L U T 
with cool confideratien, and even with much pity. I wifli 
you to know, that, when I began the affair of indulgences, 
I was a monk, and a molt mad papift. So intoxicated 
was I, and drenched in papal dogmas, that I would have 
been molt ready at all times to murder, oraflift in murder¬ 
ing, any perfon who fliould utter a lyliable againfl the 
pope. I was always earneft in defending dodtrines I pro- 
feffed. I went ferioufly to work, as one who had a hor¬ 
rible dread of the day of judgment, and who from his in- 
lnoft foul was anxious for falvation. You will find, there¬ 
fore, in my earlier writings, with how much humility, on 
many occalions, I gave up confiderable points to the pope, 
which I now detell as blafphemous and abominable in 
the high eft degree. This error my flanderers may call 
inconfiftency ; but you, my pious readers, will have the 
kindnefs to make fome allowance, on account of the times, 
and my own inexperience. I ftood abfolutely alone at 
firft; and certainly was very unlearned, and very unfit to 
undertake matters of fuch val't importance. It was by 
accident, not willingly or by delign, that I fell into thole 
violent disputes. God is my witnefs.” 
Dr. Campbell, in his Lectures on Ecclefialtical Hiftory, 
lias rendered our reformer his telfimony of relpect and 
gratitude; but, as this is conveyed in fentiments and lan¬ 
guage but little different from the obl'ervations of Dr. 
Robertfon, we (hall extradt the account from the latter 
rather than the former: “ As he was railed up by Provi¬ 
dence to be the author of one of thegreatelt and molt in- 
terelting revolutions in hiltory, there is not any perfon, 
perhaps, whofe character had been drawn with fuch op- 
polite colours. In his own age, one party, {truck with, 
horror and inflamed with rage, when they law witli what 
a daring hand he overturned every thing which they held 
to be facred, or valued as beneriual, imputed to him not 
only all the defeats and vices of a man, but the qualities 
of a daemon. The other, warmed w ith admiration and 
gratitude, which they thought he merited as the reitorer 
of light and liberty to the Chriflian church, alcribed to 
him perfections above the conditifin of humanity, and 
viewed all his adtions with a veneration, bordering on that 
which fliould be paid only to thofe who are guided by 
the immediate infpiration of heaven. It is his own con¬ 
duct, not the undiftinguilhing cenlure or the exaggerated 
praile of his contemporaries, that ought to regulate the 
opinions of the prelent age concerning him. Zeal for 
what he regaided as truth, undaunted intrepidity to main¬ 
tain his own lyltem, abilities, both natural and acquired, 
to defend his principles, and unwearied indultry in pro¬ 
pagating them, are virtues which fliine fo conlpicuoully in 
every part of his behaviour, that even his enemies mult 
allow him to have poffeffed them in an eminent degree. 
To thefe may be added, with equal jultice, fuch purity, 
and even aulterity, of manners, as became one who affumed 
the charadter of a reformer; luch fandtity of life as fuited 
the doctrine which he delivered; and fuch perfect difin- 
tereltednefs as affords no flight prelumption of his lince- 
rity. Superior to all lelfilh conliderations, a ftranger to 
all the elegancies of life, and defpifing its pleafures, he 
left the honours and emoluments of the church to his 
difciples, remaining fatisfied himfelf in his original ftate 
of proteffor of the univerfity, and pallor of the town of 
Wittemburg, with the moderate appointment annexed to 
each. His extraordinary qualities were allayed with no 
inconliderable mixture of human frailty and human paf- 
fions. Thefe, however, were of a nature, that they can¬ 
not be imputed to malevolence or corruption of heart, 
but feem to have taken their rife from the fame fource 
with many of his virtues. Accultomed himfelf to conli- 
der every thing as fubordinate to truth, he expedted the 
fame deference for it from other men ; and, without 
making any allowances for their timidity or prejudices, 
be poured forth againft fuch as difappointed him in this 
particular, a torrent of inventive and abufe. Regardlels 
of any diftindtion of rank or character when his dodtrines 
Vol.XIII. No. 94,5. 
HER. 797 
were attacked, he chaftifed all his adverfaries indiferimi- 
nately, with the fame rough hand ; neither the royal dig¬ 
nity of Henry VIII. nor the eminent learning and abilities 
of Erafmus, fereened them from the fame grofs abufe with 
which he treated Tetzel or Eckius. To roule mankind,, 
when funk in ignorance and fuperftition, and to encoun¬ 
ter the rage of bigotry armed with power, required the 
utmolt vehemence of zeal, as well as a temper daring to 
excefs. A gentle call would neither have reached nor 
have excited thofe to whom it mult have been addreffed. 
A fpirit more able but lefs vigorous than Luther’s would 
have flmink back from dangers which he braved and lur- 
mounted. Towards the dole of Luther’s life, though 
without any perceptible diminution of his zeal and abili¬ 
ties, the infirmities of his temper increafed upon him, fo 
that he grew daily more peevifli, more irafcible, and more 
impatient of contradiction. Having lived to be a witnefs 
of his own amazing fuccefs, to fee a great part of Europe 
embrace his doctrines, and to fliake the foundation of 
papal Rome, before which the mightielt monarchs had 
trembled, he difeovered, on fome occafions, l’ymptoms of 
vanity and felf-applaule. He mult have been, indeed,, 
more than man, if, upon contemplating all that he actu¬ 
ally accomplilhed, he had never felt any fentimenc of this 
kind riling in his bread.” 
There is yet another tellimony to the life and labours 
of this great man that we cannot omit: “ Martin Luther’s 
life,” fays billiop Atterbury, “ was a continual warfare; 
he was engaged againfl: the united forces of the papal 
world, and he flood the (hock of them bravely, both with 
courage and fuccefs. He was a man certainly of high en¬ 
dowments of mind, and great virtues: he had a valt un- 
derftanding, which railed him up to a pitch of learning 
unknown to the age in which he lived ; his knowledge in 
feripture was admirable, his elocution manly, and his way 
of reafoning with all the fubtilty that thofe 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 lhaken or furprifed, and that it* of his 
(lor I know not what elle to call it) before the diet of 
Worms, was fuch as might have become the days of the 
apoltles. His life was holy, and, when he had leifure for 
retirement, fevere ; his virtues active chiefly, and homili- 
tical, and not thofe lazy fullen ones of the cloifter. He 
had no ambition but in the fervice of God : for other 
things, neither his enjoyment nor willies ever went higher 
than the bare conveniences of living. He was of a tem¬ 
per particularly averle to covetoulnefs or any bafe fin, 
and charitable even to a fault, without refpect to his own 
occalions. If, among this crowd of virtues, a failing crept 
in, we muft remember that an apoftle himfelf had not 
been irreproachable ; if, in the body of his doctrine, one 
flaw is to be feen, yet the greatelt lights of the church, 
and in the pureft times of it, were, we know, not exadt 
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 bringeth glad tidings !” Gibbon, fpeaking 
of the effects produced by the exertions of Luther and his 
contemporaries, lays, “ The philofopher mult own his obli¬ 
gations to thefe fearlefs enthufiafts. By their hands the 
lofty fabric of fuperftition, from the abufe of indulgences 
to the interceflion of the Virgin, has been levelled with 
the ground. Myriads of both fexes of the monadic pro- 
feflion were reltored to liberty and the labours of focial 
life. The chain of authority was broken which reltrains 
the bigot from thinking as he pleafes, and the (lave from 
fpeaking as he thinks. The popes, fathers, and councils, 
were no longer the fupreme and infallible judges of the 
world; and each Chrillian was taught to acknowledge 
no law but the feriptures, no interpreter but his own 
confluence. ,v 
Luther left behind him three fons 5 and his wife, Ca- 
9 M tharing 
