Probably from the first quarter of the year 1518.
Löscher supplements the beginning of this paper with the
Question: Whether one must despair in sins? and gives as an answer the
Sentence (conclusio): One need not despair in tribulations nor in sins.
The following is translated from the Weimar edition:
Just as impatience, consternation, and sadness are not really and primarily
arises from the multitude of afflictions and adversities, or from the loss of any goods, but rather from a movement of mind which abhors such things and foolishly seeks much happiness and glory: so also despair and spiritual sadness, or the consternation of one's conscience, arises not from the multitude of sins, but rather from the multitude and number of the sins and adversities.
*) About the manuscript from which this writing is taken, time of writing and so on, the necessary information is given in the first note to No. 1 in this volume.
good works or from the love of one's own righteousness, which abhors sin but foolishly seeks its own righteousness.
The first is clear from what the prophet says [Ps. 5:12]: "Let all who trust in you rejoice and be glad in you," namely, all who are believers in Christ share in the sufferings of Christ and have plenty of them. The wicked also have sufferings, but they do not trust in God; only those who know that one must rejoice and be glad do not grieve over the sufferings because of this wisdom of theirs, nor do they become upset or impatient over them, and have no desire for happiness, well-being, and honor. Those who do not know and do not want to know that one must rejoice and be glad in God, become sorrowful, upset and impatient, not because misfortune and affliction come, but because when it comes, they do not set their minds on God, but on happiness and good fortune; therefore they flee and yet cannot escape, because they do not flee what is to be fled. Thus it is said in Isa. 30, 15. 16.: "By being still and hoping you would be strong; but you will not and say, No, but on horses we will flee; therefore you will be fugitives and be put to flight, and your persecutors will overtake you." Therefore, this affliction is caused by the mind's desire for joy and glory; if it did not cling to it so much, it would consider the affliction nothing.
The second is equally clear, because many and great sinners have become blessed, who would not have become blessed if the multitude of sins had caused despair; but the disordered mind looks back, and [man] desires good in himself at the time of despair, in order to oppose it to the sins that oppress him; and if he then does not find the same, since he does not know that one must flee to the mercy of God, he necessarily despairs. So the unhappy conscience dies and, hurrying to God's judgment, says to itself and disputes with itself: O, who would have done much good now! Oh, who would not have done evil now! Who would have remained pure all the time!
These words are so full of foolishness that none can be greater. What else do they testify but that he does not trust in God but in good works? Because he says that he will and can trust more confidently and cheerfully when he has a multitude of good works and righteousness. For if one trusts in God because of good works, then one trusts more in good works than in God; and what can there be more terrible and ungodly than this? Such do not say [Ps. 5:8], "But I will go into thy house upon thy great goodness," 2c; but, "Upon my great righteousness." For if thou didst or wouldest trust in God only because thou didst or wouldest do good, trust so much more when thou hast done sin and evil, lest it be said to us [Luc. 8:13.], "They believe in thee as long as thou doest good to them, but in time of temptation they fall away." For thus those who have great good and honor suppose themselves to be joyful in GOtte, but they trust more in their own good and honor, as the temptation proves.
It is a terrible wrath to fear, and especially dangerous in our time, because so many who live holy and pious lives think that they trust in God in the strongest possible way, and yet, unconsciously to themselves, they rather trust in their holiness, as the hour of death will prove when they come into the judgment of God, and therefore die all the more confidently, because they are conscious of a good life and trust in God in this. It happens to them as it does to one who wants to set his foot on a log floating in the water; suddenly he falls into the depths: so also the works of those, when they are examined in the judgment of God, will be found to be terrible sins, because they trusted in them and did not, as completely naked [sinners], quite sincerely give glory to the mercy of God. Therefore, just as impatience in well-doing is a nullity, so also the confidence found in merit is a nullity, and just as it is useless to have patience in well-doing, so also it is useless to have confidence in merit. For the essence of patience is that
34 L.V.Ä. 1,238-240. . I. Against the semipelagian school theologians. W. XVIII, 25-29. 35
it is only present in misfortune: so it is also the nature of trust that it is only present in sins, when otherwise the inestimable mercy of God, in order to share Himself with us and to take away our trust [in ourselves], has given the law, which has decided everything under sin, in order to have mercy on all [Rom. 11, 32.]. For where there is no law, there is no sin; where there is no sin, there is no mercy; where there is no mercy, there is no trust; and where there is no trust, there is no salvation. And so the power of sin is the law, but the power of the law is mercy, but the power of mercy is trust, but the power of trust is salvation, but the power of salvation is God through Jesus Christ, For the law works sin, but mercy works and fulfills the law, but trust works mercy, salvation works trust, but God works salvation and everything.
Addition (corollarium).
So it is also in temporal things; for the temporal goods are given to us by God so that through them we may learn to honor, love and trust in God more; through corruption of our minds it happens that we serve and trust in God more heavily and less, yes, we seek God, serve Him, trust in Him more easily and more in misfortune than in prosperity. So it is also in spiritual things that the goods of grace and merits are given by God, so that we may be taught thereby to trust more and more in God; and behold, through the infirmity of our mind, which imagines something about this, it happens that one trusts more heavily and less in Him, yes, does not trust in Him at all, but that it is easier and safer to trust in God in sins than in good and merits. And just as it is dangerous when a person trusts in the good
is left because he does not learn to love God, or yet learns to do so very rarely and with difficulty: so also here it is dangerous if a person is left in great grace and merit until his death, for he will hardly or only very hardly learn to trust in God; indeed, without the Spirit not at all.
But lest anyone should take offense at these words, [I add]: One interjects: consequently one must sin and refrain from good, or, as was objected to the apostle [Rom. 3:8]: "Let us do evil, that good may come of it." For when we speak in this way, it seems as if we were giving permission to sin and forbidding good as harmful to salvation. Therefore I answer this, so that this may be rightly understood: Good works are not forbidden, indeed, they are most strongly advised in these words; but only this very carnal mind of ours, which trusts in these works and not in the mere mercy of God, is to be instructed, so that it may know that true hope is nothing but an infused power. With all our good works and efforts, we must seek to obtain such hope from God that we may become worthy of mercy, not that, when we have done these works, we should immediately presume that we have hope in our possession, but that we should know that we must always strive and seek for it. For this is why sin exists, that in sins we may be able to hope; but we may do good works as we please, but we must acknowledge that we are always in sins. But where a good life is not led, it is indeed difficult, but still more difficult for others. Therefore prayer alone remains, so that despair may be overcome on both sides, and hope may fall neither on the left nor on the right, "though a thousand fall on the left, and ten thousand on the right." [Ps. 91:7.]