The editor M. Stephan Tucher's preface.
To the Christian reader.
The Holy Spirit prophesied through the Holy Apostle Paul that in the last times people would receive the true blessed life.
will let go of the word of God that makes and will hear and accept the word of man. And this happens out of God's right judgment. For "because they," as St. Paul says in 2 Thess. 2:10, 11, "have not received the love of the truth, that they might be saved, God will send them strong error, that they may believe the lies."
This is what is happening to the German country now. The merciful and kind God has in this
In this perilous time, by special grace and mercy, D. Martinum Lutherum revealed his holy gospel. Martin Luther, which had long been obscured and even suppressed by the doctrine of the devil and the doctrines of men, revealed and preached it again, and miraculously preserved and defended it against the devil's and the whole world's nonsensical raging and fury. But how one has received this precious treasure, the divine word, and thanked God for it, is, unfortunately, before one's eyes.
Just as the Jews, whom God had chosen before other nations and promised the Messiah, accepted Christ His Son. The largest and most noble crowd despised and persecuted him. They were able to tolerate all kinds of doctrines, sects and cults, and even the most wicked of men, traitors and evil-doers, but Christ, the Son of God, the true Messiah, who was sent down from heaven to help them out of their eternal misery, namely sin and death, and in sum, who proved to them all that was good, was not to be tolerated by them in any way. Then they said John 11:48: "If we allow this man to perform miraculous signs, the Romans will come and take our land and people. Therefore they took counsel and did not rest or celebrate until they brought Christ the Lord to the cross. Then they thought they had done it very well, and would have no trouble at all with them now that they were rid of the deceiver.
In the same way, Germany opposes Christ and his gospel. Most of the most excellent people, kings, princes and lords, item, the holiest, cleverest and most learned, despise and persecute him to the utmost, and can suffer all kinds of idolatry, error and seduction; as it is undeniable that they would much rather accept Mahomet's teaching than this wholesome preaching of the holy gospel of Christ our Lord. As the people of Cologne write publicly, that they would rather accept the Turk's doctrine than Luther's. But this Christ must be eradicated. For this reason, so many years have been spent in conjecture, and various practices have been devised and sought, as to how this Christ might be justifiably eradicated.
come and chase them out of the world, so that peace and unity may be preserved.
Now behold, how did it come to the Jews that they did not want to accept or recognize Christ the Lord as their Messiah? So that instead of divine truth they now believe only lies and must be completely deprived of the hope of eternal life.
The same is true in Germany now: the divine truth of the holy gospel is not to be suffered or accepted. For some, which is terrible to hear, deny the holy gospel for the sake of their belly and out of fear. Some, however, among whom are those who have hitherto been the most prominent teachers of the churches, help, under a pretense of reformation, to suppress the truth with reasonable words and to adorn false doctrine and worship. That is why God sends us powerful errors, the accursed Interim, in which all the abominations, seductions and idolatries of the Antichrist at Rome, the Pope, are confirmed and reintroduced into the Church of Christ. For it is not, as the clever ones pretend and persuade and seduce many people with their rhetoric, a matter of a choir robe, or of middle things, which are not much in demand and which are free. They want to eradicate the whole of Christ with his teachings, but under a semblance of reformation; as the letter of Pope Benedict and the letter of the bishop of Mainz sufficiently testify.
Therefore, whoever intends to be saved and believes with all his heart that there is still another and an eternal life after this miserable, sorrowful life, let him take care that he persists in this pure teaching of the holy gospel, which has been preached for almost thirty years against the will of the devil, the pope and the whole world by the faithful servant of Christ, D. Martin Luther. Martin Luther, and not be led away from it by reasonable speeches, or by philosophy and loose seduction, as Paul calls it Col. 2:8, and ask God through Christ with the utmost diligence to give us faithful ministers of the gospel. For this is the only means by which we can stay on the right path to salvation, namely, first of all, that we
Let the word of God, as David says in Ps. 119:24, be our lamp and our counselors, diligently hear it, consider it in our hearts without ceasing, and live our lives by it.
Secondly, that we always pray to God that He may give us devout, faithful preachers and church ministers, and that He may keep the outward preaching ministry pure among us. For these things are all God's gift and a gift of our Lord Christ, as Paul says in Ephesians 4, and especially that we constantly and freely confess Christ, and if God so wills, seal with our blood, as the dear apostles and all the holy martyrs did, the divine truth, this pure teaching of the Gospel. Indeed, if it has ever been highly necessary to hear the word of God diligently and to ask for faithful preachers, it is necessary now at this last time, when the devil is so furious and senseless that he wants to dampen the gospel, or at least to falsify it: not only by force through the public enemies of God, the papists, but also through those who have preached the pure doctrine and still boast of it; as he has always used this art, and now practices it more fiercely as the end approaches, that he has done the greatest harm per domesticos (through those who arise from the churches themselves), as Paul says Acts 20, 30.
Therefore, I have publicly printed this sermon of our dear father D. Martini, of holy memory, which I myself heard from his mouth (which I testify before my Lord Christ), for the sake of these causes:
First, that it is a prophecy of the Holy Spirit, of this present great misery of the church. For it is first indicated through whom the calamity will come, namely, through our scholars. In what way? They will say: What harm is there in that one
that gives way? I mean, he points his finger at the adiaphora. So he also shows how to resist the calamity, namely, to yield not a hair's breadth, and to pray that God will help us overcome this great and heavy temptation of the devil, and that God will give us faithful servants who will go under the eyes of the devil and the rejected enemies of God only with joy and not yield a hair's breadth.
Secondly, that we may have here also a fine consolation, that we may not fret nor doubt the doctrine, because so many and the most learned fall away from the right doctrine. For it must be so, as Paul says: Oportet haereses fieri, ut et qui probati sunt, manifesti fiant in vobis. (There must be divisions among you, so that those who are righteous may become manifest among you). And it has been so from the beginning that the most high have done the greatest harm in the church. For Arius, Ebion, and Judas were not the least of those by whom the church received such excellent damage. Therefore, let each one keep God's word, so that he will not be deceived, and ask God through Christ to give us pure teachers. For though men are most holy and pious, yet it is said, Omnis homo mendax. (All men are liars.) But God's word alone is truth and cannot deceive; as Christ our Lord Himself says John 17:17: "Your word is truth."
May our dear Lord Christ graciously keep his word, which he has given us by grace at this perilous last time, with us, and redeem his precious Christendom, which he has purchased with his blood, from all evil, to the praise and honor of his holy name, Anno 1549.
M. Stephen cloths,
Preacher of the Gospel of Christ at Magdeburg.
Rom. 12:3-16.
For I say by the grace that is given unto me unto every one of you, that no man think any more of him than he ought to think; but that he think of him temperately, every man, after that God hath dealt. measure of faith. For just as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same business, so we are many in one body in Christ, but one is another's member. And have divers gifts according to the grace that is given unto us. If any man have prophecy, let it be like unto faith. If any man have an office, let him wait for the office. If any man teach, let him wait for the teaching. If anyone exhorts, let him wait for exhortation. If any man give, let him give simply. If anyone governs, let him be diligent. If anyone shows mercy, let him do it with pleasure. Let not love be false. Hate what is bad, cling to what is good. Let brotherly love be cordial among one another. Let one precede the other with reverence. Be not slothful in what ye do. Be fervent in spirit. Get ready for the time. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, persevere in prayer. Take care of the needs of the saints. Give gladly. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with the joyful, and weep with the weeping. Have one mind among yourselves. Do not seek high things, but hold yourselves down to the lowly.
For I say unto you by the grace that is given unto me etc.
First of all, St. Paul taught, as he used to, the main parts of Christian doctrine, of the law, sin, faith, how to become righteous before God and live forever. As you know, and have often heard, and still hear daily, that there are two things to be taught and preached. The first is to see to it that faith in Christ is rightly preached; the second is to see to it that the fruits and good works are rightly taught and practiced.
2) To faith belongs that we know what sin is, what the law is, what death is, and what it does; item, how we again come to life and remain in it. In this way Paul teaches in all his epistles first of all about faith in Christ and sets up the good tree. Just as he who wants to produce a good garden must have good trees. Paul does the same: first he sets good trees, and teaches how we are to become good trees, that is, faithful and happy. He has described this up to the 12th chapter.
3 Here he teaches the fruits of faith to the end of the epistle, so that we may not be false Christians who only have the name, but true, genuine believers. This is the preaching of good works, which God commands, especially in the first and second tablets, that we, being redeemed by the death of the Son of God, should live godly, as we do not belong to this life,
but into the eternal, if we believe otherwise, so that we do not again fall into the world after believing. As he says shortly before in v. 2: Reformamini in novitate sensus vestri, etc.. (But renew your minds in the spirit of your mind etc.) So he tells the good works to be done until the end of the epistle. First, he takes before him the fruits that Christians do among themselves, as if there were no other regiment, because the church regiment with baptism etc. Then, in the 13th chapter, he teaches about secular authorities, how Christians should behave toward them; in the 14th chapter, he exhorts that the strong should receive the weak in faith.
Now he teaches about the works of Christians. We are now, he says, made rich by the Lord Christ, transferred from the power of the devil and the world into his kingdom, that is, into the church of Christ through the Word and the sacraments, and are heirs of Christ, the Son of God, who has given us eternal life. After baptism, much of the old Adam still remains. For as is often said, sin is forgiven in baptism, but we are not yet completely pure; as is indicated in the parable of the Samaritan, Luc. 10:34, who carried the wounded man of robbers to the inn. He did not accept him in such a way as to heal him quickly, but bandaged his wounds, and poured out to him
Oil in it. He who fell among the murderers received two wounds; all that he had they took from him, robbed him, and wounded him, so that he was half dead, and would have died had not the Samaritan come: Adam fell among the murderers, and brought sin upon us all; if the Samaritan, Christ, had not come, we should all have perished; he now binds us up, carries us into the church, and heals us; so we are under your physician. Sin is completely forgiven, but not yet swept away. If the Holy Spirit did not govern men, they would become rotten again; but the Holy Spirit must cleanse the wounds daily. Therefore, this life is a hospital: sin is forgiven, but not yet healed.
(5) Therefore it is necessary to preach, and for every man to take heed to himself, lest his one understanding deceive him. For, behold, what the devils do, having received the word and the faith, there cometh wisdom, which is not yet swept away, and seeketh to be wise in spiritual things, and to master the scriptures and the faith, and maketh heresy. If we were completely pure, we would have no need of the preaching ministry anywhere; if we were admonished, we would have no need of a disciplinarian, but would willingly do everything ourselves, like the angels in heaven. But because we are still stuck in the shameful maggot sack (which the snakes will eat up in time, and would have deserved worse, that it would burn in hell forever), it is necessary that we always resist the old man, and go out with his works, and put on the new man, who is being renewed to knowledge, according to the image of the one who created him.
6. usury, drunkenness, adultery, murder, death, etc., these can be noticed, and the world also understands that they are sin; but the devil's bride, Ratio, the beautiful harlot, comes in and wants to be wise, and what she says she thinks is the Holy Spirit: who will help? Neither jurist, nor medicus, nor king, nor emperor. For it is the highest whore that the devil has. The other gross sins are seen; but reason can
No one is to judge: she goes along, raving about baptism and the Lord's Supper; she thinks that everything the devil puts into her heart is the Holy Spirit. Therefore Paul says: "As I am an apostle and God has given me the Spirit, so I exhort.
(7) Yea, sayest thou, I am a Christian after all. Behold before thyself: sin is not yet swept clean, nor healed. As when I say unto a young journeyman or a man, That thou shouldest not have thy father's sickness, or thy mother's sickness, is impossible; but if thou follow after lust, thou shalt be a fornicator. Then the gospel exhorts thee, Do it not, follow not evil desire: sin is forgiven, but see that thou abide in grace. The rest of the wickedness that still clings to the flesh is forgiven, but not yet swept clean, as he who fell among the murderers. I am talking about the heat, which is a gross sin and is felt by everyone. If anyone does not follow God's admonition to resist the devil when tempted, the sin is not forgiven.
(8) And what I say of the heat, which is a gross sin, is also to be understood of reason; for it defiles and offends God in spiritual gifts, and has also much more abominable whorish evils than a harlot. An idolater here runs after an idol, who runs after another, as the prophets speak, under a tree, as a whoremonger runs after a lewd woman. That is why the scripture calls idolatry: fornication, wisdom and holiness of reason. How the prophets have been ashamed of the beautiful whoredom, idolatry; it is a game that cannot be easily caught, and foolishness is innate in it, which it considers to be the highest wisdom and righteousness; and yet it cannot be wise in the matters of God. Then we must defend ourselves, as the prophets say: "You shall not serve God on the mountains, or in the valleys, or under the trees, but at Jerusalem, where His word and the place to serve Him have been decreed. Against this, reason says:. It is true that I have been called, circumcised, and commanded to go to Jerusalem; but here is a beautiful meadow, a fine
green mountain: if one instigates a service here, it will please God and all the angels in heaven; is God such a God, who alone lets himself be bound to Jerusalem? Such wisdom of reason the prophets call fornication.
(9) So when we preach of faith, that nothing is to be worshipped but God alone, who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we say in faith: I believe in God the Father Almighty, and in JEsum Christ; so we stay with the temple at Jerusalem. "This is my beloved Son, whom ye shall hear: ye shall find him in the manger, and he alone shall do it. But reason says here the contradiction: "Shall one worship Christ alone? Well, should one not also honor the holy mother of Christ? She is the woman who crushed the serpent's head. Hear us, Mary; for your Son honors you so that he can deny you nothing. Here Bernard has done too much to him in the Gospel, Missus est angelus etc.*) God has commanded to honor the parents; I will call Mariam, who will ask for me the son, and the same the father, who will hear the son. Therefore, the painting is how God is angry, and Christ shows the wounds to the Father, but Mary shows her breasts to Christ. This is what drives the beautiful bride, the wisdom of reason: Mary is the mother of the Lord Christ, indeed, so she will hear Christ; Christ is a strict judge; I will call on St. George, St. Christopher.
(10) No, we are baptized by God's command in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, just as the Jews were circumcised. Therefore, as the Jews throughout the land have worshipped of their own choosing, as if Jerusalem were too close; so have we. Therefore, just as a young man must resist evil desire, an old man must resist avarice; so reason, by nature and kind, is a harmful whore. But she shall not harm me, if I alone resist her. Yes, but she is beautiful, she glitters exceedingly fine? There
are to be preachers, and the people point to the children's faith: I believe in Jesus Christ, not in St. George or St. Christopher! For of Christ alone it is said, "Behold, this is the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world," John 1:39, not of Mary or angels. The Father cries from heaven Matth. 17, 5: "Hear this one", not from Gabriel etc. Therefore I should stay with the infant faith, there I can resist reason when the Anabaptists salivate: Baptism is water, what can it do? Oh, the spirit must do it. Do you hear, you shameful leprous whore, you holy reason, that it is written, "Hear this one," who says, "Go and baptize all the Gentiles: whoever believes and is baptized," Marc. 16:15, 16. It is not water that is bad, but baptism, which is given in the name of the Holy Trinity.
11 Therefore, see that you restrain reason and do not follow its beautiful thoughts; throw dirt in its face so that it becomes ugly. Do you not remember there the mystery of the Holy Trinity, and the blood of Jesus Christ, that you may be washed from your sins? Item, of the Lord's Supper say the enthusiasts, the sacramentarians: What is bread, wine? How can God Almighty give His body in bread? I would that you had to with the back mouth etc. Are so wise that no one can make fools of them: if one had them in a mortar and smashed them with a pestle, foolishness would not depart from them. Reason is and shall be drowned in baptism, and foolish wisdom shall not harm it, but if it hears the Son of God, who says Matt. 26:26, "Receive, this is my body which is given for you"; this bread which is given to you, I say, is my body. When I have such, I trample reason underfoot with its wisdom. Thou cursed whore, wilt thou deceive me, that I should commit fornication with the devil? So reason is purified and made free by the word of the Son of God.
(12) So let us also deal with the mobs, as the prophets dealt with the spiritual harlots, with the idolaters, with the wicked,
who will do better than God does, and shall say to them, I have a bridegroom whom I will hear; thy wisdom is the greatest foolishness etc. This controversy lasts until the last day. This is what St. Paul wants: we are to curb not only the other lusts, but also reason and high wisdom. If fornication offends you, put it to death, and do much more in spiritual fornication. Nothing pleases one so much as philautia when one has his own lust for his wisdom; the lust of the stingy is nothing compared to it. When one's own conceit pleases him heartily, and then brings the beautiful thoughts into writing, that is the devil altogether. This sin is forgiven; but when it reigns in the nature, if it is not yet purified, then one soon loses the right doctrine; then Christ is also gone, and they, the teachers, fall down on the mountain before the devil and worship him, Matth. 4, 9.
Therefore I exhort you," says Paul, "by the grace that God has given me. As if he wanted to say: You still have a stubbornness in you, like other gross sins; therefore consider yourselves before yourselves. Until now you have heard the right truthful word; now beware of your own thoughts and prudence. The devil will kindle the light of reason and bring you from the faith; as happened to the Anabaptists and Sacramentists, and now there are more heretics. I have had before me more than thirty red spirits who wanted to teach me, but I refuted all their things with this saying Matt. 17:5: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him." And with this saying I have preserved myself by God's grace until now; otherwise I would have had to accept thirty faiths.
(14) The heretics seek all sorts of plots, that we may yield to them, relent, concede; but we will not do it with the help of God. So they say: You are proud drops. I will gladly suffer all manner of reproach, but will not depart a finger's breadth from the mouth that saith, "Hear this one." I see
If God does not give us faithful preachers and church servants, then the devil will tear our churches apart through the spirits of the wicked, and he will not let up nor stop until he has finished. That is what he has in mind. If he cannot do it through the pope and emperor, he will do it through those who are still in agreement with us in doctrine. Therefore, it is highly necessary to pray from the heart that God will give us pure teachers. Now we are safe, and we do not see how the prince of this world, through the pope, the emperor and our scholars here, is persecuting us, saying: "What harm is there in slackening this? No, not a hair's breadth shall we slacken. If they want to keep it with us, fine; if they do not want to, let it be. I did not receive the teaching from them, but by divine grace from God. I am well wrought. Therefore, ask God with earnestness to let you keep the word, for it will be terrible. Says the lawyers and the wise men of the court: You are proud, there will be a riot on it etc. May our Lord God help us to resist this dangerous challenge with confidence.
(15) Thou mayest think thyself blessed above others with special gifts, and thank God heartily for them; but not too far; but so far that it may rhyme with faith, and be like faith. If a conceit occurs to you, I will not reject it so much, but allow it to stand; but keep in mind, St. Paul says: "with moderation", do not let it seduce you. How then can I know how far? St. Paul answers: secundum analogiam fidei, that is, so far as it is according to faith. So you are to keep your conceit under restraint, as the evil lusts of the flesh are to be tamed. Conceit is original sin, as when one lusts after a young maiden. What is this? Answer: Thou shalt love the maid in this way, that thou desire her no other way than for a lawful wife; for the sixth part of the law is the sin.
Commandment forbids undue love. There is lust in the corrupt nature, but if you moderate it in this way: I will love the maid, not that I would fornicate with her; for lust has its measure, which is not contrary to the sixth commandment; so that the sixth commandment is the measure according to which lust should go. So here in the infernal fornicating lust: that it is fine gloriously done in the priesthood, thou hast a delight in thy conceit; but hang a shillelagh upon the neck of the lust, make it a measure, that it go not over, but abide under faith, which is supreme over all the gifts that we have, not over conceit alone; it shall all be under faith; much more the beautiful conceit shall not be wiser than faith. See therefore that it rhymes with it and is according to it.
(16) When you hear a devotee of the sacrament who blasphemes: In the sacrament of the altar there is only bread and wine; item: Should Christ, at your word, come down from heaven into your mouth and belly? Well, I like what you say! Has the devil such a beloved bride? But what do you say to me: "This is my beloved Son, whom you hear"; and who says: "This is my body"? Troll with your conceit to the secret chamber; stop, you cursed whore; will you be master of the faith which says that in the Lord's Supper is the true body and the true blood? item, that baptism is not bad water, but water of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. To this faith reason must be subject and obedient. Item, those who say of us that we are proud, we should give way. Are they talking about physical things? No, but of matters of faith. Now therefore it is written, that pride shall please us, except it be contrary to faith, out of which thou shalt not make a servant, nor cast Christ down from heaven.
(17) Paul therefore exhorted us to resist the high and evil lusts, and not only the low and simple. I should hang the word of faith on the neck of the high lusts. Reason, wisdom, do you want me
to a beautiful green mountain, that I may worship God there? I will not do it, but at Jerusalem I will worship God; it is none of my business that one can worship God in another place; but God has forbidden to worship Him under a green tree. I know that God could help through the mother of the Son, but He does not want to help, because only through the Son, Jesus Christ, the Lord, in whom we should place all our trust and hope. God could well say: If you pray a Pater noster to this saint, you shall be saved; but God does not want you to do it, indeed, he has strictly forbidden it. This is the evil calamity that St. Paul is stirring up here, that we should beware not only of the gross lusts, but also of the high lusts, which tear asunder the unity of faith and cause fornication, that is, idolatry.
In the first print from 1549, the following words are still written about the decision:
Furthermore, in another edition of this sermon, so printed at Jena by Thomas Rebart, Anno 1558.
Appendix. Such very many and excellent prophecies of Doctoris Martini blessed, of future falsifications and apostasy of the most distinguished teachers of our churches and especially of those at Wittenberg, have been heard from him by very many people who still testify to it.
But that the Adiaphorists in their next writing blame me, Illyrico, as if I put the new obedience only in loco motivo, or rote works, item, that I mix regeneration with justification, are atrocious lies. Menius in his statement, and almost Eberus of us as well, testify to this contradiction, namely, that we so completely rely on the forgiveness of sins that we completely annul regeneration or sanctification. But soon, God wills, enough of the lying Scriptures.