He is also peculiarly wise, just, plain, and forcible in warning the Pope against the big swelling words with which his flatterers dignified him: “O my people, those who call you BLESSED cause you to err.” But we could be glad to see more of frankness and less of compliments, e.g., the person not so subtlely separated from the office, the man from his court; wishes and prayers for good suppressed, where he had begun to be persuaded that there could be only curse and destruction. The only plausible defence is that his mind was not yet FULLY made up as to what the Pope is. He had doubts; he thought himself bound to go to the uttermost in endeavours to conciliate; such an appeal would be a touchstone. In estimating the rectitude of this measure, it is plain that everything depends on the degree of light which had then beamed upon his mind. But, writing to Spalatinus as he had done early in this same year, and afterwards writing his treatise on the necessity of reformation in the month of June, , and his Babylonian Captivity, in the month of August, it is difficult to conceive that, in the intermediate space, he would have retained a state of mind which, consistent with simplicity, could dictate his, or indeed any letter of accommodation to Leo.
At length, however, having abundantly proved his David, and having convinced him of his foolishness, the Lord took it clean away from Luther, while He sealed up his enemies in theirs. Never was there a more manifest illustration of Jewish blindness and induration 15 than in the counsels of the Conclave at this period. — “He has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart” Joh 12.40 — Leo disdains to be conciliated. After three years’ delay, when Lutheranism had now grown to a size and strength which no fire can burn, the damnatory bull is issued on the 15th of June, 1520, at Rome. And after a further short interval of mysterious silence, it is published in Germany.
It extracted forty-one propositions out of Luther’s writings, declaring them all to be heretical, forbade the reading of his books and commanded them to be burned, excommunicated his person, and required all secular princes to aid in his arrest.
Luther was now quite prepared to receive it — prepared through the judgment which the Lord had now enabled him to form concerning the papal usurpation; and prepared through the willingness which God had given Luther to suffer martyrdom for the truth, if called to that outcome. The trenches were now fairly opened; the war had begun. Luther’s first measure was to publish two Tracts. In one of them, he treated the bull ironically, pretending to have some doubts of its authenticity, but still entitling it the ‘execrable bull of Antichrist,’ and calling on the emperor and all Christian princes to come and defend the church against the Papists. In the other, he gave a serious answer to the forty-one condemned articles, defending the authority of Scripture, and calling everybody to study it, without deference to the expositions of men.
Having answered it, he acted out his reply. If the bull were valid, it was not to be answered, but obeyed. He would therefore show that he considered it an illegal instrument. The Pope was the separatist, not he; a bull of Antichrist is a bull to be burnt. He therefore takes the bull, together with the papal decretals, and those parts of the canon law respecting pontifical jurisdiction, and with all due solemnity, he publicly commits them to the flames. This was a measure which afterwards he proved had been deliberately adopted. It was not the effect of heat and rage, but of calm conviction. He selected thirty articles from the books he had burnt, publishing them with a short comment, and appealing to the public whether he had shown them less respect than they deserved. The two last of these were, Article 29. ‘The Pope has the power to interpret Scripture, and to teach as he pleases; and no person is allowed to interpret in a different way.’
Article 30. etc., ‘The Pope does not derive from the Scripture, but the Scripture derives authority, power and dignity from the Pope.’ He had more, he said, of a similar kind. If we assume his cause was just, then his bold proceedings were unquestionably right.
His was not a case for half-measures. He was either a subject for burning, or a vindicator of the oppressed. What sort of vindicator? Not by the knight-errant’s sword, but by such acts as would declare him to be in earnest, and such arguments as would show that he was not in earnest for nothing. His publications at this period, and during the two preceding years, were almost without number. He knew that his life was in his hand; he therefore prized the short interval, as he anticipated, which was allowed him. The cause of Christ, so evidently committed into his hands, was to be maintained, extended, and at length made triumphant, only by the bloodless sword of the Spirit. He would therefore wield that sword with all his might, without cessation, faintness, or weariness. His main expectation was from the word of God, simply and intelligibly set forth. He added short practical and experimental treatises (appeals to plain sense and Scripture), but the expounded word was his stay. Hence his great labour in the Epistle to the Galatians, which he first published in the year 1519. After fifteen years of additional research, having made it one material subject of his public lectures during that entire period, it was revised, corrected, enlarged, and re-edited in 1635. His pious, laborious and philosophical historian says,
‘I have repeatedly read and meditated on this treatise, and after the most mature reflection, I am fully convinced that, as it was one of the most powerful means of reviving the light of Scripture in the sixteenth century, so it will, in all ages, be capable of doing the same, under the blessing of God, whenever a disposition appears among men to regard the oracles of divine truth, and whenever souls are distressed with a sense of indwelling sin.
For I perfectly despair of its being relished at all by any but serious, humble and contrite spirits, such being indeed the only persons in the world, to whom the all-important article of justification will appear worthy of all acceptance. The AUTHOR himself had ploughed deep into the human heart, and knew its native depravity. He had long laboured, to no purpose, to gain peace of conscience by legal observances and moral works, and had been relieved from the most pungent anxiety, by a spiritual discovery of the doctrine just mentioned. He was appointed in the counsels of Providence by no means exclusively of the other reformers, but in a manner more extraordinary and much superior to teach mankind, after upwards of a thousand years’ obscurity, this great evangelical tenet. Compared with this, how little appear all other objects of controversy! Namely, that man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Christ.’
I cannot deny myself the satisfaction of inserting one extract from this truly spiritual work. —
‘This doctrine of faith must therefore be taught in its purity. Namely, that as a believer, you are so entirely united to Christ by faith, that he and you are made one person as it were. You cannot be separated from Christ; but always adhere so closely to him, as to be able to say with confidence, I am one with Christ. That is, his righteousness, his victory, his life, death, and resurrection, are all mine.
On the other hand, Christ may say, I am that sinner. The meaning of this, in other words, is that my sins, death, and punishment, are Christ’s, because he is united and joined to me, and I to him. For by faith we are so joined together as to become one flesh and one bone. We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones; so that, in strictness, there is more of a union between Christ and me, than exists even in the relation of husband and wife, where the two are considered as one flesh.
This faith, therefore, is by no means an ineffective quality; but it possesses so great an excellence, that it utterly confounds and destroys the foolish dreams and imaginations of the Sophists, 16 who have contrived a number of metaphysical fictions concerning faith and charity, merits and qualifications. These things are of such moment, that I would gladly explain them more at large, if I could.’ 17
Luther had many antagonists in his warfare. Just as his assertive manifestos were clear, argumentative, and decisive, so his answers to those who attacked them were prompt, energetic, and full. He neither spurned, delayed, nor spared. His admiring historian thinks it necessary to apologize
