LUTHER. 



tended llie proceffion, and Melanclhon delivered a funeral 

 dilcourfe. He left feveral children by his uife Catharine 

 de Bore. In uimerable were the calumnies invented by his 

 enemies refpefting his death, his principles, and his conduft, 

 which it is needlefs for us to repeat, as they have been 

 amply refnted by the moil refpedable hillorians. The zeal 

 . and madnefs of the Papifts againft their formidable anta- 

 gonift, who had (haken to the foundation the pillars of their 

 faith, did not ceafe with his death. They urged the em- 

 peror Charles V., while with his army at Wittemburg, to 

 canfe the monument erefted to his memory to be deriplilhed, 

 and his bone< to be dug up and burnt with every indignity ; 

 but the mi- d of Charles was fuperior to fuch childilb and 

 malignant acts, and he inllantly forbad that any infuk fliould 

 be offered to his tomb, or his remains, upon pain of death. 

 " I have," faid the emperor, " nothing farther to do witli 

 Luther; he is henceforth fubjedl to another judge, whofe 

 jurifdidion it is not lawful for me to ufurp. Know, that I 

 make not war with the dead, but with the living, who are 

 ftillin arms againll me." We cannot bring this article to a 

 clofe, without referring to the teftimonies of the learned 

 and the wife refpecling the character of Luther, wlio intro- 

 duced, not into Germany only, but into the world, a new 

 and moll importat.t era, and whofe name can never be for- 

 gotten while any thiug of principle remains that is deferving 

 of remembrance. It mu!l not be overlooked, that the grand 

 and leading doflrine of Latheranifm, and that on whii.h the 

 permanent foundation of the reformed religion was laid, is 

 the right of private judgment in matters of religion. To 

 this, as we have feen, he was at all time'i ready to devote his 

 talents, his character, and his life ; and fays the biographer 

 of Leo X., " the great and imperifhable merit of the re- 

 former conlills in his having de^nonftrated it by fuch argu- 

 ments, as n.'ither the efforts of his adverfaries, nor his own 

 ~ fubfequent condutl, have been able either to confute or in- 

 validate." In paffiii _r judg 1 ent upon the characters of men, 

 fays Robertfon, we ought to try them by the principles and 

 maxims ot their own age, and not by thofe of another : for 

 although virtue and vice are at all times the fame, manners 

 and cultoms are continually varying. Some pars of L\i- 

 ther's behaviour, which to us appear molt c.dpable, gave no 

 difguil to his contemporaries. It was even by fome of 

 thofe qualities, which we are now apt to blame, tliat he 

 was iktvd for accomplifhing the great work in which he 

 embarked. 



Luther hinifelf was fenfible of defefts, which he patlie- 

 tically acknowledges in an addrcfs to the reader of his 

 works: " I intreat you," fays he. " to read my writings 

 with, cool confideration, and even with much pity. I wiih 

 you to know that when I began the affair of indulgences, I 

 was a monk, and a moll mad oapift. So intoxicated was I, 

 and dreiiclif-d in papal dogma'=, that I would have been moil 

 ready at ^t'.l times to murder, or afTill in murdering, any 

 perfon v\l,:. fhould utter a fyllable againll the pope. I was 

 always eanicll in defending doftrines I profeffed. I went 

 ferioufly to work, as one who had a horrible dread of the 

 day of judgmcn", and who from his iumofl foul was anxious 

 for falvation . You will find, therefore, in my earlier writings, 

 with how much humility, oji many occalions, I gave up 

 confiderable points to the pope, which I now detell as 

 blufphemous and abominable in the highell degree. This 

 error my flanderers may cail inconliilency ; but you, my 

 pious readers, will ha\>e the kindnels to make lome allow- 

 ance, on account of the time', and my own inexperience. 

 I flood ablolately alone a: tir'i, and certainly was very un- 

 learned, a d very unfit to undertake matter of fuch vail 

 importance. It was by accident, not willingly or by de- 



fign, that I fell into thofe violent difputes. God is my 

 witnefs." 



" Martin Luther, refenting an affront put on his order, 

 began to preach againll abufes in the fa'e of indulgences, 

 and being naturally of a fiery temper, and provoked by op- 

 polltion, he proceeded even to dcfcry i:idulgenccs themfelvcs, 

 and was thence carried, by the heat of difpute, to quellion 

 tlie authority of the pope. Still, as he enlarged his reading, 

 in ord'.T to fupport thefe tenets, he difcovered fome new 

 abufe or error in the church of Rome, and finding his opi- 

 nions greedily hearkened to, he promulgated thim by writ- 

 ing, difcourfe, fermnns, conference, and daily increafed the 

 number of his difciples. All Saxony, all Germany, all En- • 

 rope, were in a little time filled wilh the voice of this daring 

 innovator ; and men, roufed from that lethargy in which 

 they had fo long flept, began to call in qucdioii the moll an- 

 cient and received opinions. The elector of Saxony, lavour- 

 al le to Luther's dodtrine, prote£tcd him from the violence 

 of the papal jurildiftion : the republic of Zurich even re- 

 formed their church according to the new mcdcl : many 

 fovereigns of the empire, and the imperial edift ilfelf, 

 fiiewcd ?. favourable difpofition towards it : and Luther, 

 a man naturally inflexible, vehem.ent, and opiiiionative, was 

 become incapable, either from promifes of advancement or 

 terrors of feverity, to relinquifh a fect of which he himfelf 

 was the founder, and which brought him a glory fuperior to 

 all others, the glory of diftating the religious faith and prin- 

 ciples of multitudes." 



Dr. Campbell, in his leAures on Ecclefiaftical Hi(lory,has 

 rendered our reformer his tellimony cf refpect and grati- - 

 tude ; but as this is conveyed in ftntimenti and language 

 but little different from the obfervations of Dr. Robertfon, 

 we fhall extraft the account from the latter rather than the 

 former : " As he was raifcd up by Providence to be the au- 

 thor of one of the greatell and moft intcreltmg revolutions 

 in hillory, there is not any perfon, perhaps, whofe chara£ter- 

 had been drawn with fucli oppofite colours. In his own 

 age, one party, ilruck with horror and inflamed with rage, 

 wlun they faw with wliat a daring hand he overturned 

 every thing which they held to be facred, or valued as bene- 

 ficial, imputed to him not only all the defefts and vices of 

 a man, but the qualities of a dxmon. The other, warmed 

 with admiration and gratitude, which they thought he me- 

 rited as the reftorer of light and liberty to the Chriflian • 

 church, afcribed to him perfections above the condition of 

 humanity, and viewed all his aftions with a veneraticn, bor- 

 dtring on that which (liould be paid only to thofe who are 

 guided by the immediate infpiration of heaven. It is his . 

 own conduct, not the undillinguifhing cenfure, or the exag- 

 gerated praife of his contemporarisSy that ought to regulate 

 the opinions of the preleut age concerHing hira. Zeal for 

 what he regarded as truth, undaunted intrepidity to main- 

 tain his own fy Item, abjlities, both natural and acquired, 

 to defend his principle,^, and unwearied indullry in pro- 

 pagating them, are virtues which Ihine confpicuouflv in 

 every part of his behaviour, that even hLs enemies mull 

 allow him to have poifelfed them in an eminei t degree. 

 To thele may be added, with equal julUce, fuch purity. . 

 and even aullerity of manners, as became one who affumed 

 the character of a reformer ; lu^h fanC^ity of life as fiiited 

 the doctrine which he delivered, and fuch pcrfec-l difin- 

 terettednefif as affords no Oight prefumption of his fmcerily. 

 Superior to all feltifh conliderations, a llranger to all the 

 elegancies of life, and defpillng its pleafures, he left the 

 honours and emoluments of the church to his difciples, re- 

 maining l^itisfied himft If in hts original Hate of profelFor of 

 the univerfity, and pallet of the town of Wittemburg, 



With 



