[First Sermon.]
Of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ.
Preface Martini Luther.
1. Although I know that my letter is now lost among the papists, and is completely in vain, because they gave themselves to the devil after this Diet, or just as Satan went into Judah after the holy morsel of bread, and possessed him completely, so also now, after all our high and faithful admonition, pleading and request, Satan has gone into the papists and possessed them completely, so that they are hardened, and can now no longer hear nor suffer God's word or work: Nevertheless I will not cease or be silent, but will cry out and cry to my grave, and shall cry no more, but cry trembling and murder over the hardened wicked, and with me exhort all that can cry out, at last also stone and wood, until our crying up in heaven compels our faithful Saviour and righteous Judge to descend and see how poor Lot fare in this shameful Sodoma.
(2) And as they ask nothing after our writing, supplications, entreaties, cries, and shouts, but always continue: so will I also, together with mine, ask nothing after their raging and tumulting, but also always continue and confidently cry out; will see who is the first to grow weary, or the last to cease. Perhaps God will continue
That over that they are spiritually mad and senseless, they may also be possessed bodily, and so become thoroughly mad and foolish according to their merit, amen.
(3) For we have the advantage that our cry is not without our great benefit, and their raging is not without their great harm, and our benefit is many. First, that God's name and His word are honored, as with a proper service and sacrifice of thanksgiving that pleases Him. Secondly, that God's word may be the more abundantly (according to the teachings of St. Paul) practiced among us, so that many may be instructed, strengthened in the faith and admonished.
Thus it also serves that the papists are overwhelmed with the multitude of divine testimonies, and are incessantly accused before God, and are finally disgraced before the world, so that they can have all the less excuse, and are condemned all the deeper into the abyss of hell, and also perish all the sooner. For because they force us to such cries with their rage, it will not be long with them, God cannot suffer such cries for long. I know this for certain, as Christ says Luc. 18, 7. 8.: "Should God not save His elect, who day and night
1) "before" is missing in the Erlanger.
*M. Alexius Croßner was Canonicus at Altenburg and court preacher of Duke Georg. On June 8, 1527, he preached a sermon on John 6:55 of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ at the Schlöffe in Dresden, and on June 29, 1527, he preached a sermon on the Holy Christian Church. He had to leave Dresden. In 1531 he had these two sermons printed and dedicated them to Duke George, but not exactly as he had preached them, but increased and improved. Luther wrote a special preface to each of these sermons. The first appeared under the title: "Ein Sermon vom Hochwirdigen heiligen Sacrament, des leibs vnd bluts Christi, durch Alexium Crosner von Colditz auff dem Schlos zu Dresden jnn Meisten gepredigt. With a preface by Mart. Luther. Wittemberg H).XXXI." 8 quarto sheets. At the end: "Gedruckt zu Wittemberg durch Hans Lufft. M.D.XXXI." The second sermon is entitled: "A Sermon of the Holy Christian Churches by Alexium Crosner" etc., as above. In the collections, the prefaces are found: in the Wittenberg (1569), vol. IX, p. 549 d; in the Jena (1566), vol. V, p. 321 d; in the Altenburg, vol. V, p. 581; in the Leipzig, vol. XXII, appendix, p. 100; and in the Erlangen, vol. 63, p. 296.
cry out to him? Yes, I tell you, he will save them in a short time."
5 It is read in the book of Joseph that at the time Jerusalem was besieged by the Romans, and they remained obdurate and unrepentant, as our Papists are now, a man was found running about in the city and on the walls, crying out, Woe, woe, woe to thee, Jerusalem! and no one could make him speak nor keep him silent; they brought him before the lords and had him beaten, but it was no use. He cried out in unison until he was shot on the wall. So we must also cry out against our hardened enemies of God and murderers of Christians, the papists, as long as we live, until the judge comes, and brings with him the hammer and mace, that 1) he may break such iron hard heads of the desperate wicked.
For this reason, these two sermons by Alexis have pleased me well, and I would rather have them printed than a murderous cry against the papists, who now, as nonsensical rabid people, profess at the same time that it is right to administer and receive both forms of the Sacrament, and yet, out of wanton, right malice, and no other cause, forbid, blaspheme, and persecute such right, and in addition, with all kinds of sins against the Holy Spirit, without ceasing, profane and defy God to the highest degree.
(7) And I do not let them go out because the damned enemies of God should be convinced or overcome with it. For they know it themselves, and confess it themselves, that they are overcome, and that our cause is right, especially in this article; much less that I would admonish them with it, or move them to concede and relent in such an article. Such humility and mercy toward them is over. I have now done this for ten years and more, for too much enough. The devil begs them again to grant it. And the devil also thanks them for letting us have it. We have it, and we want it, and we do not want to look at them, but because of this I want to publicly accuse them before God and the world, cry out and expose them, so that they will be disgraced and mocked forever, as those who, out of devilish malice and with unheard-of iniquity, have violated God's word.
1) Erlanger: da.
(which they profess to be God's word and order) knowingly condemn, blaspheme and forbid, so that our descendants may know what devilish people lived in our time and what horrible, monstrous beasts we had to deal with. Otherwise, perhaps no one among our descendants would believe that such great wickedness could have existed on earth. For I myself could not believe that such wickedness would come into a human heart that could say: This is God's word, I know it well, yet I will not suffer it, but condemn and blaspheme it, only because I do not want it.
8 These two sermons also help to strengthen our people. For the more witnesses of the truth there are, the better they strengthen the faith of the weak, and ward off the counterclaims and poisonous fables. For I hear that now in Halle some cryers pretend that there is no danger; if they are obedient to the authorities and use one figure, they do not sin. One must be obedient to the authorities.
The wretched evil-doers, who before our letter never knew anything about obedience to the authorities, but tore all authorities to pieces and trampled them underfoot, now cry out from our teaching: one should be obedient to the authorities. They have already forgotten, even disregard, where they brought the poor man, D. Krausen, 2) with such poisonous speech; the shameful murderers of souls and bloodhounds wanted to increase and multiply such terrible examples.
10. God does not give us much authority in this. It is said that all authority here shall be called lowliness. All majesty here shall be lowliness. Let all the world shut its mouth. For God the Most High speaks here, it is His word that we act upon, but one must be more obedient to God than to men (Apost. 5, 29.]. And it does not help that we are obedient to the authorities, where we thereby become disobedient to God. He has already made the judgment, Matth. 15, 8. 9.: "This people honors me in vain with commandments and doctrines of men." What will he judge about those who do not serve him with human commandments and teachings alone, but set their human commandments and teachings against and above his divine commandments and teachings?
2) For v. Krause, see Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. IX, 262, note.
They condemn his words and his order, which he himself instituted for his worship, so that their anti-Christian and anti-godly service might continue.
(11) Therefore, let every man watch and beware of such poisonous mouths, and let the example of D. Krausen be to him a greater terror and dread than the terror and dread of his furious tyrant. For with D. Krausen's example God himself, who lives eternally, dreads and terrifies. But with the commandments of men, tyrants, who are nothing but water bubbles and dead lice bellies, soon have to leave, as Isa. 8, 12. says: "Do not be afraid of their terror." And again [Isa. 51:12]: Why are you afraid of a man who dies?
12) But if anyone would let himself be overthrown, and his devil's head, that is, his furious authority, would become willing, he should watch and still beware of false repentance and penance. Krausen. For God does not want them.
and is much worse than sin, for which he repents and atones. God does not want the death of the sinner, nor does He want those who have fallen to be rejected [Ezek. 18, 32. 33, 11.] It is enough if one recognizes his sin and repents of it. Let those repent and atone who defend their sin, and after they have defiled God and His word, still want to be right and pious in it. It is a much, much greater sin to force people to willfully sin against God than to sin against God out of fear. The latter is a papal and episcopal sin, but this is a human sin. Nevertheless, one should not sin for the sake of man, much less sin on the mercy of God, as some crude, impudent souls do.
God, our Father, grant that these two sermons may well comfort and strengthen the pious, and may well cry out the papists, and bring them to all shame before God and the world, amen.
[Second Sermon.]
From the Holy Christian Church.
The papists have introduced a new article in the faith, which is called: We clergy are the holy Christian church, and paint ourselves as sitting in a ship, and the other Christians as swimming in the sea and rising. All their buildings are based on this, with their teachings and life, and they conclude that they cannot be mistaken, but that what they teach and do is vain law and the article of the Christian faith. For the Christian church is so holy that it cannot err, neither in life nor in doctrine. So surely the Holy Spirit governs it. When the article was in his power and ruled, they did well; what they wanted had to be right or wrong, as we have experienced at times, and unfortunately all too often; and if it were to be proven even today, we would have to let go and do whatever they wanted.
(2) But now the fruits of the clergy, both with doctrines and life, are so bright in the day that they themselves must confess, and do confess, that it is not holy, but harmful, worse, and worse.
It is not a bad thing, and may not be appropriate for the holy Christian church. Therefore, it is necessary to recognize what the holy Christian church is. If it is the clergy with their mobs, then the devil has won, and we both, God and His Word, have lost. For, even if they are most blatantly wrong, who will accuse them of error or judge them? If God's word is taken against them, they can say: We may not err, we are the holy church, and therefore all error must be considered holy, free and unpunished.
(3) From this it must follow that their avarice, fornication, and other vices must be vain virtues. For where thou wouldest say, In some things and manifest vices, which are contrary to the word of God, they may well be reproved, judged, and punished; but fornication with the sixth commandment, and with the sayings of St. Paul; that endureth and accomplisheth nothing. For since they publicly condemn the one form of the sacrament against the word of God, and condemn
They want to be unjudged and unpunished with such God's word, but say that the church cannot err in this, even if it does against God's word, and have the intercession of the Holy Spirit against it.
(4) Let them then act against such a great, high article of the sacrament, and say: We cannot err, the Holy Spirit governs us thus, as rather a priest may have a fence against the lesser commandment of God, and say: I cannot err, the Holy Spirit governs me thus. But if they cannot do this in a minor article, how can they do it in such a major article?
For this reason I have let this sermon of M. Alexii go out, so that everyone may see or learn from now on what the holy Christian church is called and what it is. Where this is well recognized, one has a great, comforting protection against all false teaching. For of course this must be true: that the Christian church is holy, and may not err in the faith, because with Christ it is One Body and One Spirit. But here, truly, one must also diligently notice and know what is meant by holy, and what is meant by error in the faith. For even today our papists teach us no other holiness than that which is in us and is attained by works, although here a sharp and certain distinction must be kept between holiness by works and holiness in the church, and between faith and works or life.
6 For this must be confessed, that the church has not become, nor can become, the holy church by works or merit, what
Would Christ with his death otherwise be necessary or useful to us? Thus, the holy church cannot be without error and sin even for the sake of life, otherwise it would have to lie and mock God when it asks in the Lord's Prayer: "Forgive us our trespasses" [Luc. 11, 4]. And Christ himself would also have to lie, since he calls his dear apostles, who were holy: "You are wicked and without understanding etc. [And there can be no saint who does not have to pray the Lord's Prayer; and the Church altogether, if it is the holiest, must also pray it. Behold, the papists have never thought of such things, and make vain saints of works in heaven, and among so many legends of the saints there is not one that describes a saint who would have been holy according to Christian holiness, or according to the holiness of the faith. All their holiness is that they prayed a lot, fasted, worked, chastised, lay hard and dressed. What kind of holiness even a dog and a sow can practice every day.
(7) Therefore we must speak differently of the matter, and know that the Christian church is holy, not in itself, especially in this life, but in Christ; and is a sanctification of grace, begun here and accomplished in that world. But in itself it is not yet holy, as St. Paul to the Romans Cap. 6 and 8 clearly teaches of all Christians. But you will find further meaning in this sermon. God help us all to stay with the pure truth until the end; praise and thanks be to Him for eternity, Amen.