should here make. He first returns devout thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he had called him to repentance and the faith of the gospel; and implores that, through the sacrifice of the death of Christ, God would pardon all his sins, accept and justify him, and deliver him from eternal death. And this he believes that he will do; for God has enjoined us to believe it; and it would be an act of impiety to think our own sins of more potency than the death of Christ. The death of the Son of God, therefore, he presented as his defence and support against the distress of mind occasioned either by his own sins, or the scandals given by others: and he beseeches the Almighty, by his Holy Spirit, to confirm and strengthen this his faith.-He next declares his cordial reception of the Apostles' and the Nicene creed, and that he thinks concerning the whole Christian doctrine as he had written in his Common Places, and his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, of the last edition; in which he had endeavoured to explain his real sentiments, without any ambiguity. Concerning the eucharist, he adhered to the form of concord agreed upon at Wittemberg. He united himself with the protestant churches; which he believed to profess the doctrine of the universal church of Christ, and to be true churches; and he enjoined his children to continue in the same. communion, and to avoid connexion with the papists, who on many points taught a very corrupt doctrine; were altogether without the true doctrine of justification by faith, and of the remission of sins; made no proper discrimination between the law and the gospel; held heathenish and pharisaical notions concerning prayer to God; and were guilty of manifest A. D. 1540. CHAP. idolatry in their masses, and prayers to the V. dead. He then warns his children against all errors respecting the person of Christ, and subjects connected with that, contrary to the received creeds; and against all hollow and insincere methods of reconciling the doctrines in dispute, by which old errors would be covertly introduced again, and the truth corrupted. Learned men, he says, were to be warned against admitting, under the pretext of peace and public tranquillity, a confused mixture of doctrines. And here he proceeds, "I can truly affirm that I have endeavoured soundly to explain the doctrine of our churches, that it might be rightly understood by younger students, and handed down to posterity. I know, indeed, that it has at times been suspected, that I attempted some things in favour of our adversaries: but I call God to witness that I had no wish to favour such persons, but aimed only at a correct exposition, excluding all ambiguities -though many are aware how difficult I found it to attain this. The Confession of Augsburg, it appears, is not sufficiently explicit: with a good design, therefore, I adopted the course pursued in my work on Romans; for I wish to leave no ambiguities; since what is not clear and decisive only produces further disputes.Nor was it my design to introduce any new dogma, but perspicuously and correctly to explain the catholic doctrine as delivered in our churches, which I judge to have been brought to light in these late years, by the singular goodness of God, through the instrumentality of Dr. Martin Luther,-that thus the church might be purified and restored, which must otherwise have utterly perished. Let us therefore preserve this light as long as possible and I pray God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to assist the studies and endeavours of pious men, and to preserve his church; and may he, in particular, bless our churches, which have sustained long and severe conflicts for the gospel's sake." He concludes with the expression of his thanks to all his principal friends and associates, and prayers for them. It may suffice to specify the notice here taken of Luther. " I return my thanks to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther, first because from him I received the knowledge of the gospel, and next because of his singular kindness shewn to me on a thousand occasions; and I desire my family to regard him as a father. Having found him to be endowed with a distinguished and heroic genius, with many great virtues, and with eminent piety and learning, I have always honoured and loved him, and thought his friendship worthy of the most assiduous cultivation." "Such friendships as I here record,” he beautifully adds, " I am persuaded are not to be extinguished by death, but will soon be renewed in heaven, where they will be enjoyed to much greater advantage, and yield unspeakably higher delight."1 The records of such a paper deserve our most implicit confidence, and no one can doubt that he here reads the deliberate and undisguised sentiments of Melancthon's heart. It may be appealed to as explanatory of what may any where else occur, that might be thought to bear a less unequivocal appearance. 1 Pezelii Consil. Melanc. i. 389, &c. Seck. iii. 279. A. D. 1540. CHAPTER VI. mation. MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS BELONGING TO THE PERIOD OF THE PRECEDING CHAPTER. Progress of IMPORTANT instances have recently occurred of the Refor the progress of the reformation; others present themselves to our notice. Eccius and Cochlæus, in their correspondence with cardinal Contarini, bear striking testimony to the extensive and firm establishment which the new Testimony system had obtained in Germany. The former of Eccius; dolefully complains, "That all homage was March 1540. and of Cochlaus: withdrawn from the saints; that the miserable souls in purgatory had no longer any prayers offered for them; that the sacred rites of the mass were discontinued; that images were insulted and broken; that the treasures of the church were alienated, the pope and the priesthood held in contempt, and Rome taken for the Babylonish harlot; that celibacy was at an end, and monastic vows were violated. He reproaches the blindness and inertness of those who had not extinguished the conflagration while it was a mere spark-which was the case when he disputed with Carolstadt and Luther at Leipsic. Even the German prelates, he says, now laughed at the wide-spread mischief, and secretly hoped to be delivered by its means from the exactions and impositions which they had suffered from the court of Rome."-Cochlæus, writing from Wladislaw on the Vistula, about the same time, says: "Our prelates in Germany, whether through cowardice or despair, sit still, and suffer every where the curtailment of their revenues. The Lutherans, on the contrary, spare neither care, nor labour, nor expence, but devise every means of establishing their sect. They ordain superintendants, a new species of bishops, to whom they give the power of ordaining priests and deacons in their respective districts. They diligently train their youth in the schools in devotion to their own doctrine, and in abhorrence of the papists; and, that they may acquire confidence in preaching to the people, they exercise them in declamations taken from the postils of Luther. They assign handsome incomes, drawn from the abolition of the private masses, to their ministers, and to the masters of their schools. This is done here, at Magdeburg, at Hamburg, and throughout almost all Germany where this heresy prevails; so that it will be extremely difficult to eradicate from the minds of men the pestilent evil which has been implanted at school, and cherished in public assemblies, and by the reading of books at home. To God, however, all things are possible!" 2 1 The discerning reader will receive these accounts with great satisfaction, perceiving nothing in them but what bears honourable testimony to the diligence, the piety, and the discretion of the protestants. A. D. 1540. The reformation of Magdeburg and Halberstadt with the connivance of the archbishop of Mentz and Magdeburg has been before noticed.3 The proceedings at Halle in the dutchy of Mag- Reforma. deburg are more particularly recorded. Super- Halle: 1 Expositions of the gospels and epistles. 2 Seck. iii. 271. from Raynaldus, a bigoted continuator of Baronius. Compare iii. 207. 3 Above, p. 257. tion of |