in the very words of a leading advocate of the party: 2. It details to us the sentiments and proceedings of the Protestant princes and divines from the original documents, in great part previously inaccessible to the public: 3. It furnishes us with a review of all Luther's successive writings, and with copious extracts from the most material of
204 THE REFORMERS
The last to be examined of Mr. Noel's witnesses from the Reformers is MUSCULUS.
" Musculus.—Divino itaque consilio factum est ut non. miracula, sed Evangelii preedicatio duraret in orbe alioqui si in miraculis esset Electorum fides, male nobiscum ageretur ante quorum tempora miracula... .jam diu ces-sarunt. Usus eorum erat ut doctrina apostolorum con-firmaretur."—(Musculus on John vi. 69.)*
That is, taking the words as Mr. Noel here gives them,
" It came to pass, therefore, by the Divine purpose, that not miracles, but the preaching of the Gospel, continued in the world. Otherwise, if the faith of the elect were in miracles, it would go hard with us, before whose times miracles.... have long since ceased. Their use was, that the doctrine of the Apostles might be confirmed."
This is certainly a very strong testimony against the belief of Musculus in any miracles. Nevertheless, as a drowning man will catch at a straw, one cannot help feeling a slight disposition to ask the question, especially as Musculus here speaks of miracles sent for the confirmation of the Gospel, whether he really means that all miracles had ceased ; or whether he may not be speaking with a particular reference to those miracles which accompanied the preaching of the Gospel at first: and further, in our drowning struggles, (for the quotation, as it stands above, evidently gives us the worst of it), we catch not only at straws, but even
them: 4. It gives us Seckendorf's OWN EXCELLENT JUDGMENT upon every transaction."—Preface, pp. xii. xiii. Second Edition. 1826.
The reader, however, will readily perceive, that no author can be said to have given a full and correct representation either of Seckendorf's character, or of Luther's, who neglects to record the miraculous experience of the latter, and the unfeigned and evident belief with which the former details it.
* Kemarks, p. 18, note.
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at points: and we beg to know what is the meaning of those which stand inserted above, in the midst of the italics; that is, in the very pith and core of the quotation.—Come. What is the use of mincing and cutting out? Give us the whole sentence. " It came to pass, therefore, by the Divine purpose, that not miracles, but the preaching of the Gospel continued in the world. Otherwise, if the faith of the elect were of miracles, it would go hard with us, before whose times ( THOSE) miracles (WHICH ONCE WENT WITH THE TEACHING OF THE GOSPEL), have long since ceased. Their use was, that the doctrine of the Apostles (ON BEING SENT FORTH INTO THE WORLD), might be confirmed (BY THE
TESTIMONY OF HEAVENLY AND DlVINE POWER)*.".,
Thus, then, it becomes apparent, that Musculus does not say absolutely, that " miracles have long since ceased," according to the abridged citation, as if there were now no miracles; but only, " that those miracles, which once went with the teaching of the Gospel, have long since ceased :" a very different statement; and one which, in an explained sense, I might feel very little wish to controvert. It comes to this ; that Musculus had the opinion, common, as we have seen, to so many of the Reformers, that the Gospel was preached in the beginning, by the Apostles, once for all; and of course it would follow, that he would not expect those miracles, which! were given in aid of their preaching, to be given when the preaching ceased. That such were his views, is sufficiently
* "Divino itaque consilio factum est, ut non miracula, sed Evangelii prtedicatio duraret in Orbe. Alioqui si ex miraculis esset electorum odes, male nobiscum ageretur, ante quorum tempora miracula 1 LLA QUJE EVANOELICAM DOCTRIHAM OLIM coMMATA SUNT, jam diu cessarunt. Usiis eorum erat, ut doctrina Apostolorum, IN ORREM EMISSA, CCELBS-TIS AC DIVINE VIRTUTIS TESTIMONIO conlirmaretur."—Ed. Basil.
206 THE REFORMERS.
clear from the above extract, now that we have it whole. But let me here cite a few other passages from the same author, which will more fully establish the same point; and then proceed to shew, that, nevertheless, though Musculus did think that miracles in attestation of the Gospel had ceased, because he thought that the grand work of preaching it to the world had also ceased, yet he was as far from thinking, absolutely, that the age of miracles was passed, and that no miracles whatever took place in his own days, as any of the Reformers whose sentiments we have already examined.
1. For example, with respect to the first point, (the supposed limitation of the apostolic commission to the first ages,) on John xiv. 12, Musculus proposes two questions; of which the first is, In what sense the Lord says, that those who believed in him should do the same works as he then did himself*: and part of the answer is to the following effect.
" The answer to the first question is, that the Lord is speaking not of all who believe in him, but of those whom he employed to preach the Gospel of the kingdom throughout the world +."
Thus Musculus plainly regards the miraculous works, spoken of in John xiv. 12, as limited to the first ages, because he regards the apostolic commission, to preach the Gospel, as equally limited. He then refers, in confirmation, to the
* " Quomodo credentes in se eadem opera qua; ipse turn fecit facturos esse dicat."
+ " Ad primam qusestionem resnondendum est, loqui Dominum non de omnibus in se credentibus, sea de illis, quorum opera usug -erat ad pradicandum in orbe terraium Evangelium regni."
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apostolic commission to preach the Gospel, with the promise of miracles attached to it, at the end of St. Mark; and quotes 1 Cor. xii. (" Are all Workers of miracles?") adding:
" Nor was that miraculous power to be perpetually in the church of the faithful: for it" (the church) " was not of such a kind as to retain a perpetual and genuine declaration of the Christian faith *."
From these words of Muscuius, we may easily see on what grounds, and in what sense of the words, he considered miracles withdrawn.
In his commentary on St. Matthew, again, we find him expressing the same sentiments. For example, on chap, xxviii, 18, 19, on the words, " Go ye, therefore," &c.;
" He orders them to go. In the last chapter of St. Mark he says, Go ye into all the world. Through the power of this saying it was, that that apostolic commission penetrated the whole world, and proved too strong for all tyrants+."
Again, evidently limiting the commission, as well as the miraculous aid in support of it, to the Apostles themselves, after speaking of the power by which they were aided as too great for all the might of Satan and the world, he adds,—
" Otherwise, how would it have been possible that a new doctrine, and one hitherto unheard of, should be brought into the whole world by men of no learning or authority; and that the wickedness of the whole world, though Satan and the world resisted, should be laid open
*" —nee virtus ista miraculorum erat perpetuo in ecclesia credentium futura. Non - enim talis erat quac perpetuam et germauam Christiana: fidei declarationem haberet."
+ " Euntcs, inquit.—Jubet eos proiicisci. Marci ultimo idicit: Ite in orbem universum. Ex virtute hujus verbi factum est, quod ista iegatio Apostolica penetravit toturn orbem, pravaluitque omnibus tyrannis."
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and condemned ; unless the power of Him, to whom all power belongs, had been present to that commission? *" Thus, if Musculus limits the power of miracles to the first ages, he limits the missionary preaching of the Gospel to the same period. Hence we find, that in applying the command of our Saviour, "Go ye and teach all nations," to modern times, he does not use it as an argument for modern missions. His contest is with the Papists, and he employs it against them. He urges, for instance, that the Lord does not say, Go into all the world, divide it into eleven principalities, and rule in my name; nor to Peter, Thou art my vicar, have plenitude of power, be thou among them sovereign pontiff: that he says nothing of this kind, but, Go and teach. From the same words of our Lord he draws several similar inferences, against Popery and its upholders: for instance, that the Lord did not thereby appoint princes and emperors, who should force men by violence into his kingdom ; but teachers, to teach. From the same words he argues also against public services in an unknown tongue (because the people are to be taught). From the command to go to all, he argues for the doctrine of general redemption, and that the grace of Christ should be offered to all men; as also, that, if such a command be necessary, it proves that all men naturally lie in error and darkness. But not one word does he say of now sending missions to the heathen ; and,
* " Alioqui quomodo possibile fuisset, novam et antea inauditam doc-trinam in universum orbem ab idiotis et nullius potential hominil-us in-dud, et totiug mundi impietatem repugnante satana et raundo revelari et condemnari, nisi virtus ejus, cujus estomnis potestas, ijti legatione ad-
fuisset?"
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thus tying the commission to the first ages, we cannot wonder if he extends the same limitation to the miracles in aid of it.
It is proper that these matters should be determined, and set in a clear point of view ; and therefore I hope the reader will bear with me in citing a few more passages from Musculus, which bring out his sentiments still more clearly. The first is his Third Observation, on our Lord's words, " Teach all nations."
" Since, then, all the nations of the whole earth belong to Christ's kingdom, and since the doctrine of Christ has been brought and manifested to them, as Paul testifies, Rom.x. and Coloss. i., what is the reason that there 'are now so few who acknowledge and profess it, and that so many nations have departed from it to a doctrine of devils and of errors? This doctrine of Christ, having been carried by the Apostles to the whole world, had prevailed in Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia, India, Arabia, Africa, Asia, and Greece, not less than in Italy, Gaul, Germany, Britain, and Spain. But now, in all the former nations, the doctrine and light of Christ being exploded, thick darkness has again prevailed. What other cause shall we assign, than that they persevered not in the love of the truth and in zeal for religion? exactly what the Apostle predicted, saying, For the time will come, when they will not endure sound doctrine ; but, after their own lusts, shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and they shall turn away their | ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. Therefore we, also, are in danger, who are yet under the name and profession of Christ (a certain part, and that truly a very small one, of those nations to whom the doctrine of Christ was communicated, who attained also to the confession of Christ, and again fell away), lest we, too, after their example, fall away from the faith and profession of Christ, unless we abide in the
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love of the truth : especially since Christ himself foretold, that he should find very little faith in the earth, at his return*."
Thus, viewing the Gospel as having been carried by the Apostles to the whole world at the beginning, once for all, and that with an effect, extensive indeed at first, but gradually becoming less and less visible as the world approached its end, it is hardly to be wondered that Musculus looked not, in his own day, for the miracles promised in aid of the work of evangelizing; inasmuch as he conceived that the work had been done at the beginning, and the time of it was now long passed.—In two short extracts more the reader must indulge me, for the further clearing of this subject. One is from the notes of this Reformer on Matt, xxviii. 20, " And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."
" Arduous was the office, which he was enjoining them,
* " Cum igitur ad regnum Christi pertinent onmes totius terrsp na-tiones, sitque ill is doctrina Chiisti allata et manifesta testimonio Pauli, Rom. 10. et Coloss. 1. quid causa; est, quod tarn pauci hodie sunt, qui illam agnoscunt et profitentur, tamque multse gentes ab ilia ad doctrinam dsemoniorum et errorum defecerunt? Obtinuerat hsec doctrina Christi per Apostolos toti orbi allata, in Paleestina, Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia, India, Arabia, Africa, Asia, Gracia, non minus quam Italia, Gallia, Germania, Britannia, et Hispania. At hodie apud omnes eas nationes explosa Christi doctrina et luce, rursus ob-tinuerunt densee tenebrae. Quid aliud dicemus esse in causa, quam quod in dilectione veritatis ac zelo pietatis non perseverarunt: id quod rutu-rum Apostolus pradixit, dicens: Erit enim tempus, cum sanam doctrinam non sustinebunt sed ad sua desideria coacervabunt sibi magistros prurientibus auribus, et a veritate quidem auditum avertent, ad fabulas autem convertentur. Ergo periculum est nobis, qui adhuc sub Christi nomine et professione sumus, pars quaedam, eaque certe minima, earum gentium, quibus Christi doctrina communicata est, qua? et ad Christi confessionem venerunt, et rursus prolapse sunt, ne et nos ad eorum ex-emplum a fide et professione Christi decidamus, nisi in dilectione veri-tatis persistamus: prasertim cum et Christus prcedixerit fore, lit rarissi-mam sit fidem in terra, ubi redieril, reperturus."
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and one to which those good men could not possibly be equal. And it may be supposed, that they were not a little dismayed at the contemplation of it. Therefore he promises them, every where, throughout the whole world, his own presence, works, and favor, even to the termination of this commission * " (or embassy).
Thus he evidently considers Christ's promise of presence and miraculous help, as limited to the Apostolic work and commission of evangelizing the world in the first ages, because he regards the work itself as of so short continuance. This view may appear strange to us, who, whatever we may say as to modern miracles, are the decided and conscientious supporters of modern missions; but, in the minds of the Reformers, the two things went together. One passage more.
" And let this serve as an appropriate answer to our adversaries, who ask us for miracles at the present day, as if we brought any other preaching, than the very same, which was divinely authenticated by so many miracles of the Apostles +."
Musculus, then, like the other Reformers, was on his guard against admitting the necessity of miracles to prove his doctrines, because this would have been admitting that his doctrines were not those of the primitive church : and surely, all these things considered, when we find him saying, not, according to Mr. Noel's citation, " miracles have long since ceased," but only " those miracles which
* " Arduum erat munus, quod injungebat, cui pares esse boni viri nullo inodo poterant. Et credibile est, eos haud parum illius considerations territos. Ideo pollicetur illis suam ubique per universum orbem prssen-tiam, opera, et gratiam, usque ad legationis hujua consummationem."
+ " Atque hie habeant responsum suum adversari i, qui hodie miracula a nobis exigunt, quasi praedicationem aliam adferamos, quam earn ipsam, quae tot miraculis apostolorum comprobata est divinitus."—p. 264.
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once went with the teaching of the Gospel have long since ceased," we are not bound to understand him as meaning to assert, in unqualified terms, an absolute cessation of all miracles; but merely a cessation of those, for which, he held, there was then no longer any need: namely, those in evidence of a doctrine, sufficiently proved at first; or those in support of a work, which he regarded as long ago accomplished.
2. This comes under our first head. Our second is, that the belief of Musculus in some miracles at his own time, may be established by direct evidence.
For example, he alleges the power of Satan to work miracles *.
" Those malignant spirits," he says, " lurk in statues and images, inspire soothsayers, compose oracles, influence lots, govern the flight of birds, trouble life, disquiet sleep, &c. distort the members, break down the health, harass with diseases +."
On the vision of Joseph, the husband of Mary, he argues against miraculous visions, unless they agree with Scripture; thus opposing the Papists, but not denying the reality of all visions ++. And again, in answering a supposed objector, who argues for the worship of saints because they help by miracles those who call upon them, he says,
" If the argument, derived from miracles, can serve as a defense of prayer and worship offered to saints, by the same argument (not to mention what has been said above,)
* pp. 113,114.
+ " In statuis et simulacris delitescunt spiritus illi maligni, et afflatu suo vatum pectora inspirant, oracula componunt, sortes regunt, avium volatus gubernant, vitam turbant, soronos inquietant, &c. Membra detorquent, valitudinem frangunt, morbis lacessunt, &c." p. 114.
++. p. 9.
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the idolatry of the heathen may also be defended, since very many have been miraculously cured and set free even at the invoking of the heathen deities*."
Since, then, Musculus does not object to miraculous visions, unless they are not in accordance with Scripture; since he asserts some miracles as occurring in his own time ; and since (except, as we have seen, in our explained sense,) he does not absolutely deny any; we cannot consent, upon such evidence as has hitherto been adduced, to admit that his opinion was opposed to the miraculous character of the Christian dispensation. It is true that, like the other Reformers, he uses some expressions, which, viewed alone, might be thought unfavourable to miracles; but this, under all the circumstances of the case already set forth, is not sufficient proof to authorize the assertion, that he " expected them not."
The names and authorities alleged by Mr. Noel against miracles, have now been examined in detail. " We have already seen that, among the Reformers of the sixteenth century, Calvin, Bucer, Peter Martyr, and Conrad Pellican, expected them not: to these I may add Beza, Musculus, Bullinger, and Luther." But Mr. Noel goes farther, and we will go with him: " —nor do I believe that the name of a single Reformer of eminence, either in this country or on the continent, can be adduced as holding a contrary belief f." Such negative allegations a^ this, are very
* "Si miraculoum argumentum sanctorum invocationem et cultum defendere potest, ut quse pneinissa sunt taceam, defendi eodem potest et Gentium idololatria, quandoquidem et ad deoruiu gentilium implorati-onem miraculose curati sunt et liberati plurimi." p. 113. + p. 18.
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sweeping; and I really could not pretend to meet them by going through the works of all the Reformers of eminence, English or continental; which would be the proper way, and, I doubt not, a very satisfactory one. But I will meet them with another allegation. I do not believe that the name of a single Reformer of eminence, either in this country or on the continent, can be adduced as holding views on the miraculous subject, materially varying from those which have now been found, on examination, to be the real sentiments of Huss, Calvin, Martyr, Bucer, Pellican, Beza, Bullinger, Luther, and Musculus: namely, that they were disposed to speak very guardedly upon the subject, and indeed had good need of caution, for reasons which we have shewn : but that none of them positively denied all miracles; and that some of them had miraculous manifestations in their own experience.
But come. We cannot go through the works of all the Reformers ; but there can be no harm in referring to one or two.
KNOX.—Of him Beza says,
" If I call him, as it were, a sort of Apostle of the Scots, in re-establishing the true worship of God, I shall not think that I have spoken beyond the truth *."
And, whatever signs besides of an Apostle may have been found in Knox, he certainly seems to have possessed that of prediction or prophecy. But what has been brought forward by Mr. Noel respecting the other Reformers, I am perhaps now bound, in fairness, to admit respecting Knox;
* " —quern si Scotorum, in vero Dei cultu instaurando velut apos-tolum quendam dixero, dixisse me quod res est existimabo."
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namely, that expressions are to be found in his writings, which, taken alone, seem adverse to the acknowledgment of any miraculous manifestations in modern days. Some of these I now proceed to give ; on the principle of not seeking to establish truth by an ex-parte statement, but affording my readers an opportunity to form their judgment on a view of both sides of the question. For example, in Knox's " Faithful Admonition*," referring to the saying of our Lord, " It is I, be not afraid," he remarks that the instrument by which Christ put away the fear of his disciples, " is his only, word," appearing to mean his word alone, without miracles. It may be also but fair to mention, that, in some of his predictions, he seems to intimate that he went no further, in denouncing future judgments, than he was led by the general warnings of Holy Scripture, taken in their application to existing circumstances: and there can be no doubt, inasmuch as human occurrences move in a certain cycle, which cycle is sufficiently marked out in God's word, that the study of Scripture will enable us to discern and announce the general character of coming events, (especially in a season of national judgments, impending for national sins,) with considerable accuracy; and this, without any such particular inspiration, or revelation, as seems necessary to constitute a prophet, independent of Scripture; in other words, with only such a degree of spiritual light, and aid in the reading of the Bible, as may be deemed
* " Faithful Admonition made by John Knox unto the professors of God's truth in England." 1554.
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more or less accessible to all believers. This general guidance of Scripture, then, in predicting judgments, Knox certainly recognizes. For example, the Secretary Lethington having said, in his bill given in to the Session, " that Mr. Knox was a man subject to vanity, and all are not oracles," Knox, on his death-bed " confessed he was but a most vile creature, and a wretched man, yet the words he had spoken should prove to be as true as the oracles, which have been uttered by any of the servants of God before : for he had said nothing but that whereof he had warrant out of the Word *."
In another instance, again, Knox seems, in some measure, to regulate his predictions by a view of God's course in judgment.
" O Englande, let thy intestine battles and domestical murther provoke the to purety of lyfe according to the worde whiche openly hath bene proclaymed in the. Otherwise the cuppe of the Lordes wrathe thou shalt shortly drinke of. The multitude shall not escape, but shall drynke the dregges, and have the cuppe broken upon their heades, for judgement beginninge in the house of the horde commonly the least offendor is fyrst punished, to provoke the more wicked to repentaunce+."
And, in the following passage, he seems to recognise, as regulating his predictions, both the authority of Scripture prophecy, and the known rules of God's immutable justice.
" And the grounde off the Prophetes was the same which before I have rehersed for my assurances, that Englande shall be plagued, which is Godes immutable and inviolable justice, whiche cannot spare in one Realme and nation,
* Calderwood's MS. history, quoted in the Life of Knox, prefixed to the History of the Reformation. Edinburgh, 1732. p. xxxvii.
+ A Confession, and Declaration of Praiers added thereunto,— towards the end.
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those offenses that most severally he hath punished in another *."
Of the following instances, perhaps, different readers may judge differently. On one occasion, addressing the professors of God's truth in England, then under affliction, he reminds them that he had formerly prophesied to them both of trouble and of relief; intimating that the trouble had now come; and that therefore they ought to believe the other part of his prophecy, and expect the relief.
" We gaue yow warning of these dayes long a goo, for the reverence of Christes bloude let these wordes be marked: THE SAME TRUTH THAT SPAKE BEFORE OF THESE MOST DOLOROUSE DAYES, FORSPAKE ALSO THE EVERLAST1NGE JOYE PREPARED FOR SUCHE AS SHOULD CONTINUE TO THE ENDE +."
In the margin, as if to intimate the express import of what he says, is the gloss " Marke these wordes." He then adds,
" The trouble is comme. O deare brethern, loke for the comforte, and (after the example of the Apostles) abyd in resistinge this vehement storme a litle space.
In the " Godly Letter," again, we find Knox appealing to his hearers that he had prophesied of the plagues that visited the realm of England.
" You know that the realme off Englande was visited with straunge plagues. And whether that it was ever prophesied that worse plagues were to folow, I appeale to the testimony of your own conscience."
But, if any one be disposed to explain away the above instances, we find, in other parts of
* A Godly Letter sent to the Fayethfull in London. 1554. + Faylhfull Admonition.
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Knox's works, predictions not only in the event most true, but in their details so particular, that they can hardly be resolved, on any principle, into mere inferences, or sagacious prognostications, derived from a general view of God's word, however attentively studied and spiritually applied ; but must rather be viewed as predictions, or prophecies, in the strictest sense of the word, and as so intended by Knox himself. A good, humble, and simple-hearted man, and Knox was all this, would not have spoken as he sometimes speaks, without intending to convey the idea that he was really prophesying, or foretelling by inspiration, in the proper meaning of the terms. The predictions, to which I refer, were not only express, but personal; that is, relating to what should happen to individuals. For, example, when the Earl of Murray, Regent, had been murdered to the great grief of Knox, the news coming to Edinburgh, the following transaction took place the day after the Earl's death. An individual, by name Thomas Maitland,
" Knowing what esteem J. Knox made of the regent, and loving none of the two, caused a writing to be laid in the pulpit where J. Knox was that day to preach, to this sense, and almost in the same words, ' Take up the man whom you accounted another God, and consider the end whereto his ambition has brought him.' J. Knox finding the paper, and taking it to be a memorial for recommending some sick person in his prayers, after he had read the same, laid it by, nothing, as it seems, commoved therewith ; yet in the end of the sermon falling to regret the loss that the church and commonwealth had received by the death of the regent, and shewing how God did often, for the sins of the people, take away good rulers and governors; ' I perceive,' said he, ' albeit this be an acci-
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dent we shall all take to heart, there be some that rejoice in this wicked fact, making it the subject of their mirth, among whom there is one that hath caused a writing to be cast in this place, insulting upon this, which is all good men's sorrow. This wicked man, whosoever he be, shall not go unpunished, and shall die where none shall be to lament him.' The gentleman was himself present at sermon, and being come to the lodging asked his sister, if she did not think John Knox was raving to speak so of the man he knew not. But she weeping said, that she was sorry he had not followed her counsel; for she had dissuaded him from that doing. None of this man's denunciations, said she, are wont to prove idle, but have their own effect. Shortly after, the troubles of the country increasing, the gentleman betook himself to travel and passing into Italy, died there, having no known person to attend him. This I thought not unworthy of record, being informed thereof of the gentleman's sister, to whom these speeches were uttered, and who was privy to the whole purpose, for an advertisement to all persons not to make a light account of the threatenings of God's servants*."
Knox's biographer adds,
" From this passage it is evident that Mr. Knox was in very great esteem, and that he was reputed to be endued with an extraordinary faculty of predicting things to come +."
The writer's remark, at the close, particularly directs our attention to those words of Maitland's sister, " None of this man's denunciations are wont to prove idle, but have their own effect:" and it is evident that so particular a prognostication, as that which predicted a certain individual's dying alone in a foreign land, is not to be accounted for by any general knowledge of Scrip-
*Bishop Spoteswode's History, 2d Edition, p. 234. Quoted in the Life of Knox prefixed to his History, pp. xxxi. xxxii. + Ibid. p. xxxii.
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tural prophecy, independent of some more direct communication. A similar remark will apply in the following instance :—
" The Earl of Morton, Lord Boyd, and the Laird of Drumlanrig came to visit him, on Wednesday the 19. To the Earl Mr. Knox was heard to say, My Lord, God hath given you many blessings....and is now to prefer you to the government of this realm. In his name I charge you that you use those blessings right, and better in time to come, than you have done in time past. In all your actions seek first the glory of God......If you do
this, God shall be with you and honour you. If otherwise you do it not, he shall deprive you of all those benefits, and your end shall be shame and ignominy. These words the earl, nine years after, at the time of his execution, called to mind, saying he found them to be true, and Mr. Knox therein a prophet *."
The following passage relates to some particular predictions, and also to Knox's general character for predicting things to come.
" He had a mighty Spirit of Judgment and Wisdom: that trouble came never to the Kirk, after his entry in public preaching, but he foresaw the end thereof. Many things he did foretell (as hath been noticed in their places). I add now that he foretold the queen, that because she would not come and hear the word, she should be compelled to hear it, nill she will she; and so she was at her arraignment. And to her husband the king he said, Have ye, for the pleasure of that dame, cast the Psalm book into the fire? The Lord shall strike both head and tail +."
On another occasion we find Knox a prisoner on board the galleys; and, to all appearance, at the point of death. Yet he prophesies not only his restoration to health and liberty, but also his
* Life of Knox, as before, p. xxxviii. + Ibid. p. xl.
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enlargement to preach the Gospel once more, in a church of which he saw the steeple from the water.
" Lying betwixt Dundee and St. Andrews, the second time that the galleys arrived in Scotland, the said John Knox being so extremely sick that few hoped his' life, the said Master James Belford called him to look to the land, and asked him if he knew it. Who answered, ' Yes, I know it well. For I see the steeple of that place, where God first opened my mouth in public to his glory. And I am fully persuaded, how weak that even now I appear, that I shall not depart this life, till that my tongue shall glorify his godly name in the same place.' This reported the said Mr. James, in presence of many famous witnesses, many years before that ever the said John set his . foot in Scotland; this last time to preach* ."
No ordinary reading of the Scripture, nor any thing short of an express testimony of the Holy Ghost, could enable a man to prophesy with so much particularity, and, as the event shewed, with so much truth concerning himself. The following is from the account of Knox's last illness. In this instance he expressly alleges an assurance, or particular communication from God.
" Mr. David Lindsay reported what follows to diverse. One time when he came to visit Mr. Knox, he asked him how he did. He answered, Well, brother, I thank God. I have desired all this day to have had you, that I might send you yet to yon man in the castle, whom you know I have loved so dearly; go, I pray you, and tell him, that I have sent you to him yet once to warn him, and bid him, in the name of God, leave that evil course, and leave the castle: and if not, that he shall be brought down over the walls with shame, and hang against the sun ; so God has assured me. Mr. David thought the message hard,
*History of Reformation, p. 84.
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yet, Mr. Knox pressing him, he went to the castle, and met first with Sir Robert Melvil walking on the wall, and told him what was his errand, who, as he thought, was much moved with the matter. Thereafter he communed with Grange the captain, whom he thought also somewhat moved. The captain went from him to Secretary Lethingtoun, with whom after he had conferred a little, here turned to Mr. Lindsay ; and said, ' Go tell Mr. Knox he
is but a dr------ng prophet.' Mr. David returned to Mr.
Knox, and reported how he had discharged his commission, and that it was not very well accepted of the captain, after he had conferred with the secretary. Well, says Mr. Knox, I have been earnest with my God anent these two men ; for the one, Grange, I am sorry that so it shall befall him, yet God assureth me there is mercy for his soul. For the other I have no warrant, that ever he shall be well. Mr. David thought that he spoke hard, yet laid it up in his mind, till Mr. Knox was at rest with God, and found the truth of that which he had spoken, within a little after*."
Here Knox pronounces upon the cases of two men, like Joseph standing between the butler and the baker: and with regard, especially, to the person first mentioned, it is clear that the general denunciations of Scripture are not sufficient, of themselves, to premonish us of a particular individual's dying by the hands of the executioner.
The account given by Knox of certain visions seen by James V. I abstain from quoting, being prevented by intimidation. It is important, as illustrating Knox's views on the subject of predictions, and on that of supernatural intimations concerning things to come, or things not known by other means: but it opens a new subject, hitherto scarcely touched upon in the present
* MS. History, quoted in Life of Knox, pp. xxxvii. xxxviii.
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work, namely, that of apparitions; on which, indeed, I am not desirous to give an opinion, having no very decided one to give. I am principally induced to keep back the passage, however, by intimidation ; knowing that the citing of it would be as sure to injure my character with some whose good opinion I wish to keep, as an ingenious solution, upon neological principles, of some doctrinal text, or miracle of the Bible, would be sure to gain me credit. If the reader chooses to look at the extract in a note below, there it is *. I make but one request; namely, that no ' Religious Periodical' will cite it as a fair specimen of the quotations in the present work. I am sorry to say that one publication of this tricky race has gone, of late, too much upon the plan of making partial extracts, and those not
* " And yet did not God cease to give that blinded prince some documents that some sudden plague was to fall upon him, in case he did not repent his wicked life, and that his own mouth did confess. For after that Sir James Hamilton was beheaded (justly or unjustly we dispute not), this vision came unto him, as to his familiars himself did declare. The said Sir James appeared unto him, having in his hand a drawn sword, by the which from the king he struck both the arms, saying to him these words, ' Take that, until thou receive a final payment for all thine impiety.' This vision, with sorrowful countenance, he shewed on the morn, and shortly thereafter died his two sons, both within the space of twenty-four hours; yea, some say, within the space of six hours. In his own presence George Steill, his greatest flatterer, and greatest enemy to God that was in his court, dropped off, his horse, and died without word, that same day that in open evidence of many, the said George had refused his portion of Christ's Kingdom, if the prayer of the virgin Mary should not bring him thereto. How terrible a vision the said prince saw, lying in Linlythgow, that night Thomas Scott, Justice Clerk, died in Edinburgh, men of good credit can yet report. For afraid, at midnight, or after, he cried for torches, and raised all that lay beside him in the palace, and told that Tom Scott was abroad; for he had been at him with a company of devils, and had said unto him this word, ' O woe to the day that ever I knew thee or thy service; for, for serving of thee, against God, against his servants, and against justice, I am adjudged to endless torment.'"—History, pp. 23, 24.
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always correctly given, or incorrect statements as to matters of fact; and at the same time keeping back from its readers the true character of what I have written ; from which some of my critical friends seem to labour under a common panic of quoting, in an ungarbled form, so much as a single paragraph : at the same time that their occasional citation of broken phrases, together with their adoption of ideas which, less perhaps from their value than from other causes, they could neither steal elsewhere nor make, betrays a secret: and detects them in having well read and conned publications, of which they pretend a total ignorance.
One extract, however, respecting James V., I must venture to give here, in the text. It relates to the presentiment of his own death ; and shews clearly that, while Knox himself possessed the gift of prediction, his views upon the subject included others as well as himself, bad as well as good.
" The lady at supper, perceiving him serious, began to comfort him, and willed him to take the work of God in good part. ' My portion of this world,' said he, ' is short, for I will not be with you 15 days.' His servant repaired unto him, asking, where he would have provision made for his Yuill [Christmas] which then approached. He answered, with a disdainful smirk, ' I cannot tell, choose ye the place. But this I can tell you, ere Yulle-day you will be masterless, and the realm without a king.' He returned to Falkland, and took bed. And albeit there appeared unto him no signs of death, yet he constantly affirmed, ' Before such a day I shall be dead *.' "
The king's presentiment, that he should die
• p. 31.
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before Christmas day, proved correct. His death .took place 18th December, in the same year, 1642. ,But in mentioning the views of Knox, respecting the gift of presentiments or predictions in others, we again open a new subject; for in the course of his writings, we find him repeatedly mentioning different servants of God, as persons by whom such a power was exercised; and appealing to his hearers as to the fact, both of their predicting, and of the fulfilment of their predictions. Thus, in his " Godly Letter to the Faithful in London," he speaks of
, " those most godly and learned preachers, that this laste Lent, anno 1553, were appointed to preach before the kynges majestic"
" Almost there was none," he says, " who dyd not prophesie and plainly spake the plagues that are begonne and assuredly shall end. Mayster Grindall plainlye spake the death of the Kynges Majesty."—He adds,
" That godly and fervent man Mayster Lever playnlye spake the desolacion of thys commonwealthe. And Mayster Bradforde, (whome God for Christes hys Sonne sacke comforte to the ende) spared not the proudest of them, but boldely declared, that Goddes vengeance shortlye should strycke those that then were in authoitie, because they lothed and abhorred the trew worde of the everlastinge God."
If it be delightful to discern the affection subsisting between such men as Knox and Bradford, it is not a little striking to view them alike employed, as messengers to warn the church of coming woes. The Lent when the preaching took place, 1553, preceded the death of Edward by a few months. The calamities, which the preachers in question prophesied, had already begun, by the
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accession of Mary, when Knox published his " Godly Letter," reminding " the faithful in London " that the woes predicted in that preaching had now commenced. As to Grindal, it would be easy to find in his writings, as in those of the witnesses cited by Mr. Noel, detached expressions unfavourable to modern miracles. Thus, writing to Queen Elizabeth, he says,
" But now miracles ceasing, men must attain to the Hebrew, Greek, Latin Tongue, &c. by travil and study. God giveth the increase *."
But here we have again to learn, that one passage from a writer does not always determine his real sentiments. Just before he uses more qualified terms, saying, with respect to the " prediction of things to come,"—" which thing, or which gift, is not now ordinarily in the church of God + " which shews that he thought it might be occasionally. And, that it was so, he himself had previously seen and given sufficient evidence, towards the close of the reign of Edward VI.; when, as Knox informs us, or rather reminds cotemporary believers, almost there was none [of the appointed preachers] who did not prophesy and plainly speak the plagues that, when he wrote, were already begun : and when " Mayster Grin-dall" himself plainly spake the death of the Kings Majesty: from which circumstance, by the bye, we are reminded, that if a preacher, in those days, foresaw, by particular revelation, the speedy demise of the crown, he might, in the performance of his sacred function, predict it openly, and
* Letter to Queen Elizabeth, p. 16. + p. 16.
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that in the presence of the exalted individual personally most interested, without incurring by his faithfulness the pains and penalties of the law.
" But, as to Grindal's having predicted the death of King Edward in the Lent preachings of 1553, this," some objector, profound in English history, may exclaim, " is after all not so very remarkable. The king had been seized, in the spring of the preceding year, with the measles and small pox ; and though, at the time, he seemed to recover from both these attacks, yet, at the commencement of 1553, some weeks before the preachings, he had been attacked with a very bad cough, which ended at last in a consumption that carried him off on the sixth of July. What wonder, then, that Grindal should speak of his ' death, so short a time before it took place; and when he was already ill of the disease of which he died? "
I find a difficulty in getting at the exact circumstances of this case: but two things are evident.
First, Knox writes at the time when the events had but recently occurred (1554, the year after Edward's death); he writes to the people of England, to whom all the circumstances must have been well known, and fresh in remembrance; and he plainly writes, as of a fact that admitted of being ascertained at the time; intimating that Grindal, in speaking of the King's death, had , uttered a true prediction. It is not likely that Knox would have thus expressed himself, had it been generally understood, at the time when Grindal preached, that there was no hope of the King's recovery ; it would have been so easy to tell him this, and thus at once to silence his appeal by stating the fact. The supposition, then, that Grindal did not speak of the approaching demise
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of the crown till it was known to be morally certain, cannot be entertained.
Secondly, The true state of the case appears to have been this: that, the King having become seriously ill at the beginning of the year, and having died in July, the season of Lent, when Grindal preached and predicted his death, was a season of suspense, uncertainty, and hope. Rapin tell us, that
" all hopes of the King's recovery were not given over till the middle of May, when 'tis likely, the physicians told the Duke of Northumberland, his case was desperate* :" . Afterwards, he carries us later : " about the end of May, when there was no hope of the King's recovery +."
But another publication, which professes to give dates with accuracy, goes still later into the year :
" June 21.—The settlement" (for setting aside Mary and Elizabeth, and giving the crown to Lady Jane Gray,) " was at last signed by all the council.
" Edward's disease grew worse, and all signs of recovery vanished, upon which the Earl of Northumberland advised the physicians to be discharged," &c. ++
The inference is, therefore, that, at the season of Lent, when all hope was not yet passed, when the King was known to be dangerously ill, and when all true Protestants and loyal subjects were anxiously wishing and praying for his recovery— as, of course, they always must, when the life of a king, himself a true Protestant, is in danger—at
• Tindal's Translation. London, 1733. Vol. II. p. 25.
+ pp. 25, 26.
++British Chronologist. London, 1775
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this time Grindal took upon him to speak decisively concerning an issue, of which others were ignorant, and to say, the King should die, and not live. This, I say, seems the only way of stating the case, so as to explain Knox's reference to it: and as, when the hostile army of the Chaldeans threatens Jerusalem, and while some are hoping that the city shall not be taken, the prophet tells them that it shall not escape, we of course regard him as prophesying; so, in the case before us, when the King is in danger, and, though many hope that he will live, Grindal declares that he will die, (which seems to be the correct account of the 'transaction,) we can but regard him, also, as meaning what he said for a prophecy or prediction. The event, we have seen, confirmed it, as well as in the case of Jeremiah.
But there is one Reformer mentioned by Knox, less known in our days than he deserves, and so endued with the gift of prediction, that the exercise of the talent, in him, merits a more detailed notice. I am aware that by here entering on this detail, I may seem to be deviating from the challenge, with which we now have to do, to produce Reformers " of eminence." The real eminence, however, of ancient worthies, ,is not to be measured by any modern estimate; much less by that of this superficial age, which, being little itself, has no measure by which it can discriminate between little and great, between eminence and mediocrity, : an age, whose scales are those of the scruple and the grain; whose standard is the inch; whose field of sight is that of the microscope; whose ideas are all diminutive; and to which
230 THE REFORMERS.
great men are denied, because, if it had them, it would be incapable of appreciating them, and would infallibly treat them basely;—but their eminence must be measured by what they were in their own time and day. At any rate be it remembered, that although George Wisheart be not now regarded as a Reformer " of eminence," it will not be altogether foreign to our purpose to cite him here, because, from his views and experience, we obtain further light concerning the sentiments of Knox who records them, and of whom we have just been speaking.
WISHEART or WISCHARD. He came to Scotland in 1544, and suffered martyrdom, 1546. The first thing to be noticed in his predictions is, that, (as in the case of Knox himself,) there are many of them which cannot by any means be resolved into mere prognostications; but that he distinctly claims particular inspiration for them. For instance, after warning his hearers of the troubles that came on Scotland not long after, he says,
" If it long prospers with you, I am not led with the Spirit of Truth. But if trouble unlooked for apprehend you, acknowledge the cause, and turn to God, for he is merciful. But if ye turn not at the first, he will visit you with fire and sword *."
Again, it must have been by no general impressions derived from Scripture, but, as he himself alleged, by particular revelation, that he knew of an ambush for his destruction, and of the particular part of the road where the assassins lay concealed.
" While he was so occupied with his God, [in preaching and meditation] the cardinal drew a secret draucht. He
• Knox's History, p. 43.
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caused write unto him a letter, as it had been from his most familiar friend the Laird of Kinnyre, desiring him with all possible diligence to come unto him, for he was struck with a sudden sickness. In the mean time had the traitor provided threescore men, with jackis and spears, to lie in wait within a mile and a half of the town of Montrois, for his despatch. The letter coming to his hand, he made haste at the first, for the boy had brought a horse, and so with some honest men he passed forth of the town. But suddenly he stayed, and musing a space, returned back; whereat they wondering, he said, I will not go, am forbidden of God. I am assured there is treason. Let some of you, said he, go to yon place, and tell me what they find. Diligence made, they found the treason as it was : which being shewn, with expedition, to Mr. George, he answered, I know that I shall end my life in that bloodthirsty man's hands, but it will not be of this manner *."
In like manner, alleging the influence of God's Holy Spirit, he rebuked and forewarned two Grey Friars, who had disturbed the congregation while he was preaching.
" Depart, and take this for your portion, God shall shortly confound and disclose your hypocrisy within this realm. Ye shall be abominable unto men, and your places
and habitations shall be desolate.....And, turning to the
people, he said, ' Yon wicked men have provoked the Spirit of God to anger;' and so he returned to his matter +."
There is something far too particular, again, in the denunciations of Wisheart against Haddington, the inhabitants of which place had displayed a marked contempt for the preaching of the Gospel, to be accounted for as merely general prognostication, or warning for sin and unbelief.
" Sore and fearful shall the plagues be that shall ensue this thy contempt, with fire and sword shalt thou be
* pp. 45, 46. + P. 47.
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plagued ; yea, thou Haddington in special, strangers shall possess thee; and ye, the present inhabitants shall either in. bondage serve the enemies, or else ye shall be chased from your habitations; and that because ye have not known, nor will not know the time of God's merciful visitation. In such vehemency and threatening continued that servant of God near an hour and a half, in the which he declared all the plagues that ensued, as plainly as, after, our eyes saw them performed." [It is added, that he concluded] " and so put an end, as it were, making his last testament, as the issue declared, that the Spirit of truth and true judgment was both in his heart and mouth *."
The last sentence manifests the opinion of KNOX, that Wisheart spoke by revelation, as plainly as, in the preceding citations, we have seen the same truth asserted by Wisheart himself.
As the denunciation was particular, so was its fulfillment exact.
" God begins to fight for Scotland. For in the town " (Haddington) " he sent a pest so contagious, that with great difficulty could they have their dead buried. They were oft refreshed with new men, but all was in vain. Hunger and pest within, and the pursuit of the enemy with a camp-volant lay about them, and intercepted all victuals, except when they were brought by a convoy from Berwick, so constrained them that the council of England was compelled, in spring time, to call their forces from that place. And so spoiling and burning some part of the town, they left it to be occupied to such as first should take possession, and these were the Frenchmen, with a mean [small, inconsiderable] number of the old inhabitants. And so did God perform the words and threatening of Master George Wisheart, who said, ' that for their contempt of God's messenger, they should be visited with sword and fire, with pestilence, strangers, and famine:'
• p. 48 (misprinted 52.)
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which all they found in such perfection, that to this day yet, that town has neither recovered its former beauty, nor yet men of such wisdom and ability as then did inhabit it*."
"In the trouble, then, that thus befell Haddington, (the town distinguished, also, by a sad priority, in a calamity which has recently visited Scotland,) we have to note, not only the fulfillment of Wisheart's prophecy, but the decided testimony given, as we see, to this circumstance by Knox in relating it.
We have already seen, in the account of Wisheart's escape from the ambush laid for him by t the cardinal, that he had received a premonition 'of his dying, at last, " in that blood-thirsty man's hands :" and, as the time approached, the foreknowledge of it seems to have been imparted to him with more and more distinctness.
" In all his sermons, after his departure from Angus, he forspake the shortness of time he had to travel, and of his death, the day whereof, he said, approached nearer than any would believe +."
This was about Christmas time (Yuill); and the event confirmed his words. At the end of January he was apprehended, and he suffered on the first of March. Again:
" That night, as information was give us by W. Spadone and J. Watson, both men of good credit, before day he passed forth into a yard ; the said William and John [followed privily, and took heed what he did. When he had gone up and down in an alley a reasonable space, with many sighs and deep groans, he plat down upon his knees, and sitting thereon his groans increased, and from his knees he fell upon his face : and then the persons forenamed heard
* pp. 86, 87. +P- 47.
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weeping, and as it were an indigest sound, as it were of prayers, in the which he continued near an hour, and after began to be quiet, and so rose and came to his bed. They that awaited, prevented him, as they had been ignorant, till that he came in; and then began they to demand, where he had been. But that night he would answer nothing : before the morn they urged him again : and while that he dissembled, they said, Mr. George, be plain with us, for we heard your groans. Yea, we heard your mourning, and saw you both upon your knees and upon your face. With dejected visage he said, I had rather you been in your beds, and it had been more profitable for you; for I was scarce well occupied. When they instantly urged him to let them know some comfort, he said, I will tell you that I am assured, that my travel is near an end : and therefore call to God with me, that now I shrink not, when the battle waxes most hot. And while that they wept and said, That was small comfort unto them, He answered, God shall send you comfort after me. This realm shall be enlightened with the light of Christ's Gospel, as clearly as ever was any realm, since the days of the Apostles. The house of God shall be built in it. Yea, it shall not want (whatsoever the enemy imagine to the contrary) the very keep-stone (meaning that it should be brought to full perfection). Neither, said he, shall this be long to. There shall not many suffer after me, till that the glory of God shall evidently appear, and shall once triumph in despite of Satan. But, alas! if the people shall be after unthankful, then fearful and terrible shall the plagues be, that after shall follow*."
As the actual time of his capture and martyrdom approached, the premonition became still more definite and particular.
"The manner of taking him was this—departing from the town of Haddington, he took his good night, as it were, for ever of all his acquaintance, especially from Hugh Douglas of Langnudrie. John Knox pressing to have
* p. 46.
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gone with the said Mr. George, he said, * Nay, return to your bairns, and God bless you. One is sufficient for a sacrifice *.'"
That same night, the house where he lodged was beset, and he was taken.—The case of Knox, then, is another of those, from which it is plainly apparent that a writer may use expressions, under particular circumstances, and in a particular connection, which, taken alone, appear unfavourable to the doctrine of miracles; and yet that both the experience and the testimony of the same writer, in other places, shall be found altogether on the side of miraculous manifestations which have actually occurred.
Fox.—The general style of Fox's language is by no means adverse to occasional instances of miraculous manifestations in the Church. He refers to the case of the martyr Theodorus, by whom a young man stood, and wiped off his sweat + : and he plainly regards the death of Dr. Whittington, a bishop's chancellor in the reign of Henry VII., as a miraculous judgment. It may be said, I am well aware, that this is no miracle in the strict sense of the terms ; but, waving such discussions for the present, I give the "particulars as illustrative of Fox's sentiments.
A woman had been condemned by Whittington, and burnt, in his presence, at Sudbury. On his return from the execution, a bull broke loose ; ran wildly at him, hurting none besides; and, with some dreadful circumstances, gored him to death. Fox says:
" Although the carnal sense of man be blind in considering the works of the Lord, imputing many times to
*pp. 48, 49. + Acts and Monuments, Vol. I. p. 109.
236 THE REFORMERS.
blind chance the things which properly belong to God's only praise and Providence; yet in this so strange and so evident an example, what man can be so dull or ignorant, which seeth not herein a plain miracle of God's mighty power and judgment, both in the punishing of this wicked chancellor, and also in admonishing all other like persecutors, by his example, to fear the Lord, and to abstain from like cruelty*."
He then proceeds to give the evidence of the fact; plainly entertaining no doubt whatever, in his own mind, as to the character of the fact itself. So also he gives us " The copy of an old writing of king Ethelstan, testifying of the miraculous death of duke Elfred, suddenly stricken by the hand of God for perjury." The only difference is, that king Ethelstan imputes Elfred's death "Deo et sancto Petro" (with some reference, probably, to the case of Ananias and Sapphira); while Fox imputes it to the hand of God, as in the last instance. It is to be noticed, also, that though Fox here gives, as crediting it, an event of a suspicious age, he gives it with discrimination, and not as crediting all that is detailed in popish records. We find him, for example, discountenancing and opposing many popish miracles ; for instance, those of Adelmus, not long before + ; of A. D. 927-933, just after ++ ; and of Dunstan, a few pages further on §. But we have seen already, whatever may be the reader's view of the particular cases of Elfred and Whittington, (which, according to some, it would be a misapplication of terms to call miracles, and, according to others, it would be very wicked to call
*Vol. I. p. 880. +P. 139. ++ p. 165. § p. 173.
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judgments, so that it is hard to tell what we may call them), that Fox gives a believing testimony, both to miracles wrought by the hands of Austin and his companions on their arrival in Kent, as " Miracles wrought by God for the conversion of the land ;" to the prophecies of Hildegardis, who lived 1146, respecting the downfall of the papal power, appealing to the Papists that they ought to believe, as holding her a prophetess; and to the prophecy of Jerome of Prague, fulfilled in Martin Luther. We may add, also, that his first volumes contains a long portion thus headed :
" The prophecies of the Holy Scriptures considered,
, touching the coining up and final ruin and destruction of
this wicked kingdom of the Turk, with the revelations and
foreshewings also of other authors concerning the same *."
Concerning the latter, which are from Methodius, Hildegard, &c., he certainly leaves it to the reader to form his own opinion : nevertheless, he himself evidently inclines to receive them ; and those of Methodius he interprets and applies at length, some to Huss and Jerome of Prague. All these things considered, Fox can never be fairly quoted, as a Reformer who disbelieved all miraculous manifestations since the first ages of the church. What the Fox of modern abridgments may be, I know not. I speak of the Fox of former days, the worthy,' true-hearted Protestant and Puritan, the author of the "Acts and Monuments," now commonly known by the more familiar title of the " Book of Martyrs."
ZUINGLIUS.—Many strong expressions against miracles, again, might be extracted from this
* p. 865.
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Reformer. Nevertheless, in other places, he admits that miracles may be wrought; for example, even by the devil or wicked men.
" But if God permits the devil or bad men to perform miracles, presently he says these things are done to prove us, though the reason be unknown to it *" (i. e. to the mind conformed to the truth).
Zuinglius does not even entirely deny the miracles said to be wrought at the tombs of martyrs.
" But if we are fully convinced that miracles are wrought, or have been wrought, at the sepulchers of those who have died for the truth and glory of God, let us learn to ascribe them not to the martyrs, but to the Divine power +."
Some miracles, however, this Reformer actually alleges.
" For, out of the ordinary course, God does miracles, in order that astrologers, and other persons of the same character, who go on waging war against the Sovereignty of God, like the giants, should not continually be able to attribute all things to a kind of nature, but, will they nil they, may be compelled to recognize some greater power than any which things visible possess ++."
Thus, the farther we examine, the more proof we find, that the judgment of the Reformers, on the subject of miraculous manifestations, was one. They had every motive to guard themselves on this topic, as we have already seen. Accordingly,
* "Quod si Deus daemoni vel malis liominibus permittit ut edant signa, mox dicit hsec ad nostri probationem fiunt, etiamsi causa eum lateat." On Matt. xii.
+" Quod si omnino certum habemus apud sepulcra eorum, qui pro veritate et gloria Dei occubuerunt, miracula fieri vel facta esse, discamus ea non martyribus, Red virtuti divinae adscribere." Vol. i. p. 55.
++ " Extra ordinem enim miracula facit Deus, ne astrologi, et qui horum similes adversus Numinis monarchiam beliigerantur instar gigan-tum, perpetuo possint omnia nescio quae nature tribuere, sed velint nolint majorem virtutem quam visibilia habeant cognoscere cogantur." p. 373.
THE REFORMERS. 239
their language is, as it ought to be, cautious and qualified. But when they are brought to the test, when the course of their argument brings them to such a point, that they must speak out, and declare whether they think that God has wholly and finally withdrawn miraculous manifestations from his church, we never find them making such an assertion; we never find them using language, which, fairly quoted, and viewed in connection with circumstances and the context, can be so interpreted. Some miracles they admit; others they maintain ; and others again they allege and record, as witnessed or experienced by 'themselves. That miraculous faith was wholly excluded from the religious system of the Reformers, is a fiction, no longer tenable than their real sentiments are kept out of sight.
And here I cannot conclude, without giving utterance to one reflection. If there be persons, either so ignorant of what the Reformers really were, or so prejudiced against the truth which the Reformers taught, as to deny the fact of their having had that qualified and well-guarded belief in miracles, which, after all, they really entertained ; if there be persons who would keep this truth from coming out; if there be persons who would restrict the utterance of it, and set themselves against all who proclaim it, whether unsound in other points, or sound ; how imperfectly are such persons qualified for the management of a Society, for promoting the religious doctrines of the Reformation !
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