so called, may be said to take its beginning from the law: and he shows this to be the plan and doctrine of Scripture, even according to the very texts which had been adduced on the other side. He particularly insists on S. Paul's method in the Epistle to the Romans, which begins with the "revelation of wrath :" and it is "silly trifling," he says, "to talk of preaching that revelation of wrath, and yet not preaching the law-which, in fact, is the self-same thing." Moreover, the law, he asserts, was to be set forth, not only to the ungodly for the purposes just mentioned, but also to pious persons, to admonish them of the duty of crucifying the flesh and their various evil propensities and passions. To propose, therefore, to take away the preaching and use of the law out of the church would be a blasphemous impiety. He then points out the consequences to which antinomian principles lead; one of which is the subversion of the doctrine of grace itself: "for," he says, "where there is no law there is no transgression ;" and where there is no knowledge of sin there can be none of its forgiveness, or of grace; and the result will be, that men will live careless and unconcerned except about the present world. "These men," he remarks, " 'pretend to preach finely about grace and the remission of sins, but they avoid the doctrine of sanctification and newness of life in Christ: forsooth that men may not be rendered uneasy, but may enjoy uninterrupted consolation. For, whereas they ought to say, If you be an adulterer, a fornicator, drunken, proud, covetous, a usurer, you can be no Christian; instead of this they say, Though you be such, only believe in Christ, and you will have no need to fear the law; Christ hath fulfilled it all! They see not how sanctification follows upon justification; so that a Christian must necessarily be a partaker of the Holy Spirit, and lead a new life and if he does not do that, let him know that he has no part in Christ."

Concerning himself, Luther made an observation which has by no means met with the regard to which it was entitled: "That, if at any time he had taught that the law was not to be preached in the church, it was unjust to impute to him a sentiment long ago discarded, when he had since clearly and frequently laid down the contrary. He had taught many other things under the papacy with great sincerity; and indeed there was scarcely now to be found

so miserable and burdened a papist as, from conscience and the fear of God, he had once been no wonder then if he had need to grow in the knowledge of Christ."

After this publication of Luther's, Agricola again professed to renounce his errors: but his conduct was unsteady and inconsistent. He afterward withdrew into the dominions of the Elector of Brandenburg, and insinuated himself into his favour. Luther congratulated himself on his removal from Wittemberg, and complained bitterly of the trouble he suffered from such airy and conceited spirits, calling themselves his disciples.-The account of this man may suggest useful admonition; and he gave occasion to discussions, the result of which, even as here briefly exhibited, may not be unimportant.

In the next year Luther published expositions of the ninetieth Psalm (the "prayer of Moses the man of God"), and of some of the minor prophets. In the preface he observes that there were at that time men, and more would afterward arise, who despised theological studies, and indeed all studies there ought therefore to be some to proclaim the praises of God, and to disseminate the knowledge of his Word. In such pursuits he desired to spend his days; and, in particular, he would employ the remainder of them in explaining the writings of Moses, the fountain from which both prophets and apostles, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, had drawn.

On blasphemous thoughts and temptations he remarks, that they are no proof or occasion of Divine displeasure, when we hate and reject them: they are even made a special means of calling forth those " groanings which cannot be uttered," that are peculiarly pleasing to God.

On the benefit to be derived from Christian communion he thus feelingly speaks: "I am myself a professor of theology, and many have acknowledged that they had derived no inconsiderable assistance from me:. yet I have often felt myself most sensibly raised and helped by a single word from a brother, who thought himself very much my inferior. The word of a brother, pronounced from Holy Scripture in a time of need, carries an inconceivable weight with it. The Holy Spirit accompanies it, and by it moves and animates the hearts of his people as their circumstances require.

The greatest saints have their times of weakness, when others are stronger than they."

In the same year he published an earnest Exhortation to prayer against the Turks. In this work he solemnly admonishes both parties in Germany of their sins; the papists of their errors and cruelties, the Protestants of their corruption of manners, which dishonoured the sound doctrine they professed. Particularly he reprehends the repugnance of both nobles and people to endure pastoral reproof, and their unwillingness decently to provide for their ministers, at a period when the articles of life had risen to three times their former price; a circumstance which he ascribes in great measure to the prevailing spirit of avarice and rapacity. He anticipates that God would ere long punish Germany, either by civil war or by means of the Turks. He earnestly exhorts all orders of men to reformation; and then, after making that their first care, to exertion against the enemy. And here he rejects every idea of despondency, or of sitting still and doing nothing, referring all, like the Mahometans themselves, to predestination or fate. "It is true," he says, "that what God has ordained must come to pass; but I am not commanded, rather I am forbidden, to pry into his unrevealed purposes. As I know them not, it is tempting God to neglect what I evidently ought to do, and thus to plunge myself in ruin. Precepts are given, that I may know and do my duty: the Word of God teaches me that, and bids me commit what is unknown to God." "Let us," he says, "discharge our duty, and not trouble ourselves about predestination, concerning [the specific appointments of] which we have no revelation, no light, no knowledge at all. Let us dismiss the subject from our thoughts, and leave it in the obscurity which belongs to it; only taking care to do what is commanded us, and what we know ought to be done."

Among his letters of this period an interesting one is preserved, addressed to Myconius, pastor of Gotha, who was very ill, and appeared drawing near his end. This good man had written Luther word that he was "sick, not unto death, but unto life;" meaning that he expected his sickness to remove him to life everlasting; a sentence which exceedingly pleased the reformer. In his answer he said, "I beg and implore of the Lord Jesus, who is our life, our

health, and our salvation, that he would not permit such an addition to be made to what I suffer, as that I should see you or any of my comrades break through the vail and enter into rest, leaving me here behind in the midst of demons. I pray the Lord to make me sick instead of you, and to suffer me to lay down the tabernacle of an exhausted and useless body, which has done its work." And again, at the close of his letter: "Farewell, my dear Frederic; may the Lord never permit me to hear of your taking your passage, while I remain behind; but may you be the survivor. So I ask, and such is my will, and let my will be done. Amen! I say this because my will is directed to the glory of God, and not to my own pleasure. Again, farewell! we pray for you from our inmost souls, and are greatly afflicted at your illness." Myconius recovered, and survived Luther; which he attributed to Luther's prayers. He said the effect of Luther's letter was such, that in reading it he seemed to hear the voice of Christ saying, "Lazarus, come forth!"

A few additional particulars may be noted from his letters. Concerning Melancthon, who, having this year received an addition of a hundred florins to his stipend, proposed to continue the Greek lecture at Wittemberg without remuneration, Luther wrote to the elector, wishing him to appoint some younger person to perform that service. "Melancthon," he said, "had been like a servant of all-work to the university for twenty years past, and he well deserved the additional emolument which the elector had awarded him. The whole Christian world, moreover, was indebted to him; and the adherents of Rome, he was happy to say, feared none among the learned so much as Melancthon and those who had been trained by him."

All his letters from this period to the end of his life breathe earnest desires after release, and dismission to his eternal rest. He lived five years longer, but it was amid increasing infirmities and sufferings: and he was very unequal to those severe labours in which he had engaged, and in which, as Seckendorf observes, he still never spared himself. Yet we see in him throughout the heart of a Christian hero. Writing to Lauterback, pastor of Pirna, he expresses his joy at the reformation begun in Cologneof which we shall have to speak in the next chapter. He says, "If the people of Bethsaida and Chorazin here in our

own country will not receive the prophet, there will be found the Samaritans and the woman of Canaan to do it. Let us therefore only persevere in preaching, praying, suffering a reward awaits our work; we labour not in vain."

CHAPTER XXIII.

Maurice succeeds Henry of Saxony-His Line of PolicyHenry of Brunswick expelled-Reformation of his Territories-Situation of the Protestants-Herman Archbishop of Cologne-The Bishop of Munster-The Princes of Henneberg.

WE now proceed with the course of events which followed the diet of Ratisbon.

Affairs in Hungary had taken an unfortunate turn for the house of Austria; and it was to provide against the consequences of what had occurred or was anticipated in that quarter that Charles had made such liberal concessions to the Protestants in his declaration appended to the recess of the diet. By this means he obtained a vote of such ample supplies of both men and money for carrying on the war against the Turks, as left him under little anxiety about the security of Germany during the next campaign.

Immediately upon the conclusion of the diet, he set out for Italy. As he passed through Lucca, he had a short but fruitless interview with the pope. They could neither agree between themselves on any proper method of composing the religious disputes in Germany, nor could the pope remove the causes of discord between Charles and the King of France, which soon gave occasion to a fierce war, commencing in 1542, but terminated again by the peace of Crespy, in September, 1544.

About the time that the diet of Ratisbon broke up, Maurice succeeded his father Henry in the government of that part of Saxony which belonged to the Albertine branch of the Saxon family. "This young prince, then only in his twentieth year, had, even at that early period, begun to