6 of much reading, of a good understanding, and of natural eloquence, disturbed the close of the century by various writings, but especially by his History of the Church and of Heresies, which he, certainly without just grounds, entitled an impartial history. By nature melancholy, gloomy, and austere, he applied himself to the reading of the works of the mystics, who very much resembled himself, till his mind was so wrought up, that he regarded them as the wisest men in the world, made all religion to consist in certain iudescribable internal sensations and emotions, had little regard for doctrinal theology, and expended all the powers of his genius in collecting and exaggerating the faults of our own and former times. If, as all admit, it is the first excellence of a historian to afford no ground for suspicion of either partial or unfriendly feelings, no man was ever more unfit to be a historian than Godfrey Arnold. The man must be unable to see at all, who can read his history, and yet say that he does not see and feel that it is throughout dictated by passion and strong hatred of the received doctrines and institutions [of our church]. Arnold assumes it as an undeniable fact, in his history, that all the evils which have crept into the Christian church, since the times of the apostles, have originated from the ministers and rulers of the church, who were wicked and ungodly men. On this assumption, he supposes that all who made opposition to the priests and ministers of religion, and suffered persecution from them, were pious and holy men: and on the other hand that such as pleased the clergy, were mistaken and averse from true piety. Hence he defends nearly all the heretics, even those whose doctrines he had not examined and did not well understand; which has caused his book to give the highest offence. But the longer he lived, the more he saw the errors into which he had been betrayed by his natural temperament and by bad examples; and, as respectable persons affirm, he at last became more friendly to the truth and to moderation.7 [Gotfried Arnold's Unpartheyische Kirchen- und Ketzer- historie; first published 1699 and 1700, in 2 vols. folio, and then more full and complete, Schaffhausen, 1740, in three very thick vols. fol. Tr.] See Cöler's Life of Arnold, Nouveau Dictionnaire Histor. Crit. tom, i. p. 485, &c. [Dr. Mosheim does not appear to me After pass § 33. A much worse man than he was Jo. Conrad Dippel, a Hessian, who assumed the fictitious name of Christian Democritus, and also disquieted the minds of the weak, and excited no inconsiderable commotions in the last part of this century. This man, in my view, arrogant, vain-glorious, and formed by nature to be a caviller and a buffoon, did not so much bring forward a new form of religion, as labour to overthrow all those that were established. For, during his whole life, he was more intent on nothing, than on running down every religious community, and especially that of the Lutherans in which he was born, with his sarcastic witticisms: and rendering whatever had long been viewed with reverence, as ridiculous as possible, by his malignant and low scurrility. If what I very much doubt, (for invention and imagination were by far his most prominent characteristics,) if, I say, he had in his own mind. clear and distinct conceptions, which he thought were true, he certainly was incompetent to unfold them clearly and to express them in words; for it is only by divination, that a man can draw from his various writings any coherent and uniform system of doctrine. Indeed it would seem, as if the fire of his laboratory, over which he spent so much time, had produced a fever in his brain. His writings, should they be handed down to posterity, notwithstanding their crude, bitter, and sarcastic style, will cause people to wonder, that so many of their fathers could place, he spent three years in the gymnasium at Gera; and then, in 1685, entered the university of Wittemberg, where the next year he took his master's degree. Inclined to a retired and noiseless life, he removed to Dresden in 1686, where he became a private tutor, and was intimate with Spener. In 1693, he removed to Quedlingburg; and there acted as a private tutor in a family four years, declining repeated offers of a parish. In 1697, he was appointed professor of history at Giessen: but relinquished the office after two years; because, he said, "no man can serve two masters; and professors, at that day, were required to teach in a manner that did not suit his taste." returned to Quedlingburg in 1698; where he was much admired and followed by the Pietists. In the year 1700, Sophia Charlotte, duchess of Isenach, by recommendation of professor He Franck, made him her court preacher. But opposition from the orthodox obliged him to quit the place, in 1705; and he was made pastor and inspector of Werben. Two years after, the king of Prussia made him pastor and inspector at Perleburg; where he died in 1713, aged 48. He was of a melancholy temperament, and drank deeply into the views of the mystics and the Pietists, and conceived high disgust with the reigning theology around him. But he appears to have been a perfectly ingenuous and upright man. As a historian, he doubtless had strong prejudices, which often warped his judgment. But he appears to me very far from being a passionate writer; or from attempting, designedly, to discolour or misrepresent facts. See the character of him drawn by C. W. F. Walch. in his elaborate preface to Von Einem's translation of Mosheim, vol. i. p. 88–201. Tr.] admit for their religious teacher and guide, one who so audaciously violated every principle of good sense and piety. 8 § 34. Of a totally different character was John William Petersen, superintendent at Lüneburg; a man of a mild and quiet temper, but of a feeble mind, and very liable, from the luxuriance of his imagination, to deceive both himself and others. In the first place, he contended, in the year 1691, that a noble young lady Rosamond Juliana of Asseburg, whose disordered brain made her the subject of a sort of visions, actually saw God present, and reported commands which she received from Him; and about the same time, he publicly defended the obsolete doctrine of Christ's future reign, of a thousand years, on the earth for that oracle had confirmed this, among other things, by her authority. This first error, as is usual with those who have no control over their own minds, afterwards produced others. For he, with his wife Joanna Eleanora of Merlau, who also professed to have very great spiritual knowledge, predicted a complete future restoration of all things, the liberation of both wicked men and devils from hell, their deliverance from all sin and from the punishment of sin; and assigned to Christ a twofold human nature, the one celestial, and assumed before this world was created, and the other derived from his mother since the commencement of time. I pass over other opinions of this pair, equally groundless, and very wide of the common belief. Many gave assent to those opinions, especially among the laity: but Petersen was also opposed by great numbers; to whom he replied largely, as he had a fruitful genius and abundance of leisure. Being removed from his office, in the year 1692, he quietly passed the remainder of his life on his estate, near Magdeburg, amusing himself with writing letters and books.9 All his works were printed in 5 vols. 4to, in the year 1747, but without naming the place of publication. For he was respected by many after his death, and regarded as a great teacher of true wisdom. None more readily find readers and patrons, than those who abuse every body else, and immoderately extol themselves. Dippel also acquired numerous friends, by his attention to chemistry, in which he is said to have been well versed, and by his medical knowledge. For as all men are fond of riches and long life, they readily set a high value on those who professedly show them a sure path to opulence and old age. The death of Dippel is related by numerous writers. • Petersen gave a history of his own life, in German, first published in 1717, 8vo, to which his wife added her life, in 1718. Those who wish to investigate the spirit, habits, and character of this well-matched pair, will find matter enough for their purpose, in these autobiographies. Concerning his movements at Lüneburg, see the documents in the Unschuldige Nachrichten, A. D. 1748, p. 974, A. D. 1749, p. 30. 200, and in many other places. Add Jo. Möller's § 35. I know not whether I ought to associate with these, John Caspar Schade and John George Boesius, good men, and earnest to promote the salvation of others, but ignorant of the way to effect it. The former, a minister at Berlin, among the other crude and ill-digested doctrines which he advanced, most strenuously opposed, in 1697, that confession of sins to priests, which is practised among the Lutherans. His zeal on this subject produced considerable commotion, both in the church and the state. The latter, a preacher at Sorau', in order more effectually to overcome the heedlessness and security of men, denied, that God continues to be propitious to those sinners, whose obstinacy he foresaw eternally to be incurable, to the end of their lives; or, what is the same thing, that beyond a Cimbria Litterata, tom. ii. p. 639, &c. This pious and amiable enthusiast was born at Osnabruck, in 1649. Nature formed him for a poet; as appears from his Urania, on the mighty works of God, which Leibnitz published with his own amendments. He was made professor of poetry at Rostock, in 1677. Afterwards, he was superintendent at Lubec; then court preacher at Lutin, and in 1688, superintendent at Lüneburg. He early gave way to a belief in visions and special revelations; which brought him to hold to a literal reign of Christ on the earth, during the millennium, and to believe in a final restoration of all things. Becoming more and more confirmed in these sentiments, he openly avowed them, both orally and in printed works. In 1692, he was cited before the consistory at Zell: and as he could not conscientiously refrain from teaching doctrines, which he supposed immediately revealed to himself, and wife, and lady Juliana, he was deprived of his office; and purchasing an estate, not far from Magdeburg, he there led a retired and religious life, chiefly occupied in defending his principles, and in labouring to promote practical piety, till his death in 1727. He was undoubtedly a considerable scholar, and a very sincere and pious man. But his poetic imagination, and his belief in dreams and visions, led him to embrace very singular opinions. He supposed, that prior to the millennium, the Gospel would be preached over all the world, and that all nations would be converted. The Jews, after becoming Christians, would be restored to their own land. Now the first resurrec tion, that of the ancient saints and martyrs, would take place; Christ would appear in the clouds of heaven; and living saints would be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and be changed. Thenceforth, Christ would reign a thousand years on the earth, over а twofold church; the celestial, composed of the risen saints and those changed at his coming, and the terrestrial, embracing all other Christians. Religion would prevail very generally, but not universally. At the end of a thousand years, Satan would be let loose; there would be great apostasy; Christ would come forth and destroy the wicked; a new heaven and a new earth would appear; and gradually all things would be restored to order, and holiness, and happiness. Though Petersen was first led into these doctrines by supposed revelations, and appears always to have founded his own belief chiefly on such grounds; yet he believed, that the scriptures rightly interpreted, that is, mystically explained, were full of these doctrines. And hence, in order to convince others, he argued much from the Bible, particularly from the Apocalypse, and also from the ancient Chiliasts, especially Origen. His writings were voluminous; consisting of mystic interpretations of scripture, defence of his peculiar sentiments, many letters, and history of his own life. See Schroeckh, Kirchengesch. seit der Reformation, vol. viii. p. 302, &c. Unpartheyische Kirchen historie, Jena, 1730, vol. ii. p. 811, &c. Tr.] [In Lower Lusatia. Tr.] certain limited time, fixed from eternity, he would afford them the grace necessary for the attainment of salvation. This opinion was thought by not a few divines to be injurious to the Divine mercy, which is boundless; and it was therefore combated in many publications. Yet it found a learned vindicator in Adam Rechenberg, a divine of Leipsic; not to mention others of less note.2 § 36. Among the minor controversies in the Lutheran church, I shall assign the first place to that which existed between the divines of Tübingen and those of Giessen, from the year 1616. The grand point in debate related to the true nature and circumstances of that state of Christ, which theologians usually call his state of humiliation. The parties agreed, that the man Christ Jesus really possessed divine properties and perfections, by virtue of the hypostatic union, even while he appeared divested of all glory and majesty, nay seemed to be a vile servant and malefactor. But they disputed, whether he actually divested himself of the use of those perfections, while executing the office of high priest, or whether he only concealed his use of them from the view of men. The divines of Tübingen accounted the latter supposition to be the fact; while those of Giessen, regarded the former as more probable. To this first and great question, others were added; which, if I am correct, were rather curious than necessary, respecting the mode in which God is present throughout the created universe, the origin and ground of this presence, the true cause of the omnipresence of Christ's body, and some others. On the side of the Tübingen divines, appeared and took part Lucas Osiander, Melchior Nicolai and Theodore Thummius; and on the side of the divines of Giessen, Balthazar Menzer and Justus Feuerborn: all of whom contended ardently and ingeniously; and I wish I could add, always with dignity and moderation. But those times permitted and approved many things, which subsequent times have justly required to be amended. The Saxon theologians, in the year 1624, by order of their sovereign, assumed the office of arbiters of the controversy: and this office they so executed, as not to approve entirely the sentiments of either party; yet they intimated, that the views of the Giessen divines were nearer the Those who wish to understand these controversies may consult Walch's In troduction to the Controversies in the Lutheran Church, written in German, |