Matth. 13, 24-30.
He set before them another similitude, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that sowed good seed in his field. But while the people slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went away. Now when the herb grew and bore fruit, the tares were also found. Then the servants came to the father of the house and said: Lord, did you not sow good seed in your field? where then did the weeds come from? He said to them: The enemy has done this. Then said the servants: Do you want us to go and weed it out? And he said, Nay; lest, when ye sow the tares, ye also pluck up the wheat. Let both grow together until the harvest; and in time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather first the tares, and bind them in bundles to be burned; but gather me the wheat into my sheaves.
(1) The meaning of this parable was indicated and interpreted by the Lord Christ himself in this gospel, for thus says the evangelist: "When Jesus had sent the people away and was coming home, his disciples came to him and said: Teach us the parable of the tares of the field. Jesus answered and said unto them: The Son of man is he that soweth good seed: the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the tares are the children of wickedness; the enemy that soweth them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; the reapers are the angels" etc.
2 Thus the Lord himself has interpreted what the likeness is, therefore we will not do better, but shall and will remain with the interpretation of the Lord Christ, namely, that the field is the world; the Son of man the Lord who sows; the good seed the children of the kingdom; and so on. This is so much to say that the holy Christian church has had evil men with it from the beginning of the world and also to the end (as he calls the harvest), and cannot get rid of them, and that therefore in this life on earth the pious and the evil will always be mixed together.
(3) Now that one should be right and proper in this is no small art, prudence, and wisdom; for even in ancient times many things have been done in this way.
There have been and still are many heretics who want to have such a church, in which there are no evil ones, but all are wise, pious, holy and pure. Such people were the Cathars and Donatists, and still today the Anabaptists, Coiners and the like, who wanted to kill and exterminate everything that was not holy; and especially the monks, ran away from the world, left their offices and parishes, and crawled into corners, so that they might be holy, serve God, pray, fast and not lead such an evil life as the world leads. This error has always been strong in the world, that the heretics want to have such a church, where there is no evil, and of course all pious hearts are troubled and saddened by it, as it is said here about the servants of the father of the house, where they see the weeds springing up and taking over, and would like it to be right everywhere, and nothing but pure good wheat to be seen. But the text says much differently here.
(4) Adam, who had the first church on earth among his two sons, also thought that his church should be completely clean and that there should be no weeds in it; but before he knew it, Cain went and strangled his brother Abel. This was an evil weed and a sharp thorny thistle. Noah also, when he had received eight in the flood and remained, thought he now had a beautiful pure church; so his son Ham went to it and mocked his father and set up his own mob against him. Thus it is found throughout the Scriptures that this has been the case from the beginning, and we must confess that no church has been so pure and holy; it has had some wicked ones among it. Abraham had Ishmael in his house, Isaac Esau, Jacob also had among his sons wicked enough. And who are we then, that will so rule, that there shall be no tares and no uncleanness among us?
5 St. Augustine also had much to do and struggle with against the Donatists, who also took it upon themselves to establish such a church, and thus separated themselves from the common Christian church, which nevertheless had the doctrine and custom of the sacraments pure. For if one were to be so segregated
If you want to have it clean and pure, you make it much worse. Christ himself and the apostles had to suffer and tolerate Judaism among themselves. And it has commonly happened that the purest monks have been the worst of boys, not to mention that they have lost the gospel; so they have also been the worst of whoremongers in their outward life. This was because they wanted to be pure and help the world through their purity, begging the world for their sweat and blood.
Therefore we must also let Judam remain among the apostles and let bad boys be in the right church. Summa, it remains that where God builds a fine, pure church, the devil soon builds a chapel next to it. This is what the Gospel says, that where the father of the house has sown good seed, the enemy comes and sows his weeds among them. So that one should not be frightened when I myself was frightened a long time ago, when I began to preach God's word purely; and yet from our school there came afterward Anabaptists, Sacramentarians, Antinomians and other red spirits. But I could do nothing about it, for I knew that the seed was right and good; but before I could see, the devil had crept in with it and thrown other seed among the good seed: he makes such various sects and fanaticism; for he wants to have bad things to do in the church, as he wanted to be with men in the beginning in paradise, and so is always, as Job 1:6 says, among the children of God.
(7) So we must suffer that he will come to us everywhere and make himself among us: here with Jews, Turks, Spaniards, there with the pope's and other mobs; all of them want to be with us and to throw down our church: we do or say what we want, so the devil will be with us, as he was with Job. He throws his house into a heap, kills his sons and daughters, afflicts his body with evil sores and pus, and also hardens his heart and conscience with fear and dread of God's punishment; his wife also begins to curse him. And while this life lasts, it is not different, it is like this in the beginning.
and so remains until the last day.
(8) But now here is the mastery, how to do the things, when we see and know such things, and cannot prevent nor occur? The servants of the father of the house think to advise the matter and say: "Lord, do you want us to go and weed it out? But the father of the house answers them, "No, not so, lest you also weed out the good wheat with the tares." What is this? How can one tolerate and suffer the heretics, and yet not suffer? How shall I send myself into it? If I pull up or weed out the weeds in one place, I damage the other grain, and yet they grow again in the other. Thus, even if I uproot one heretic, the same seed sown by the devil will grow up again in ten places, for the devil seeks to destroy the wheat with the weeds and other weeds. How then shall I do him justice? St. Paul Tit. 3, 10. says: Haereticum devita: "You shall avoid a heretic." There is the text: Put him under ban and have nothing to do with him. But how do you want to bring this together, not to put him under ban and let him grow and still avoid him? Here Räther advises well. But in order that it may be understood more clearly, I will give an analogy.
(9) We Christians are all like the natural body of man, which, being on earth, is never clean, neither inwardly nor outwardly. Inwardly it is unclean, for there it is full of snot, filth, boils, pus, dung, filth and stink. Outwardly he is mangy, grindish, lousy and shabby, has dripping buttery eyes and ears, and the longer he lives, the less beautiful and pure there is in him. Although we know that in that life the Christian's body will become beautiful and pure, and much clearer and purer than it is now in the bright sun, for it must first completely discard this filth and impurity and therefore decompose, so that it becomes spiritually and physically completely pure, otherwise God will not have it in heaven.
(10) Though the body of man be ugly, gross, nasty, and unclean, yet we must have the filthy sack.
and cannot do without it; for without it we could not live, nor raise children, nor keep house, nor govern, etc.; must therefore bear the stinking unclean belly as long as life lasts, and the keeping and governing of the world be preserved, until all children are begotten and men are born, from whom God gathers His Christian church to eternal life. And there is no one here so foolish and foolish as to throw away his body or its members, or to hate it, or to harm it, even if it is unclean and impure, but he nurtures and cares for it, says St. Paul; and the more it is infirm, the more it is cared for. The more he is infirm, the more he is cared for, and where he lacks something, the feet run and the hands grasp, and gladly want to help him: if he has a sore, one seeks counsel, so that the sore may be cured or ever warded off; if he begins to fester and fester, one cleanses and purifies him, but in such a way that one does no harm to the unclean limb; if he cannot cast out, one needs an apothecary and all kinds of medicine, so that he may only cleanse himself and cast out.
11. And summa, even if the body is the healthiest, it still cannot be pure; it must cast out, spit, snot, and always carry and sweep itself with its filth, and still remains a scratchy, grimy, stinking body, which cannot be taken out of it, nor can it be defended against, because one would want to spoil it; Until the hour comes when it is laid under the ground and buried, and the worms and maggots get their right to it and consume the filth until it becomes completely new and clean. Nevertheless, one must drag oneself along with it and let it remain so, and not cut off a limb and throw it away because it is unhealthy, addicted, even unfit and corrupt; but if one can no longer help it, one nevertheless carries it and has patience with it, unless it becomes so bad that it can no longer remain in the body, but is completely rotten and dead, separates itself and wants to corrupt the other members as well.
(12) Spiritually a man (even if he is a Christian) is also unclean in this life, for he is not yet without sin, even though he has sinned.
sins and is sanctified by the Holy Spirit. How does this rhyme? Answer: We sing in our faith, and it is true, of the Holy Spirit, who keeps all Christianity on earth in one sense, that all sins are forgiven here etc. We have as a sign and strengthening of such faith Holy Baptism, the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, and Absolution, so that there is no doubt that if we believe, all sins are forgiven, and are therefore righteous, healthy and pure before God through such faith. But nevertheless, all Christians have and feel many other impurities and impure things about themselves, such as that they do not hear God's word so gladly, nor believe and confess so strongly, nor call so fervently, nor perform God's commandment as they should; and go with them the longer they live, as one is wont to say: the older, the worse; the longer, the worse. And summa, there is no one here without some infirmity and weakness, which is ever unclean and sinful, so that it would also be condemnable if it were not forgiven. Which we also feel much more and stronger than that which is good and pure in us; and is therefore our great daily complaint, that we cannot get rid of the sinful body, but must drag and carry ourselves with it to the pit.
How should a Christian do this if he feels his impurity and sinful nature in himself? He cannot put it away all at once and must suffer it without daily correcting it as much as he can; but must not therefore despair of himself, or consider himself condemned and rejected before God, nor cease to exercise his faith and correction, but always continue with faith, appealing, correcting his own weakness and fighting against it, until such time as such a change takes place in his sinful body that the sin ceases from him altogether.
(14) Now it is ever a wonderful thing about a Christian, of which it is said, and is true, that in baptism he was so highly graced by God, since he was under the terrible wrath, on account of sins, and eternal death, and the power of the devil, that he gave him his word and promise of salvation; and so highly loved, that he gave him his
sent his only begotten Son from heaven and made a poor man for him, and paid for his sin and divine wrath with his own blood and death, and made him his own with all his merit and power, and sanctified him with his Holy Spirit; and summa, adopted him as a child and heir in eternal life, and made him Lord of heaven over death, the devil and hell etc. Now when a Christian hears such things, that God's Son comes to us from heaven, preached to us, and given Himself to us, should he not, if he believed it rightly and completely, be frozen and raptured with joy? For who can sufficiently explain or comprehend how great and excellent a thing it is that God's Son has become our flesh and blood and is our own? Yes, the angels in heaven cannot marvel enough that God loved us poor lost people so highly and showed such unspeakable kindness to us that He Himself became a man, spoke with us, lived among us, died for us on the cross etc.
(15) Now, if someone asked you: "Dear, do you also believe that the Son of God, the eternal Almighty Majesty, came down from heaven for your sake, bore God's wrath for you, and died for your sin? should it certainly be true? then you must say, if you want to answer rightly and truthfully, how you feel that you must be horrified by it, and confess that you cannot believe it so certainly and undoubtedly, nor will it go into your heart as you hear about it; and yet you must say as a Christian: It is the truth, and I know that it is certainly God's word, and my dear Lord has left me so many signs behind him, such as the venerable sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, as well as absolution, since God himself speaks to me, baptizes me, feeds me, and lays his hands on my head, and absolves me from sins and from his wrath; But I see and feel, unfortunately, that it does not go to my heart, nor do I believe as I should.
For if you felt such faith so strongly and surely when you heard the absolution spoken, you could not go from the priest undanced for great joy. So also
In the sacrament of the altar, when the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is given to you, you should also run and jump for joy, and people should crowd around, because they hear the Lord Jesus Christ Himself speaking there.
(17) But because we have it before our eyes and hear it at the door every day, it goes in at one ear and out at the other. When you go to the sacrament, you go there and away as a stick, or let other people go to it and stay away. So you also hear God's word with such devotion; and that God's Son died for you, as if you were told that the Turk had slain the Sultan, or that the Emperor had captured the King of France, or some other tale; you do not think that it concerns you, but are quite cold, do not set your heart on fire, do not ask anything about your soul or eternal life.
(18) This is what the rough and wild people do, who do not ask God anything; and we, the best Christians, do the same. We cannot have the joy nor bring it into the heart, as we would like to. It does not want to go into the heart, marrow and leg, does not taste and live, does not comfort and delight us, as it should. That is the fault of the old Adam and our sinful nature; the sin that is still in us forces me and you not to believe it.
19 Therefore St. Peter 2 Ep. 3, 18. says: Crescite in gratia et agnitione Domini nostri et Salvatoris Jesu Christi: "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christi. Therefore, Christians, do not think that we have learned and believed the catechism, Christ, the sacraments, baptism, and absolution; but that you have only begun and are still very young disciples. Therefore, think that you may increase and grow, and learn for yourselves what is Christ, who died for your sake, so that these things may not remain on the tongue as foam or saliva, but may penetrate and go into the heart, so that they may make you confident and joyful.
(20) For the life of Christians ought to be full of joy and gladness, but there are few who truly experience joy; although the Christians (though they have the greater part of it) have not experienced it.
(The first two are not weak), but sometimes have a taste of it, by which they overcome sins and the terrors of death, and yet some examples of such joy are seen; as one reads of St. Monica, St. Augustine's mother, that when she once went to the reverend Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, she came into such deep thought, contemplating the grace and good deeds of the Lord Christ, that she thought she was even above the earth, and cried aloud: Let us go fully up to heaven. There have been many more such Christians, including young virgins, than St. Agatha, who went to the dungeon as cheerfully as if she were being led to a dance. Well, dear Agatha, can you call that going to the dance, when you are thrown into prison and led to death? Such people are the Christians who become so cheerful that they also despise and defy the devil against his terror and raving. St. Vincent, when he lay on burning coals and was roasted for the sake of the Lord Christ, said that he felt as if he were walking on roses.
These are true examples of a fine, firm, strong faith, in which the word becomes so powerful and the teaching of the gospel so mighty that they become completely drunk with the teaching that the Son of God came down to earth and became man. But even the great saints do not always feel such joy and strength, and the rest of us, because of our unbelief, cannot attain such high comfort and power; for we follow the original sin, the evil grind that is still in our flesh, too closely, and even though we would like to believe, hear and read God's word with pleasure, we cannot bring it up as high as we should.
The others, as the pope and his high schools, which are vain tares, run far away, God's word becomes to them like a rotten wood, they also condemn it to the ground and call it heresy. How long have those of Louvain and Cologne dealt with it, until they now publicly come out and condemn the Christian doctrine of faith as heresy, drive and incite emperors and kings to persecute us; when we teach nothing but God's word, and but-
The main thing is that he gave his son for us. Oh, that has gone far enough. This is done by all the sects and cults, and there are almost as many of them among us who are weary and tired of God's word: It is as if a donkey were preaching to a sow; they begin to despise it, and even to rage against it, if it offends them a little, seeking only their own pleasure, thalers, money and goods, eating and drinking, that is their preaching; but to hear the word of God and to go to the sacrament is disgusting to them; and they think they are highly burdened, when they should see to it and do something about it, that the churches are well ordered and the magisterium is preserved.
But St. Peter admonishes us, who love God's word and would like to be without sin, 2 Ep. 3, 18.That we should grow and increase in the knowledge of Christ; which happens when we hear God's word the longer and go to the sacrament, and gain the desire to do God's commandment, which means: Crescite in agnitione Dei et Christi: "Grow in the knowledge of God"; do not think that you have already grasped or studied it. Just as St. Paul speaks of himself in Phil. 3:12: "I do not think that I have grasped it, but I hasten to grasp it, just as Christ has grasped me"; for in this life we will never learn it.
(24) How then do we do unto him? sayest thou, .our sins are forgiven us; as also the children pray in the Christian faith: I believe in the Holy Spirit, a holy Christian church, the congregation of the saints, forgiveness of sins etc.; so we also sing that all sins are forgiven here: where then remain so many sins in me, if they are to be forgiven? if sin is in me, how then can I be righteous before God and pleasing to Him? how shall I send myself into it? Answer: God forgives sin so that it is not imputed to us and no longer condemns us; as David Ps. 32:2 says: Beati, quorum remissae sunt iniquitates: "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity." But it does not follow that you are without sin because it has already been forgiven.
for you do not yet feel a hearty desire to be obedient to God, to go to the sacrament, to hear God's word. But do you think that this is not a sin or a child's play? What God does to you with His Word, Sacrament and Baptism tastes like rotten wood to you.
25. He accepts you through his word, sacrament, absolution, if you believe in Christ, and tells you your sins are forgiven: But the lesson he puts on you is that you recognize your own weakness and impurity, which is still in your flesh and blood, and complain to God about it and ask for forgiveness daily, and also fight against yourself without ceasing, and do not let the sinful inclinations and lusts take hold, nor follow them against your conscience, and thus always weaken and curb the sin in yourself; For not only shall sins be forgiven, but also at last they shall be swept away and purged; so that even your stinking, filthy body shall not enter heaven, unless it has first been cleansed and made beautiful. Therefore we must work and make every effort so that our bodies do not remain stuck in filth, stink and sins, but prepare ourselves here daily so that they may become different, just as this will happen in the grave. Thus it is done for the Christian life, that it should daily increase and grow in faith and spirit; for it will not be perfect in this life, otherwise we must not take such admonition of St. Peter, that we should always increase in the knowledge of Christ.
26. Therefore you should know that your sins are not forgiven in such a way that you should be sure and snore as if you no longer had any, or that you would like to say: "Well, now I will sin confidently, the sins are taken away, they cannot condemn me; no, but rather you should say: Dear God, you have forgiven my sins out of causeless grace; help me also that I may henceforth delight in your Word and Sacrament, praise and glorify you and your Son with gratitude, that your name may be sanctified through me, that your kingdom may come to me, and that your will may be done in me; so that I may also come there, and I may be a
I hope that you will become a happy person, doing and suffering everything with love and pleasure, as the holy martyrs were, who did not ask anything about death, the devil and hell.
(27) Therefore our sins are not forgiven us, because we would do what we pleased; but thus it is written in Revelation 22:11: Qui justificatur, justificetur adhuc magis: "Let him who is pious be more pious, and let him who is holy be more holy. But let him who is evil be evil, and let him who is unclean be unclean" etc. Summa, our thing is not called: we have attained it, but it is promised to us and given to us in the word, and we have it now in faith, but not in the whole complete life and feeling. Therefore we must continue to strive and work, so that not sin, but faith and its fruits grow and increase in us; as St. Paul also says Rom. 6:6: "Knowing that our old man together with Christ is crucified, that the body of sin may cease, that we henceforth serve not sin." The inward new man in us is not completed in an hour, but is to grow stronger day by day. Therefore, a Christian must not be lazy, nor think that he has everything, but must grow and increase etc.
(28) Thus we have heard how we are to send ourselves to have our sins forgiven, so that they may not condemn us nor be imputed to us, provided you resist them, and learn most diligently to pray the Lord's Prayer, to understand the faith, the Ten Commandments, the sacraments, and baptism, and the longer the stronger you become; and it is therefore to be done that you exercise your faith with resistance to the remaining sins in you, and thus understand the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer the longer the better. If today you are patient, humble, gentle, and believe, tomorrow you will be even stronger, more humble, more patient, and believe more. But if I have heard about the faith, the Ten Commandments, baptism and the sacrament, and I go there, certain that I know everything and that I should no longer learn, practice or argue, I do nothing more, but deceive myself with false conceit; for there can be no seriousness or justice in this.
faith. I am not speaking now of the pious, who also feel sin, but, as I said, resist it; but of those who already have a disgust for the holy word of God; the church has many such disciples, who are hostile to the word and persecute it, and yet may boast: Yes, I am a Christian; just as the tares, of which Christ says here, stand among the good grain, and also boast and boast of the same, that they stand in the good field.
29 Therefore we hear that God, for the sake of sin, wants to train us in the Ten Commandments, faith, Our Father, so that we will accept and remember to live by them. He wants you to honor your father and mother, not to kill, not to deceive, misrepresent, lie to, or speak evil of your neighbor. Practice this, and take your faith and prayer to help you; then you will have enough to learn, not only to tell this with your mouth, but also to follow it with life and deed; that you may do this with joy and gladness, and suffer for it, as the martyrs gladly went to the torture, calling fiery coals roses.
(30) Now this we Christians understand, that in our body there is filth, sin and impurity, and yet God esteems us pure, who have begun to believe in Christ; and that we should always continue to believe more, and immediately be astonished and say: Heavenly Father, is it true, shall I believe that you sent your Son into the world and gave him to me, that he had to become man for me and shed his blood? Oh yes, there is no doubt about it; so that I say further: "Well, I will thank God for this all my life, praise and glorify Him, and now I will no longer steal, usurp, be stingy, or be a proud, envious person. But if I go there raw, and hear God's word about his son, as if the emperor had struck the king of France, it does me no good; for as I said, if you believe that God has sent you his son, the longer you do, the more cheerful you will become, and, like a fruitful tree, the longer the more beautiful blossoms will grow from it.
31 Behold, this is our teaching on how to
The first thing we are to do is to deal with our own uncleanness and sin, which has recently been called, "Believe in Jesus Christ and your sins will be forgiven; then resist sin, resist it, fight it, do not let it do what is pleasing to it, do not attack or deceive your neighbor, but be kind and helpful to him; if your flesh will not do it, let the Holy Spirit do it. So also thou shalt leave thy neighbor his wife and child. If therefore the flesh will not leave off its wickedness, thou must resist and ward it off by faith and by the Spirit. If thou seest that thy neighbor's land and goods are better than thine, thou shalt not seek how thou mayest get them, but let the Spirit contend here, saying, I will have thee out, covetousness, envy, hatred; I feel that thou art wicked, thou wouldst gladly avenge thyself, be covetous, etc., but thou needest not do it, and shouldst thou have misfortune.
32 Thus St. Paul teaches in many words, Romans 5, 6 and 7, that sin should not reign in our body, it should be dead and nothing. For therefore it is forgiven, that it should no longer be master, but servant, and should not be able to do harm; but that you should be master, and say to the body: Thou stinkest, and art full of filthiness and evil, envy, hatred, revengefulness, and wicked lust; but thou shalt and must be chained for a while, and be obedient to the Spirit without thy thanks; thou filthiness, thou needest not create anything here, the Spirit is master in the house here, he also shall have the upper hand, and keep thee in check with thy lusts, yea, even crucify and curb them. For thus saith St. Paul Rom. 8:13, "Wherefore by the spirit of the flesh ye kill business, and live."
(33) By this example, you can understand how to stand against the tares called false doctrine, or the sects and false Christians, of which this gospel says. For this is the way it is in the church: we cannot avoid having evil men among us, such as heretics, sects, and cults; for though one is cut off, yet the evil spirit stirs up others. How then shall I do to him? I should exterminate them and yet not strike them dead. The pope with his papists and Jews lead the way.
even the name, as if they were Christians, ruling and teaching also in the church, and yet are enemies of Christ and the real tares: I would gladly be rid of them; Lord, shall I pluck them up and root them out? No, it is not in your power, nor in the power of any man, nor can you bring about such a separation on earth, so that the wheat is separated from the tares in a pure state, that is, sects, heretics and false Christians from the righteous; and even if you would subject yourself to this, you would not do anything, but also root out those who are still to be converted and belong to the good wheat.
How then shall I do to him? Do as the grain does here, let it grow for a while. Only see that you remain master in your regiment. You must protect and control preachers, pastors and listeners, so that they do not rule or reign, the heretics and rebels, as Muenzer was. They may murmur in the corners, but as far as you are concerned, you shall not let them come onto the little wood, onto the preaching chair and to the altar. There is no other way to defend against them, for where I would cut off one by force, two of them would grow up against it. Therefore you must act against them in such a way that you defend yourself against them by word and faith; do not let them take away your pure faith, confession and Christian life, nor stop them; admonish and punish them as much as you can; if it does not help, put them under public ban, so that everyone knows to keep them as noxious weeds and to avoid them. And summa, as I say to my body: Dear Squire, you would like to steal, whore, take revenge etc.I cannot prevent you from grumbling, for it is in my nature; but nevertheless you do not have to put it into practice; so you heretic too, you may grumble at home in the corner, you shall not come to the little wood, as much as I can prevent; or you must suffer that I and all right Christians contradict you publicly, and thus let you go; as St. Paul says to Tito Cap. 3, 10: "Avoid a heretical man, when you have admonished him once or twice."
35 This is the right way for us to separate from them. For with human
We cannot eradicate them by force and power, nor can we make them different; for they are often far superior to us in this, soon make a following for themselves, draw the crowd to themselves, and have on their side the prince of the world, the devil, who has sown them among the right grain. And they are like the beautiful thistles that stand among the grain with their brown heads and have a much more beautiful appearance than the grain; they have fine green leaves, beautiful brown heads, grow, blossom and glow like a beautiful flower, are red, beautiful and strong; whereas the dear grain has no beautiful form, but stands in the field all pale and yellow; that whoever does not know both, would swear an oath, because the thistles stand in the good field and in the middle of the grain, and grow so thick and wide that they often suppress the grain, they must be very good useful flowers and herbs; but they are only evil thistles with thorns, of no use to anyone, and where one only attacks them, they prick one's hands. Thistles are thistles and remain thistles, and nothing can be done about them until the reaper comes upon them and cuts them down, and throws them into the pool or makes a wreath for the devil out of them: the grain alone remains master in the house.
(36) Therefore, we cannot eradicate all the wicked, for even some of the deceived are often restored. And if we wanted to weed them all out purely, we would not weed them out without harming others. Therefore we must suffer them, but not so that they rule over us, and as we cannot avoid sin altogether, only that we should not let them rule. We cannot completely ward off avarice in old people, nor evil desire and love in the young, so deep is it in the flesh and blood; yet we should not let it reign, but it should be at our feet. Therefore we should practice God's commandment and take the Lord's Prayer as our help, until I take hold of the Lord Christ and he becomes the joy of my heart.
(37) Therefore, even if we cannot convert the pope and other ungodly men and mobs, let us prevent them so that they do not have to rule in the church among us. The
The Lord also wants to indicate with this, since he says: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear", Matth. 13, 9., Luc. 8, 8. that we are wise here and stay with God's word, hear it gladly and do not let it be falsified, and what is not according to it, avoid and flee; for there are many such thistles that want to be pure, but if they put the old rogue into a cap for a hundred years, he still remains as he was, and the longer the worse he gets.
38 How should I do to him? Should I let him go? No, neither to this side nor that; resist him, do not strike him dead, but fight with him, as St. Paul says in Romans 6:12: "Let not sin reign in your mortal body," that is, let you be master, not your sin; for therefore your sins are forgiven you, that you may fight against them, and keep the field, not doing the will of the flesh. When I see another man's wife, money and goods, I like them well: then shall I soon say, I hear thee well, thou vile flesh, but thou knockest again, nor mustest do what thou wouldest; for it is said, I shall love God with all my heart, that his name may be hallowed and honored. So also do against others who set up mobs or sects, or pretend something that is not according to the right doctrine: there also the Spirit shall oppose by pure doctrine and confession of the same, that we may not be deprived of it, and also preserve others in it. Thus we are and remain righteous, pure saints and the right good wheat, even though we must suffer and allow to remain among us those who are nothing but noxious weeds, radishes and thistles condemned to the fire, who neither want to hear nor understand God's word, nor live according to it; as now the papacy with its papists and sophists, colognes and lions, and other devil's thistleheads.
In the secular regime, too, there is great infidelity among citizens and peasants. The kings, princes and lords would like to control and prevent this evil, but they are unable to do so. There is often a knave in the court or in a city council who leads the city to noticeable ruin and does much damage; and whether one
Even if one would like to be rid of him, he has become so entangled that one cannot put him down without great harm, or must look at something else, for which one suffers him, because one cannot otherwise improve it: but one must nevertheless ward him off, so that he does not continue to do harm with his wiles. One could soon control him by pushing him out of the council or out of office; but to avoid greater harm, one must have patience; this cannot be otherwise in great regiments, where there is great help.
40 Thus a prince or lord often has a wicked subject, citizen or peasant, who does him much harm; but if he wanted to attack him and punish him, he arouses indignation and the like. Therefore the prince must say, "I would have resented this, but I must tolerate and suffer the small harm for the sake of greater harm; for he knows that he has the sword from God to punish evil; but for the sake of trouble and to prevent greater harm, he must tolerate the small harm of the evil people, at least for a time. It is the same in the household: a father must often lend a son a bill, or the master and wife must overlook something for the servant and the maid, so that they do not make it worse, and let the punishment pass for the sake of a greater evil.
(41) So also the heathen have said that one must suffer a wicked knave in the regiment, and bear a tyrannical king and wicked ruler, lest one should offend heroes.
They say, therefore, that for the sake of worldly rule and dominion it is the same as for the sake of a man's body, which has two or three swarms. What is to be done for him? Shall they be cut off, that they may be rid of them, and that evil may come away? Nay, for by so doing thou shalt destroy and kill the whole body; but let them stand and fester until his time. In the same way it is in the worldly and domestic government: where one cannot get rid of the wicked without harm and damage, one must tolerate them until his time.
* And it is therefore decreed that in the Christian church the beautiful thistles and weeds must be mingled with the good grain; but so that the pulpit and sacrament may remain pure, or each Christian may remain there for his own person. Just as a prince or lord suffers an unfaithful and wicked subject, but that he does not seize his reign or want to be lord of the land; for a pious prince should not and cannot suffer this. And just as a father tolerates his unruly son for a time, so that he is not master in the house, nor wants to have the upper hand in estates and push the father out of the estates, but that the father nevertheless remains master. So in the church government one must also suffer and tolerate the wicked, only that the doctrine may be kept pure. We cannot make it as pure as the doves have chosen it, until the last day, when it will be pure, and the tares will be cut off and burned forever.