us, and at the same time to mark our doings and our most secret thoughts. Docs not the train of thought through which we have been led realize to us, with increased distinctness, that it is "in him we live, move, and have our being!" This is a truth which it is exceedingly difficult to bring home to the human heart, and to keep fixed there. We perpetually forget that we are acting in the full blaze of his sight, and that our souls lie all naked before the eye which searches us through and through. Nor less do we need the hope and confidence which this truth would give us in our seasons of doubt or despondency. When all nature and providence, as well as revelation, are so full of proofs that God's infinite care reaches to the minutest particle, how can we hesitate at the assurance he has given us of his fatherly regards? If considered in a rational light, "the heavens, the work of his fingers, the moon and the stars which he hath ordained," are teachers of trust and not of doubt. "Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge."

H. B.

ART. XXVI.

Luther's Views on Endless Punishment.

[The following is a Translation of one of Luther's Letters.]

To Hansen von Rechenberg, Freistadt.

Worshipful Sir,—

Grace and peace in Christ, Amen!

IT has been suggested to me by Count Albrecht, of Mansfeld, that I should address your worship a written communication on the question, Whether God can or will save those who die without faith; that your worship, after having contended so much with unbelievers bodily, may be provided with a spiritual harness to meet safely and on strong and good ground, either

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them or those who inquire on their account. are among us here as there have been at times among the most eminent people, as Origen and his like, those to whom it seems quite too harsh and severe, and so unbecoming the divine goodness, that God should cast off men, and thus have created them for eternal torment. And they have taken their ground from the seventy-seventh Psalm, where it is said: "Will the Lord cast off forever? and will he be favorable no more? Is his mercy clean gone forever? Hath he forgotten to be gracious? Hath he shut up his tender mercies?" So also from Paul, 1 Tim. ii., where he says of God "Who will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth." From this they go still farther, and maintain that even the devils will at last be released and not remain eternally damned; and much of this kind which is spun, one thing from another.

But to answer this, one must separate very widely from between our thoughts and God's truth; and even so hold that we shall not convict God of lying, but rather concede that all men, angels and devils will be lost, than that God will not be true to his word.

Such a question springs from an over-inquisitive curiosity in human nature, which cannot brook that it should not know the reason and ground of so severe and awful a judgement of God; and quite right would it be to conclude, that were it not a judgement of God, it would be mere malice, arbitrary power and injustice. Nor is this. the least stumbling block which the devil throws in our way, and thinks by it to turn the eye away from faith, and make it evil against God,-since he knows that it is the noblest, the most precious virtue of faith, that in this case one shuts his eyes and abstains in simplicity of heart from such inquiry, and gladly refers every thing to God, not even wishing to know why he acts thus, but still holding God as the highest Goodness and Justice, although he here seems to act against and beyond all reason, sense and experience, and to be mere Anger and Injustice. Therefore this is the highest honor and love of God, yea, the highest grace of the divine love and honor, that one can in this matter regard God and praise him as good and just. For the eye of nature must be entirely plucked

out, and mere faith substituted, otherwise one can not avoid being shocked and dangerously offended at it; and when the young and inexperienced in faith fall upon it, (as it commonly happens that every one must commence at the highest point,) and begin to contemplate it in a natural light, they are very near receiving a great and sudden fall, and being betrayed into a secret contradiction of will and hatred towards God, from which it is difficult afterwards to recover themselves. Hence we should advise them to remain undisturbed on account of the judgements of God, till they are well grown in faith, and that they meanwhile nourish themselves with milk, as St. Peter says, 1 Peter ii., and exercise themselves with the sufferings and humanity of Christ, consider his life and conduct; otherwise it will happen to them according to the proverb of Solomon, qui scrutator est majestatiæ opprimetur a gloria, he who searches into the divine majesty will be overwhelmed with its glory.

So it is not difficult to answer this question; but still it is dangerous, when we find those who can bear such an answer, lest we let children come to this strong wine, and they get intoxicated with it. Nature and reason can not bear it; it terrifies too much for them: weak faith also can not bear it; it is too offensive for that. For here it happens as Christ says, Matt. ix., if we put new wine into old bottles, they will be broken and perish. So this answer spoils these weak and rational men, and then it itself dies and becomes despised.

What shall we do then? Let them put new wine into new bottles; that is, we should put off this dealing of God, as the highest and most excellent, till we have become firm and strong, or else what we think, write and speak on the subject, is vain and mischievous.

My advice, therefore, is that your worship see well to it, with whom this subject is discussed, and that you keep silence or speak accordingly. Are they naturally rational, intelligent people? then avoid this question. Are they on the contrary simple, deep, spiritual and experienced people? there is no more useful subject to treat upon with them than this. For as strong wine is fatal to children, so it is to the old the very refreshment of life. Hence one cannot discuss all doctrines with every man.

Now, to come to the answer. We have very strong passages to show that without faith God neither will nor can save any one; as is said in the last chapter of Mark, "He that believeth not shall be damned." So, Heb. xi., "Without faith it is impossible to please God." So, John iii., "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Again, "He that believeth not is condemned already." If, now, God can save no one without faith, he must (to save the unbeliev ing) act contrary to his own words, and convict himself of falsehood, yea, deny himself. But this is impossible. For, as Paul says, it is impossible that God should deny himself. Now, it is just as impossible for God to save men without faith, as it is for the divine majesty to lie. This is clear and easily to be understood, unwilling as the old bottles may be to receive and hold this wine.

It would be quite another question, Whether God can give faith to some, in or after death, and so save them through faith? Who doubts that he can do this? But that he does it we can not prove. Although we read that he once raised the dead and then gave them faith. Now, in this matter, he does what he does; he either gives faith, or he gives it not. Still it is impossible that one can be saved without faith. Otherwise, all preaching, and the gospel and faith, would be vain, false and deceptive, since the whole gospel makes faith necessary.

But their conclusion does not follow from the passage in the Psalms before referred to, "God will not keep anger forever." For the whole Psalm speaks of the present sufferings of the saints on earth, as the preceding and following words and all the circumstances show. For it always seems to those in sorrow that God has forgotten them, and will be angry forever. And the passage from Paul, "God will have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth," goes no farther. For, as it is said before, God will have us pray for all ranks and conditions of men, will have us teach and preach the truth to every man, and that we should mutually assist each other, both in body and spirit. Now, because he commands this, and will have us do it, St. Paul justly says, it is God's will that all should be saved, for without his will it could not be done. But it does not follow from this, that

he will save all men. And even if the passage might be urged somewhat farther, still it must be understood in this manner, or otherwise the divine foreknowledge and election, on which St. Paul insists so strongly, would be of no avail.

So much, honored sir, I have written you in love, and I beg you would allow these high flying spirits to have nothing to do with these matters, but, as I before said, bind them to Christ's humanity, and besides, let them strengthen and support themselves till they be sufficiently grown. For why should the man Christ Jesus be given to us as a guide to the Father, if we forsake him and go on our way without him, and seek heaven by our own reason, and wish to know God's judgement. It will never succeed; for, in Christ's humanity we learn what it is necessary for us to know, since he is our Mediator, and no one can come to the Father but by him. "I am the door, the way," said he to Philip, who also inquired after the Father out of Christ. For all the treasures of wisdom

and knowledge are hidden in him.

Herewith, I commend your worship to the grace of God, and tender my Christian duty always.

MARTIN LUther.

REMARKS. The preceding letter of the great Reformer possesses considerable interest. Its early date gives it importance in a historical point of light. It was written, as it appears, in the year 1522, and, of course, only six or eight years after the commencement of the Reformation. Yet it bears unquestionable testimony to the existence of Universalists and Universalism at that early day. It has always seemed to me a remarkable fact, that the faith in a world's salvation should have existed at that moment in

the very dawn of that new era. Whence came it? Was it the instant growth of spiritual freedom blessed with the Holy Scriptures? Or did it come up from the bosom of the past, a fire that had been kept alive through long ages of darkness and oppression, and now, in the morning of intellectual and religious emancipation, burst forth with a clear light to be smothered no more forever? Be this as it may, it is certain that Universalism held its place in the early times of Luther, and, it would seem, commanded no little attention and respect.