1 Petr. 5, 8-11.
Young people, be subject to the elders. All of you be subject to one another, and hold fast to humility. For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in his time. Cast all your care upon him, for he cares for you. Be sober and watchful, for your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him firmly in faith, and know that these same afflictions are upon your brethren in the world. But the God of all grace, who has called us to eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will prepare, strengthen, fortify, and establish you who suffer for a little while. To Him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.
(1) This is the last part and conclusion of the epistle of St. Peter; but it is also an exhortation to good works, which a Christian or believer ought to have and practice. That it may be seen and understood that the doctrine of the gospel is not such a doctrine as is blamed for forbidding good works, or for not earnestly requiring and practicing them; but that the doctrine of works may be most diligently and abundantly practiced, if they be true good works. And especially in this epistle four special pieces are told, which also give four good sermons.
The first, from the Demuth.
(2) The apostle has previously exhorted the elders, that is, pastors and preachers, who are to govern the church, how they are to be an example to the flock with their lives,
and not to exalt themselves in their office, as if they were lords over them, but to serve others with it. So here he also exhorts the rest of the multitude, especially the young people, to be subject to their parents, and in general to be humble toward one another, and as St. Paul says, to show honor to one another. For this is the finest, loveliest virtue of love, and the most necessary among men, to preserve peace and discipline, and especially to adorn the youth, and to make them well regarded in the sight of God and man, to love and esteem them, and to bring forth much good fruit.
(3) And if it could be imagined by men that this virtue would be in the air, it would be well everywhere, and a fine beautiful world would be seen, full of all discipline and good works; that I would love much....
I would like to see such a city, where the young people would be educated in virtue, as a hundred monasteries of the Barefoot and the Carthusians, if they lived in the strictest way. It is now everywhere, unfortunately, one of the greatest common complaints about the disobedience, sacrilege and pride of the young people and in general in all classes: therefore it would be necessary to plant this admonition with all diligence, especially in the youth, and to drive, if it wants to help something.
4 And first of all, St. Peter holds up to us God's commandment, that we should know that it is not an arbitrary work, which is for your pleasure, to do or not to do; but that God earnestly desires it of you, and you should do it with love and will, or else you should have his wrath upon you, and neither happiness nor mercy, even among men; for pride and arrogance is an enemy to everyone, and is cursed by all the world, even among strangers whom it does not concern. Yes, even though one is in it himself and does not see his own shame, he cannot suffer it from another, and must himself hate and condemn such a one. And such vice harms no one but yourself, so that you make yourself hostile and despised by God and people, and get the fame that everyone calls you a rude, proud slob and a puidichan, and God also lets such judgment and contempt pass over you, so that you see that he will not let such vice go unpunished, but will put it to shame, as St. Peter says here: "He resists the hopeful" etc.
5. And the people should move the examples, so this saying fulfillment daily before the eyes: If ever thou wouldest not regard thine own honor and favor with all the world, or again, even the contempt and common cursing of all men; Where nothing will move you (which should move you to the highest, if you have a little Christian heart in you), the great glorious example of the high person and eternal majesty of the Son of God, our Lord, when you see such humility, which is unspeakable and above all men's senses and understanding, before which a Christian's heart, if he could look at it rightly, should melt: where this
If all this does not move you, you should be humbled by so many terrible examples of the terrible wrath of God, so that he has overthrown the hope from the beginning.
What is more terrible than the eternal, irretrievable fall and rejection of the high angelic nature, since the devil has robbed himself of the honor and glory of the noble blessed spirits and of the eternal sight of God, and to his eternal, unbearable condemnation by wanting to make himself equal to God and by the same hope has also brought man to a miserable fall? But what kind of blind, cursed man are you, who with your stinking shameful pride and arrogance make yourself equal to the suffering spirit, so that you yourself make enemies of all the world, and set yourself against the divine majesty itself, before which even the angels must tremble? If thou wilt not shrink from nor fear that thou wilt lose favor with all men and the common prayer, then fear that God will bring his thunder and lightning upon thy head, that he may smite iron, rock and mountain, and that he may cast thee eternally into the abyss, even as he hath cast down the trustworthy spirit with his angels.
Therefore, St. Peter exhorts both those who are in the preaching ministry and other Christians who are and have something given to them by God, that they remain in their profession and ministry and conduct it with humility, gladly obeying and serving others. For here this vice is most harmful to Christianity, for the whole of its government, life and nature is ordered by God in such a way that no one should want to exalt others, rule and exalt himself, as the pope, as the true antichrist, did in his government; but in all positions, offices and works, there should be humility and works of Christian love and service among one another.
8) In this regiment, there is also a real hopefulness against the first table; this is a real devil's hopefulness, against God's name and word, of such people who want to be wise in the matters of faith and master God's word; who puff themselves up, where they have a gift before others, that they may be able to
and consider all men to be nothing. For such vice is also common to great, learned, wise bishops, preachers, and those who learn from them and cling to them, especially when they are still novices, inexperienced and unbroken, and therefore blow themselves out and boast: I am also a learned doctor, have the Spirit and other gifts both and more than these preachers; therefore they shall be heard and honored above others; and know themselves so wise, as if all the world were vain geese and fools before them. And the greater the gift, the more and more harmful is such hopefulness. Just as in other arts it is common: where one can do a little or is called a doctor, he insists on it and despises others, as if what he has was not given to him by God, but was innate in nature, and therefore must be celebrated and worshipped by everyone; they do not think that they are running against God with it, and would rather plunge themselves into the abyss of hell, before they push him down from heaven.
9 See the examples of our time, how God overthrew such people. Thomas Muenzer with his rebellious prophets, and later the Anabaptist revolt, were also proud of heart, would not listen to anything they were told and admonished, until they all suddenly perished, not only with all their disgraces, but also their and many people who were seduced by them, miserable eternal damage. There are still many such hopeful spirits today, and those who have not yet been allowed to distinguish themselves publicly; for example, they have seen for themselves that they are learned, or soust before the people, whereupon they boast of themselves, and thus remain without spirit and fruit with all their art and teaching, where they do not otherwise do great harm to the fact that they thereby condemn themselves.
(10) So it happens in all kinds of offices, where there is no fear of God and humility, there are those who are to rule, princes, councillors, lawyers (if they are not also theologians, that is, Christians) and the like, so defiant and proud that they think they are the only people on earth who should be considered gods, and yet with their pride they despise God and man and through such pride lead the country and people into harm. This
have already passed the sentence that they must be overthrown as God's enemies; for they have already expelled themselves from God's kingdom and grace, and baptism and Christ with His suffering and blood are lost to them.
This is the hope against the first table, where one does not need spiritual goods and gifts for God's honor or the neighbor's benefit, and thus corrupts both before God and people, and thereby goes to the devil, to whom they have become like.
12 Then this vice is just as common in the other world, in the common classes and in the life of the world among themselves, where each one boasts and despises others. Prince and nobleman think that the whole world is nothing against them; then burghers and peasants, whose bellies are swollen because they have so much money, think that they must defy everyone and do no good to anyone. These are to be spit upon by everyone; and such a court is no better for them than a stone image or a wooden block hung with gold and silver. Last of all, here too are the women with their foolish courtyard dresses, that one is more beautiful or better adorned than the other: first a well-decorated goose, she makes herself believe that none is like her; indeed, there is hardly a servant or maid who does not also want to ride and throb over others.
13 And summa: It has come to this, that everyone wants to go out above with defiance and thunder, no one humbles himself before others, thinks he has the right and justification to do so, as if he is not guilty of giving way to anyone. Thus the secular government has become so weak that it has no hope of resisting such arrogance of all classes, from the highest to the lowest; that in the end God must strike with thunder and lightning, and we must learn that he resists such and does not want to suffer any hope. For this reason, the youth, if they are still to be educated, should be admonished and accustomed, as much as possible, to beware of vice.
14 St. Peter needs a special word for this when he says: "Hold fast to humility. That is to say, hold fast to one another, as being most firmly united and bound together.
and bound together, or as a garment is most closely sewn and stitched through and through one another, so that it cannot tear. This shows how Christians should strive with great diligence to show and practice this virtue among themselves, as if they alone were bound together. Thus," he says, "you must be bound together, with your claws clasped and your hands joined, so that humility may not be dissolved, separated, or torn apart, even though one may be provoked by the devil or by another's evil word to anger, and again to defy and thunder: I am such a man etc.; but think therefore, that ye ought to bear with one another as Christians, and to yield to one another, as ye all together are one body, and live one among another alone on the earth, that ye may serve one another in love.
(15) And let each one recognize his own weakness here, and think that God can also give something to another and give more than he has, and therefore gladly serve others and give way to them, as he also needs them; for each one was created for the sake of the other, that we should all serve one another, and God gives each one equal grace and blessedness, so that no one has to rise above the other, or where he does, so that the grace given is lost and falls far below others in condemnation. Therefore, humility must be firmly adhered to here, so that such unity is not torn apart; for the devil also seeks to tear it apart, seeks and reproaches all causes among people, so that one despises and surrenders the other, and thus wants to overpower and exalt, as flesh and blood are inclined to do without it. And so humility is easily and soon taken away, where one does not defend oneself with earnestness, being contrary to the devil and one's own flesh.
16) This is also one of the beautiful garments and adornments that adorn Christians before God and the world (as St. Paul Col. 3, 12. also calls putting on humility), more than all the crowns and splendor on earth, and the right spiritual life that pleases God, which no one may seek elsewhere in the world.
For here, through St. Peter, all classes are exhorted to this virtue, and this preaching of good works goes through all offices in every house, town, village, church, school, so that children, servants, youth, subjects keep themselves humble toward parents, superiors, and old age, and obey; in turn, those who are in the upper and high classes serve the nobility and also the least. If one did this, we would be full of good works; for it is impossible for humility to do evil, but it is useful and pleasing to everyone.
(17) In this, one could know and feel true holy Christians better than in all monastic and hermit-like holiness and works; for it is not yet great trouble to endure a gray cap, nor so great to lie on the earth at night and get up at midnight: it is also done, and must often be done, by bad boys, thieves and murderers. But to wear this angelic garment and to hold it tightly does not suit the world, as all the world has been filled with monasticism. This makes flesh and blood not want to follow, and everyone seeks his own gentle life, so that he may live for himself and not have to serve anyone or suffer from others, as the monks have sought and chosen.
18 To this exhortation St. Peter adds the reason: "For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble"; so that, as I said above, he shows God's serious commandment and lets a harsh word of warning run along with it. For he does not say badly: God punishes the hopeful, or is hostile to them; but: resists them, and sets himself against them. But what is all men's hope against God, but a poor, vain bubble of water, or what can be even more vain, which puffs itself up and makes a belly, as if it wanted to storm heaven, and thus runs against the thunder and lightning, which can shatter heaven and earth? What can all the power of all creatures do if they oppose God? And how may a wretched man, to whom even a small pestilence and gland can repel the heart, provoke against himself the majesty that can throw him down at any moment?
in abyss? "What defies dust and ashes?" says Sirach Cap. 10, 9.
(19) Is it not enough and too much, if we otherwise have sin and disobedience upon us, that we anger God and deserve severe punishment, and still want to provoke Him with our hopefulness and defiance, so that He must set Himself against us with His majesty? For with other sins he can still have patience, so that he may admonish and provoke us to repentance; but if we, out of hardened impenitence, want to defy and go against him, then he must also lift up his head against us. But who will endure such things, or stand before them, when he sets his face and power against a poor man, who is beforehand every moment subject to death and the devil's power?
20 From the beginning, the experience of countless histories has well proven this saying: "God resists the proud", how he always overthrew and eradicated the proud world, pushed the proud and defiant kings and lords to the ground. How humiliated was the great king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, when he had to be pushed from his royal throne among the beasts of the field and had to eat grass with them, Dan. 4, 30. Item, how suddenly was the great king Alexander pushed down, since he began to become proud after his victory and happiness given by God and wanted to be taken for a god? Item, the king Herod Agrippa, Acts 12, 23. 12, 23. the proud wise emperor Julianus, a poisonous mocker and persecutor of Christ, whom he had denied, how soon was he drowned in his own blood? And after that, where are all the proud, defiant tyrants who wanted to oppress and suppress Christianity?
(21) The pope has ever exalted himself by diabolical pride and has made himself equal to God in the temple of God, and has also ridden over all with worldly splendor and pride, so that he has even learned from pagan emperors, as Diocletian and other tyrants, to have his feet kissed, and has even forced emperors and kings to do so. What a public inhuman defiance and arrogance was exercised by Pope Alexander the Third, who had to kiss the pious, powerful German emperor, Frederick the Great.
rich Barbarossa, with all the false terror of his vain ban, forced himself under his feet to step on him, saying: Super aspidem et basiliscum ambulabis (You will step on vipers and basilisks); and when the emperor said to him against such shameful arrogance: Non tibi, sed Petro (It does not belong to you, but to Petro), he kicked him again with further defiance: Et mihi, et Petro (Both to me, and to Petro). This is called a supremacy of hope.
The Turk is now also more proud than he has ever been, and as I hope, on the highest level, that he cannot bring himself higher, nor will he, without that he may still scuffle and humiliate us; but it shall also be in the end, when God will overthrow both Pope and Turk by his divine power, and, as Daniel says, without human hand. For this text will not be missing: "God resists those who hope" etc., which must prove itself in the work, so that one sees what there is, resisting God; otherwise no one would believe it. And whether Turk and all the world would be many thousand times so proud and powerful, it shall not help them, if he opens his eyes above and angry, begins to raise his hand, who asks so little for all Turkish emperor and Pabst's power, as for a dead fly.
23 "It is terrible," says the epistle to the Hebrews Cap. 10, 31, "to fall into the hand of the living God. But such is nothing else than to run against Him with contempt and defiance, so that He must also sit down against man and lift up His hand. Therefore beware every man of such things, that he defy not the majesty, neither press against it: not only lest he anger God, but also that he may have grace and blessing in that which he shall do. For if you start something on your own power, wisdom and defiance, only do not think that he will give you happiness and blessing to carry it out. But again, if you humble yourself, and with the fear of God and trust in his grace begin something according to his will, you are hereby promised (when he says, "He gives grace to the humble") that you will not only have favor with men, but also happiness, so that you will be a useful person.
God and the world, and against the devil and his scales, lead and sustain your work. For where God's grace is, His blessing, protection and protection must also follow, and so that such a man must not be overthrown nor succumb; but even if he is oppressed for a time, he will finally come forth again and be exalted, as St. Peter says in conclusion:
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in his time.
(24) With these words he shows what true humility is, and where it comes from. Namely, when the heart, frightened by the knowledge of its sin before God's wrath, fearfully seeks mercy, and thus humility is not only by heart before men, but from the heart for God's sake, out of fear of God and knowledge of its own unworthiness and weakness. For such a man who fears God, and as Isaiah Cap. 66, 5. says, trembles before His word, will of course not defy anyone, nor strive nor throb, yes, even against enemies have a good gentle heart; therefore he also finds grace both with God and men.
(25) The cause of this, he says, is the mighty hand of God. As if to say: You must not do or leave anything for the sake of man, but you must humble yourselves under the hand of God. This hand is strong on both sides, mighty and powerful, to push and overthrow the proud and secure, as hard as iron heads and hearts they have, so that they must lie down in dust and ashes, yes, in the fear and torment of hell, despairing and despairing, when he attacks them a little with the terror of his wrath; which also the saints experience, hard lamenting and crying out, how difficult such a hand of God is to bear. As, Ps. 38, 3. 4.: "Your arrows are in me, and Your hand presses me; there is nothing sound in my body before Your wrath"; and Ps. 102, 10. 11.: "I eat ashes like bread, and mix my drink with weeping, before Your wrath and Your anger, that You have lifted me up and thrust me to the ground"; item Ps. 39, 11. 12.-: "I am fainted from the hard
Punishment of your hand"; and again, "If you chastise one for sin, his beauty will be devoured as by moths."
(26) It is also such a mighty hand to raise up, comfort and strengthen the humiliated and terrified, and as St. Peter says here, to raise them up again, so that those who are thrown down in terror should not despair or flee from God, but be raised up again and comforted by God. For this is what he wants to show and preach, that he does not attack us with his hand so that we will perish, be condemned or lost; but that he must do this so that he can bring us to repentance, otherwise we would never ask for his word and will; and if we seek grace, he will help us again, give us forgiveness of sin, the Holy Spirit and eternal life. The Psalms and prophets also speak of this from time to time; Ps. 118:18: "The Lord chastises me, but does not deliver me up to death"; item Ps. 146:8: "The Lord raises up all those who are downcast."
27 He will exalt you, he says, in his time. For though it has already passed, and the humbled and the suffering seem to be pressed too long under God's hand, that they almost pine away because of it, they should nevertheless consider the promise against their feelings, that he will not let them be tempted higher or longer, as St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 10:13, than they can bear, but will hear their cries and screams and help them in due time; of this they shall certainly be comforted. But again, the other proud ones should also be afraid, even if he lets them go unpunished for a while and continues in their defiance, that he is also a visitator over them, and when he sees his time, he will come upon them too strongly, so that it will become too hard for them. For he has already stretched out his mighty hand to overthrow both the wicked and to exalt the humble.
Cast all your cares upon him, for he cares for you.
Whoever shall live in his station with the fear of God and humility, in defiance of the world,
Where will he stay among the people if he suffers wantonness and iniquity? Or where will he find protection and defense, so that he can stay with his piety? For one sees and experiences daily how the pious are tormented and persecuted, and must be the footcloth of the world. Therefore he says: Because you Christians must suffer in the world temptation and opposition, lack and hardship, both bodily and spiritual, from which your heart is weighed down with fear and sorrow, and think: Oh where shall I stay? where will I feed myself? item, where will I stay if I am to die? etc. How the world only cares how it may become rich and fill its belly, and the anxious, unbelieving consciences seek by themselves and their good works to have a gracious God and to die well. Here he says, listen to me, I will give you the right counsel and teaching where you should leave your care. This is a little saying of the 55th Psalm v. 23. and means: "Cast your concern on the Lord, he will provide for you, and will not leave the righteous in trouble forever" etc. So do you also, do not leave your concern on yourselves, for you cannot bear it and must perish under it at last; but give it up and cast it home from you to God, confidently and with all joy, saying, "Heavenly Father, you are ever my Lord and God, who created me when I was nothing, and redeemed me through your Son: Now thou hast commanded and laid upon me this or that office and work, and it goeth not as I will, and there is so much that oppresseth and afflicteth me, that I find neither counsel nor help in myself: therefore let such things also be commanded thee, give thou counsel and help, and be thyself all in these things etc.
29 God is pleased with this, and tells us to do only what we are commanded to do, and leave it to Him to decide how we will go about it and what we will accomplish. As other similar sayings say, such as Ps. 37, 5: "Command the Lord your ways, and hope in Him, He will do it well" etc. For no pagan, philosopher, lawyer, unless he also has God's word, can cast his care and concern from himself upon God; but means all the world, especially the great,
Wise men, who are to rule, must themselves arrange everything with their worries and prudence; and where it does not work out, as it has commonly failed even the very highest, wisest people, they want to become mad and foolish, begin to murmur and dispute against God and his regiment, as if he does not rule right. etc. But it also serves them right that he lets their plans and thoughts fall short and the contradiction happen; for they do not want to think that they also need him, they think that they themselves have wisdom, power and strength enough that God must let it go as they have thought; thus they spend their lives with many useless, futile plans and worries, and yet they have to learn and confess otherwise much and often in experience.
30 Therefore this is called the art and virtue of Christians, above all people on earth, that they know where they should leave and lay their care, since others wear themselves out with it and mortify themselves, and yet must finally despair because of it. This must follow from unbelief, which has no God and wants to provide for itself. But faith grasps this word, as St. Peter leads us from the Scriptures: "For he careth for you," and thereupon cheerfully endures, does, and suffers what he ought; for he knows that he is called to do so: but he commits the care to God, and so also freshly passes through against all that challenges him, can call upon God as a father, and says: I will do what God has commanded me, but where it is to go out, there I will let him care for it.
31. He must do so, where he wants to go well and blessedly, in the highest things, namely in danger and at the hour of death, since he can neither see nor think with any worries where he will stay, or how he will go, he must even give himself, eyes, senses and thoughts, with faith and trust, and throw himself into God's hand and care and protection, and say: God has let me live without my care until this hour, for this He has given me His dear Son as a treasure and a certain pledge of eternal life: therefore only go with joy, my dear soul, you have a faithful Father and Hei-
land, who will take you into his hands and keep you well" etc.
32 Thus must the entire Christian church do in its high spiritual office and regiment, of which especially St. Peter speaks here. Peter speaks here, that no man nor creature is able to execute and maintain it by his own thoughts, wisdom and powers, and that no power, authority or protection is to be sought from the world, that one could comfort oneself and rely on it; but entirely in the hands of God alone, who must maintain it by his divine power, as he has always miraculously maintained it in the world from the beginning, in great weakness, division by mobs and heretics, persecution of tyrants, and is his own regiment alone, and yet commands the ministry and service of the people whom he will require and use for this purpose, to distribute his word and sacrament through their mouth and hand. Therefore, every Christian, especially if he is in such an office and fellowship, should think only of serving God faithfully in what God has called and appointed him to do, and do what he is commanded to do. And let the care of where and how the church remains and is preserved against the devil and the world be entrusted to the Lord, who took it all to himself and thus relieved us of all care, so that we might be sure where it should stand and remain; for wherever it should stand by the counsel, power and will of men, the devil would soon have reversed it with his power and brought it to ruin.
Likewise, in all offices and estates, everyone should follow this advice of St. Peter: a prince should strive to protect his country and people, to promote God's word, to maintain discipline and peace, to establish justice for everyone, and to punish the disobedient etc.Councillors, officials and commanders should faithfully advise and help in such matters; priests and preachers should speak God's word and truth righteously and unashamedly; every citizen and subject should wait for his deeds and work, and whatever may happen by chance should be badly commanded by God. But this the world does not do, but everyone thinks: Why should I take upon myself so much trouble, opposition and enmity? item, why should I have toil and labor in vain? I will not manage it after all.
etc.; and out of such fear and care either leaves his commanded office and work in order, or is ever negligent. But such should also know that they are not Christians, nor can they serve or benefit God for His kingdom and commanded offices, and should, if they would not do otherwise, also leave such office, given to them by God; for it is not enough that you sit in office, and let yourself be celebrated and honored. We all like to hear the offices and ranks praised and honored; but you should also know that you are not in office because you should go about in beautiful clothing, sit on top, be called gracious lord and squire; but that you should faithfully lead and practice the office that God has commanded you and honored you with, not considering honor, pleasure, shame or harm.
34. but it is lacking everywhere that people do not want to believe and trust God to take care of us, who without that has taken upon himself and must do the greatest thing that no man on earth is able to do, and indeed has taken care of us before we were born, and could still well accomplish all things by himself and do without all human help; but he wants to do it by means, and needs us for such divine works: to govern, to punish, to teach, to comfort etc.
(35) In this, the world is particularly culpable, if it is to do something in great matters by God's command, that it always wants to think out beforehand, with its wisdom, all the future events and coincidences, to advise and anticipate them; it seeks human help, and seeks friendship and assistance where it can, makes alliances and other practices on which it relies, and thinks it is strong enough against the adversity, and thus wants to be sure of the matter by itself. This is not trusting God, nor wanting to command him the matter and care for us; but wanting to preserve the matter even through one's own care and prudence, and neither seeing nor believing that she accomplishes nothing with her care and actions, and that no human prudence has in her hand what is to come, nor can see it; so that all historical experience should teach us well, if we wanted to go back to the past.
See how evil human wisdom is deceived when it relies on itself, and does not go out at all as it is thought, but everything is turned around differently, and the contradiction happens as a man would have thought.
(36) There are so many examples in Scripture of the kings of Judah and Israel, whom the prophets punished often and severely, that they sought refuge and help from foreign nations and kings, telling them not to trust in the help of men, but to do according to God's word and command, which would protect and preserve them. They would not listen, however, and continued to make friends and alliances with the kings of Egypt, Syria, Babylon and Assyria, inviting them as their guests so that they would come and invade their land, take them away captive and devastate everything. This was their reward for not obeying God's word or believing that He would take care of them and protect and defend them when they trusted and obeyed Him. The wisest, most excellent people, even among the pagans, have lamented from their experience how they are shamefully deceived with their proposals, even if they have considered them in the best possible way: it is not yet to be said to the world that it would become wittier from the harm of others, even from its own harm.
37. Therefore, this is preached to no one but a few who are Christians, who have God's word before their eyes, and now have been humbled, have learned that they should not rely on their own wisdom, thoughts or human: help nor comfort; and have now become such people who believe that God cares for them, and do what they know is right and they owe, and do not let anything that the world fears and cares for, drive, harm, resist; but command all these things to God and walk freshly by His word.
(38) What would I have done (to give an example of myself), when I first began to punish the lies of indulgences and then the error of the papacy, if I had heard and paid attention to what all the world wrote and said to me in the most terrible way, what I was doing to myself and how I was doing because of it?
How often have I had to hear: If I were to write against these and those excellent people, I would cause an unpleasantness that would be too hard for me and the whole German country; but because I did not start it myself, but for the sake of my office, forced (otherwise I would have preferred to remain silent) and led into it, I also commanded the matter to God, and let him take care of both where it would go out and what would happen to me because of it; and thus brought it further, regardless of what was set against it and raged, than I could ever have thought or hoped for before.
(39) Oh how much good God would do through us if people, especially the great, wise lords and rulers, could be persuaded that it is true what St. Peter says here. Peter says: that God cares for us; and do not seek by their own wisdom and thoughts to equip, strengthen and seize themselves with human power, help, friendship and alliance, to lead and maintain their thing; because one can see that such things are lacking and have always lacked, and thus do no more than God hinders and hinders his work, because one does not want to trust in him, that he also cannot give happiness or grace to such things that were started and placed on human wisdom and trust, so that one must experience and lament it in the end, because one did not want to believe it before.
40. Now let him who desires to be a Christian learn to believe these things, and to exercise and show faith in his affairs, both bodily and spiritual, in doing and suffering, living and dying; that he may renounce sorrow and anxious thoughts, and cast them freshly and confidently from him: Not into a corner, as some think to do in vain, for they cannot be thrown away where they are in the heart; but that he cast both his heart and his cares upon God's back; for he has a strong neck and shoulders, that he may well bear them, for which he has commanded that they should be laid upon him; and if thou canst not lay and cast so much upon him, he much rather hath it, and also promises thee that he will bear the cares for thee, and all that is in thy behalf.
This is a fine promise and a beautiful golden saying, if one would only believe it. If a mighty emperor, king and lord on earth promised us this and demanded that we let him take care of the gold and silver and necessities of this life, how cheerfully and without any worry would anyone rely on it? Now this is said by a much more excellent Lord, who is almighty and true. He has power over life and limb, and is willing and able to give us everything we need, both temporally and eternally; and if we believed it, we would have half the kingdom of heaven, indeed, a complete paradise on earth. For what is better and nobler than a quiet, peaceful heart, after which all men struggle and labor; as we have done until now, running after it from time to time, and yet nowhere being found, but in God's word, which calls us to cast our cares and concerns upon God and thus seek peace and rest there; so that we cast upon Him everything that wants to oppress and distress us; for He does not want to have the worry in our heart, just as it does not belong in it, but is put there by the devil.
(42) Therefore a Christian, though he may suffer all kinds of hindrances, temptations, and calamities, may go through them cheerfully, saying, "Dear Lord God, you have commanded me to believe, teach, rule, and do; I will dare to do this in your name, and let you command what may happen to me because of it. And so there is a man that is able in all things, and can do and create much good; for he is rid of the great calamity, and hath laid the heaviest stone of God upon his neck. On the other hand, since another can do nothing, because he makes his heart full of fear and anger, he cannot do any good work, and becomes an unfit person, both to do and to suffer, afraid of all bushes, or unable to do anything right out of anger or impatience. As the world is doing now, when princes, lords, councillors, citizens and peasants only want to have power, honor and property, but no one wants to do anything; everyone fears that this or that might happen to him, when the world has never needed a more serious regime than now, and they therefore sit there with the beautiful wreath of
that they are called lords and princes, and have the honor from God, that they should also exercise their princely office and regiment. For the world nevertheless wants to be ruled, the youth to be educated, the wicked to be punished. But if you only want to have the honor, and not also step into the mire, suffer unpleasantness, and learn to trust God and do everything for His sake, then you are also not worthy of the grace to do something good and salvific, and must remain incapable of all good work as a punishment from God's wrath.
Be sober and watchful, for your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour; whom resist strongly in faith.
(43) He taught two things that should be the practice of the whole Christian life, namely, Christian humility, which is the fear of God, and faith and trust in God. Here he also exhorts us to strife and fight to preserve these things, for he shows us that we have an enemy and adversary who seeks to take away our treasure and to deprive us of our salvation and blessedness. Therefore he wants to say: "Do not seek how you will be lifted up here on earth, or how you will provide for yourselves; but think that you will humble yourselves before God and trust in Him, and let this be your concern, that you may remain in such grace and not let it snatch you away; for the devil stands after this, and is the one who causes such forbidden concern and therefore all disobedience to God, that he may snatch faith and God's word from your heart. Therefore you must not leave these things out of consideration, and in the meantime strive for other things, or safely go to sleep and snore, as if you had no more journey; but you must know that you are not set here in a rose garden, but in a hard battle, where you must look around you, brave and armed to fight back; For ye have an enemy and adversary, which is not small or to be despised, but strong, mighty; and in addition is wicked and fierce, do not fight with stone and wood, to cut down rocks and trees, but think
you Christians; not leaving you nor growing weary, but pursuing you without celebration or cessation, not only to see what you do, or to do any mischief or harm to overcome, but desiring to devour you utterly.
44. for these are his thoughts and designs alone, that he should murder and kill man both spiritually and corporally; as in the beginning when he created man, he brought him to death and cast him down. He still does this horribly and terribly in the world to those who do not believe in Christ, and he will not stop until the last day. There one sees how he rumbles without ceasing, publicly rages and rages against the whole of Christendom through Turks and other tyrants and godless people; without what else he particularly causes for misery and murder, since he blinds people, possesses them and drives them to harm themselves, or to murder others without any cause, and otherwise brings them to evil shameful cases in misfortune and misery. And summa, the world is nothing but the devil's murder pit, both in spiritual and physical rule and things. And although God, in order to prevent and control the murder of the flesh, has established worldly authorities, father and mother and other rulers, who should also be sober, brave and diligent in such office, for which we should also thank God and ask that he help to maintain the same, for otherwise there would be no peace at all, and murder everywhere on earth: But still, this is not enough for the real great murder of the devil, which he does to those who are without God's word and faith.
(45) For this reason there is another defense and protection, and another sobriety and watchfulness, that one may remain unharmed and unswallowed before this bloodthirsty murderer; of which St. Peter here speaks to the company of Christians, saying, "You have now escaped the devil's lies and murder through Christ's blood and death, and have been made alive and placed in the heavenly realm, like your dear fathers, Adam, Abel 2c, who are no longer under falsehood and murder, but live in Christ, though the body lie for a time in the earth, and truth and life,
both in body and soul, must be completed again. But because you are still alive in the world, you are still in all the fare; for you are still with the body in the murderer's house and lodging: therefore you must take care that he does not kill you again, and murder the souls that dwell in this mortal body. It shall not hurt you that the soul has been corrupted and the body is still subject to death; "For I live," says Christ John 14:19, "and you also shall live"; only that you fight for it, so that you may remain in truth and life; to this you are set, because you live here on earth, otherwise you would already be in paradise. But the devil has not yet been cast out for the punishment of his damnation until the last day, when he will finally be thrown out of the air and from the earth into the abyss of hell, and will no longer be able to challenge us, and there will no longer be a cloud or cover between us and God and the angels.
(46) That ye then, saith he, being once delivered from his murder, may keep your life begun before him; ye must be sober, and watch not only in body, but rather in spirit and soul. For though it is true that a Christian who is to resist the devil must also be sober in body; for a drunken sow and drunkard cannot be brave, nor think to resist the devil: But yet a Christian must be much more careful that the soul be not drowsy nor drunken; for as the soul also is weighed down by the body, where it is overcharged with drunkenness; so again, where the soul is brave and sober, there also the body becomes temperate and skillful to hear God's word; But where the body lies in gluttony, the soul must first be a drunkard who does not respect God's word and prayer; and where the latter is drunk and drowned in such security, it does not help, even though the body hurts itself with great monastic carthouses and hermits' strict, hard fasting and casteism.
For this reason, St. Peter here forbids the drunkenness of the soul over bodily gluttony, since man walks in carnal security, without all thought and care, how he may have and keep God's word, asking nothing,
neither according to the wrath of God nor according to His mercy, and in addition allows himself to be filled with the sweet poison of false doctrine, so that the devil fills the people with his mobs, so that they stare, lose faith and the right pure mind and sense, then pass over from such gluttony, and lick and spit into the others.
(48) This is what happens when one begins to be clever and wise in divine matters through human reason, which St. Peter calls in fine words doctas fabulas, clever fables, 2 Pet. 1:16, where he says: "We did not follow clever fables when we proclaimed to you the power and future of our Lord Christ. These are the beautiful words and sermons that have a great appearance of wisdom and holiness and are naturally pleasing to man. Therefore, in the philosophia or doctrine of the law, which reason can understand, it is magnificently and gloriously proclaimed what a fine thing it is for a man to live a fine, respectable, chaste life and to practice good works and virtues; and with such a pretense it is intended that through this (not only through faith) we will be justified before God, that is, redeemed from sins and death.
49) Item, when other mobs come along with delicious words, which they have heard from our teaching: External things do not help souls, the spirit must do it etc., and thus despise holy baptism and sacrament; as Thomas Muenzer with his rebellious peasants and the Anabaptist mob also preached with greater pretense about the shameful evil life of the world, especially of lords and princes, that they were godless people and tyrants and thus deserved God's wrath and punishment etc.: therefore one should approach, depose and kill such, and make a new regiment, since they are all pious and holy people etc. This and the like are called by St. Peter "clever fables", which have been drawn out of great wisdom, art, with beautiful appearance and prestige, and have been presented in a way that is sweet to reason and pleasing to the eye; just as all idolatry, heresy and false doctrine have been torn down from the beginning, formed by fine, learned, wise people in the world and adorned in the most beautiful way.
50 What apt semblance and coincidence
has had it against the faith of the true Godhead of Christ, through Armin and his followers, that Christ is to be exalted above all angels and creatures, and that all honor, dominion and power in heaven and on earth are due to him, yes, even that he is equal to God in all things, but only that he is not homousios, that is, in one undivided, divine, eternal being, which would be so completely unified that it could no longer be communicated to anyone. That would be too much to say that a man should naturally be God etc. With such a pretense, such a large number of Christians were seduced that even few bishops remained with the pure doctrine and faith; and afterwards this poison tore into the clever people in Asia and Greece, until Mahomet with his Saracens and Turks miserably seduced the largest part of the world.
(51) Likewise the pope has also adorned and colored his abominations and idolatries with a glorious semblance, what a beautiful thing it is for such fine, well-ordered worship; item, what a useful thing it is for the beautiful, orderly government and authority of the church, that it is so finely divided, according to distinction of offices and estates, since the bishops have power over common priests, and over these St. Peter's See at Rome. Peter's See at Rome, which has the power to assemble the common council as often as necessary, and to judge and conclude with them all matters concerning the faith, which everyone must follow and be obedient to; item, what a great salvation and consolation to the whole world is the work when the priests in the mass daily proclaim and present to God the sacrifice that Christ bore on the cross etc. This is the sweet wine in the golden cup of the red whore of Babylon, Revelation 17:2, 4, so that she made all kings and nations drunk.
52 Wherever the devil finds such people, who turn their ears to such fables, he drives them away and fills them so full of them that they neither see nor hear anything before them, and their thing alone must be true, not allowing themselves to be taught what is said to them from God's Word; and so they become completely insane, deprived of all right understanding in the faith and all pieces of pure doctrine, only to-
go in their darkened minds to their dreamed-up state of lying, without repentance and correction, and do not have the grace to teach or do anything good; as such examples are proof enough of all the mobs.
(53) Therefore St. Peter exhorts us to be sober and courageous here, especially in the spirit, and to beware of such sweet poison and beautiful adorned lies and fables of the devil, and teaches us how to arm ourselves and defend ourselves against them.
This he resists (speaks) strongly in faith.
This is the right defense and resistance to be sober and courageous, so that we may be well grounded in God's word and hold fast to it, where the devil seeks to overthrow our faith with his clever fables, brought forth from human understanding and reason; who is the devil's bride, and always wants to be clever and wise in divine matters, and thinks that what she considers right and good must also be valid before God. But faith alone adheres to God's word, and knows that before God nothing is valid human wisdom, high art, great power, and whatever gifts and virtues man may have, but only His grace and forgiveness of sins in Christ. Therefore, he can reject and strike down all such exquisite pretensions and clever fables.
55. as if worldly rulers, emperors, kings, princes etc. wanted to boast about them before God, and thus say: My crown is a crown before God; for I have the power and rulership given to me by God: therefore he must look at this, and let it stand before him what I say, and must let everyone be right, what I do and want to have. Or, such a wise philosopher or jurist would also insist and pretend: We are the highly learned, wise rulers of the world, and have praiseworthy rights and laws, excellent, beautiful teachings of good works and virtue; we must be listened to, and above all, our art must be preferred and accepted; whoever can or does such things is much higher before God than others. etc.
56 No, dear man, says faith here, I charge that you praise such things, even as ordered and ordered by God.
but that it should not be valid any further than for this earthly bodily regiment and life. Before the world it shall be a crown, called right and wisdom; but before God you shall lay down your crown, let go of your power and authority, right and wisdom, and say: God, be merciful to me poor sinner! Reason has the advantage that it is equipped and adorned with God's decree, that he confirms its rule on earth and lets it please him; but so that it does not take hold of God's rule, or boast and defy him, but know that what is called wisdom and prudence on earth is called foolishness before God; what in the sight of the world is beautiful, exquisite, honorable and virtuous, in the sight of God is sin and under wrath; what on earth is called life, in the sight of God is nothing but death.
(57) Therefore all these things, parents, authorities, and other estates, which he himself hath ordained and confirmed by his word (though there be Christians also therein), shall not stand before him in that life; much less shall he accept before him that which a man hath devised and contrived out of his own head and heart. If you want to be prudent and wise, then be it in the things where you are commanded, in your house, state, office, that is, in earthly, bodily, temporal things; there only rule well, it will still be too little for you in all books, reason and wisdom. But where you begin to pretend even such things out of your reason, which should be valid before God, that may be called prudently and wisely pretended; but they are nothing else, says St. Peter, but fables and lying.
58. as if a monk comes along and says: He who puts on a cap can lead a fine holy life; for he is separated from the world, can renounce all care and unpleasure, serve God peacefully and quietly without hindrance: that is wisely said, but in essence it is nothing but idle, free, useless chatter. This is found in God's Word, which teaches me thus, that God has forbidden to raise up one's own worship; item, that God wants to be served in common life and estate, not with
Fleeing the same. Therefore, such monasticism cannot be a holy divine life. Thus saith the 119th Psalm, v. 85: Narraverunt mihi iniqui fabulationes: "The proud make pits for me with their babblings, which are not according to thy law"; that is, they preach to me of excellent things, and pretend deliciously to fell me with them; but if I look at it aright, it is not like thy word and commandments, which, saith he, are all truth. For lies are always beautiful, glittering and pretending to be truth, and have the advantage that they can also adorn themselves with God's word and use it as a substitute, turning it into their own deed. Truth, on the other hand, does not appear or shine like this, because it does not make itself level with reason. The fact that a common Christian hears the gospel with others, believes, needs the sacraments, lives a Christian life at home with his wife and children, does not seem like the beautiful, excellent lie of a holy Carthusian or forest brother, who, separated from the people, wants to be a holy servant of God in front of other people, and yet is of no use to anyone, lets others preach, rule and be in the sweat of their labor.
(59) Therefore, in these matters, one must first of all see to it that one has God's word and judges all the teachings and precepts of men according to it, and so distinguish that the wisdom and understanding of reason remain far and deep below, and do not apply further than when it is confirmed by God to govern and judge the things of this temporal life. For he who has faith can soon see where she is without God's word, or leads over it with her wisdom. Just as in worldly matters every man, in the profession, office or trade he can and does, understands well where another is subject to the same, whether he handles it rightly or not; just as every householder in his house understands well and knows that he should not suffer where the servants do wickedness and injustice, or where another, to whom it is not due, wants to go to his wife and daughters. But in these divine matters, reason can adorn itself so that no one notices who has not taken God's word righteously with faith. For it can
She will and must always be wise and prudent, even in matters of God, since she is not commanded to do so, and the devil does nothing but wreak havoc with it, as he has introduced into the world from the beginning through our parents; and yet, in her own nature and government, she cannot suffer that anyone should dare to judge matters or to do that of which he neither knows nor has learned anything, or that he should interfere with other matters and government with his actions, which is neither his due nor his due.
(60) If a shoemaker were to appear in church and chastise the people for not wearing all the shoes he had made, and persuade the people that this was necessary for salvation, he would be thrown out of the church with his shoes and slippers, and it would be said to him, "Keep your shoes and lasts at home in your workshop; what is that to do with the regiment of the soul? But for a spirit of the kind to shout from its wisdom, "I am a pious holy man and have special enlightenment of the spirit, therefore one must not believe, as the others say, from the dead letter, that a person can be God and man, or a virgin a mother, or that man can be cleansed from sins by water and the oral word etc.; then no one can say against it, and reason wins, if it only has the glory and name of the spirit, holy life etc., where not God's word and faith is pure. Behold, what harm the Turk has done with his Mahomet, and still does with the name and glory alone, that he worships the one God; and as he alone has the right God, so he and his people alone are God's people on earth, whom they honor and fight against the Christians. He does this strongly, because he is so fortunate and victorious that many Christians who come to them fall to their faith and become Turkish, since none of them becomes a Christian.
(61) Therefore, there is no other way to resist the devil and remain unconquered by him, except through firm faith, says St. Peter; that is, the heart that clings firmly to God's word, grasps it completely, and believes it to be true. For
Faith cannot be nor stand without the word, nor can it hear or comprehend anything else; therefore it must be separated and set far above all reason and wisdom, so that it is worthless, even dead, in matters concerning God's rule, how to escape sin and eternal death, and only be silent and give the glory of truth to God's word alone; as St. Paul says of the ministry of the gospel: "We take all reason captive under the obedience of Christ. Paul 2 Cor. 10, 5. says of the preaching of the gospel: "We take all reason captive to the obedience of Christ" etc. For where reason shall teach me of these things, what may one of faith? And why do I not soon throw away the book of the Gospel and all the Scriptures? We Christians, says St. Paul 1 Cor. 1, 20. 21, preach something different and higher than reason understands, since the wisdom of the world is only foolishness. If reason taught me that the mother of Christ was a virgin, the angel Gabriel would have stayed up in heaven and kept silent about it. "Your faith," says St. Paul again, 1 Cor. 2:4, "should not be based on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God." Yes, these are just the right plots and stratagems of the devil, so that he seeks to devour you, which he pretends to do out of reason, against God's word.
62 This is the exhortation of St. Peter to all Christianity, especially to preachers, how to beware of the devil's deceit and cunning, that he should seek them out; and he holds out both things to us: first, that we know the enemy, and what he has in mind and intends to do; and how we should be prepared to meet him, and to resist him, that we may stand before him and prevail. He is a terrible and powerful enemy," he says, "who is also the god of the world, and has great wisdom and cunning in the sight of all men, and can blind and destroy reason, so that it gladly believes and follows him. He is an evil and bitter enemy to you who have life in Christ; he cannot bear it, and seeks and devises nothing else but how he may bring you back to it. And do not think that he is far from you or that he is attacking you from afar, but he has come very close to you and all around you, yes, in
your own field, that is, in flesh and blood, seeking where he may come to you, and hastening you, being untruthful, now tempting this, now that, where he cannot fell you with one, now with false confidence, with doubt, now with anger, impatience, avarice, evil desire etc., as he seeth his room, and findeth you weak. Therefore think not that it is a jest that he playeth with thee; but is fierce and hungry as no hungry angry lion, will not smite thee, nor give thee a sting, but will utterly devour thee, that nothing shall remain of thee, neither in soul nor body.
(63) He who wants to resist such an enemy must be armed with other weapons than men's wit, understanding or strength and ability; this is nothing else, says St. Peter, but faith, which has the Word of God before it and grasps it. And because one only holds fast to it, he can gain nothing; for it is God's truth and power, before which he cannot stand with his lies and murder, but must give way and flee from it; therefore also St. Paul Eph. 6, 16. means to take up the shield of faith against the devil's cunning attempt, so that you may, he says, extinguish all his poisonous, fiery arrows, which are primarily those that he drives in the heart, through beautiful rational thoughts of human reason, since he also disguises himself as an angel of light, so as to distort the right mind and faith, and to bring about false conceit and faith, item, in doubt, distrust, hatred and anger against God. Also in other temptations and struggles concerning life, when he drives man to sin and disobedience against God's commandment, avarice, usury, anger, revenge, fornication and other vices. There he also uses the same trick, that he first tears God's word out of the heart, blinds reason with beautiful, sweet thoughts: It is not so evil, God will not be so angry with you, can well have patience with you, you also love the gospel, etc., and thus drags you away and plunges you under God's terrible wrath and condemnation.
64. there is no reason to insist on this.
This is so that you remember both your former harm and the grace you have now received, as you were previously in God's wrath, since without fear of God and faith you were the devil's own according to all his will, and would have had to perish if God had not forgiven your sin and given you his grace out of gratuitous kindness; so that you now watch and do not lose such treasure again, for which he also promises to give you the Holy Spirit, who will help you overcome, so that you will not succumb if you remain in faith; item, means you also, where you feel weakness and suffer need, call upon him and ask, and be sure that he will hear you; as he says Joh. 16:23: "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, that shall he give you"; item Cap. 15:7: "If my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" etc.
65 For St. Peter also wants to make Christians bold and confident to resist the devil's temptations and to defend themselves, so that they will not be afraid of him or despair, even though he is hard on them both through the world and their own flesh and through his own activity, as if he were too strong for them and they must give themselves up to him; But that we take up a man's heart against him and fight chivalrously by our faith, and know that if we only remain firm in it, we will have the strength and advantage that he will not win us over, but that we will become knights against him. For this we are also called by God and put in a position, when we become Christians, that we should renounce the devil and fight against him, so that we may keep God's name, word and kingdom against him. Thus Christ, our Head, has already in Himself, for us, defeated and destroyed the devil and his power, and has also given us faith and the Holy Spirit, so that we can also completely defeat the rest of his evil, wrath and power, which he tries to use against us.
(66) I say that a Christian should remember this and thus learn the strength and power of faith, so that he does not become a slave to the faith.
The same is true for the one who, for the sake of a small temporal good, pleasure or honor, follows God's grace and the Holy Spirit, nor for the love of the devil or the world, nor for the sake of eternal harm to himself, and casts himself again under eternal wrath and condemnation.
And know that your brothers in the world have the same suffering.
67 This is also a very precious comforting saying, which St. Peter, of course, not only received from the Holy Spirit, but also tried and experienced himself. When he denied his Lord three times in the high priest's house, and soon after fell into such fear and trembling that he would have followed Judah the betrayer, if Christ had not turned his eyes to him; therefore he also immediately after his resurrection commands the first to proclaim it to him, and therefore also says to him himself beforehand Luc. 22:32: "Peter, I have prayed for thee, that thy faith cease not; and thou, if thou be converted, strengthen thy brethren." He also does this faithfully with this saying: "You have to suffer much and severely in the world," he says, "both in spiritual and bodily temptations, against the first and the second table, because the devil pursues you with his lies and murder.
(68) This grieves weak Christians beyond measure, according to their flesh and blood, that they should always be scratched and tormented by the devil, and presses each one's suffering so hard that he thinks no one suffers as much as he does; especially in the high spiritual temptations, so that those who have high special gifts before others and are to lead others are challenged. As St. Paul often complains of his high temptations, which the common people do not understand and cannot bear. And God keeps the measure here, that he lays out to each one according to his person his cross, according to which he is strong and able to bear it; but these find such sufferings that even the great, strong spirits would have to pine and wither under them, if God did not also give them comfort; for they take hold of the heart in the
They attack the body and consume the marrow and the bone, as the Psalms often lament.
Some in monasteries, and sometimes also other pious, tender consciences, have experienced how hard they are to bear, especially in the blindness and darkness of the papacy, since they have had little real comfort. But there have also been some inexperienced, rash spirits who have seen such things and have not understood them, and yet also want to know much about great temptations; but since they have experienced them, they have not been able to bear them either. As it is said of such a one, who heard the others complaining fearfully about their temptations, that he asked God to let him also try such things; then God let him be tempted with carnal lust; but when he could not bear it, he asked again that God would give him another, his brother's, which he considered inferior; but when he got it, he asked much more vehemently that God would give him back the former one.
70 In such temptations, St. Peter comforts the suffering Christians. St. Peter comforts the suffering Christians by saying that they are not the first to be challenged in this way, as if it were a strange, outrageous cross and suffering that they feel and think they bear alone; But they should know that their brotherhood, the Christians, scattered at all times and in all places, must also suffer in the same way, because they are in the world, from the devil and his scales; for it soothes and comforts greatly out of measure, when the sufferer sees and knows that he does not suffer alone, but with the multitude.
(71) It is true that in the outward temptations of the devil and the world, which the common Christians have to bear enough, this comfort is easy to grasp, because one sees and hears others suffering in the same way. But where he alone attacks you with his poisonous arrows, as if to despair of God's grace, as if you alone were rejected; item, with horrible thoughts of blasphemy, to hate God, to judge and condemn his regiment, etc., and thus your heart is so crushed and anxious that you think that no man on earth has ever been more cruelly challenged: then it is necessary to take this consolation, so that St. Peter will be able to help you.
Peter comforts you and all Christians, saying: "My dear, do not let the devil and your suffering frighten you or make you despondent, for you should know and have no doubt that you are not suffering alone; he cannot attack you so shamefully; he has done it to others and is still doing it. For he does not mean and seek you alone, but all Christianity; and yet he always goes about to tear God's word and faith out of their hearts in their suffering, and to rob them of their comfort in Christ, and to make God only the most atrocious and hostile example, so that the heart has no good thought of him: and he can do this not only with high, spiritual, subtle thoughts, but also by gross outward giving, of which man himself must be ashamed and horrified. I myself have seen and heard a maiden complain of such a temptation, that when she stood in church and saw the sacrament being taken up, her thoughts would have come into her head: Behold, what a great wretch the priest lifts up, and she was suddenly frightened by it, so that she sank to the ground.
(72) Such terror and fear come from the fact that man believes and thinks that there is no other man in such terrible temptations than he, and that he alone has a peculiar, strange and unusual suffering. Although it is true that one man's affliction may arise from other circumstances and in other ways than another's, and that his affliction may seem to him to be different from that of others, the affliction and affliction of all Christians is the same in that the devil seeks to drive them all from the fear and trust of God to contempt, unbelief, hatred and blasphemy against God. That is why the apostles of the Christians call suffering a fellowship of suffering and tribulation, drawing all their suffering into the suffering of Christ our Lord as the Head and forerunner, as St. Peter says in 1 Ep. cap. 1, 11: "As the Spirit of Christ testified beforehand through the prophets, both the sufferings that are in Christ and the glory that follows." And St. Paul Col. 1, 24. says: "He filleth up what is yet lacking in His flesh with tribulations in Christ."
If one wants to speak of special heavy sufferings, then no human heart will be able to think about it, nor will it be able to excuse how great and heavy anguish and heartache our first parents Adam and Eve had over their miserable fall. And what sorrow did Adam afterwards have to see in his first son Cain and his children for the nine hundred years of his life? The like of which no man has ever experienced, that after Abel's death they both also bore sorrow for almost a hundred years, and did not come together in marriage until they begat the third son, that indeed the same nine hundred years were a sorrowful and miserable time for them. With this father of ours we may discuss at the last day what the high lonely suffering is, of which we do not yet know anything; and we will gladly confess that he is our master and father in this, but we have still been little disciples; for with him it has certainly been most difficult and most dangerous, because he had no example before him of the same suffering, of which he could have consoled himself.
(74) Likewise, if you could rightly consider what the other great holy patriarchs, prophets, apostles, especially St. Paul and St. Peter themselves, and afterwards all the dear martyrs and saints have suffered, you yourself would have to say that all your temptations and sufferings are nothing in comparison. But before and above all these was the temptation and suffering of the Lord Christ, to whom the devil's fiery darts and bitter stings went through his heart, so that they mildly penetrated the fearful sweat of blood to his body. He has gone far ahead of us all with his suffering, so that we only follow his footsteps with all our suffering.
Therefore learn to understand this saying of St. Peter, so that you do not think that you alone are suffering such grave and terrible trials and blows from the devil, but that your brothers, not only those who are dead (who have also set you a good example), but also those who live with you in the world, have suffered and are suffering such terror and hardship, for they have the same enemy of Christ and of all Christendom. Of this you may joyfully boast and say: God
Praise be, it is not I alone who suffer, but with me a great multitude of all dear Christianity on earth, my dear brothers and sisters, until the last day. And here I am comforted and strengthened by St. Peter, as Christ commanded him, who has also tried and experienced such suffering, and certainly much more than I and others.
(76) I may have thought in my temptations that I wanted to argue with St. Peter and Paul whether they could have been more severely challenged than I was. For this is what the devil does when he can do nothing else, that he drives man to the point where he can look at nothing but his suffering and distress, and presses him with such thoughts: There is no man so rejected by God, or so deep in fear and distress. He has also often made me so tired with such disputes that I have not been able to convince him of any argument, and have had to point him away from me to Christ, who can give him enough over-disputes. And even if we do not have this with us, he is much too strong and far superior to us that it is not possible to silence his rebuttals. He soon repulsed all my art and beat me with my own sword.
(77) Ah, but the masters of the mob and other secure spirits are poor, miserable people who learn nothing at all of such a struggle; they are drowned in their own dreamed thoughts, of which they think themselves so certain, as if they could not lack it; and some of them insolently and unabashedly blaspheme that God himself should not take it from them; and the devil also strengthens them finely in such things, lets it be good for them and only makes them more obdurate. But this is the very sign that they do not yet know the devil, and are already blinded and captivated by him, so that he can overthrow them whenever he wants.
(78) For the true Christians are not so sure and defiant when they are attacked; but labor in great hard fight and anxiety, that the devil take not the sword from them. I know that I am also learned for a doctor, and have tried a little what the devil can do; but this I must bear him witness to, by daily
Experience that he can strike me down if I am not well guarded in the faith and have Christ in my heart. Thomas Muenzer was also so firm and stiff, as he thought, that he could say: He does not look at Christ, if he did not want to talk to him himself; but finally, when the devil began to attack him, one saw what his defiance and glory had been. No, they are not the ones who do it, who defy so stiffly as if they had already eaten the devil, not seeing that they have been devoured by him seven times before and are stuck in his jaws.
79. The heretic Arius was also sure and proud enough against the pious bishops and Christians; indeed, when he was punished by his bishop for his error and admonished to desist, he only became more stiff-necked, and complained of great persecution, and this was his suffering, that they would not let him be well pleased with his atrocious blasphemy; Just as all the riffraff and all blasphemers, yes, even public murderers and tyrants want to be martyrs, if one does not approve and allow them to rage against God's word and pious people. They know themselves to be so sure and right that they fear nothing before God and consider the devil to be a dead bumblebee until he suddenly seizes them and overthrows them in an instant.
But the poor Christians who are challenged are in great need of being comforted and strengthened by God's Word, for they must anxiously struggle and fight against it, so that they almost lose God, Christ, faith and Our Father in the high temptations. Therefore, it is necessary for St. Peter's commanded office and work to strengthen his brothers; as he also had need in his temptations, and was comforted by Christ beforehand, that he had prayed for him that his faith should not be extinguished and cease altogether, which, however, was almost extinguished over his denial until the third day, and hardly the smallest spark of it remained. Therefore, as a faithful apostle, he now comforts those who are in the same fidgeting and trembling and high distress of sinking and dying faith, and hereby says to all who suffer and are without consolation: "My dear brother, do not think that you alone are in such distress and trial; there are others who are in need of help.
Many of your brothers, who also suffer so severely, I have also suffered so severely, if not more severely, and I have been as weak as you can always become. If thou wilt not believe it, behold what befell me in the house of Caipha the high priest, when I had presumed to go with Christ into prison and death; but presently, when a maid assailed me with a word, I fell, denied and most grievously conspired with my dear Lord; and in distress I lay all three days, having no one to comfort me, or to suffer with me in like manner, without my dear Lord having yet given me a kindly look with his eyes.
(81) Therefore let no man think his anguish and distress so grievous and dreadful, as if it were new, and had not befallen others also. It may well be new and inexperienced to you, but look around you at the whole multitude of the dear church from the beginning to this hour, which is set in the world always to run at the devil's spit, and without ceasing to be sifted and reproached, as Christ himself says, Luc. 22:31, as one does to wheat. Dear one, you have not seen nor experienced what our first parents suffered and endured all their lives, and after that all the dear holy fathers until Christ. St. Peter was also much higher in this school than I and you, and I would like to say that even his like affliction is hardly to be found. St. Paul 1 Cor. 4, 13. also says of himself and his kind, the dear apostles: God has presented us as a curse and a sacrifice to the angels and the world for a spectacle, so that the devil only plagues us according to his will and thus takes his pleasure and delight in us. And what is the suffering of all men compared to Christ's fear and struggle, since he sweated blood for you?
(82) Then refer the devil who afflicts you with all his temptations, and let him argue with him, saying what are the right high temptations, the agony and the fear of hell etc. But take comfort in the fact that you also belong to the ranks of those who have been in the fellowship of suffering with you and still are and will be until the last day. O this is a beautiful, glorious
All under one Lord and Head, who is the Lord who has taken away the power of the devil and all his hell. And short, your suffering cannot be so evil, it has been so evil to the dear Apo.
We should not doubt that the saints, prophets, patriarchs and all the saints, but especially Christ Himself, with whom we suffer, we shall not doubt, says St. Paul Rom. 8:17, that we shall also be exalted with Him to the same glory.