(1) If we are afflicted, afflicted and persecuted because of God's word, as the gospel, which is a word of the cross, brings with it, then the following causes should, by God's grace, comfort and move us to be confident, bold and of good cheer in such a case and to surrender and entrust the cause to God's gracious and fatherly will. For thus says St. Paul, 2 Tim. 3, 12: "All those who are godly
Those who want to live in Christ must suffer persecution"; and Apost. 14, 22: "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God"; and Phil. 2, 12: "Create that you may be saved with fear and trembling" etc.
2) First, that the matter is in the hand of Him who can so clearly say, "No one can snatch it out of My hand," John 10:18; item, Matt. 16:18: "The gates of hell shall not prevail against my church.
and Isaiah 46, v. 4: "I will carry you to your old age and until you turn gray, yes, I will do it, I will lift and carry and save."
(3) Neither would it be good to counsel yet that the matter should be in our hand; for we might, and would, lose it wickedly.
4 Thus these comforting sayings are all true and do not lie to us, Ps. 46, 2: "God is our confidence and strength, a help in the great troubles that befall us. Thus says Sirach, the wise man, 2, 11.: "Who has ever been put to shame who has hoped in God?" And 1 Macc. 2, 61: "All who trust in God will be preserved"; item, Ps. 9, 11: "Lord, you do not trust those who seek you."
5 So it is ever true that God gave His only Son for us all, Rom. 8:32. If this is true, then what are we to do with our sorrows, worries and mourning? If God gave His only Son for all of us, how could He bring Himself to abandon us in a lesser matter?
Thus God is much stronger, mightier and more powerful than the devil. Thus says St. John in his 1st Epistle, Cap. 4, 4: "he who is in us is greater and stronger than he who is in the world."
(7) If we go down, Christ, the almighty King of the world, must also suffer Himself with us, and if this thing goes down, we should much rather go down with Christ than stand with the supreme power on earth.
(8) That this matter is not on our neck alone, but there are many devout Christian people in many lands who stand by us with heartfelt groans and Christian prayer.
9 Thus we have many more rich and comforting promises and assurances of God, such as the whole Psalter and all the Gospels, even the whole Scriptures, are full of, which are by no means to be despised, but to be held in the highest esteem, as Ps. 55:23: "Cast thine affliction upon the Lord, and he shall provide for thee; and he shall not leave the righteous in trouble for ever"; Ps. 27:14: "Harvest thou the Lord, be thou confident and undaunted, and wait for the Lord"; item, Chri
stus himself speaks, Joh. 16,33.: "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world". I know for certain that Christ, the Son of God, has overcome the world. Why then are we afraid of the world, as a victorious overcomer? If one should get such a saying on his knees from Rome and Jerusalem, but because we have so many of them, we despise them. But this is not good.
10 If then our faith is weak, let us alone pray earnestly with the apostle, Luc. 17:5: "Lord, strengthen us in our faith"; and with the child's father, Marc. 9:24: "I believe, Lord, help my unbelief.
(11) Thus this matter was much greater and more dangerous under the Roman emperors Maximian, Diocletian, and others, who horribly persecuted Christianity and even undertook to exterminate it, even in the time of John Huss and others, than in our time.
(12) Though this cause be great, yet he that hath caused it, and leadeth it, and goeth it, is great; yea, Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. For it is not ours, so why should we torment ourselves without ceasing and finally torture ourselves to death?
If this thing and doctrine is false, why do we not contradict it? But if it is righteous as it is, as God lives and will abide forever, why do we lie to God in His manifold, comforting, unchanging and eternal promises? who calls us to be of good cheer and joy in Him, Ps. 32:11: "Rejoice in the Lord"; and Ps. 145:18: "The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him with earnestness; he does what the godly desire; he hears their cry and helps them"; and Ps. 91:14 ff: "He desires me, so I will help him; he knows my name, so I will protect him. I am with him in trouble; I will pluck him up and make him honourable; I will satisfy him with long life; I will show him my salvation."
(14) Even though we are very worried and anxious, we cannot do anything with our useless worries; indeed, we toil and torture ourselves and make it so.
only worse. He wants us to recognize Him as our God and Father in Christ, to call upon Him in all our needs, and to be sure that He will provide for us, as Saint Peter, 1 Ep. 5, 7, says from the 55th Psalm, v. 23: "Cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you"; and Christ Himself says, Matth. 6, 31: "You shall not care."
15 So the devil and his limbs can do no more than kill us physically. They must and should leave the soul untouched, as Christ Himself says and comforts His own, Matth. 10, 28: "Do not fear those who kill the body and cannot kill the soul.
(16) Therefore Christ, our dear Lord and Savior, "having once died for sin," as it is written in Romans 4 and 6, Hebrews 5 and 9, will no longer die for the sake of righteousness and truth, but lives and reigns as Lord Almighty over all creatures. If then this is true, as the Scriptures constantly testify, what are we afraid of?
(17) Even if we were to fall into ruin for God's sake, if God so chose, the almighty merciful God, who became our Father for Christ's sake, would be a kind and gracious father and steward, protector and shield, even to our wives and children, widows and orphans, and would do all things a thousand times better than we do with our lives.
Our forefathers and ancestors did not have this high, noble, precious treasure, namely the right pure understanding of the divine word, as we now, praise God, have it in abundance and have experienced the same time when the dear word was brought to light again shortly before Judgment Day; which unspeakable blessing has befallen us out of pure goodness, grace and gift of God. The same God will also be and remain God and Creator after us, as He was before us, and will gather and preserve a small group for Him until the end of the world, and will not die with us, nor cease, as we of little faith would have us believe.
019 And it came to pass, when the Philistines had taken the ark of God from the Jews, that Eli the priest was sore afraid.
The priesthood and the kingdom of Judah would fall to the ground. But when Eli the priest fell back and broke his neck in two, 1 Sam. 4:18, the kingdom of the Jews was much better off than when he was alive.
20 So when King Saul stabbed himself miserably, when his people were slain and three of his sons remained in the same battle, 1 Sam. 31:4, 8, what else could one think, for the kingdom of the Jews would be over? But after that, in David's and Solomon's time, it reached its highest power and glory.
21 Since the papists had burned Johannes Huss at Constance in the Council of 1416, they triumphed and considered it certain that they had now elevated the papacy even more, but the pope has never been more despised than from that very time on.
(22) Thus we are assured by God's word that after this perishable, miserable life, of which we are not sure for a moment, there will be an eternal, blessed life and kingdom, or else we would have to cast out the first commandment along with the entire gospel and holy Scriptures. For what do we need a God only for the sake of this perishable, mortal life, in which it is best for those who have no God? But if there is a God, as all godly, pious hearts certainly and firmly believe and live and die on, then we will not only live here for a short time, but in the place where he is, eternally.
Thus the first commandment of God places our children and descendants in God's protection and promise, since God Himself says, Ex. 20:6: "I show mercy in a thousand measure to those who love Me and keep My commandments." We believe these high, comforting words of the divine majesty. And even though faith is weak, we nevertheless give God the honor that what He speaks and promises, He can and will also do.
(24) If God had an angel proclaim all this to us, we would not of course take it to the wind and despise it, as we unfortunately do when it is presented to us through the Word. But even if we did not want to believe the oral sermon.
We should not despise the prophets, Christ Himself and the apostles, who preach to us all so abundantly, admonish and entice us kindly with words of comfort and shower them, as it were, when they say, Ps. 32:11: "Rejoice in the Lord"; Deut. 31:6."Be of good courage, fear not"; Ps. 62:9: "Hope in the Lord, pour out your hearts before Him"; Ps. 107:1: "Give thanks to the Lord"; Jn. 16:33: "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world"; Phil. 4:5: "The Lord is near, do not be anxious" etc. If we do not believe in such divine comfort, we would not believe either, if not one but many angels came and told us so.
(25) It is certainly true that if the adversary strangled us all at once, if God thus prevented it from them, it would not remain unscented; he who said to Cain, Genesis 4:9, "Where is your brother Abel?" would shortly address them and make the world too narrow for them.
In this matter, let there be no doubt concerning the word of God, for Christ, whose name it is, will defend it against the wicked devil's cunning and the evil, false world's tyranny, and will preserve it; and those who confess him before this wicked, adulterous generation, and suffer much because of it, he will confess again before his heavenly Father, and give them joy in their suffering forever, Matt. 10:32.
27 Thus says God Himself, 1 Sam. 2:30: "Whoever honors Me, I will honor again. Even though the water currents in the sea are great and raise their waves and roar horribly, as if they wanted to drown us all, the Lord on high, who began his kingdom as far as the world is and prepared it to remain, is even greater, even almighty, and will bring it forth, amen.
Therefore, if we want to have Christ and live and reign with him forever, it must be suffered here first, 2 Tim. 2:17. Since this is the case, why should we turn to the idols and rages of the dead? The other Psalm, v. 4, says that God in heaven laughs and mocks at them. Since the eternal, almighty emperor, who is called God and abides forever, laughs and mocks at them, why should we fear, mourn and weep before them? Truly God does not mock them for his own sake, for he, as he who dwells in heaven, is not afraid of their wrath; but he comforts us, so that we too may take heart and courage and laugh at all their plots.
29 Therefore, in this matter alone it will be necessary for us to believe this and to pray with strong confidence in the name of Jesus Christ that God, since he has established his kingdom and is his work, will strengthen it. For He has, without all our help, counsel, thoughts and actions, initiated it, ruled over it, driven it and preserved it until now. I have no doubt that he will certainly lead it out without our advice and assistance. For "I know - says St. Paul, 1 Tim. 1, 12 - in whom I believe, and I am also sure that he is able to give more, to do more abundantly, to counsel and to help more than we ask or understand," Eph. 3, 20. He is called the Lord, who can and will help wonderfully, gloriously and mightily, and just when the need is greatest. We are to be men and not God, to take comfort in his word and to confidently call upon him for salvation in times of need, and he will help. That is the sum of it. Nothing else comes of it, or is eternal unrest our reward. God protect us from this for the sake of His dear Son, our Savior and eternal High Priest, Jesus Christ, amen.