LUTHER. 



with the moderate appointments annexed to each. His ex- 

 traordinary qualities were allayed with no inconfiderable 

 mixture of human frailty, and human pafTions. Thefe, 

 however, were of a nature, that they cannot be imputed to 

 malev'olence or corruption of heart, but leem to have taken 

 their rife from the fame fource with many of his virtues. 

 Aceullomed himfelf to confidcr every thinor as fubordinate 

 to truth, he ex|)e£tcd tlie fame deference for it from other 

 men ; and, without making any allowances for their ti- 

 midity or prejudices, he poured forth againft fuch as difap- 

 pointed him in this particular, a torrent of inveftivc and 

 abufe. Regardlefs of any diftiiiftion of rank or charafter 

 when his doftrines were attacked, he challifed all his adver- 

 faries indifcriminately, with the fame rough hand ; neither 

 the royal dignity of Henry VHI. nor the eminent learn- 

 ing and abilities of Erafnius, fcreened them from the fame 

 grofs abufe with wliich lie treated Tetzel or Eckius. To 

 roufe mankind, when funk in ignorance and fuperftition, 

 and to encounter the rage of bigotry armed with power, 

 required the utmoll vehemence of zeal, as well as a tem- 

 per daring to excefs. A gentle call would neither have 

 reached, nor have excited thofe to whom it muft have been 

 addrcffed. A fpirit more amiable but lefs vigorous than 

 Luther's would have fhruiik back from dangers which he 

 braved and furmounted. Towards the clofe of Luther's 

 life, though without any perceptible diminution of his zeal 

 and abilities, the iniirmitiss of his temper increafed upon 

 him, fo that he grew daily m^e peevifh, more irafcible, 

 and more impatient of contradiftion. Having lived to be a 

 witnefs of his own amazing fucccfs ; to fee a great part of 

 Europe embrace his doftrines, and to fhake the foundation 

 of papal Rome, before which the mightiell monarchs had 

 trembled, he difcovered, on fome occafions, fymptoms of 

 vanity and felf-applaufe. He muft hiive been, indeed, more 

 than man, if, upon contemplating all that he attually ac- 

 compliflied, he had never felt any fentiment of this kind 

 rifing in his breaft." There is yet another teftimony to 

 the life and labours of this great man that we cannot 

 omit : 



" Martin Luther's hfe," fays biihop Atterbury, " was 

 a continual warfare ; he was engaged againft the united 

 forces of the papal world, and he ftood the (hock of them 

 bravely, both with courage and fuccefs. He was a man 

 certainly of high endowments of mind and great virtues : 

 he had a vaft underftanding which raifed him up to a pitch 

 of learning unknown to the age in which he lived ; his 

 knowledge in fcripture was admirable, his elocution manly, 

 and his way of reafoning with all the fubtilty that thefe 

 plain truths he delivered would bear, his thoughts were 

 bent always on great defigns, and he had a refolution fitted 

 to go through with them, and the affurance of his mind 

 was not to be fliaken or furprifed, and that ■rrx.s^n^ix of his 

 (for I know not what elfe to call it) before the diet of 

 Worms, was fuch as might have become the days of the 

 apoftles. His life was holy, and, when he had leifure for 

 retirement, fevere ; his virtues aftive chiefly, and homiliti- 

 cal, and not thofe lazy fuUen ones of the eloifter. He had 

 no ambition but in the fervice of God : for other things, 

 neither his enjoyment nor wifhes ever went higher than the 

 bare conveniences of living. He was of a temper particu- 

 larly averfe to covetoufnefs, or any bafe fin, and charitable 

 even to a fault, without refpeft to his own occafions. If, 

 among this crowd of virtues, a failing crept in, we muft re- 

 member that an apoftle himfelf had not been irreproachable; 

 if, in the body of his doftiine, one flaw is to be feen, yet the 

 greateft lights of the church, and in the pureft times of 

 k, were, we know, not cxatt in all their opinions. Upon 



the whole, we have certainly great reafon to break out in 

 the phrafe of the prophet and fay, " How beautiful, upon 

 the mountains, are the feet of him that briugeth glad 

 tidings.'' Gibbon, ipeaking of the effefts produced by the 

 exertions of Luther and his contemporaries, fays, " The 

 philofopher muft own his obligations to thefe fearlefs en- 

 thufialls. I. By their hands the lofty fabric of fuperftition, 

 from the abufe of indulgences to the interceffion of the 

 Virgin, has been levelled witli the groimd. Myriads of both 

 fexes of the monaftic profefilon wercrellored to liberty and 

 tlie lalioiirs of focial life. 2. The chain of authority was 

 broken which reftrains the bigot from thinking as he pleafes, 

 and the flave from fpeaking as he thinks. The popes, 

 fathers, and councils were no longer the fuprcme and infal- 

 lible judges of the world ; and each Chriftian was taught 

 to acknowledge no law but the fcriptures, no interpreter but 

 his own confcience.'' 



The works of Luther, in the Latin and German lan- 

 guages, were coUedted and publilhed in an uniform edition, 

 at Jena, in i)j6, in four volumes folio ; and in 1572 they 

 were printed at Wittemburg, in feven volumes folio. Luther 

 left behind him three fons and a widow. The latter furvived 

 him nearly feven years. When the war broke out Catharine 

 wandered about in exile with her children, in difficulties 

 and dangers : (he experienced the ingratitude of many, 

 from whom cxpedling kindnelfes, on account of her huf- 

 band's great merits towards the church, (lie was frequently 

 difappointed. At length, the plague raging at Wittem- 

 burg, and the infeftion having reached her own houfe, (he 

 removed to Torgau, that (lie might preferve her children 

 from the diforder. On her way thither the horfes in the 

 carriage took fright ; to avoid, what (he conceived, a 

 greater danger, file leaped into the road, and falling into a 

 pool of water, was dreadfully bruifed, and contraftcd an 

 illnefs, which in a few weeks terminated her life. Preface 

 to Luther's works: MS. tranflation of Melchior Adams 

 Life of Luther. Bayle. Robertfon. Hume. Gibbon. 



Martin Luther, with refpedl to ecclefiaftical mufic, being 

 himfelf a lover and judge of the art, was fo far from banifli- 

 ing it from the church, that li.'" augmented the occafion for 

 its ufe. In 1^21 he procured the abolition of the ancient 

 niafs at Wittemburg. In 1523 Lutheranifm was eftabli(hed 

 in Denmark and Sweden ; and, in 1525, Saxony, Brunf- 

 wick, Hefle, Strafburg, and Frankfort. But though he 

 inlfituted a new liturgy, the ecclefiaftical tones ftill regu- 

 lated the mufic of his church at the time of the reforma- 

 tion, and moll of the old melodies to the evangelical hymns 

 are compofed in fome of them. 



The tSantaLCn, or anthems and fervices of the reformed 

 church, in the German language, are, however, as elabo- 

 rate and florid as the motets to Latin words, ufed in Italy 

 during the celebration of the mafs. But in the hymnologia, 

 and metrical pfalmody of this, as well as all other Proteftant 

 churches, there feems to have been one common principle, 

 totally inimical to poetry, which is that of deftroying all 

 quantity and diftindlion of fyllables, by making them all 

 of the fame length. 



" Thefe equal fyllables alone admire, 



Though oft the ear the open vowels tire." 



Pope. 



The modern Methodifts, indeed, have introduced a light 

 and ballad-like kind of melody into their tabernacles, which 

 feems as much wanting in reverence and dignity, as the 

 pfalmody of other fedls iTi poetry and good taite. 



Mufic, in itfelf an innocent art, is fo far from corrupt- 

 ing the mind, that, with its grave and decorous ftrains, it 

 II can 



