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some of us to be cast into the dungeon , some to be drowned in water , &c . Then we see and find how finely we understood these words , and how faith quivereth and striveth , and how great our weakness is , then we begin to think and to say , Ah , who knoweth whether that be true or not which is written in the Scriptures ? * —pp 128 , 129 .
f * God ' power is great , * said Luther , * who upholdeth and nourisheth the whole world ; and it is a hard article where we say and acknowledge , I believe in God the Father , &c . He hath created all things sufficient for us . All the seas are our cellars , all the woods are our huntings , and the earth is full of silver and gold , and of innumerable fruits , which are created all for our sakes—the earth is a warehouse , and a larder for us , ' &c .
' One evening Luther saw cattle going along a pasture-field , " Behold , " said he , * ' there go our preachers ; there are our milk-bearers , butter-bearers , cheese and wool-bearers , which do daily preach to us faith towards God , that we should trust in Him , as in our loving Father , who careth for us , and will maintain and nourish us / ' ' 4 No man , ' said Luther , c can calculate the great charges God is at only in maintaining the birds and such creatures , which , in a manner , are nothing , or oflittle worth . I am persuaded / said he , 'that it costeth God more yearly to maintain the sparrows alone , than the whole year ' s revenue of the French king ! What , then , shall we say of the rest of his creatures ?*
* God / said Luther , ' could be exceeding * rich in money and in temporal wealth , if He pleased ; but He will not . If He were but to come to the pope , to the emperor , to a king , a prince , a bishop , to a rich merchant , a citizen , or a farmer , and were to say , — " Except thou givest me a hundred thousand crowns , thou shalt die this instant /*—then
every one would presently say , " I will give it with all my heart , if I may but live / ' But now we are such unthankful slovens , that we give him riot so much as a Deo gratias , although we receive from him richly , and overflowing , so great benefits , merely out of his goodness and mercy . Is not this a shame ? Yet , notwithstanding such our unthankfulness , our Lord God and merciful Father doth not suffer
Himself thereby to be scared away , but continually doth show to us all manner of goodnesses . * But / said Luther , * if , in his gifts and bene- * fits , he were more sparing , and in imparting the same to us were more close-handed , then might we learn to be thankful . If , for example , he caused every human creature to be born into the world with only one leg or foot , and seven years afterwards gave him the other leg ; or , in
the fourteenth year gave one of the hands , and in the twentieth the other , then we should better acknowledge God's gifts and benefits ; we should then also value them at a higher rate , and be thankful to Almighty God for the same . But now , since God heaps upon us these and the like his blessings , we never regard the same , nor show ourselves thankful to him /
Then again / said Luther , * God hath given to us in these days a whole sea full of His word ; He giveth unto us all manner of languages , and good , free , liberal arts : we buy , at this time , for a small price , all manner and sorts of good books , moreover , He giveth unto
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Critical Notices . — -Miscellaneous . ^ 63
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1832, page 63, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1804/page/63/
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