and the like."

The

This he had never dreamt of before. Law had often slain all his hopes, and set more than his conscience on fire, by crossing his wishes; but he had ascribed both the death of hope and the wrath of passion, to the direct influence of the devil. It was, therefore, startling as well as "very strange" to him at first, to be warned and adjured by Luther, not to look nor listen to the Law of God, when a sense of guilt was overwhelming the conscience, and sinking the heart in despair. He had to watch and ponder much, before he saw how the utter exclusion of Law from the question of pardon, could relieve the conscience from the fear of wrath, without relaxing the fear of sin or the love of holiness. And he was perfectly astounded to hear Luther almost thank the devil, for calling him "a great sinner." Luther says to Satan, "in telling me that I am a sinner, thou givest me armour and weapons against thyself, that with thine own sword I may cut thy throat, and tread thee under my feet;-for Christ died for sinners. Thou (only) puttest me in mind of God's fatherly love towards me, and of the benefit of Christ, as often as thou objectest that I am a wretched and condemned sinner." Το foil Satan thus, with his own weapons, was a new thing to Bunyan. But he was an apt scholar, and soon learned to say for himself, "The guilt of sin helped me much: for still as that would come upon me, the blood of Christ did take it off again, and again, and again." In regard to Law also, he was soon Lutheran enough to say, "In that conscience where, but just now, did reign and rage the law, even there would rest and abide the peace and love of God, through Christ."

These are not the Lutheran maxims, which History records, and Poetry immortalizes, as the secret of the Reformation; but these were the maxims which endeared Luther to the conscience of Europe. Robertson did not see this, nor even Villers understand it; but Luther's doctrine of Justification by faith, and his defiance of Satan to condemn, mustered the best men of the millions who responded to him with acclamations, when he threw the Canon Law and the Pope's Bull into the bonfire of Wittemberg, exclaiming, "Let eternal fire trouble thee, because thou hast troubled the Holy One of God." Bunyan is a proof of this. It was Luther's sympathy with uneasy consciences, and Luther's insight into the devices of Satan, and Luther's exhibition of a free salvation, which won his heart, and drew from his pen the declaration-that the

work on the Galatians might have been written out of his own heart.

I give prominence to the influence of Luther upon Bunyan, because no one can suspect Bunyan of any approach to the enormity of "making void the Law by faith ;" and because it is becoming somewhat too fashionable to boggle at Luther's strong language, on the subject of justification by faith alone. There is, indeed, no necessity for using all the Saxonisms of the Saxon Reformer; but English, which does not say that Law has nothing to do with justification, is, however polished, worse than vulgar, except when it says that the Law, like the Prophets, witnesses to the righteousness which is by faith.

How well Bunyan understood Luther, if not copied after him also, will be seen from the following remarks upon Paul's doxology, "Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." "What can be more plain? What can be more full? What can be more suitable to the most desponding spirit in any man? God can do more than thou knowest he will. He can do more than thou thinkest he can. What dost thou think? Why, I think, saith the sinner, that I am cast away. Well, but there are worse thoughts than these, therefore think again. Why, saith the sinner, I think that my sins are as many as all the sins of the world. Indeed, this is a very black thought, but there are worse thoughts than this, therefore, prithee think again. Why, I think, saith the sinner, that God is not able to pardon all my sins. Ay, now thou hast thought indeed. For this thought makes thee look more like a devil than a man ; and yet, because thou art a man, and not a devil, see the condescension and the boundlessness of the love of thy God. He is able to do above all that we think. Couldst thou (sinner) if thou hadst been allowed, thyself express what thou wouldst have expressed, the greatness of the love thou wantest; with words that could have suited thee better? For it is not said, he can do above what we think, meaning our thinking at pres. ent, but above all we can think; meaning, above the worst and most soul dejecting thoughts, that we have at any time. Sometimes the dejected have worse thoughts than at other times they have. Well, take them at their worst times, at times when they think, and think till they think themselves down into the very pangs of hell, yet this word of the grace

of God is above them, and shows that he can yet recover and save these miserable people. And now I am upon this subject, I will a little further walk and travel with the desponding ones, and will put a few words in their mouths for their help against temptations that may come upon them hereafter. For as Satan follows such now, with charges and applications of guilt, so he may follow them with interrogatories and appeals; for he can tell how by appeals, as well as by charging of sin, to sink and drown the sinner whose soul he has leave to engage. Suppose, therefore, that some distressed man or woman should after this way be engaged, and Satan should with his interrogatories and appeals be busy with them, to drive them to desperation, the text last mentioned, to say nothing of the subject of our discourse, yields plenty of help for the relief of such a one. Says Satan, Dost thou not know that thou hast horribly sinned? Yes, says the soul, I do. Says Satan, Dost thou not know that thou art one of the vilest in all the pack of professors? Yes, says the soul, I do. Says Satan, Doth not thy conscience tell thee that thou art and hast been more base than any of thy fellows can imagine thee to be? Yes, says the soul, my conscience tells me so. Well, saith Satan, now will I come upon thee with my appeals. Art thou not a graceless wretch? Yes. Hast thou not a heart to be sorry for this wickedness? No, not as I should. And albeit, saith Satan, thou prayest sometimes, yet is not thy heart possessed with a belief that God will not regard thee? Yes, says the sinner. Why then, despair, and go hang thyself, saith the devil. And now we are at the end of the thing designed and driven at by Satan. But what shall I now do? saith the sinner. I answer, Take up the words of the text against him, 'Christ loves with a love that passeth knowledge.' And answereth him farther, saying, Satan, though I cannot think that God loves me, though I cannot think that God will save me, yet I will not yield to thee; for God can do more than I think he can. He can do exceeding abundantly above what I ask or think. Thus the Text helpeth where obstructions are put in against our believing. It is a Text made up of words picked and packed together, by the wisdom of God: picked and packed together, on purpose for the succour and relief of the tempted, that they may, when, in the very midst of their distresses, cast themselves upon the love of God in Christ for salvation."-Works, p. 1766.

It would be a delightful task to me, fond and familiar as I

:

am with both Luther and Bunyan, to parallelize their mature views of the great doctrines of the Gospel. But my limits forbid. No forbidding, however, shall prevent me from imploring theological Students, to trace out, mark, and remember, the chordings of these original and mighty minds, with the tuned harps of Inspiration and Heaven. There is, indeed, no polish upon the language of either. They blurt out, in blunt terms, their opinions of truth and duty but their Saxon is a talismanic Sesame at all the doors of consideration. It is quite possible to yawn, if not to fall asleep, over John Howe, or Robert Hall, when they wire-draw the wedges of Sanctuary Gold, and then festoon the wire in artificial forms of ornate beauty: but Luther and Bunyan make the ground shake again, when they throw down the golden wedges; and never make the metal shine, except when they lay it in thick plates upon the Mercy-seat, or in wide expanse on the walls, of the Temple: and then, they make us hear the unrolling of the sheets, as well as see the unburnished radiance of them.

Perhaps the best thing I can do, in closing this brief chapter, is, to record the Imprimatur of the Bishop of London, who was contemporary with the first translation of Luther on the Galatians. The next Metropolitan, who shall speak in EDWIN'S style and spirit of that work, will eclipse the only two of the moderns, whom I have studied;-Louth and Porteus.

The Metropolitan of 1575, told the church and the world, that Luther's work being brought to him to peruse and consider, "I thought it my part, not only to allow of it to print, but also to commend it to the Reader, as a treatise most comfortable to all afflicted consciences, exercised in the School of Christ. The Author felt what he spake, and had experience of what he wrote, and thus was able, more lively, to express both the assaults and salving; the order of the battle, and the means of the victory.

"If Christ justify, who can condemn ?-saith St. Paul. This most necessary doctrine, the author hath most substantially declared in his Commentary. Satan is the enemy: the victory is only by faith in Christ."-Imprimatur.

It would seem from the Bishop's Preface, that the first translators of Luther's work stuck fast, either from ignorance or fear, in the midst of it; and that more learned men, caring for nothing so much as for the " relief of afflicted minds," put

“to their helping hand, from zeal," but kept back their names from modesty. Being thus left in ignorance of the finishers of the translation, I say nothing about its beginners,—much as I might say.

in

It deserves notice, that Bunyan improved upon Luther, speaking of the Law. He did not, like him, rave or stamp, when smashing its "great teeth and strong horn," as a cursing Covenant. He saw how it was abolished, as "the ministry of Condemnation," at the cross of Christ. Neither Bunyan nor Luther, however, caught Paul's splendid idea, that the CHIROGRAPH of Law was nailed to the Cross, as Christ him、 self was, without losing any thing of its glory or authority as a Rule of life. Both Christ and Law were crucified, in order to be crowned forever.