From the Ella's Frick German Seckendorf, p. 2628, in Walch, Vol. XXI, 300*.
We have been distressed and upset at most for important reasons that the venerable, our father and preceptor, D. Martinus, has been taken away from this church and school, since the whole of Christendom would still have needed him. We are now orphans, abandoned and lonely. Our sorrow is also increased by the fact that Your Electoral Grace, the world's curiosity, has not yet been satisfied. Grace, imagining the world's curiosity and malice according to their high intellect, will take this case very much to heart. But we must obey the will of God and cling to the consolation given to us by our Savior, the Son of God, when he said: "I will not leave you orphans. Item: "I am with you always, to the end of the age." We rely on this, and want to pray diligently that the Son of God will govern His little ship Himself, and protect it by the grace of Your Lordship, and equip it with divine counsel. We also give thanks for Your Lordship's care for the Christian Church, as witnessed by this congregation and university, and for his command that we do our work diligently. We confess that this is a great burden, greater than we might confess; yet we recognize ourselves bound to it, according to Paul's reminder: "Keep what is entrusted to you," 1 Tim. 6, 20. D. Martinus has ever left us a beautiful supplement and jewel, namely the pure understanding of Christian doctrine. We would like to pass this on to the descendants without darkness, and ask for God's grace and the Holy Spirit for this. We know that unity, humility and patience are necessary for this, and we encourage ourselves and others who live in churches and schools to do so, and with God's
grace to compose our work in such a way that none of us may give cause for unrest. But this is a great matter, which is primarily in the hands of God, whom we therefore implore with fervent supplication to assist and govern us for the sake of Jesus Christ and His glory.
XXVII D. Augustin Schürft program on the corpse of the blessed Luther. 21 Feb. 1546.
Printed in the scriptis public. Witteberg, tom. I.,
litter. v. 6; in des Fabricius Centifol. Lutheran. , part. II, p. 949; in C. G. Hofmann, memor, secular. etc., p. 49 and in Corp. Ref. German in Walch, vol. XXI, 301*.
Rector of the Academie Augustin Schurs, D.
There is no doubt that the venerable man, D. Martin Luther, our dear father and teacher, was awakened by God to purify the preaching of the Gospel and to show the Son of God how God sometimes sent faithful teachers out of great mercy and through them again brought forth the light of the Gospel and dispelled the darknesses. Such divine good deeds are to be recognized, to thank God for them, and to love these messengers of God. As the children of Heth say to Abraham: "You are in truth a prince of God among us," so also D. Martin Luther has truly been a prince of God among us. Therefore we should mourn his departure and ask the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, to graciously preserve this church of his. Since his funeral is to be held today and perhaps immediately after noon (for we do not yet know the actual hour, but the signal will be given with the small bell when to gather), we hereby order all students to assemble on the marketplace and there await the venerable D. (Pomeranian), pastor of our church, to follow him immediately and to receive with him the corpse, which has been and will be a tabernacle of the Holy Spirit.
When they do so, they should remember the benefits that God has bestowed on the church through this teacher and thank him for them. For it is certain that he has explained the doctrine of repentance, truthful invocation of God and right worship in a Christian way, since it had previously been corrupted with nasty, ugly, false and pagan opinions. And although this doctrine is held in low esteem by the greatest multitude, it is nevertheless
truly that pearl which the Son of God prefers to all treasures. Let us also fervently call upon God not to extinguish the light of His Gospel, and let us earnestly amend our lives, lest the angry God unleash His wrath upon us.
Duke Stillico often said of Ambrosio that if Ambrosius died, Welsh land would perish; and this prophecy came true. For after Ambrosius' death the Goths and Vandals devastated Italy everywhere. So let us remember that the death of this teacher of ours signifies punishments which God wants to mitigate. February 21, Anno 1546.
XXVIII. Luther's funeral sermon by M. Michael Cölius, delivered at Eisleben on February 20, 1546.
Printed in the Altenburg edition, vol. VIII, p. 853; in the Leipzig edition, vol. XXI, p. 699; in Walch, vol. XXI, 303*; in Cyriacus Spangenberg, Predigten des Cölius, 1565, p. 226 and in C. G. Hofmann, I. c. S. 140.
1. since we have come together today, by God's command and by the well-established ancient custom of the holy Christian Church, at the corpse of the venerable and highly esteemed Mr. Martin Luther, blessedly departed in God: so that we may have the opportunity to lament such a fatal departure from our hearts, and in turn also to console ourselves, let us take before us, at the beginning of this sermon or sermon, the saying of Ezaiah, since the prophet thus says in the 56th chapter:
The righteous perish, and there is no one to take it to heart; and holy men are taken up, and no one heeds. For the righteous are taken away from calamity, and they that have walked rightly before them come to peace, and rest in their chambers.
2) These words I have thus taken before me for the entrance of this sermon, as I have heard, not that I want to give the sense or opinion of the prophet, who in these and the next words describes the false and righteous teachers of the church, who they are, what is their quality, action, essence and end, as namely: the false and unrighteous teachers, says the prophet, that they are guardians, that is, they sit in the ordinary office of the church, as also nowadays the pope, his cardinals, bishops, monks, and so on.
Nachlese, No. XXVIII.
W. XXI, 304*-307*.
They are blind watchmen who know nothing, have no understanding of the Scriptures, nor the mystery of the Holy Gospel, and are dumb dogs who cannot punish, are lazy, like to lie down and sleep, but are nevertheless strong dogs of the flesh who can never be satisfied, stingy and scavenging all the world's goods, from which they live in pleasure and finally have the hellish fire to reward them.
(3) But the sincere and righteous teachers, one of whom was our dear Lord and Father in Christ, Martin Luther, are true ones, that is, those who have truly known God in His Word and teach and preach the righteousness of faith that is valid before God, along with the good works that He has commanded. And these do not have many good days in the world, which do not rest until they perish and are raised up. But then, the prophet curses, they come to peace, and rest in their chambers. But let us leave this, and this time, as we have heard above, so that we may take care of the departure of this corpse, and, as Paul leaves us to do to the Thessalonians, mourn, but may also again comfort them in a Christian way; so I will only show what kind of man and teacher D. Martinus was, how and why he has now fallen asleep in the Lord at this time, and what his doings and being are now until the day of the Lord.
(4) When one wants to describe and praise a man in the world, one says what honest race he is, who his ancestors are, what his status, dignity and character are, what good virtue and morals he has had, how he has used them, and how he has resolved his end. And whoever has a good name in this is a great gift from God, especially when it is used properly, and it is right to thank God for it.
5. And although much could be said about this noble man, that he and his family might have the name and origin of Emperor Luther 1), or else, as it happens with the families in the world, that they rise and fall in reputation; as also David's tribe had fallen in Christ's time, that Esaias compares him to an old dry block (Ploch); and now this lineage of our dear Lord and Father is also no longer in great esteem, but nevertheless this town of Eisleben and the whole Mansfeld country know that he was born in wedlock of honest, pious parents here in Eisleben, and was baptized as a Christian, and after half a year the same parents baptized him.
1) This is: Emperor Lothar.
His parents were brought up in Mansfeld, where they spent the greater part of their lives in honor, who also ended their lives there, and both father and mother, like him, the dear man of God, also in my hands, with blessed confession of their faith and invocation of the divine name, have fallen asleep in the Lord, whom God blesses forever.
(6) He could also be praised for many of his good virtues. For he loved and kept temperance and discipline, of which no one can truthfully say otherwise; but of these and others I will let others, who are more able to speak and write, say, and for this time alone indicate his office, to which he was called by God, which he led in the church, and what the holy Christian church had in him, to remind you a little of your love.
Let no one who knows and loves God's word and truth doubt that this man, whose blessed corpse we still see before our eyes, held the office in the church in his time that was once held by Elijah and Jeremiah, John the Baptist, or the apostle. For although these were gifted by God with some special gifts before him, as far as the ministry is concerned, he is truly an Elijah or Jeremiah in our time, and before the great day of the Lord, John the Forerunner, or an apostle.
(8) For it must ever be said (whoever wants to confess the truth) that it was just in the church that God raised up and called this man to his office, as it was in the days of Elijah, Jeremiah, John, and when the apostles were sent forth by God to preach. The Scripture says in 1 Kings 18 that in the time of the prophet Elijah all Israel had fallen away from God, and one served this God and the other served a different God. The true God had no more than one prophet, Baal had 450 of them. So the prophets of the grove who ate from the table of Jeshabel were also four hundred.
9 So also in the time of Jeremiah God complains about His people in chapter 2, vv. 7-9, and says: "You have made My inheritance an abomination, the priests do not remember, where is the Lord? And the scholars pay no attention to me, and the shepherds lead the people away from me, and the prophets prophesy of Baal, and hang on to useless idols. I must always reproach myself with you, and with your children's children, saith the Lord.
2) Thus set by us. Walch offers: "which is [perhaps once] in his time Elijah" etc.
Nachlese, No. XXVIII.
W. XXI, 307*-310*.
(10) The state of the church at the time of John the Baptist is clear from the New Testament, that although after the Babylonian prison idolatry was not established as it had been before, the people were divided into sects, and were Essaeans, Pharisees and Sadducees, each wanting to be better than the other, each relying on his own good life, and as the prophet says, worshipping the work of their own hands. The prophet Jeremiah cried out and lamented about this. But Elijah killed all the Baalite priests in one day; John called them serpents and viper-bred, and with a high spirit they reached into all idolatrous beings, overthrew them, and again directed them to the pure doctrine of repentance and forgiveness of sins, and taught them what righteous worship was.
11. So, my dear friends, as touched above, it has also unfortunately been in the holy Christian church now and in the last days under the papist Antichrist, where all error, heresy, sects and idolatry have flowed together into one basic soup and abomination, there has been no right understanding of the Holy Scriptures, no pure doctrine has been preached for the consolation of consciences, human statutes have been held above God's Word, no one has known how to call upon God, how to turn to Him in need, what to do, or how to serve Him, darkness has covered the whole earth, no light has shone in the Church; in sum, as the prophet Ezekiel says in 34. Cap, V. 5. 6. "The sheep have strayed as in a wilderness on all the mountains, where there is no shepherd." And also as Esaias says in 53: "Each one has gone his own way," but God's way, which the Scriptures teach, and Christ is the Son of God, no one has gone, and the damage is greater than anyone can achieve with words.
12. For just as in the time of Elijah not God but Baal was invoked, and in the time of John the Baptist everything was full of sects, and one wanted to take precedence over the other, so the deceased saints were invoked, even wood and stones, and as is known in our Mansfeld country, "the willow stick", which they called Gedut, and "the good Lutzen", which is supposed to be a dead dog, and consolation and help were sought from them, as also happened in other countries; and the strong pillars of the antichristian church, the wretched theologians at Louvain, still want to confirm and maintain in their articles.
(13) Thus it can be seen from the strange and peculiar sects that in John's day there were
It was child's play compared to the latest abomination of the monks and nuns, cardinals, bishops, and all the spiritual crowd, 1) since no one kept it with the other, each sect raised its own God, its own works, rules, and orders, by which they wanted to be saved, and faith in Jesus Christ was a bad thing with them; one had to have much higher and greater things for salvation than the dear Son of God taught.
14 Thus, unfortunately, it has been in the church, as it is yet to be proven by the fact that the pope reigns, as long as God has awakened the great man before his great day, who in our time was a true Elijah and John. For as Elias attacked and put down idolatry in his time, so Doctor Martin Luther also attacked and put down the mighty idol of papal indulgences. And as Elijah killed the priests of Baal, so the man of God with the sword of divine word overthrew the missal priests and their idol.
15. On the other hand, he, like John the Holy Baptist, taught Christian and righteous repentance, and preached how and by what means one comes to a right knowledge of sin, by what means one obtains forgiveness of it, what righteous fruits of repentance are, how one should serve and call upon God, what ranks are ordained by God, what each one should do in his rank, and in sum, the Holy Scriptures, which before were a closed and sealed book, God has opened through him, so that since the time of the apostles they have not been read with such understanding as they are now.
For now we have a proper distinction between the Law and the Gospel, what each is, what it does, how one should use it for salvation, what good works are, how they please God, why one should practice them, and what follows from them by God's promise. And this understanding was also quite strange and precious to the dear fathers, as Hieronymo, Cypriano, Tertulliano and others, but for several hundred years it completely decayed under the papacy, so that one could not have a constant consolation of consciences in temptation and mortal distress. When the monks were with dying people and were supposed to comfort them, they consecrated them to Mariam. For then they sang to the people and said: Mary, mater gratiae, mater misericordiae, tu nos ab hoste protege, in hora mortis suscipe; that is: Mary, you who are a mother of grace and of all mercy, save us.
1) "Haufens" put by us instead of: "Kaufens".
Nachlese, No. XXVIII.
W. XXI, 310*-313*.
from our enemies, and receive us in the hour of death; or have they pointed to other saints, their orders, and good works, which the dear saints never desired, and the consciences having no constant cause to comfort themselves, have at last died in despair of their sins.
17) But now we have a certain and true reason to live and die on the Son of God, Jesus Christ, our dear Lord and Savior, singing with dear Simeon: Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domius &c. "With peace and joy I go, in God's will" etc. Item, we say with dear Stephaneo: "Lord JEsu, receive my spirit to yourself", Apost. 7, 58. and we know with Saint Paul that "whether we live or die, we are the Lord's", Rom. 14, 8.
18. Yes, but who taught us this blessed art, and showed us the reason why all hellish gates are powerless against it, that out of cross and suffering must come comfort and joy, out of death a fine, gentle and safe sleep, as can be seen in our people under the holy gospel, praise to God, in so many, both young and old, but especially, as we shall hear, in this man of God, that no fear of death is flushed in them 1) and some go to death with heartfelt desire and invocation of God's name, and with joy?
19 Admittedly, we do not get this art from the pope, who would rather that we die on his letters of indulgence and grace and thus perish eternally, but only that he, together with his own, would lead a gentle epicurean life in dignity and wealth. The bishops do not teach this either. For they neither preach nor visit the sick. Thus the monks would much rather bury us in their monk's caps and in their orders than that we die to Christ; because of them we would not find the right way to eternal life.
20 Therefore we have to thank God, the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who through His Holy Spirit, out of causeless grace and mercy, has enlightened and awakened this faithful servant of His, who with all diligence and faithfulness preached the Son of God through the Gospel, as the one who crushes the head of the old serpent, that is, saves him from the devil and his power, and says to death: "Death, where is your sting? Hell, where is your victory? But the sting of death is sin, but the strength
1) "them" put by us instead of: "him".
of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ"; this is what the man taught, and from it believers take courage against sin, death, hell and the devil.
21 Well, the man who in our times walked in the spirit and power of Elijah, who was also a forerunner before the last day, a true John, is now gone by his last departure, and we shall see him no more before the end of the world. Therefore we also, like Elisha, the prophet, lament: "My father, my father, chariot Israel and his deputies", and with the disciples of John bury him with all honors Christianly to the earth. But we should also not refrain from reaching with Elisha for the mantle of this Elijah, which are his books, which he wrote by inspiration of God's Spirit and left behind him, so that we might also receive his spirit from them. For even though he died in the body, he lives according to his spirit, and in his books, he will also, God willing, be dead with his writings after his death, just as he was his pestilence while alive: and so may we now hold to the same books, hold them dear and valuable, which point us to the holy Scriptures, and thank God for them. And this shall be said as far as the first part is concerned, namely, what Doctor Martin Luther was, and what he is to be regarded and held for, as he was in our time of Elijah and John; not a common preacher, like me and my peers, but a high and excellent man, through whom God has again purified His Church and graced it with pure doctrine and true worship.
22 Secondly, we also want to say and hear how he died. For he has not yet been buried, nor has he been dead more than one day, and it seems to me that there are already people who, driven by the evil spirit, say that he was found dead in bed. Now I have no doubt that he, who is a liar from the beginning, will devise many more and swifter lies. For he is no longer concerned about Doctor Luther, whom God has torn out of his teeth, he can no longer do anything with him; but he is now concerned about the doctrine, which he would like to harm and destroy. But so that we may meet him and protect the faithful from lies, I, as one who was with him for three weeks, day and night, at his last departure, will report the truth of his departure here in God's stead and before God.
Dear friends, Doctor Martinus did not begin to die only last night, but for longer than a whole year he has always died, that is, with thoughts of death, preached of death, talked of death, written of death; as I wrote the day before, before he decided his end, many comforting sayings from his Psalter, which he recorded there, to comfort himself with it. 1) He often called upon God and asked Him to take him out of this evil world the sooner, because he was tired and weary of this life. He also asked, where it pleased God, that he would not have to agonize long on the deathbed; so he also felt like an old worn-out, weak man; therefore he often said: I will not live much longer. And especially shortly before his end he spoke the words: If the pope or my adversaries got hold of me and wanted to do me much harm, I am too weak, I would soon die in their hands.
24 Thus, as he was well prepared for death everywhere, God graciously heard his prayers and sighs, and as he was having his supper, and here in Eisleben he went out of the large room into the small room on February 17 at eight o'clock, and according to his habit lay in the window to do his prayer, he did not last long, began to complain how his chest was almost sore; as if he were being rubbed with warm cloths. He was also given a drink of scraped unicorn and wine, so that he would feel better, and when he lay down in his resting bed, he spoke to Doctor Jonas and me, who were waiting for him: Why don't we want to lie down? But we answered that it was proper for us to wait for him now.
25. Then he got up, lamented nothing in particular, and went into the chamber to his bed, and when he crossed the threshold, he said: In manus tuas commendo tibi spiritum meum, redemisti me, Domine, Deus veritatis, that is: "Into thy hands I commend my spirit, thou hast redeemed me, O faithful God"; and so he lay down in bed, bidding us good night, and said, Doctor Jonah and Mr. Michel, pray for our Lord God, that it may go well with his cause, and with the holy Gospel. For those at Trent in the Concilio do not mean well for him.
26 So he fell asleep again, and of course, as could not be otherwise noted, rested until the
1) The meaning is: Cölius wrote down sayings from Luther's Psalter, which Luther had marked to comfort himself with.
Seiger struck one after midnight. Then he woke up and called to his famulo to warm up the room for him; but when it was already warm, he got up, got out of bed and said: O Doctor Jonah, I am in pain, worry, I will now stay in Eisleben. And with that he went back into the parlor. And when he crossed the threshold, he spoke as before: In munus tuas commedo tibi spiritum meum, redemisti me, Domine, Deus veritatis. And when he had gone back and forth in the parlor once or twice, he lay down again on the little resting bed, and the sickness became more and more prevalent. Immediately we rubbed him again with warm cloths, and sent as soon as possible for the host in the house, both city physicians, likewise also for the noble and well-born Count and Lord of Mansfeld, and came (since the highly learned Doctor Jonas, I Michael Celius, Johannes Aurifaber and his famulus had been with him from the beginning) as soon as the host with his wife, then one physician, soon the other also, and then Count Albrecht together with his husband.
27 Since we rubbed with warm cloths, as I said, I asked if he also felt relief, he answered: Yes, the warmth does me good, also kisses warm me, it presses hard, but still spares my heart. And when I, Michael Celius, felt that his shirt was all wet, I said to him: "Reverend Father, you have been sweating, God will give you grace that it will get better. He answered: Yes, it is a cold death sweat, I will die, I will go away. And when they gave him a drink of wine at his request, and one of the physicians gave him some medicine in a spoon, he began:
I thank thee, O God, a Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that thou hast revealed unto me thy dear Son, whom I have believed, whom I have loved, whom I have preached, confessed, and praised, whom the pope and all the wicked revile and blaspheme. My Lord Jesus Christ, let my soul be in your command.
O heavenly Father, I know if I am already torn away from this body, that I will live with you forever. Sic Deus dilexit mundum, ut unigenitum filium suum daret, ut omnis, qui credit in eum, non pereat, sed habeat vitam aeternam. That is: "God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life", Joh. 3, 16. He also said further: Deus noster Deus salvos faciendi, tu es Deus, qui educis
Nachlese, No. XXVIII.
W. XXI, 316*--319*.
ex morte; that is, "We have a God who helps, and the Lord God who saves from death," Ps. 68:21.
28 When he felt that the end was not far away, he said three times: Father, in manus tuas comendo tibi spiritum meum: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Thereupon he was silent. We shook him, and D. Jonas and I cried out: "Reverend Father, do you also want to die to your Lord Jesus Christ and confess the teachings you have done in his name? He answered: "Yes," and turning to his right side, he began to sleep for half an hour and a quarter. And when we did not trust to sleep, but smeared him with aqua vitae and rose vinegar and rubbed his wrists, when the seer had a quarter of an hour left until three o'clock in the morning, and we shone a light under his eyes, he took a deep breath, and with that he gently and quietly, with great patience, gave up his spirit. And this God knows, before whom we also take it from our conscience, and want to confess it on the day of the Lord and testify that [it] happened with his departure in such a way and not differently, as one can let it go out more abundantly in print, carried together in a historia.
29 I have now told this at length, first of all, so that the devil and his followers may be stopped in their lying mouths, and since they will speak otherwise than as they have now heard, they will not be believed. For I and others who have been beside it want to be living witnesses of it; whoever wants to give us faith, well and good; whoever does not want to, let him go, lie and deceive on his adventures, he will finally find his judge well, I know, praise God, that I have given testimony to the truth in this.
(30) Secondly, I have also told this story so that we may learn to prepare ourselves for this last hour and make ourselves ready, just as our faithful shepherd and teacher prepared himself. For although we all know that we must die, there are still very few of us who prepare ourselves for it, so that we can enter into it willingly and with faith. Therefore, as we have heard of this man, who was a great doctor of the Holy Scriptures, and who was gifted with many gifts before others, he went about for a long time with vain thoughts of death, drew together the sayings of the Holy Scriptures, which comfort in the distress of death, and moved them well in his heart, often spoke of them to others, and yet faithfully waited for his office or profession. That is why he also came to the hour when he himself was still
not knowing how he died, and just as with a sleeping man who does not know how and when he will fall asleep, so he has also come to this blessed rest. And we should learn this art from this story.
31. And now that we have heard in the shortest and most simple way who Doctor Martin Luther was, how he died, and what we are to learn from it, so that it is useful and fruitful for our salvation and Christian life, let us now hear and move to the third: Why he died just now and in this time, when he would have been very necessary and needed in the Christian Church, against which the Pope with his Tridentine Concilio and all the infernal gates are rebelling, and are trying to dampen and suppress the word of truth that God revealed through this servant and apostle.
32 Here you will find many different reasons for his departure, and some will say: An old man should not have traveled overland at this time and in such cold; he should have been spared to act in these matters; if he had stayed in Wittenberg, had stayed otherwise or so, he would probably still be alive etc. It is true that, according to reason, these thoughts and speeches are something that must be left alone; but whoever follows them leads him into the wild sea, and just as the latter, driven up by the winds, can never have peace, so these thoughts in this and other cases do not allow a man to have peace or rest.
For this reason we must all believe here in our children and say: "I believe in God the Father, the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. Which is not only to be understood as if God created heaven, earth and all creatures, but also that he governs and sustains them, and that without his will not a hair of our head falls, as Christ says in Luc. 21, v. 18, and David in the 39th Psalm, v. 5: "Lord, teach me that [it] must have an end with me, and my life has a goal, and I must depart from it." So also Job says on the 14th, v. 5. "Man has his appointed time, the number of his moons stand with thee; thou hast set a goal, which he shall not pass over." By these words "the Holy Spirit leads us out of the thoughts of our reason, and helps us out of the wild sea into a safe port, so that we must keep still and say: it is the will of God, God has so sent and willed that he should conclude his end in this city of Eisleben, where he was born and baptized. But for what causes he now and this time demanded from God, that is
Nachlese, No. XXVIII.
W. XXI, 319*-322*.
another question. Now one finds in the holy scripture more than one reason why each one dies in his own time. Sometimes God takes away children and other young people as soon as they are baptized, and the Book of Wisdom indicates the cause in Chapter 4, v. 11 ff: God does it "so that wickedness may not corrupt their minds, nor false teaching deceive their souls. For evil examples deceive and corrupt the good, and charming lust corrupts innocent hearts. They please God, therefore He hastened with them out of this evil life".
This is a great comfort to parents who lose their children in their youth. It hurts reason and nature beyond measure to see children and young people fall away in this way, on whom one has placed comfort and much hope. Some people also think that they want their son to become an honest man, a mother, and their daughter a virtuous virgin. But, dear God, you see, as the world so tempts with evil examples, so Satan does not celebrate to corrupt doctrine and life, and we have a poor frail flesh, so utterly corrupted by original sin, that even though it is covered in baptism, and buried like a fire with ashes, yet sin remains in our nature; and as a maid disturbs the ashes in the morning and lights the fire again, so also when one comes to reason and years, the devil, the world, and our own lust, blow to stir up the hidden fire, the original sin. God must now come first and save the children through death, because they are still innocent. And this, I have said, the parents should let them be their consolation.
After that, God often takes away the tyrants, as Pharaoh must be drowned with his own in the Red Sea; Sennacherib must be strangled by his own children in his idol's temple; Nero must stab himself, and Julian must be shot in the Persian War, so that God will preserve His Church from them, and they will not even exterminate Him with His word and kingdom, as they have in mind. And these examples are also written for consolation, whether in our time we also persecute great people who follow the Gospel, so that we know that God is still alive and holds over His Church, which overthrew Pharaoh and other tyrants; His hand is not shortened nor has it become too weak, He knows well how to protect His own and to overthrow tyrants.
(36) But when the prophets die and are demanded away by God, God commonly has in mind that a punishment should follow, such as
In the Scriptures he often promises holy people that he will pause during their life, but after their departure the punishment will follow. So when Samuel the prophet was dead, the Philistines invaded the land, slew Saul and his three sons and a great number of people, and took many cities where the children of Israel were living. So also after the departure of the other prophet, the Babylonian prison followed, and since God called all the apostles to Himself, except John, who alone was left, the destruction of Jerusalem and all the Jewish land came, which continues to this day, and before the last day the Jews will not come to their land, government and worship.
(37) And it was the cause of this punishment, that they would not hear the prophets, Christ, and his apostles, but blasphemed them, and persecuted them, when the rod of God was come, and they also received their deserved reward, as it is written in the other book of Chronicles, Cap. 36, v. 15: "The Lord God of their fathers sent unto them by his messengers early, because he spared his people, and his tabernacle. But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his word, and mimicked his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord grew upon his people, that there was no more healing."
(38) There is also great concern that God has taken away this servant of His for our sins. For, as heard above, he preached righteous repentance and forgiveness of sin, according to the command and content of the Holy Scriptures, denounced the abuses in the church, and warned against idolatry, how to call upon God, and what Christian freedom is, for which all the world should have knelt down and thanked God. But the papists, on the other hand, hated and persecuted him to the utmost, scolded his teachings as heresy, and as if the earth did not bear an angry man, this is their gratitude for God's good deed.
(39) But we, who hold his doctrine, and are reproached for it, think that it is better. We know the way of the Lord, for he has revealed it to us through his word, but we walk according to our own pleasure. In the young there is neither shame nor discipline, they have no regard for obedience; in the old there is avarice, usury and unfaithfulness. No one walks honorably and sincerely anymore; no one is satisfied with his profession. It goes everywhere, as the prophet Hosea laments, that [it] happened in his time before the Babylonian prison, when he says in the 4th chapter, v. 1: "Hear, ye children of Israel, the word of the Lord: for the Lord hath spoken the word of the Lord.
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Cause to rebuke those who dwell in the land. For there is no faithfulness, no love, no word of God in the land, but blasphemy, lying, murder, stealing and adultery have abounded, and one incest comes after another. Therefore the land will stand miserable, and all the inhabitants will suffer. For the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea, shall be taken away."
(40) And here it is time to repent and weep, not over the same man who has now escaped all evil and rests blessed in God, but that we provoke God with our sins and hasten to punishment more than we do. But I fear that the prophet's prophecy will be true and fulfilled in many who do not care about it, but as he says, "The righteous perish, and there is no one to take it to heart, and holy men are raised up, and no one pays attention. For the righteous are snatched away from calamity." And this is to be feared, that it will fall on many despisers' and impenitents' heads, now that he is gone, and may not see the woe.
41 Therefore, dear Christians, be admonished, and if anyone has not yet taken it to heart, let him still enter into the matter, listen and pay attention to God's word, repent, and turn every man from his wicked ways. The prophet says that the Lord will also repent and repent of the punishment he has decreed for us; or, if the wicked will have it no other way, the righteous will be saved, if not temporally here, then eternally there; and where the wicked are punished with temporal and eternal punishment, the temporal punishment will be a promotion to eternal life for us who lead a repentant life. The Son of God will also preserve his church in such punishment, and believers will remain and be saved. But the cause of his death is our sinful life, which God intends to punish.
Now we want to hear for the fourth and last, what this man's doings and being are now, after the body. As we still see him before our eyes on the bier, he sleeps, and certainly a softer sleep than he ever slept during his life, and such sleep will last until the last day, when he is now freed from all care, toil, work and danger, and may fear neither pope nor cardinal, world nor devil. Oh, how the pope, together with his own, has tormented and martyred the pious, faithful and God-fearing heart with his ungodly nature, so that he has seen churches and suppressed all worship.
and filled everything with idolatry and hellish Sodoma, and in addition had to suffer that he was banished and burned in his image in Rome, which they would have much preferred to do in his body. But God graciously snatched him from their bloodthirsty jaws and laid him to blessed rest, and will leave him unbitten. For he is now, as the prophet says, "at peace, and rests in his chamber.
(43) And it is comforting to all believers that the Holy Spirit calls the death of the righteous, that is, of believers, a peace, and their sleep chamber, as God also says in the prophet in chapter 26, v. 20: "Go, my people, into thy chamber, and shut the door upon thee, and hide thyself a little moment, until the wrath pass away. Human reason is terrified of death because it looks at it as if it were all sorrow and unrest, but Scripture calls it a sleep, and a peaceful sleep of the faithful in their chambers. They also sleep before, that is, God sometimes gives them a comfort that they can despise Satan's and the world's wrathful hatred. But when they are alive, they sleep in a strange chamber, in a strange inn, where they have to wake up and suffer tribulation and persecution again. As we have often seen with the dear man here in Eisleben shortly before his blessed end, that he had joy; but he was still in a strange inn, therefore it did not have to last long, that he once complained with tears one evening: he would have lifted up his heart to God with joy, worshipped him out of the window, but he saw the devil sitting on the pipe box and opening his mouth against him, who hindered him in all his actions. But God would be even stronger than Satan, he would know that for sure.
44 Then God had given him rest, that is, comfort of heart, but he did not yet rest in his chamber, so he had to be disturbed from his rest by Satan and awakened. But now he has peace and rest in his chamber, he will not be put out of his rest anymore. As all believers, who have fallen asleep in Christ since Adam's time, rest gently and quietly, and as the Psalm says: "The sun does not burn on them by day, nor does the cold oppress them by night," Ps. 121:6. And even though he and all of us have already been consumed by worms and, as we were created from the earth, must become earth again, yet it happens without all feeling, without pain and without pain, and is as St. Paul says, 1 Cor. 15, 42. ff: "It is sown corruptible, and becomes
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rise incorruptible; it is sown in dishonor, and shall rise in glory; it is sown in weakness, and shall rise in power; it is sown a natural body, and shall rise a spiritual body."
45 And now let this be said of the nature of our dear Lord and Father after his blessed departure, as far as the body is concerned, which we, together with ours and all the faithful, will see resurrected on the last day, like the body which Christ brought forth on the holy day of Easter, more beautiful than the sun when it rises in the bright sky, faster and more agile than it runs, and more powerful than all creatures. That then no one will challenge, afflict, or kill the body, but as the Son of God threw all things under his feet, so also death, the devil, and hell, together with all creatures, will be subject to him and to us. And in these words we shall comfort ourselves over this blessed body and against our death.
46 But as far as the spirit or soul is concerned, it is not the opinion, as some pessimists pretend, that the spirit or soul of man should also sleep until the last day. If the soul did not sleep because it was locked in the body as in a dungeon and, as the Book of Wisdom says, "weighed down," should it now sleep because it is released from the dungeon? The soul's nature was not created by God to sleep, but to live, watch and work at all times. When the body is asleep, the soul is awake, as we have experienced in natural dreams and many other things. Therefore it is a mistake for some to pretend that the soul sleeps until the last day, just like the body; but it is certain that it wakes and lives, just as it lived before it came to the body and first made it alive; thus it lives after separation from the body, and will make it alive by God's mighty hand when it comes to the body again on the great day of the Lord.
47 And the holy scripture Luc. 16, 22. agrees with this, where Abraham speaks to the rich man who was buried in hell and saw Lazarum sitting in his lap. A sleeping or dead person cannot do this; Revelation 6:10, the souls of those who were slain cry out because of God's word. But they are shown to be awake and alive. Thus Christ says: "Let God be the God of the living, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, therefore they must live," Matth. 22, 32. Now they were alive after the
For this reason they live according to the soul, and certainly live with God and our Lord Christ.
48 For thus it is written, Ecclesiastes 12:7: "The dust must return to the earth as it was, and the spirit to God who gave it. Thus Christ says to the thief: "Today you shall be with me in paradise," Luc. 23, 43. Item: "We live or die, then we are the Lord's," cf. Rom. 14, v. 8, and Revelation 6. John beheld under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, which they had, crying with a loud voice, and saying, "O Lord, thou holy and true, how long wilt thou judge, and not avenge the blood of them that dwell on the earth? And to them was given every man a white robe, and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet a little season, until their fellowservants and brethren should come in full, and be put to death like unto them."
(49) From this saying (as well as from the others) it is clear that the souls of the deceased are alive and awake; otherwise they would not cry out with a loud voice, and in addition by God and our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the altar. From which it follows that, since this servant of God is different with the invocation and confession of the name of Christ, he must also be with God and His Son according to his spirit, and has his being among the dear angels and chosen ones of God. But how he is held especially by Moses, Esaiah, the prophets and apostles, and especially by St. Paul, who has written books on the subject. Paul, whose books lay darkly in the darkness, until he, through the spirit of Elijah, with preaching and writing, brought them back to the light and the right use of the church, and the Lamb of God in the midst of them, whom they follow where he goes, which they have recognized and made known in life: this we also want to experience and see, when the merciful God, a father of our Lord Jesus Christ, will also promote us blessedly hereafter.
50. Now that we have heard who Doctor Martin Luther was, namely a true Elijah and John Baptist in our time, how Christian he fell asleep in the Lord, and why he has just now been recalled from this world by God, also what his doings and nature are now, Let us commend him to the Lord, and ask God to send another prophet of His Church in his place, and after this Elijah to give an Elisha, who will have as much of his spirit as he has, and will repay Roman Babylon for what has been done so far. Also
that we, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, let ourselves be led by His books into the Holy Scriptures, and in right faith and life also blessedly conclude our last hour, Amen!