The Literary Remains of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume Iv Part 3

Ib. p. 200.

If (said Luther) G.o.d should give unto us a strong and an unwavering faith, then we should he proud, yea also, we should at last contemn Him. Again, if he should give us the right knowledge of the law, then we should be dismayed and fainthearted, we should not know which way to wind ourselves.

The main reason is, because in this instance, the change in the relation const.i.tutes the difference of the things. A. considered as acting 'ab extra' on the selfish fears and desires of men is the Law: the same A: acting 'ab intra' as a new nature infused by grace, as the mind of Christ prompting to all obedience, is the Gospel. Yet what Luther says is likewise very true. Could we reduce the great spiritual truths or ideas of our faith to comprehensible conceptions, or (for the thing itself is impossible) fancy we had done so, we should inevitably be 'proud vain a.s.ses.'

Ib. p. 203.

And as to know his works and actions, is not yet rightly to know the Gospel, (for thereby we know not as yet that he hath overcome sin death and the Devil); even so likewise, it is not as yet to know the Gospel, when we know such doctrine and commandments, but when the voice soundeth, which saith, Christ is thine own with life, with doctrine, with works, death, resurrection, and with all that he hath, doth and may do.

Most true.

Ib. p. 205.

The ancient Fathers said: 'Distingue tempora et concordabis Scripturas'; distinguish the times; then may we easily reconcile the Scriptures together.

Yea! and not only so, but we shall reconcile truths, that seem to repeal this or that pa.s.sage of Scripture, with the Scriptures. For Christ is with his Church even to the end.

Ib.

I verily believe, (said Luther) it (the abolition of the Law) vexed to the heart the beloved St. Paul himself before his conversion.

How dearly Martin Luther loved St. Paul! How dearly would St. Paul have loved Martin Luther! And how impossible, that either should not have done so!

Ib.

In this case, touching the distinguishing the Law from the Gospel, we must utterly expel all human and natural wisdom, reason, and understanding.

All reason is above nature. Therefore by reason in Luther, or rather in his translator, you must understand the reasoning faculty:--that is, the logical intellect, or the intellectual understanding. For the understanding is in all respects a medial and mediate faculty, and has therefore two extremities or poles, the sensual, in which form it is St.

Paul's [Greek: phronaema sarks]; and the intellectual pole, or the hemisphere (as it were) turned towards the reason. Now the reason ('lux idealis seu spiritualis') shines down into the understanding, which recognizes the light, 'id est, lumen a luce spirituali quasi alienigenum aliquid', which it can only comprehend or describe to itself by attributes opposite to its own essential properties. Now these latter being contingency, and (for though the immediate objects of the understanding are 'genera et species', still they are particular 'genera et species') particularity, it distinguishes the formal light ('lumen') (not the substantial light, 'lux') of reason by the attributes of the necessary and the universal; and by irradiation of this 'lumen' or 'shine' the understanding becomes a conclusive or logical faculty. As such it is [Greek: Logos anthropinos].

Ib. 206.

When Satan saith in thy heart, G.o.d will not pardon thy sins, nor be gracious unto thee, I pray (said Luther) how wilt thou then, as a poor sinner, raise up and comfort thyself, especially when other signs of G.o.d's wrath besides do beat upon thee, as sickness, poverty, &c. And that thy heart beginneth to preach and say, Behold, here thou livest in sickness, thou art poor and forsaken of every one, &c.

Oh! how true, how affectingly true is this! And when too Satan, the tempter, becomes Satan the accuser, saying in thy heart:--"This sickness is the consequence of sin, or sinful infirmity, and thou hast brought thyself into a fearful dilemma; thou canst not hope for salvation as long as thou continuest in any sinful practice, and yet thou canst not abandon thy daily dose of this or that poison without suicide. For the sin of thy soul has become the necessity of thy body, daily tormenting thee, without yielding thee any the least pleasurable sensation, but goading thee on by terror without hope. Under such evidence of G.o.d's wrath how canst thou expect to be saved?" Well may the heart cry out, "Who shall deliver me from the 'body of this death',--from this death that lives and tyrannizes in my body?" But the Gospel answers--"There is a redemption from the body promised; only cling to Christ. Call on him continually with all thy heart, and all thy soul, to give thee strength, and be strong in thy weakness; and what Christ doth not see good to relieve thee from, suffer in hope. It may be better for thee to be kept humble and in self-abas.e.m.e.nt. The thorn in the flesh may remain and yet the grace of G.o.d through Christ prove sufficient for thee. Only cling to Christ, and do thy best. In all love and well-doing gird thyself up to improve and use aright what remains free in thee, and if thou doest ought aright, say and thankfully believe that Christ hath done it for thee." O what a miserable despairing wretch should I become, if I believed the doctrines of Bishop Jeremy Taylor in his Treatise on Repentance, or those I heard preached by Dr.----; if I gave up the faith, that the life of Christ would precipitate the remaining dregs of sin in the crisis of death, and that I shall rise in purer capacity of Christ; blind to be irradiated by his light, empty to be possessed by his fullness, naked of merit to be clothed with his righteousness!

Ib. p. 207.

The n.o.bility, the gentry, citizens, and farmers, &c. are now become so haughty and unG.o.dly, that they regard no ministers nor preachers; and (said Luther) if we were not holpen somewhat by great princes and persons, we could not long subsist: therefore Isaiah saith well, 'And kings shall be their nurses', &c.

Corpulent nurses too often, that overlay the babe; distempered nurses, that convey poison in their milk!

Chap. XIII. p. 208.

Philip Melancthon said to Luther, The opinion of St. Austin of justification (as it seemeth) was more pertinent, fit and convenient when he disputed not, than it was when he used to speak and dispute; for thus he saith, We ought to censure and hold that we are justified by faith, that is by our regeneration, or by being made new creatures.

Now if it be so, then we are not justified only by faith, but by all the gifts and virtues of G.o.d given unto us. Now what is your opinion Sir? Do you hold that a man is justified by this regeneration, as is St. Austin's opinion?

Luther answered and said, I hold this, and am certain, that the true meaning of the Gospel and of the Apostle is, that we are justified before G.o.d 'gratis', for nothing, only by G.o.d's mere mercy, wherewith and by reason whereof, he imputeth righteousness unto us in Christ.

True; but is it more than a dispute about words? Is not the regeneration likewise 'gratis', only by G.o.d's mere mercy? We, according to the necessity of our imperfect understandings, must divide and distinguish.

But surely justification and sanctification are one act of G.o.d, and only different perspectives of redemption by and through and for Christ. They are one and the same plant, justification the root, sanctification the flower; and (may I not venture to add?) transubstantiation into Christ the celestial fruit.

Ib. p. 210-11. Melancthon's sixth reply.

Sir! you say Paul was justified, that is, was received to everlasting life, only for mercy's sake. Against which, I say, if the piece-meal or partial cause, namely our obedience, followeth not; then we are not saved, according to these words, 'Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel'. 1. Cor. ix.

Luther's answer.

No piecing or partial cause (said Luther) approacheth thereupto: for faith is powerful continually without ceasing; otherwise, it is no faith. Therefore what the works are, or of what value, the same they are through the honor and power of faith, which undeniably is the sun or sun-beam of this shining.

This is indeed a difficult question; and one, I am disposed to think, which can receive its solution only by the idea, or the act and fact of justification by faith self-reflected. But, humanly considered, this position of Luther's provokes the mind to ask, is there no receptivity of faith, considered as a free gift of G.o.d, prerequisite in the individual? Does faith commence by generating the receptivity of itself?

If so, there is no difference either in kind or in degree between the receivers and the rejectors of the word, at the moment preceeding this reception or rejection; and a stone is a subject as capable of faith as a man. How can obedience exist, where disobedience was not possible?

Surely two or three texts from St. Paul, detached from the total 'organismus' of his reasoning, ought not to out-weigh the plain fact, that the contrary position is implied in, or is an immediate consequent of, our Lord's own invitations and a.s.surances. Every where a something is attributed to the will. [2]

Chap. XIII. p. 211.

To conclude, a faithful person is a new creature, a new tree.

Therefore all these speeches, which in the law are usual, belong not to this case; as to say 'A faithful' person must do good works.

Neither were it rightly spoken, to say the sun shall shine: a good tree shall bring forth good fruit, &c. For the sun 'shall' not shine, but it doth shine by nature unbidden, it is thereunto created.

This important paragraph is obscure by the translator's ignorance of the true import of the German 'soll', which does not answer to our 'shall;'

but rather to our 'ought', that is, 'should' do this or that,--is under an obligation to do it.

Ib. p. 213.

And I, my loving Brentius, to the end I may better understand this case, do use to think in this manner, namely, as if in my heart were no quality or virtue at all, which is called faith, and love, (as the Sophists do speak and dream thereof), but I set all on Christ, and say, my 'formalis just.i.tia', that is, my sure, my constant and complete righteousness (in which is no want nor failing, but is, as before G.o.d it ought to be) is Christ my Lord and Saviour.

Aye! this, this is indeed to the purpose. In this doctrine my soul can find rest. I hope to be saved by faith, not by my faith, but by the faith of Christ in me.

Ib. p. 214.

The Scripture nameth the faithful a people of G.o.d's saints. But here one may say; the sins which daily we commit, do offend and anger G.o.d; how then can we be holy?

'Answer'. A mother's love to her child is much stronger than are the excrements and scurf thereof. Even so G.o.d's love towards us is far stronger than our filthiness and uncleanness.

Yea, one may say again, we sin without ceasing, and where sin is, there the holy Spirit is not: therefore we are not holy, because the holy Spirit is not in us, who maketh holy.