Translated from Latin.
Another [disputation] of the same content with the previous one, against Satan and his school, written by the venerable father D. Martin Luther.
1. justification or forgiveness of sins must be attached to faith (in Christ) for the sake of Christ alone, Rom. 3. and Gal. 2. 3.
2 For it [faith] is "the knowledge of salvation, which is in the forgiveness of sins," as Zechariah says Luc. 1:77.
(3) Everything that does not come from this faith is sin, John 15, Romans 14, just as it is said, "All things are possible to him who believes.
(4) The sophists teach that unformed faith can persist in mortal sins and doubt the forgiveness of sin; that is, in effect, denying Christ.
5 From this it follows that this unformed faith is not of faith, but is a mere unbelief against Christ.
Yes, it is a poem, and a very petty idol of the heart of those who do not know what they are talking about, or what they claim to be talking about.
7 The divine promise, however, is not accepted by a vain, unbelieving and idolatrous heart, since it works a true knowledge of God in the believer.
8 Therefore, it is impossible for the promise of God to be accepted or believed with an unformed faith.
(9) Also, faith in Christ is not the work of man, but the gift of the Holy Spirit; but unformed faith is the thought or imagination of man, that is, not faith.
10) Similarly, the infused belief is also an empty dream and nothing real, but only a completely invented name, like the chimera 1) and hircocervus. 2)
(11) It is pretended in vain that unformed faith gains form through love and in this way makes one righteous.
12. for love does not approve, much less fashion an idol, lie and poem of men, much less form such, but rather destroys [them].
1) Cf. Walch, St. Louis Edition, vol. XVIII. 21, note.
2) i.e. half goat, half deer. Should not perhaps HippoeeMaurus be meant?
*) This disputation is found in the Latin Wittenberg edition, Dom. I, toi. 411; in the Jena (1579), Dom. I, toi. 527k and in the Erlangen, oxx. var. urZ., vol. IV, p. 456. We have translated according to the Jena.
1474 L- V. a. IV, 457.466. X. Luther's writings on the law and faith 2c. W. XIX, 1789-1791. 1475
(13) What else does this mean, that love shapes unformed faith, but that love makes lies to be truth, and something void to be the thing itself?
14. these incomprehensible (barbarae) words of the sophists: the unformed faith, the pleasing grace 2c. must be removed from the school.
15 For they are taken from the philosophy of reason, which is not able to grasp and teach that which is of Christ and His Spirit.
(16) Yes, they are also unholy, vain words, which only make the Christian truth dark, and cannot be understood by teachers or listeners.
17. divine things must be spoken of in the sound, holy, sober words of the Holy Spirit, which are taught in the Scriptures.
18. lest what happened to us through the teaching of the sophists should happen to us, namely what Nehem. 13:24 says: "They spoke according to the language of each people."
19. it was truly not an unshaped faith when Daniel was kept alive unharmed among the lions, as it is said [Dan. 6, 23.]: "because he trusted in his God".
20. the faith of Susanna was not an unformed faith, of whom it is written that her heart put its trust in the Lord. [Hist. of Susanna and Daniel, v. 60.]
21 Also David has Goliath by this unworthy and unbelieving thought,
as the unformed faith is, not beaten to the ground.
(22) True faith is something real in the heart, that is, it is a firm and certain trust in God, who has promised mercy and help.
23 Peter's faith was almost 1) an unformed faith, since Christ said to him, "You of little faith, why do you doubt?" [Matt. 14:31.]
24 But this faith or doubt of Peter was something much greater than the unformed faith.
(25) The former is called little faith, but the latter is sin and unbelief, and utter wickedness of the human heart.
In short, one argues with the school theologians in vain about such things that are unknown and unusual to them.
It is impossible that they should understand what sin, promise, faith, justification, imputation, law and its fulfillment are.
28. There is nothing about this in their books, but about repentance, atonement and the works that earn the grace of God through human powers.
They know nothing of original sin, even deny it after baptism, and speak only of original sins.
30 To want to deal with theology in such ignorance is no different than a donkey wanting to play a lute.
1) We have taken "almost" from Walch's old edition; Walch thus seems to have read lere instead of vere in the editions, which does not fit into the context.