On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
us learned people , that do teach well and orderly , insomuch that a young youth ( if he be not altogether a dunce ) , may learn and study more in one year now , than formerly in many years . Arts are now so cheap that they almost go begging for bread . * ' Woe be to us , " said
Luther , ** that we are so lazy and improvident , so negligent and unthankful . ' But God , I fear , will shut up his liberal hand and mercy again , and will give unto us sparingly enough , so that we shall have again sects , schisms , preachers of lies , and scoffers of God , and then we shall adore and carry them upon our hands , seeing that now we do contemn His word and servants .
" The greater God ' s corporeal gifts and wondrous works are , the less , " said Luther , * ' they are regarded . " The greatest and most precious treasure of this kind that we receive of God is , that we can speak , hear , see , &c . Yet who is there that feels these to be God's gifts , or gives him thanks for them ? Men value such things as wealth , honour , power , and other things of less worth : but what costly things can they be that so soon do vanish away ? A blind man ( if he be in his right wits ) would willingly miss of all these , if he
might but see . " The reason , " said Luther , " why the corporeal gifts of God are so much undervalued , is this , that they are so common , and God bestows them upon the senseless beasts , as well as upon us people , and often in greater perfection . But what shall I say ? Christ made the blind to see . He drove out devils , raised the dead , &c , yet must He be upbraided by the ungodly hypocrites who gave themselves out for
God ' s people , and must hear from them that He was a Samaritan , and had a devil . "Ah ! " said Luther , " the world is the devil ' s , wheresoever it be . How then can it acknowledge God ' s gifts and benefits ? It is with God Almighty , as it is with parents and their children which are young : they regard not so much the daily bread , as an apple or a pear , or other toys . "—p . 157—160 . 4
The wrath is fierce and devouring which the devil hath against the Son of God , and the generation of mankind . •* I beheld once , " said Luther , ' a wolf tearing a sheep in pieces : it pitied me much to see it . When the wolf cometh into a sheep-fold , he devours none till he has killed them all : then he begins to eat , thinking he shall devour all . Even so it is also with the devil . I have now , thinketh he , taken hold of Christ , in time also I will snap his disciples ; but the devil ' s foolishness is this : he seeth not that he hath to do with the Son of God :
he knoweth not that , iu the end , it will be his bane . It will come to that pass , '' said Luther , " that the devil must be afraid of a child in the cradle : for when he only heareth the name of Jesus , uttered out of a true faith , then he cannot stay , for he thinketh , I have murdered him /' The devil would rather run through fire than be where Christ is : therefore it is justly said , *• Semen mulieria conteret caput serpentis , " the
seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent ' s head . " I ween , indeed , said Luther , " that he hath so crushed his head , that he can neither abide to hear nor to see Christ Jesus . I oftentimes delight myself , " said Luther , with that similitude in Job , of an angle hook . The fisherman used to put on the book a little worm , and then cast it into the water : by-and-by cometh the fish and snatcheth at the worm , and getteth therewith the hook in his jaws , so that the fisherman pulleth him out of the water . Even so bath our Lord God dealt with the devil ;
Untitled Article
64 Critical Nottee *—* Miscellaneous .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1832, page 64, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1804/page/64/
-