WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:05.200 Reflections on the Conference at Marburg With feelings of the deepest gratitude and 00:05.200 --> 00:09.540 the most unfeigned humiliation, we would pause a while and meditate on the 00:09.540 --> 00:10.820 late scenes at Marburg. 00:11.580 --> 00:15.580 With gratitude to God for having given such publicity to the teaching of 00:15.580 --> 00:19.480 Scripture on the subject of the Lord's Supper, but with mourning and humiliation 00:19.480 --> 00:23.000 over the inconsistency of one who had so much influence there. 00:23.720 --> 00:27.880 The doctrines so clearly taught by the Swiss had been little known in Germany 00:27.880 --> 00:28.800 till that time. 00:30.200 --> 00:34.200 Consubstantiation having been adopted by Luther and his followers, the true meaning 00:34.200 --> 00:36.960 and object of that sacred institution were unknown. 00:38.040 --> 00:41.720 Great interest was awakened in all parts by the newly discovered truths, 00:42.060 --> 00:44.440 which were embraced by an immense number of persons. 00:45.460 --> 00:49.740 It spread rapidly throughout all Germany, and may have been an everlasting blessing 00:49.740 --> 00:51.480 to thousands of precious souls. 00:52.500 --> 00:57.100 Lambert, as we have seen, was converted to the views of Zwingel, and the Landgrave 00:57.100 --> 01:01.500 himself, a short time before his death, declared that the conference had induced 01:01.500 --> 01:03.940 him to renounce the error of consubstantiation. 01:05.020 --> 01:09.180 Thus God in his own goodness overruled these unseemly debates for the spread of 01:09.180 --> 01:12.660 the truth and for the accomplishment of his own gracious purposes. 01:13.800 --> 01:17.260 Little did Luther contemplate the merciful use that God would make of that 01:17.260 --> 01:21.440 conference, and that, when he, Luther, was caring only for his own 01:21.440 --> 01:24.960 reputation, God was caring for the advancement of the Reformation. 01:26.020 --> 01:26.740 But alas! 01:27.740 --> 01:30.180 What is man fallen, self-seeking man? 01:31.180 --> 01:33.940 Where is now the Luther of the early days of the Reformation? 01:34.140 --> 01:37.900 Why has the heart that was so large, liberal, and considerate of all, 01:38.220 --> 01:42.020 so soon degenerated into the most undisguised and intolerant bigotry? 01:42.100 --> 01:43.320 The answer is plain then. 01:43.400 --> 01:44.900 He stood for God by faith. 01:45.220 --> 01:47.580 Now he stood in pride as the head of a party. 01:48.480 --> 01:52.500 And this explains not only the wonderful change that had come over the spirit of 01:52.500 --> 01:56.940 Luther, but the ignoble failure of many distinguished men from that day until now. 01:57.840 --> 02:02.780 At the Diet of Worms and other places, Luther, almost alone, fought for the truth 02:02.780 --> 02:06.740 of God against the lie of Satan, but at Marburg he fought for the lie of 02:06.740 --> 02:10.240 Satan, in the form of his new dogma, against the truth of God. 02:11.180 --> 02:14.780 Some may be ready to say that he was fighting for the truth according to his 02:14.780 --> 02:17.100 conscience, so far it may have been so. 02:17.780 --> 02:21.900 But it will be remembered that he resisted all peaceful investigation of the truth, 02:22.260 --> 02:25.640 all reasonable means for arriving at a proper understanding of those, 02:25.860 --> 02:29.800 for words, this is my body and seemed only to care for the maintenance of his own 02:29.800 --> 02:32.160 authority and power as the chief of his party. 02:32.840 --> 02:37.340 There was no concern manifested by either Luther or any of the Saxons for the 02:37.340 --> 02:40.740 general interest of the Gospel, or for the triumph of the Reformation. 02:41.860 --> 02:45.760 Thus was the great and blessed work of Luther marred and vitiated by the most 02:45.760 --> 02:49.300 absurd and foolish dogma ever proposed to the credulity of man. 02:50.200 --> 02:54.260 The position and danger of a party leader in the things of God, are clearly 02:54.260 --> 02:56.420 expressed in the following opinion of Luther. 02:57.340 --> 02:59.280 At Marburg, Luther was Pope. 02:59.980 --> 03:04.380 By general acclamation the chief of the evangelical party, he assumed the 03:04.380 --> 03:09.100 character of a despot, and to sustain that part in spiritual matters, it is necessary 03:09.100 --> 03:11.320 to create the prejudice of infallibility. 03:11.960 --> 03:16.040 If he once yielded any point of doctrine if he once admitted that he had fallen 03:16.040 --> 03:19.860 into error the illusion would cease, and with it the authority that was founded 03:19.860 --> 03:20.280 on it. 03:21.060 --> 03:22.780 It was thus at least with the multitude. 03:23.920 --> 03:28.360 He was obliged by the very position which he believed he occupied, or which he 03:28.360 --> 03:32.640 wished to occupy, to defend in the loftiest tone every tenet that he had once 03:32.640 --> 03:33.780 proclaimed to the people. 03:34.820 --> 03:39.120 Upon the whole, he lost both influence and reputation by that controversy. 03:39.760 --> 03:44.640 By his imperious tone and elaborate sophistry he weakened the affections and 03:44.640 --> 03:47.380 respect of a large body of intelligent admirers. 03:48.340 --> 03:53.100 Many now began to entertain a less exalted opinion of his talents, as well as of his 03:53.100 --> 03:53.480 candor. 03:54.200 --> 03:58.140 Instead of the self-devotion and magnanimity which had thrown such a luster 03:58.140 --> 04:02.460 over his earlier struggles, a vainglorious arrogance seemed to be master of his 04:02.460 --> 04:07.080 spirit, and but for the indulgence of this ignoble passion, the mantle which might 04:07.080 --> 04:11.300 have wrapped Germany and Switzerland in one continuous fold, was rent asunder. 04:12.300 --> 04:14.660 He was no longer the genius of the Reformation. 04:15.800 --> 04:19.560 Descending from that magnificent position, whence he had given light to the whole 04:19.560 --> 04:23.420 evangelical community, he was now become little more than the head of a party, 04:23.800 --> 04:28.060 then, indeed, the more conspicuous and powerful section of the Reformers, 04:28.360 --> 04:32.540 but destined in after times to undergo reverses and defections, which have 04:32.540 --> 04:36.180 conferred the appellation of Lutheran on an inconsiderable proportion of the 04:36.180 --> 04:37.020 Protestant world.