30. D. Martin Luther's writing "against the antinomians", to D. Caspar Güttel, preacher at Eisleben.*) January 1539.
To the worthy and highly learned Mr. Caspar Güttel, doctor and preacher at Eisleben, my special good friend in Christ.
1. grace and peace in Christ. Dear Doctor! I am well aware that the disputations against the new spirits have long since come to you, who have dared to expel the law of God or the Ten Commandments from the church and to send them to the town hall. I would never have thought of soft spirits that it should occur to a man to be silent, but God warns us through such cases that we should be careful and not imagine the devil to be so far away from us as such safe, insolent spirits presume to be. Truly, with fear, humility and earnest prayer, God must be constantly invoked for help and protection, otherwise it will truly soon happen that the devil will raise a specter before our eyes, so that we will swear that it is the right holy one.
This is how the spirit itself warns us, not only the ancient heretics, but also the examples of our time, which have been and still are great and terrible.
Now I might well have forgotten everything that has hurt me in this, where I could have had peace of mind in the hope that I would have shown and protected myself sufficiently with such disputation; but Satan did not want to suffer that, he always wants to mix me in, as if things are not so bad between me and them. And if I had remained in death in Schmalkalden, I would have had to be called the patron of such spirits forever, because they refer to my books, and yet played all this behind me, without knowledge and against my will, and also did not look at me that they would have shown me a word or letter of it, or would have asked me about such a thing. So I am forced to take M. Johann Agricola to task (about what he learned in the disputation)
*This writing appeared in a single edition at Wittmberg by Joseph Klug in 1539 under the title: "Wider die Antinomer. D. Mar. Luther." Further, in the same year in Nuremberg by Kunea and Hergotin. In the collections: in the Wittenberg (1553), vol. VI, p. 458; in the Jena (1568), vol. VII, p. 285d; in the Altenburg, vol. VII, p. 310; in the Leipzig, vol. XXI, p. 344; in the Erlangen, vol. 32, p. 1 and in De Wette, vol. V, p. 147. We give the text according to the Erlangen edition, which brings the first-mentioned original print, comparing the Wittenberg and Jena editions.
1612 Erl.ss,s-6. 30. Luther's writing "Wider die Antinomer." W. xx, 2018-2018. 1613
more than once, and in front of our doctors, theologians told him everything that had to be cut, because he is such a game beginner and master, so that he had to grasp what he would have done to me and my spirit (which I also consider good).
(3) So he humbly surrendered (as his words and actions showed) and promised to refrain from doing too much and to be like us. So I had to believe this and be satisfied. But as this is still interpreted, yes, also praised (as writings have come from), that D. Martinus and Magister Eisleben were on good terms with each other, I further urged him to let a public contradiction go out by printing, otherwise there would be no council in Eisleben and in the countries around to eradicate such poison. He also willingly surrendered and offered to do so. But because he was concerned that he would not be able to do it in such a way that it would be sufficiently respected, he confronted me with it, and also asked that I do it as I could; he would be well satisfied with it, which I accepted (and hereby want to have done), mostly so that after my death neither Magister Eisleben himself nor anyone else could pretend that I had done nothing to it, and let everything go on like this and be good.
(4) Namely, that he has recanted what Magister Johannes Eisleben has taught or written against the Law or the Ten Commandments, and with us (as we do here in Wittenberg), as well as in Augsburg before the Emperor, he will keep the Confessio and Apologia, and whether he would keep or teach otherwise hereafter, it shall be nothing and condemned. I would have praised him for humbling himself in this way, but since it is obvious that he has been one of my best and closest friends, I will save it for another, so that the matter will not be suspected as if I were not serious. If he remains in such humility, God can and will exalt him; if he rises above it, God can bring him down again.
5 Therefore I ask you, dear Doctor, not to leave such things written to you alone.
1) In the Wittenberg and in the Jena: it would.
but that you announce and show it to all where you can, especially to those who cannot read; for it is also for this reason that it is printed in the day, so that whoever will or can read it may read it, so that it is not written to you alone, because I cannot defend myself against Satan in any other way; he always wants to carry me out in other ways through writings, neither I am nor I hold.
(6) And I am very much surprised how I can be accused of rejecting the Law or the Ten Commandments, when there is so much, and not one, of my interpretation of the Ten Commandments, which are also preached and practiced daily in our churches; (I am silent about the Confession and Apologia) (2) and other books of ours; (3) in addition, two different ways are sung, about which they are also painted, printed, carved, even by the children early in the morning. They are spoken at noon and in the evening, so that I no longer know any way in which they are not practiced, without us (unfortunately!) not practicing them with action and life, nor painting them, as we are obliged to do, and I myself, how old and learned I am, speak them daily like a child from word to word. That if someone had understood something different from my writings, and yet saw and grasped that I was so vehement in my Catechismum, he should have spoken to me and said: "Dear Doctor Luther! How can you be so vehement about the Ten Commandments when your teaching is that they should be rejected? They should have done this, and not secretly dig behind me and wait for my death, then do what they want with me. Well, let them be forgiven who desist from it.
(7) Of course, I have taught, and still teach, that sinners should be provoked to repentance by the preaching or contemplation of the Passion of Christ, so that they may see how great the wrath of God is against sin, that there is no other remedy, except that the Son of God must die for it. Which teaching is not mine, but Saint Bernard's. What is Sanct Bernhard's? It is the sermon of all Christianity, of all prophets and apostles. But how does it follow from this that the law is therefore
2) The brackets are set by us.
3) Erlanger and De Wette: Bucher.
should do away with? I cannot find such a consequence in my Dialectica; I would also like to see and hear the master who could prove it.
(8) When Isaiah says Cap. 53:8: I have smitten him for the sins of my people, beloved, tell me, Christ's suffering is preached here, that he is smitten for our sins; but is the law thrown away by this? What then does "for my people's sin" mean? Does it not mean as much as because my people sinned against my law and did not keep my law? Or can anyone think that sin is something where there is no law? He that putteth away the law must put away the sins also. If he wants to leave sins behind, he must leave the law behind much more. For Rom. 5, 13: Where there is no law, there is no sin [Cap. 4, 15]; where there is no sin, Christ is nothing. For why does he die, if there is neither law nor sin, for which he must die? From this it can be seen that the devil does not mean to take away the law, but Christ, the fulfiller of the law (Matth. 5, 17.).
9 For he knows that Christ can be taken away quickly and easily, but the law is written in the heart, which cannot be taken away, as you can see in the Psalms of lamentation, where the dear saints cannot bear the wrath of God [Ps. 38, 143, 2c.], which can be nothing else than the sensitive preaching of the law in the conscience. And the devil also knows well that it is not possible to take away the law from the hearts, as St. Paul testifies Rom. 2, 14. 15. that the Gentiles, who did not receive the law through Moses and therefore have no law, are nevertheless their law themselves, as they must testify that the work of the law is written in their hearts 2c. But he goes about making the people secure, and teaches them to pay no attention to both law and sin, so that if they are suddenly overtaken with death or an evil conscience, having previously been accustomed to sweet security, they would sink to hell without all counsel, as having nothing else taught 1) in Christ but sweet security,
1) "Taught" here is as much as "learned".
so that such terror would be a sure sign that Christ (who must be sweetness itself) had rejected and forsaken them; this is what the devil seeks and wants.
(10) But it seems to me that such spirits are of the opinion that all those who listen to the sermon are true Christians who are without sin, when they are true sorrowful, miserable hearts that feel their sin and fear God, for which reason they are to be comforted; for such people can never make dear Jesus sweet enough, but they can do it much more, as I have experienced in many (I will keep my own mouth shut). But such spirits are not such Christians themselves, because they are so sure and of good cheer; just as little are their hearers, who are also sure and of good cheer. In one place, a beautiful little girl of the Inn, an excellent singer, sings thus: "He feeds the hungry, that they may rejoice; and he makes the rich to be poor; he brings low the high, and exalts the low; and his mercy is upon them that fear him." [If the Magnificat is otherwise, God must be hostile to the secure spirits who do not fear, just as such spirits must be who take away law and sin.
(11) Therefore I beseech you, my dear doctor, to continue as you have done hitherto in the pure doctrine, and to preach that sinners ought and ought to be provoked to repentance, not only by the sweet grace and suffering of Christ, that he died for us, but also by the terror of the law. For the fact that they pretend that one must preach repentance in one way only, namely that Christ suffered for us, otherwise Christianity would be led astray as to what the right and only way is, is nothing; but one should preach all kinds of ways, as God's providence, promise, punishment, help, and whatever one can, so that we may be brought to repentance, that is, to the knowledge of sins and the law with all the examples of Scripture, as all the prophets, apostles, and St. Paul have done. Paul, Rom. 2, 4: "Do you not know that God's goodness prompts you to repentance?"
12 But I suppose that I would have taught or said that the law should not be taught in the church, as all my writings do.
show otherwise, and from the beginning always pushed the Catechismum: should one therefore cling to me so stiffly, and [not rather] 1) resist myself, if I have always taught much differently, and thus become disparaging of myself, as I have done in the Pope's teaching? For this I will and may boast with truth, that at the present time no pope is a pope with such conscience and earnestness as I have been. For what is papal now is not for the fear of God, as I had to be a poor wretch, but seeks another, as one can well see and they themselves know. I had to learn St. Peter's saying [2.2 ] Epist. 3, 18.]: Crescite in cognitione Domini. So I see no doctor, no concilium nor fathers, if I should distill their books, and make quintam essentiam out of it, that they could have done the crescite in the beginning, and crescite as much as perfectum esse. As a sign, St. Peter himself had to learn his own crescite from St. Paul, Gal. 2, 11, and St. Paul from Christ himself, who had to say to him: Sufficit tibi gratia mea etc. [2 Cor. 12, 9. [2 Cor. 12, 9.]
Dear God, can we not suffer that the Holy Church recognizes herself as a sinner, believes in forgiveness of sins, and asks for forgiveness of sins in the Lord's Prayer? But how does one know what sin is, where the law and conscience are not? [And where will we learn what Christ is, what he has done for us, if we are not to know what the law is (which he fulfills for us), or what sin is, for which he has done enough? And even if we are not allowed to preach the law for ourselves and tear it out of our hearts, which is impossible, we must preach it for Christ's sake (as is done and must be done), so that people may know what he has done and suffered for us. For who could know what Christ suffered for us and why Christ suffered for us, if no one should know what sin or law is? That is why the law must be preached, where
1) Such an insertion seems to us to be commanded here by the sense. Only De Wette has a question mark at the end of this sentence.
2) De Wette has reprinted here from Walch's old edition: 1. Epist.
one wants to preach Christ. Even if one does not want to call the word law, the conscience is nevertheless frightened by the law, when the sermon says that Christ had to fulfill the law for us so dear [Matth. 5, 17. Gal. 3, 13.], why then does one want to do away with it, which cannot be done away with, yes, by doing away it is strengthened all the more? For the law is more terrifying when I hear that Christ, the Son of God, had to bear it for me, neither if it were preached to me apart from Christ and without such great suffering on the part of the Son of God, but only with thieves. For in the Son of God I see, as in fact, the wrath of God, which the law shows me with words and small works.
14 Oh, I should have peace before the mines, it would be enough for the papists. Someone would almost like to say with Job [3, 3] and Jeremiah [20, 14]: "I wish that I had never been born"; so I would almost like to say: I wish that I had not come with my books; I would not ask anything about them, I would suffer that they would all already be destroyed, and such high spirits would sell their writings in all bookstores, as they would like, so that they would be satisfied with the beautiful honor. Again, I do not have to respect myself better than our dear Lord Jesus Christ, who also complains from time to time: "In vain have I labored, and my toil is wasted" [Is. 49,3 ) The devil is Lord in the world, and I myself could never believe that the devil should be Lord and God of the world [Jn. 14, 30. 2 Cor. 4, 4? until I now quite learned that it is also an article of faith: Princeps mundi, deus hujus saeculi. But (praise God!) it remains unbelieved among the children of men, lind I myself also believe weakly; for each one likes his way well, and all hope that the devil is beyond the sea, and God is in our pocket.
(15) But for the sake of the pious who want to be saved, we must live, preach, write, do everything and suffer; otherwise the devils and false brothers will be attacked.
3) De Wette has reprinted here from Walch's old edition: Esa. 66.
If we could see that it would be better not to have preached, written or done anything, but only to have died and been buried soon, for they pervert and blaspheme all things and make a vain mischief out of them, as the devil rides and leads them. It must be fought and suffered; we cannot be better than the dear prophets and apostles who also suffered [Matth. 5, 12].
(16) They conspire to invent a new method, that grace should be preached first, and then the revelation of wrath, so that the word "law" should not be heard or spoken. This is a fine cat's paw, pleases them splendidly well, and they think they want to pull the whole Scripture in and out, and thus become lux munäi. This is what St. Paul should and must give, Rom. 1. But do not see how St. Paul teaches just contrary to sense, first of all showing the wrath of God from heaven, and making all the world sinners and guilty before God; then, when they have become sinners, he teaches them how to obtain grace and become righteous, as the first three chapters show powerfully and clearly. And is this also a strange blindness and foolishness, that they think that revelation of wrath is something else, neither the law, which is not possible, because revelation of wrath is the law, where it is recognized and felt, as Paul says [Rom. 4:15]: Lex iram operatur operatur. Have they not then finely hit it, that they do away with the law, and yet teach it, when they teach the revelation of wrath? But they turn the shoe, and teach us the law according to the gospel, and wrath according to grace. But what shameful errors the devil means by this little cat's paw, I see quite a few of them, but I cannot deal with them this time; also because I hope it will stop, it is not necessary.
It has been a strange hope and presumption that they also want to bring something new and strange to light, so that people should say: I mean, this is a man, he is another Paul; do only those in Wittenberg have to know it all? Yes, certainly a head that seeks its own honor and is confident in its wisdom. For they want the law
and yet teach wrath, which only the law must do. So they do nothing more than throw away these poor letters "law"; but confirm the wrath of God, which is interpreted and understood by these letters, without wanting to turn the neck of St. Paul and put the foremost at the back. Shouldn't this be a high art, before which all the world would have to wonder? But that is enough for now, for I hope that because Magister Eisleben has converted and recanted, the others who have it from him will also desist; God help them, amen.
18. 1) From all this we see, and if we wanted to, we could well understand the histories from the beginning of the church, that it has always been like this, when God's word has gone out, and his people have been read together, the devil has become aware of the light, and has blown against it from all angles, and has blown and stormed with strong great winds, to extinguish such divine light. And whether one or two winds have been controlled or resisted, he has always blown and stormed against the light from one hole to the other, and there has been no cessation nor end, nor will there be before the last day.
(19) I think that I alone have suffered more than twenty tempests and storms blown by the devil. First of all, there was the Pabstthum; yes, I think all the world should know with how many storm winds, bulls and books the devil raged against me through them, how miserably they tore me apart, devoured me and destroyed me, even though I breathed on them a little at times, but that did nothing, except that they became angrier and more furious, blowing and spraying, to this day without ceasing. And since I was almost afraid of such spraying of the devil.
1) The following, from here to the end, of this writing, is used for the spurious preface of D. Martin Luther, vor seinem Abschied gestellet", which first appeared in the 2nd volume of the Wittenberg edition and from there passed into all other editions, with the exception of the Jena edition. The alleged proof in the Erlangen edition, vol. 63, p. 407: "Jen. I,1." is fictitious. In Walch, this section is in the old edition, vol. XIV, 475-480, §§ 1-13.
The devil breaks through another hole for me, through the coiner and the riot, so that he almost blows out the light for me. But when Christ also almost blocked the hole, he tore several panes out of my window through Carlstadt, roaring and hissing, so that I thought he wanted to lead away light, wax and night with each other. But God also helped his wretched lantern here, and kept it from going out. After that the Anabaptists came, 1) pushed open the door and windows (as they thought) to extinguish the light; they made everything dangerous, but did not accomplish their will.
20. Some have also raged against the old teachers, Pabst and Luther, as Servetus, 2) Campanus, and the like; The others, who did not publicly rage in print against me, which poisonous evil scripture and word I personally had to suffer, I will not tell now, but indicate so much that I also had to learn from my own experience (since I did not respect the histories), that the church for the sake of the dear word, yes, for the sake of the happy blessed light, cannot have rest, but must always wait for new and new storms of the devil, as it has happened from the beginning, as you may read in ecclesiastica and tri^artita Historia, also in the holy fathers books.
(21) And if I were to live another hundred years, and had not only laid down the previous and present storms and tempests (by God's grace), but could also lay down all future ones in this way, I can well see that this would not give our descendants peace, because the devil lives and reigns; therefore I also ask for a merciful hour, and no longer desire the being. You, our descendants, also pray, and diligently drive God's word, keep the poor lantern of God, be warned and prepared, as they must wait for all the hour, when the devil may throw out a pane or window, tear open a door or roof, to extinguish the light; for he does not die before the last day. I and you must die, and if
1) Jenaer: Sacramentirer und Wiedertäufer.
2) In the old editions: "Serveto". Michael SerVetus (Lsrvsäs) was burned as a blasphemer in Geneva on October 27, 1533 (on Calvin's charge). Cf. Guericke, Church History (7th ed.] Vol. Ill, p. 697 ff.
we are dead, he nevertheless remains the same as he always was, and cannot cease his storming.
(22) I see there from afar how he blows up his cheeks so violently that he immediately turns red, wants to blow and storm. But as our Lord Christ from the beginning (even in his own person) struck his chubby cheeks with his fist, so that they became like the devil's farts, even though they almost stank; so he will do now and always. For he cannot lie, since he says: "I am with you until the end of the world" [Matth. 28, 20], "and the gates of the cloisters shall not prevail against the church" [Matth. 16, 18], nevertheless we are also commanded to watch, and to keep the light as much as is in us. It is called vigilate; for the devil is called lev rugiens, who goes about and wants to devour, not only in the time of the apostles, when St. Peter spoke such things [1 Petr. 5, 8], but until the end of the world; then we may comply. May God help us, as He helped our forefathers, and will also help our descendants, to praise and honor His divine name forever. For it is not we who can preserve the church; nor was it our forefathers; nor will it be our descendants; but it was, is, and will be He who says, "I am with you to the end of the age," as Heb. 13:8 says, "Jesus Christ et hodie et in saecula," and Revelation 1:4: "He who was, he who is, he who will be." Yes, that is the name of the man, and no other man is called that, nor shall any be called that.
(23) For you and I were nothing a thousand years ago, when yet the church was preserved without us, and he that is called qui erat and hert [Heb. 13:8] must do it. Neither are we now in our lives; for the church is not preserved by us, because we cannot ward off the devil in the pope, mobs, and evil men, and because of this the church before our eyes, and we with it, would have to perish (as we experience daily), if there were not another man who would seemingly preserve both the church and us; that we might grasp it and feel it, if we did not want to believe it, and must let him do it who is called qui est,
and hodie. Likewise, 1) we will do nothing to preserve the church when we are dead; but he will do it who is called: Qui venturus est and: iu saecula. And what we now say of ourselves in this matter, our ancestors also had to say of themselves, as the Psalms and Scriptures testify; and our descendants will also experience it in such a way that they will sing with us and the whole church the 124th Psalm: "If God were not with us this time, Israel shall say" 2c.
(24) It is a pitiful thing that we have so many terrible examples before us of those who have allowed themselves to think that they must hold the church as if the church were founded on them, [who] have so shamefully perished in the end; and yet such cruel judgment of God cannot break nor humble nor defend our pride and iniquity. What has happened to the: Coiners in our time? (will be silent about the old and previous ones) who let himself think that the church could not be without him, that he had to carry and govern it; and recently
1) So the Wittenbergers and the Jenaers. Erlanger: but likewise.
The Anabaptists warned us terribly that we should remember how powerful and close to us the beautiful devil is and how dangerous our pretty thoughts are, that we should look into our hand first, according to Isaiah's advice [Cap. 44, 19], when we undertake something, whether it is God or idol, whether it is gold or glue. But it does not help, but we are safe, without fear and worry, the devil is far from us, and is not in us such flesh, which was in St. Paul, about which he complains, he can not fight him (as he would like to do), but would be caught [Rom. 7, 23.]. But we are the heroes, who* must not be afraid of our flesh and thoughts, but we are vain spirits, and have our flesh together with the devil completely captive, so that everything that occurs to us, or [we] may think, that is certainly and surely the Holy Spirit, how can it be lacking? That is why in the end it goes out so finely that horse and man break their necks. This time enough of such lamentations. May our dear Lord Christ be and remain our dear Lord Christ, praised forever and ever, amen.