of the co-equal of the Father, and of the Holy Ghost? There is no diminution, it is plain, of his essential godhead, in his voluntarily, and to a great end, submitting to act by and in this creature person; this constitutes him at the same time both creature and Creator: very man does the works of God, and very God does the works of man.
And if this complexity of person is thus to be realized in time, what is to hinder that person in God, in whom it is to be realized, from transacting as though he actually were this complex person, from and in the beginning? Is not Jehovah’s will both immutable and irresistible? Is it not his propriety to call things which are not as though they were, and to give realized being to substances which, as yet, exist in predestination? And must he not have acted thus in this particular instance, when he chose a people of mankind to be in this complex person as a head, and gave grace to that people so chosen, before the world began?
Now, therefore, we can meet Arius upon his own ground, and confound him even there. Admitting all that he says, and says from the plain text of Scripture, about ‘begotten,’ ‘non-existence,’ ‘was not before he was made,’ ‘God has made one whom he calls Word, Son, and Wisdom, by whom he did create us;’ — this in no way impugns the co-eternity, co-equality, and co-essentiality of the Lord Jesus Christ with the Father: his human person, by and in which he has thus been doing all things, is the creature which Arius would describe; but he who assumed this person into union with himself is very God; which implies that he is all that God is.
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Catholici. Catholic as opposed to heretical; a Greek term (airesiv airetikov) denoting ‘selection,’ or ‘partiality,’ as opposed to the profession of the whole faith.
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Publico nomine et officio. They were publicly called and recognised as Christ’s Church, and performed its public functions.
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Soli isti inquisitores. Referring not to the Inquisition only (which was established about the year 1226; the Vaudois and Albigenses being the first objects of it); but to the whole system of espionage, confiscation, excommunication, and violence with which the lamb-like beast professed to be achieving the extirpation of heresy; while he was himself the great heresiarch [i.e., the leader of a heresy].
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John Huss, and his fellow-martyr Jerom of Prague, were among the earlier and most intrepid vociferators [i.e., a loud an vehement protester] against Papal abuses. They were favoured with much insight into the truth of God, walking in the light, and treading in the steps of their immediate predecessor, Wickliff — though it has been said that they struck at the branches rather than the root of Antichrist, not sufficiently exposing the predominant corruptions in doctrine. (See Milner, vol. iv. p. 275.) They suffered death under very aggravated circumstances of perfidy, fierceness, and maliciousness, by a decree of the Council of Constance, 1415, 1416 — about a hundred years before Luther’s time. Huss is supposed to have been Luther’s swan, singing of him in his death, as one who would come after.
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Vulgaris. Properly, ‘what is possessed by the common people;’ ‘ordinary,’ ‘common,’ ‘promiscuous;’ as opposed to ‘rare,’ ‘choice,’ ‘what is the possession of a few.’ The names ‘Church of God,’ and ‘Saints,’ are in everybody’s mouth; but the things signified by these names are select and few.
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Gloriam Dei. These substances are not only select, but hidden; the Church is an invisible community, and the saints have no outward badge to distinguish them. If they could be discerned by the eye, that Scripture would be falsified which says, ‘The wicked shall not see the glory of God.’ I do not find this text to which he appears to refer. The Lord’s people are expressly called his hidden ones, Psa 83.3, and his act of hiding them is mentioned in Psa 27.5; 31.20. Also, the sentiment of the wicked not seeing God, is common in Scripture, though not with this allusion which is evidently a strained one, though beautiful and just. But I do not find any Scripture which puts the two sentiments together: ‘hidden, that the wicked may not see.’ ‘The Church,’ and ‘each individual saint,’ is a part of that substance, ‘the mystical Christ,’ which God has ordained and created to his glory.
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Dominion gloriae crucifixissent. Here again, we have a strained application of Scripture (1Cor 2.8); although the sentiment is correct. What the Apostle says there, he says of Christ personally and exclusively; but it is also true that in persecuting his people, they act out his crucifixion over again. They are animated with the same spirit as the crucifiers; and the Lord himself has said, applying it to this very case, “Why do you persecute Me?”
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Locum satis fidelem. Loc. more strictly, ‘a fund of arguments;’ ‘locus’ et ‘loci,’ sunt sedes argumentorum, ex (niibus ea tanquam è promptuario petuntur. Fid. ‘fide dignus,’ ‘trustworthy;’ like pistos (pistos), it expresses either one who has faith, or one towards whom faith is exercised.
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Quamvis baptisatum. Luther states this too broadly: the judgment of charity is moderate and indulgent; but surely there are deflections, both in faith and practice, which place many a baptized unbeliever beyond the bounds of the widest enclosures of charity.
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See 2The 2.4.
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See Lev 11.3; Deu 14.6.
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Unde explorabimus Spiritum. Referring to 1Joh 4.1. Erasmus talks about Paul’s recommending to test the spirits, but evidently his allusion is to these words of St. John.
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Neque adeo de Scripturá. It is not so much the authority of Scripture, as its right interpretation, which is in dispute. Quae necdum. Lack of clearness is hinted at rather than affirmed; necdum implies, ‘notwithstanding all that has been written and decreed about it.’
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Neque nihil, neque omnia dicis. Erasmus says rightly, the spirits must be tried; wrongly, that there is no test of them. Also, the tests he proposes are bad.
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It was in 1525 (the date of his performance), that Luther published his ‘Address to the Celestial Prophets and Carolstadt.’
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See Part i. Sect. 4.
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Judicium publici ministerii in verbo. Minis. ‘The office, or body, of ministers.’ In verbo. The word is to them, what the law of the land is to a civil judge. Offic. exter. as opposed to an internal function, or operation. Luther refers to the judgment of a synod, or council; a tribunal, to which he always declared himself willing to submit his own objectionable assertions. He states the matter too broadly, and was guided by an mage which he had in his mind of what might be, rather than by any exhibition of this external judgment which he had ever seen, or could appeal to as an example. A synod of real saints might be confidently looked to, as decreeing under the illumination of a light from above. But when has such a synod met since the council of Jerusalem? (Acts 15.1-31.) If, as it is probable, there are real saints in the council, who is to ensure their being the majority? While great respect, therefore, is due to a judgment of this kind, it cannot be that infallible one which Luther’s commendations might seem to imply.
It is not strictly parallel to the ‘external clearness’ of Scripture; which he refers to, as he asserted in Part i. Sect. 4. The testimony may be imperfectly brought out; or the judges may not have eyes to see it. Would Luther undertake to say that he should himself bring all the testimony that is in the Scriptures, to bear upon any given question; or would he, had he been able to cite it, have convinced the Council of Constance, or the Council of Trent? After all, the private and internal judgment which he speaks of — the Spirit shining upon and confirming his testimony by the word — is that which the spiritual man must, and will, at last resort to, and can alone depend upon. He is thankful for, and in some sense obedient to, the judgment of pure synods (pure as such compounds can be expected to be); but he stands or falls to a higher Master. “This I say then, walk in” (or after) the spirit.” (Gal 5.16) — Enough for Luther’s purpose may be admitted, however. Let all dogmas be brought to the standard of Scripture, publicly; let the leaders and counsellors of the people declare based upon them, stating the grounds of their decision. Such judgment will have its weight, though not paramount; and it will be manifested how slender, or how false, are the foundations of error. This object is obtained in a great degree, now, by the free canvass which religious opinions, as well as others, are made to submit to, from the press.
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Gainsayer: here, it is one who contradicts or denies the truth of God.
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Externè. As opposed to a light of the Spirit, within the soul.
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Causarum quaestiones definiantur. The book of the laws lays own and recognises certain broad principles, to which the facts of each case are applied. These principles must be determinately fixed, admitted, and perspicuously affirmed. ‘Status causae,’ is the question of fact at issue; ‘quaestio causae,’ the principle of law to which it is referable.
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In our version, it is not a threat, but an explanation of a fact: “If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them,” A testimony equally conclusive as to the clearness of the word; for how are we to compare declarations, and ascertain their conformity with the written word, if that word is not plain?
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Originally Zec 2,