"I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, & hast not denied my faith. Rev. 2-13 Luther and the “Prophets.” THE most noted of the prophets were not at Wittemberg when Luther arrived there. Nicolas Storch was on a progress through the country. Mark Stubner had quitted the hospitable roof of Melancthon. Perhaps their spirit of prophecy had left them without "voice or answer," from the first tidings brought them that the new Elijah was turning his steps towards their Mount Carmel. Cellarius, the old schoolmaster, alone remained. Meanwhile Stubner, hearing that his sheep were scattered, returned in haste to Wittemberg. Those who had remained faithful to "the heavenly prophecy" gathered round their master, repeated the substance of Luther's sermons, and pressed him with anxious enquiries as to what they should think and do. Stubner exhorted them to stand firm. "Let him come forth," interposed Cellarius; "let him give us the meeting; let him only afford us an opportunity to declare our doctrine, and then we shall see....." buke thee, Satan." Instantly the prophets lost all self-command. They shouted aloud, "The Spirit, the Spirit." The answer of Luther was marked by the cool contempt and cutting homeliness of his expressions: "I slap your spirit on the snout!" said he. Hereupon their outcries redoubled. Cellarius was more violent than the rest. He stormed till he foamed at the mouth,-and their voices were inaudible from the tumult. The result was that the pretended prophets abandoned the field, and that very day they left Wittemberg-D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation. Seeketh not her own. IN reading the apostle's beautiful description of the varied and lovely graces of Christian charity, the lips may sometimes dejectedly exclaim, "who is sufficient for these things?" So truly may conscience warn too many of their lamentable deficiency in the exercise of those holy tempers, which should be the outward testimony of that faith, by which the Christian professes that he lives. I will not look into the world to see how many or how few of those cha nearer business to transact at home. Were I judged solely by the test of some of these, where should I deservedly be ranked ? Luther had but little wish to meet them. He knew them to be men of violent, hasty, and haughty temper, who would not endure even kind admonitions, but required that every one should, at the very first summons, submit to them as to a aracteristic marks attach to those with whom I mix. I have a supreme authority. Such are enthusiasts in every age. Nevertheless, as an interview was requested, Luther could not decline it. Besides, it might be doing service to the weakly of the flock to unmask the impostures of the prophets. Accordingly the meeting took place. Stubner opened the conversation. He shewed how he proposed to restore the Church and reform the world. Luther listened to him with great calmness. "Of all you have been saying," replied he, at last, gravely, "there is nothing that I see to be based upon Scripture. It is a mere tissue of fiction." At these words Cellarius lost all self-possession. Raising his voice like one out of his mind, he trembled from head to foot, and striking the table with his fist, in a violent passion, exclaimed against Luther's speech as an insult offered to a man of God. On this Luther remarked, "Paul declared that the signs of an apostle were wrought among the Corinthians, in signs and mighty deeds. Do you likewise prove your apostleship by miracles."—" We will do so," rejoined the prophets. "The Ged whom I serve," answered Luther," will know how to bridle your gods." Stubner, who had hitherto preserved an imperturbable silence, now fixing his eyes on the Reformer, said, in a solemn tone, "Martin Luther, hear me while I declare what is passing at this moment in your soul. You are beginning to see that my doctrine is true." Luther was silent for a few moments, and then replied, "The Lord re NO. XXIII.] "Seeketh not her own," is one of the distinctions by which the faithful child of God is recognized, as coming out from amongst others, and being separate. Is this distinction mine? Are the rights which are clearly my own, never insisted on with a pertinacity which shows they are estimated as something more than trusts which Providence has reposed on me, out of which he has deputed me to minister as His agent? Do I, if placed in eminence of station from wealth, or rank, or learning, or talent, consider myself but as an upper servant of God's household, on whom a superior responsibility is made to rest, and who, therefore, "seeketh not her own," but God's honor? If this be so, I shall claim no peculiar deference to be paid to my opinion, because it is mine; no flattering attentions to my person; no infringment on the inclinations and tastes of those around me, simply that mine may have the pre-eminence. Whatever station I am in, I shall consider the affections of others (even if by my own undeviating tenderness I should seem to have a just claim to them) as theirs, freely to bestow, believing it to be my part gratefully to receive them. Leisure and ease I shall be ready to resign, whenever the claims of God's service and the necessities of my fellow creatures require my attention, though the call be repugnant to inclination, and convenience be made the sacrifice. Even to add to their momentary gratifications, my own must be taught to yield, so that they be innocent, and no way likely to infringe on any higher claim which God, or my neighbor, possesses over me. And, when all this is done, Christianity enjoins that I seek no praise, that I demand no compensation for the benefit, or the pleasure which has been bestowed. This, indeed, would be a wide extension of that, against which the prohibition already exists. For, in this case, should I not seek that which, clearly, could in no sense be said to be my own? To whom should the praise be given, but to him of whom cometh the sufficiency, and "our sufficiency is of God." To ourselves then let us ascribe, as we justly may, every deficiency which attends our daily performance of this prescribed command; and to Him be the honor, the praise, the adoration, for every power of resisting self. His grace it is which worketh it in us, and to him be all the glory. Reason in matters of Religion. GIBSON, BISHOP OF LONDON. WHEN a revelation is sufficiently attested to come from God, let it not weaken your faith, if you cannot clearly see the fitness and expedience of every part of it. This would be, to make yourself as knowing as God, whose wisdom is infinite; and the depth of whose dispensations, with the reasons and ends of them, are not to be fathomed by our short and narrow comprehensions. God has given us sufficient capacity to know him, and to learn our duty, and to judge when a revelation comes from him; which is all the knowledge that is needful to us in our present state. And it is the greatest folly, as well as presumption, in any man to enter into the counsels of God, and to make himself a judge of the wisdom of his dispensations to such a degree, as to conclude, that this or that revelation cannot come from God, because he cannot see in every respect the fitness and reasonableness of it; to say, for instance, that either we had no need of a revelation, or that a better method might have been contrived for our redemption and upon the whole, not to give God leave to save us in his own way. In these cases, the true inference is, that the revelation is therefore wise, and good, and just, and fit to be received and submitted to by us, because we have sufficient reason to believe that it comes from God. For so far he has made us competent judges, inasmuch as natural reason informs us what are the proper evidences of divine revelation; but he has not let us into the springs of his ministration, nor shewn us the whole compass of it, nor the connec : tion of the several parts with one another: nor, by consequence, can we be capable to judge adequately of the fitness of the means which he makes use of to attain the ends. On the contrary, the attempting to make such a judgment, is to set ourselves in the place of God, and to forget that we are frail men; that is, short-sighted and ignorant creatures, who know very little of divine matters, farther than it has pleased God to reveal them to us. On the Lord's Supper. LUTHER. "It is not the mere pressing with the teeth, it is the inward and spiritual partaking realized by faith which makes us Christians, and without which all outward acts are but show and grimace. But that faith consists in the firm belief that Jesus is the Son of God; that having himself borne our sins and our iniquities on the cross, he is, himself, the alone and all-sufficient expiation : that he now appears continually in the presence of God, reconciling us to the Father: and has given to us the sacrament of his body for the strengthening of our faith in this unspeakable mercy. Only let me believe this, and God is my defence; with Him for my buckler I defy death, hell, and devils: they cannot harm me, nor even so much as ruffle a hair of my That spiritual bread is comfort to the afflicted, health to the sick, life to the dying, food to the hungry, and a treasury to the poor! The man who does not feel the burthen of his sins, ought, therefore, to abstain from approaching the altar. What can he have to do there? Ah! let conscience be heard; let our hearts be broken with the sense of our sins, and we shall not come to that holy sacrament in a spirit of presumption." head! We regret to inform our readers, that the reason why the prints of Mr. Williams's death are excluded from the Sacred Cabinet, is, that an injunction was threatened against them. We were thereby induced, though at a great sacrifice, to close their sale, and to substitute others in their room. In this loss we doubt not, our readers will kindly sympathize with us, and will use their interest in forwarding the sale of our unfortunate little work. God's Love to Man. JOHN QUARLES. He that can break a rocky heart in twain, He whose celestial power can make the graves To open, and command their slumbering slaves To make her headlong gushing streams abound, He that can curb rude Boreas, and assuage He that preserv'd a Daniel from the paws. Of lions, and can muzzle up their jaws; He that can make the greedy ravens carry Dash fire into ice, and countermand The wanton flames, and charm them, that they dare He that can make his visage shine so bright And free him from the thraldom of his crutch; Heaven can do all, but what he will not do ! Heaven made poor Job so rich, that Satan's wealth Could purchase nothing from him, but his health, And that corporeal too: he could not boast Yet he's but earth, and must at last decay, |