miracles are unreal; and so to sink the faith of the church lower than it was before?" "I think not."

And the fact is, that if Luther did not regard himself as altogether a prophet, this might partly be because he conceived that he held another office expressly given to him, namely, that of a preacher or evangelist: and he knew very well that God hath set different offices in the church (1 Cor. xii. 8-11, & 28). Thus, in his book against the Pope, he first calls himself a Preacher*. "But," it is added,

"If he should also assume the title of Evangelist, he writes that he should do so more justly than any of the bishops could prove his own title; and that he was sure he was so named, and as such regarded, by Christ himself, who was the Master from whom he had learned his doctrine, and would in the last day be the Judge of it +."

This, be it observed, was Luther's opinion, at the time when the Pope and the Emperor had stripped him of his titles of presbyter and doctor : consequently he is not referring to any merely human ordination; and, as the words themselves, indeed, very clearly evince, he calls himself Evangelist, because he conceives himself to have been especially designated to that office by the great Head of the Church. Hence there would be the less reason for his assuming another title, namely, that of Prophet; though, nevertheless, at the same time, we find him uttering particular

"Ecclesiastes."

+"Quod si etiam Evangelista titulum sumeret, majore id jure facturum se esse scribit, quam ullus episcoporum suum titulum probare possit, certumque se esse, a Christo ipso sic nominari, et pro tali haberi, qui doctrinæ suæ magister, et in novissimo die testis futurus sit."-Lib. I. S CXXIII. 1.

predictions, as we have seen already, and now go on to see still further.

There is something very awful, for instance, in Luther's denunciations against Emser; and the event fully bore them out. Emser was secretary to Duke George of Saxony; he opposed Luther, published a version of the New Testament against his, and greatly withstood his words. Luther writes thus respecting him to Hausmann.

No answer, good Nicolaus, is to be returned to Emser, for it is of such an one that Paul says, He is subverted and condemned of himself; and he is to be shunned, for he sinneth the sin unto death. Yet a little, and I will pray against him, that the Lord may render to him according to his works. For it is better that he die, than that he go on thus blaspheming Christ against his own conscience. Therefore let him alone; the wretched man, too swiftly for him, will be effectually quieted. But do thou also cease to pray for him *."

Seckendorf adds,

"These things came to pass, not long after, as we shall observe in the proper place †."

In his next book, accordingly, Seckendorf relates the particulars; and it will be observed that another prediction, besides Luther's, stands connected with the catastrophe. The account is given from Schneider, a preacher of Dresden, where the event took place. Alexius Crosner,

"Emsero nihil est respondendum, optime Nicolae, quia is est, de quo Paulus dicit, subversus est, et suo judicio damnatus, et vitandus, peccat enim peccatum ad mortem. Adhuc modicum et orabo contra eum, ut reddat ei Dominus secundum opera sua; melius est enim ut moriatur, quam ut sic pergat contra conscientiam suam Christum blasphemare. Sine ergo eum, velociter nimis satis compescetur miser ille. Sed et tu desine pro eo orare."

Hæc non multo post eventum habuerunt, ut in loco notabimus."Lib. I. § CXXVII.

for three years a pious preacher in the same city, had been much persecuted for his sermons, and was at length sent away*.

Emser, riding by, and seeing him setting out with his moveables, broke forth into the following words; Gladly do I behold this day, because the sermons of a heretic are put a stop to. Go in the devil's name: I remain here. Alexius answered, In God's name, you should say, Emser. I was in Misnia before you, and shall remain there, when you are no more. What followed? That evening, Emser, having partaken of a splendid entertainment with a certain citizen, a chief man of Leipzic, and others, and going aside when the guests had departed, after horrible words and contortions, was taken off by a sudden death +.

"Dimissus est."

"Abiturum cum suppellectile conspicatus Empserus, equo prætervectus, in hæc erupit verba: Diem hunc lætus adspicio, quod hæretici concionibus finis impositus est; abi in malam rem, (ins teuffels nahmen) ego hic maneo. Respondit Alexius: Imo in nomine Domini dicere debebas Emsere (in Gottes nahmen wäre auch ein wort). Ego prius quam tu in Misnia fui, mansurus etiam, cum tu non eris. Quid fit? Eo vespere cum cive aliquo Lipsiensi primario aliisque laute cœnatus Emserus, digressis hospitibus in sella considens, post horrenda verba et gestus subita morte sublatus fuit."-Lib. II. § xxxiv. Add. 11. e.

With this occurrence should be related one which happened at Utrecht. "On the 29th of July, 1660, (that is to say, during the time of the De Witts), Abraham Van der Velde and Johannes Teeling, ministers at Utrecht, and both of them faithful watchmen on the walls of Zion, were ordered, by a written sentence of the magistracy, to leave the city before six o'clock that evening, and the province within four-and-twenty hours; although the Consistory gave them, the same day, an attestation, by which it was declared that (in their opinion) they were both sound in doctrine and faithful in their ministry. The reason of this aristocratical sentence was, that Van der Velde, having preached that day, had by his zeal and earnestness bitterly offended a burgomaster of Utrecht, who drank hard, and whom on that account he had censured (according to the discipline of the church). But as one of his children was then lying dead in his house, he sent in a request to the burgomaster, that he might be allowed to defer his departure till he had buried his child. He received, however, this cruel answer: That his request was refused, but that he might have the dung-cart of the burgomaster to carry his child to the grave!' The minister was therefore obliged to leave the city with the body of his child; and the burgomaster immediately repaired to his country-seat on the side of the canal, in order to amuse himself with mocking the banished and mourning minister as he passed. But the ways of a man are before the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings;'

On another occasion, we find Luther recording a saying, which proved to be prophetic, concerning the city of Erdford. The saying was Martinus Sangerhausen's; and is cited by Luther, to shew that, however prosperous a state, it must suffer, unless it have fit men for governors. It was, he tells us, to the following effect; that Erdford

"would continue invincible, with respect to its riches and fortifications: but that, though both powerful and opulent, the state would experience a deficiency with respect to men *."

And on this, be it observed, Seckendorf writes thus that Luther

"records a memorable saying, not his own indeed, but some other learned man's, concerning the loss to which a state is subject, even though not deficient in respect to wealth, provided it want fit men; and mentions a city by name, whose predicted fate," says Seckendorf, " is in my time fulfilled."

Here we may observe, then,

1. That such a saying had been prophetically spoken by Sangerhausen, respecting Erdford.

2. That, before the time of its fulfilment, Luther recorded it, in a public lecture on Psalm cxxvii.

and it deserves to be recorded that, just as Van der Velde passed by in the boat, the burgomaster was seized with a fit. The gardener, seeing this, called his servant: they judged it necessary to convey him to the city again, without a moment's delay; and, finding no conveyance at hand but the dung-cart, placed him thereon, in order to bring him to Utrecht; where he arrived dead, having died by the way, as an awful example that there is a God in heaven who pleads the cause of his ser- Christian Review, 1830, p. 220.

vants.

66

* “ —mansuram invictam quod ad opes et munitiones attineret; sed defuturos potenti et opulentæ Reipub. homines."-Luther on the Psalms of Degrees. Ps. cxxvii. Op. Tom. III. Witteb. 1583. p. 550 (over). + Memorabile non suum quidem, sed alterius cujusdam viri docti dictum refert de damno, quod Respublica patitur, etiam opibus non infirma, sed viris idoneis destituta, et civitatem nominat, cujus fatum prædictum nostro tempore impletum est."-Lib. III. & LXXXI. 11.

3. That, in the time of Seckendorf, the cotemporary and friend of Luther's great-grandson, it was fulfilled.

Many things, indeed, were foretold, by Luther himself, which did not come to pass till after his decease. For instance, the restoration of Popery in parts where the Reformation had taken place.

There will be persons who will again cry up works; and all things will be much worse than they now are. Nothing is well-pleasing to God, but the work of Christ. As therefore it has already happened to us under the Papacy, so it will happen, the clear light of the Gospel being again darkened and extinguished. The tonsures and ropes of the Franciscans will be adored again; and it will be said, these things please God. But it will be idolatry and the work of the devil *.

On this Seckendorf observes,

What he dreaded, in conclusion, concerning the bringing back again of that worship, which he so much censures, and how prophetically he speaks, the event has proved in very many places +.”

With equal truth, Luther predicted the evils which would arise after his death at Wittemberg.

"There is extant a writing or protocol, from which it appears that he had made known to the Elector, that it would come to pass, that after his own death, there would arise discord in the university of Wittemberg, and a change would be made in his own doctrine ‡.'

*"Erunt qui opera denuo commendabunt, et multo deteriora erunt omnia, quam nunc sunt. Deo nihil placet, nisi opus Christi. Ut igitur nobis evenit sub papatu, ita et eveniet, iterum obscurata et extincta clara Evangelii luce. Adorabuntur iterum tonsuræ et funes Franciscanorum, et dicetur: Hæc placent Deo; erit tamen idololatria et opus diaboli." -Lib. II. § xxv. 22.

+"Quæ in fine de iterata cultus illius, quam tantopere culpat, reductione, metuit, et quodammodo vaticinatur, multis sane locis eventus comprobavit."-Lib. II. § xxv. 23.

"Scriptum sive protocollum extat, ex quo intelligitur, ipsum Electori indicasse, Fore, ut post mortem suam discordia in Academia Wittembergensi oriretur, et doctrinæ suæ mutatio fieret.'"-Lib. III. § LX. 4.