Ib.

The Devil (said Luther) oftentimes objected and argued against me the whole cause which, through God’s grace, I lead.  He objecteth also against Christ.  But better it were that the Temple brake in pieces than that Christ should therein remain obscure and hid.

Sublime!

Ib.

  In Job are two chapters concerning ‘Behemoth’ the whale, that by
  reason of him no man is in safety. * * These are colored words and
  figures whereby the Devil is signified and showed.

A slight mistake of brother Martin’s.  The ‘Behemoth’ of Job is beyond a doubt neither whale nor devil, but, I think, the hippopotamus; who is indeed as ugly as the devil, and will occasionally play the devil among the rice-grounds; but though in this respect a devil of a fellow, yet on the whole he is too honest a monster to be a fellow of devils.  ’Vindiciae Behemoticae’.

Chap.  XXXVI. p. 390.

  ‘Of Witchcraft’.

It often presses on my mind as a weighty argument in proof of at least a negative inspiration, an especial restraining grace, in the composition of the Canonical books, that though the writers individually did (the greater number at least) most probably believe in the objective reality of witchcraft, yet no such direct assertions as these of Luther’s, which would with the vast majority of Christians have raised it into an article of faith, are to be found in either Testament.  That the ‘Ob’ and ‘Oboth’ of Moses are no authorities for this absurd superstition, has been unanswerably shewn by Webster. [5]

Chap.  XXXVII. p. 398.

  To conclude, (said Luther), I never yet knew a troubled and perplexed
  man, that was right in his own wits.

A sound observation of great practical utility.  Edward Irving should be aware of this in dealing with conscience-troubled (but in fact fancy-vexed) women.

Ib.

  It was not a thorn in the flesh touching the unchaste love he bore
  towards Tecla, as the Papists dream.

I should like to know how high this strange legend can be traced.  The other tradition that St. Paul was subject to epileptic fits, has a less legendary character.  The phrase ‘thorn in the flesh’ is scarcely reconcilable with Luther’s hypothesis, otherwise than as doubts of the objectivity of his vision, and of his after revelations may have been consequences of the disease, whatever that might be.

Ib. p. 399.

  Our Lord God doth like a printer, who setteth the letters backwards;
  we see and feel well his setting, but we shall see the print yonder in
  the life to come.

A beautiful simile.  Add that even in this world the lives, especially the autobiographies, of eminent servants of Christ, are like the looking-glass or mirror, which, reversing the types, renders them legible to us.

Ib. p. 403.

  ‘Indignus sum, sed dignus fui—­creari a Deo’, &c.  Although I am
  unworthy, yet nevertheless ‘I have been’ worthy, ‘in that I am’
  created of God, &c.