1. Of the holy Biblia.
2. proof that the Bible is the Word of God.
3. at what time the Bible was interpreted.
4. difference of the Bible and other books.
5. what to look for primarily in the Bible.
6. that one should read the text of the Bible diligently and stick to it as the one true foundation.
7. that the Bible is the head of all arts.
8. the school theologian art in the Bible.
9. that one cannot study the Bible.
10. that the Scriptures are difficult to understand.
11. of the contempt of the divine word; how the world behaves against the same.
That the ingratitude of the world may drive away the word of God.
13. of the future loss of the divine word.
14. about the future lack of righteous preachers.
Where God's word is taught, people are the most wicked.
16. D. M. Luther's prophecy of his teaching.
17. of the excess and contempt of the word of god.
18. ingratitude of the world for God's word.
19. what God's word drives out.
20. The enthusiasts despise God's word.
The antinomians are despisers of the divine word.
22. that the persecutors of Christians and God's word have little luck.
People willfully resist God's word.
24. contempt of the divine word is severely punished.
(25) He who despises the word of God is not to be argued with.
26. what Albrecht, Bishop of Mainz, judged of the Bible.
27 The Bible is hated by the worldly wise and so-
28. the swarmers' error of God's word.
29. the use and effect of the divine word: that God's word alone is certain and surmountable.
30. Apart from God's word, nothing is certain.
31. be sure of God's word.
With the word of God you can defend yourself against the devil.
The gospel reveals the secret wickedness of men.
34. majesty and glory of the divine word, that God speaks to us through it.
The word of God is a fiery shield to all who trust in it.
God is certainly sought and found in His word of Christ.
(37) That all actions and life should be guided by the divine word.
God Himself speaks through the Word, and such a Word is powerful.
God's word is the highest comfort.
The gospel is a mystery.
The world, especially the church, is governed and sustained by the Word of God.
God instructs man's heart, reason, hands and feet through His Word.
43. God has bound us to the oral word.
44. how to teach God's word correctly.
The listeners of the divine word are obliged to feed the preachers.
The Word of God shows all the divine states and teaches how to conduct oneself in them.
The Word of God alone overcomes the devil's fiery darts and all temptations.
The Word of God is and remains the Word of God, whether we believe it or not.
49) To whom the divine word is useful.
50. where one loves the word of God, there dwells God.
The Word of God alone does everything.
The word of God is twofold.
The power of the Word of God.
The word of God alone is to be believed and not doubted.
55. Those who have God's word pure and hold fast to it are poor.
(56) True Christians are ready to suffer death and all misfortune for the sake of the gospel, but hypocrites flee the cross.
Preaching God's word brings the cross.
58. Whoever wants to teach and confess God's word must not wait for honor, but for the holy cross.
59. the nature of the word of God.
60. God's Word is the body in which children of God are conceived and born.
61. God's word is to be preferred over all persons and things.
62. through whom God keeps his word.
63) The word of God is to be firmly believed, but the wickedness of the world is so great that the last day must control it.
64 A rhyme from the New Testament.
65 A rhyme about the Psalm: Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
In matters of religion, one should judge from God's Word and not from human wisdom.
In the past, there was evil study, especially of the Scriptures.
The word of God is not to be judged by the fruits and lives of the hearers.
The Gospel is the best new newspaper.
70. contempt and corruption of God's word is the greatest wrath of God.
71) For what the contempt of the divine word serves.
The first is a description of what the Holy Scripture has to do with people.
73. the sacred scriptural custom.
The word of God appears to reason to be a vain lie.
That the Jews have better teachers and scribes of the Scriptures than we Gentiles.
The first is a complaint about the number of books, and an exhortation to read the Bible carefully.
The first is the first of the two fables of Aesop and the second is the first of the two fables of Aesop.
78. No one is offended by the simple speech of the Scriptures.
Why the same thing is repeated so often in the Scriptures.
80. One should hold on to God's word alone and remain firm.
The word of God is to be heard, not pondered according to God's majesty.
82 Another one of these.
83 Another one of these.
That God's word was preached much more powerfully in the apostles' time, and now in our time, and has been spread more widely than in the time of Christ.
85. contempt of the divine word.
The essence of a thing is to be separated from its custom, and remain solely with God's word.
The Word of God performs great miracles, but everyone wants to master it.
Without God's word, the ceremonies are filth and dung.
Without challenge, God's word is not learned.
90. that ingratitude against God's word will do great harm to our churches.
The world considers that the teaching of the divine word must soon perish.
Preaching God's word annoys the world.
93) How to stand against the despisers of the divine word and the sacraments.
94. How God spoke to the fathers.
95. how the world wants to abolish and settle the division in religious matters.
That the divine Word and the Christian Church may be preserved from the raging of the world.
1. from the holy Biblia.
The venerable Doctor Martin Luther once said to Philippo Melanchthon, item to Doctor Justo Jonah and others, about the Biblia or Holy Scripture, that it was like a very large forest, in which there were many and all kinds of trees, from which one could break off many kinds of fruit. For in the Biblia one would have abundant comfort, teaching, instruction, admonition, warning, promise and prophecy etc. But there is not a tree in this forest on which he has not knocked and broken and shaken off a few apples or pears. 1)
1) Cf. Mathesius, St. Louis Edition, p. 221.
2. proof that the Bible is the Word of God.
(Cordatus No. 410 and No. 1345. 2)
The Bible is a book with which God misleads the world. But it is wonderful that God has protected this book, as well as His Church. But just as the devil has killed many saints whom we do not know, so no doubt God has caused many good books from the Bible to perish, of which we do not know.
That the Bible is God's Scripture is proven by the fact that everything in it is written by Moses as it goes and stands in the
2) Aurifaber had torn No. 1345 apart and placed No. 410 in between.
World, that is, as God made it and created it, and all kingdoms have ceased, but this book, however much it is challenged, remains. God has preserved it with special power. Others who have remained, such as Virgil and Homer, have been loved by the world.
3. which and at what time the Bible was interpreted.
Once, when talking about the interpretation of the Bible, D. M. Luther said that 341 years before Christ's birth and incarnation, the Septuagint interpreters, the seventy doctors and scholars of Jerusalem, at the time of Eleazari the High Priest, at the request of the king of Egypt, Ptolemaic Philadelphi, had brought the five books of Moses and the prophets from the Ebraic language into the Greek, and that the same king had spent great expenses on this interpretation. Then, after the birth, suffering and death of Christ, in 124 years, a Jew named Aquila, after being converted to the Christian faith, interpreted the Old Testament from the Ebraic into the Greek language in the time of Emperor Adrian. Three and fifty years after this Aquila lived Theodotius, who also interpreted the Bible. Symmachus did the same in the thirtieth year after Theodotius, under the emperor Severo. One, whose name is unknown, in the eighth year after Symmachus 'also interpreted the Bible, which interpretation is called Vulgate, that is 1) the common and fifth.
St. Jerome, who first corrected and improved the seventy interpreters and translators, then translated the Bible from Ebrew into Latin, which interpretation we still use in the churches today. And he did enough for one person, nulla enim privata persona tantum efficere potuisset. But he would not have done badly if he had taken a learned man or two to himself for translation: then the Holy Spirit would have seen himself all the more powerful.
1) So Stangwald. Aurifaber lacks the words: "VulS., that is".
According to the saying of Christ Matth. 18, 20: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there will I be in the midst of them. And interpreters or translatores shall not be alone, for good and propria verba do not always fall to one man. And because the Church of the Gentiles has stood, the Bible has never been so ready and understandable, so safe, that it could have been read without offense, as we have prepared it here in Wittenberg and brought it into the German language (praise God!).
4. difference of the Bible and other books.
Luther said that the Holy Scriptures are full of divine gifts and virtues, and that all the pagans' books teach nothing at all about faith, hope and love; they know nothing at all about it, but the pagans' books only look at the present, which can be felt and grasped and understood with reason. But trusting in God and hoping in the Lord is not in them. We should see this only from the Psalter and the Book of Job, as these two books deal with faith, hope, patience and prayer. In sum, the Holy Scriptures are the highest and best book of God, full of consolation in all temptation. For it teaches of faith, hope, and love much else than reason can see, feel, understand, and experience: and when things are bad, it teaches how these virtues should shine forth; and teaches that another and eternal life is over this poor miserable life.
5. what to look for primarily in the Bible, and how to study and learn the Scriptures.
(Cordatus No. 575. 576. 577.)
The highest lesson in theology is to be able to recognize Christ. The teacher should not be ashamed to learn from the pupil and the pupil from the teacher, and if I can be indulgent and kind to my friend, how much more Christ to me!
If the devil leads me to the law, I am condemned, but if Christ leads me back from the law to the gospel and
the promises of God, I am free and righteous. Therefore Peter says in one great word: "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ", not in the knowledge of the dialectical or any other art, as if it justifies, but in the knowledge of Christ. On the other hand, the devil's greatest art is to obscure this knowledge from us, so that we end up trusting a friend more than Christ.
So great is the greatness of grace in Christ that we do not experience, understand, or realize this without temptations and fear. If I were not challenged by tyrants and false brethren, I would become very hopeful in my gifts, I would lead to the devil with my great art. I would attribute it to my powers, not to God, not to grace, I would not pray, and so on. That is why I am chastised.
6. that one should read the text of the Bible diligently and stick to it as the one true foundation.
Once upon a time there came into D. M. Luther's house of a noble doctor's son, an honorable, diligent and disciplined student, who did not set his sights on high things, nor did he flutter to and fro in the air; but was content with the lowly, and remained with the foundation and the first reasons, namely with his Institutionibus Juris. He studied these diligently. As the table companions diligently commended him to D. M. Luther, D. Martinus said. Martinus said, "He does this without a doubt from his father's counsel and command. For he who has laid a good foundation, and is well arranged in the text, so that he becomes a good textualist, has a foundation on which he can certainly rest and build; he does not easily run into trouble, nor does he err. And this is also highly necessary for a theologian. For with the text and the foundation of the holy Scriptures I have outwitted and outlived all my adversaries, for they only go along sleepily, teaching and writing everything from their own minds and according to reason, and think that it is a badly easy thing about the holy Scriptures. Just as the Pharisee thought it would be soon
This is what happened when the Lord Christ Luke said to him on 10:28, "Do this and you will live. For the fluttering spirits and enthusiasts understand nothing in the Scriptures, but meanwhile go astray with their wavering, inconstant and uncertain books, which they have devised.
Summa, he who is well versed in the text is a true pastor. And this is also my best and Christian advice, that one draws water from the well or spring, that is, reads the Bible diligently. For he who is well grounded and practiced in the text becomes a good and excellent theologian, since a saying and text from the Bible is more valid than many scribes and glosses, which are not strong and round, and yet they do not hold the engraving.
As when I have before me the saying of St. Paul, 1 Tim. 4, 4, where it is said: "All creatures of God are good, if they are received with thanksgiving. This text indicates that what God has created is good. Now, to eat, drink, marry or be married is etc. God's creature; therefore it is good. Against this are the glosses; for St. Bernard, Basil, Dominic, Jerome and other holy fathers and teachers have written and done much differently. But the text goes far before and above all glosses. Nor have the dear fathers had a greater reputation among the papacy with their glosses than the bright sayings of the Bible. And so the Bible has been greatly wronged for a while, and yet the dear fathers, as Ambrose, Basil and Gregory, have often written cold things enough.
The Bible is the head of all the arts.
Let us, said Martin Luther once, not lose the Bible, but read and preach it diligently in the fear of God and in prayer. Let us not lose the Bible, but read and preach it with diligence, in the fear of God and in invocation: for if it abides, flourishes, and is rightly acted upon, all will be well and proceed happily. For it is the head and empress among all faculties and arts: if it, the theologia, lies, then I throw on the stocking. 1)
1) Stocking, i.e., torso. Cf. § 62.
But because these people, who are still alive in our time and teach God's word diligently, are still present; and who are also still alive, who have seen and heard me, item, Philippum Melanchthonem, D. Pomeranum, and other pious, faithful and righteous teachers: there it might still stand well. But when they are gone, and this time is past, a fall will occur. As we have an example of this in the book of Joshua and Judges. For in the book of Judges Cap. 2, 8-12, it is said: "When Joshua was dead, and all that lived at that time, there arose after them another generation, which knew not the Lord, nor the works which he had done for Israel; and they did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim, and forsook the Lord their fathers' God, which had brought them out of Egypt, and went after other gods. So also, after the apostles' time, a fall soon arose, because they and their disciples departed: yes, while the apostles were still alive, as St. Paul complains, a great fall happened in the church among the Galatians, Corinthians and in Asia. As, unfortunately, we have also experienced with Muenzer, the Sacramentarians, the Anabaptists, the Antinomians and the like.
8. the school theologian art in the Bible.
The art of the school theologians with their speculation in the holy scriptures is nothing but vanity and human thoughts according to reason. I have read much of this in St. Bonaventure, but he has made me almost deaf. I would have liked to know and understand how God was united with my soul, but I could not learn it from it. They say much about the union of the understanding and the will; but it is vain fantasy and rapture. But this is the right speculativa, rather practica theologia, as: Believe in Christ and do what you are obliged to do in your profession. Likewise, the mystical theology of Dionysius is nothing but a work of fables and lies. Just as Plato also fables: Omnia sunt non ens, et omnia sunt ens Everything is nothing, and everything is nothing: 1) and so lets it hang.
I)' ichts d. i. something.
True, righteous theology is based on practice, custom, and training, and its foundation and bedrock is Christ, that his suffering, death, and resurrection may be grasped with faith. But all those who today do not hold with us, and do not have our doctrine before them, make for them only a speculative theology, since they are guided by reason and how they speculate about things; for they cannot come from the thought that he who does good and is pious is well off. But it is not so called; but he that feareth and trusteth in God, the same is well in the end. Therefore such speculative theology belongs in hell to the devil, as Zwingel and the sacramentalists also speculate, and think: The body of Christ is in bread, but only spiritually, for we see only bread. So they only dream and follow their thoughts, as much as they can comprehend with their five senses. And this is also Origen's Theologia. But David does not do so, but recognizes his sin and says: Miserere mei, Domine: God, have mercy on me. But among men God cannot maintain that he alone is God, for all men are after deity and would also like to be gods; much less can he maintain that he alone is pious and just; and this he can hardly maintain, that he is immortal.
9. that the Bible or the Holy Scriptures cannot be studied in depth.
(The first paragraph of this § in Lauterbach, Aug. 5, 1538.
S. 109.)
Luther: We will probably remain students of the holy scriptures. Dear one, who can properly grasp this saying (1 Petr. 4:13): "Rejoice that you suffer with Christ"? That we should be joyful in the midst of the greatest distress, even gladly, like children, kissing the rue. But always let the Epicureans go, the presumptuous smarties, who ridicule the Holy Scriptures and think they have learned them all ready; like Jakob Schenk (and Joh. Agricola), who are the pestilence of religion, and the fruit of their hopefulness and contempt will be nonsense and blindness. Ah! dear God, we want to act so thirsty in your sanctuary, and
your Scriptures submit to us. And yet we laugh at the fact that the pagans acted with such great, heated zeal in their false religion that virgins and matrons swept the temples with their hair?
And at that time, the doctor said a lot about how powerful the holy scriptures were, which far, far surpassed all other arts of the philosophers and lawyers. Although they were good and necessary, they were, as it were, a dead thing compared to God's word, as far as eternal life was concerned. Therefore, one should look at the Bible with different eyes than one would look at the books of lawyers and other arts. For if anyone here does not come to terms with his reason, and denies himself, he will certainly come to grief in the Holy Scriptures. Therefore, the world cannot understand them, since it neither knows nor understands anything about the mortification and death of the old Adam, which is clearly and distinctly indicated in the Word of God. And just as one does not understand God's word, so one cannot be wise in God's matters. This can be seen in Adam, who had only two sons. The firstborn was called Cain, that is, a householder. This one, as Adam and Eve thought, was supposed to be the man of God, and the heir of the serpent was supposed to crush the serpent's head. After that, when Eve became pregnant again, they hoped that there would be a daughter, that the dear son would have a wife: but when she gave birth to a son, she called him Abel, that is, vanity and nothingness; as if she wanted to say: It is in vain with my hope, and I am deceived. But this is the image of God to the world and the church, so that we may learn how things are always done in the world. For Cain, the godless wicked one, is a mighty lord on earth; but the pious and God-fearing Abel must be the ash-brooder, nothing and subject to him, even his servant and oppressed. Now it is completely reversed before God: for Cain is rejected by God, but Abel is accepted and is the dear child of God: even though it does not seem so to reason, but the contradiction is seen, one does not have to turn back on it. So also Ishmael had a beautiful name, which was called: God's listener; but Isaac was nothing. Esau was also called the valley and the man, as he was called.
Jacob did not have to be anything either. So Absalon was called a father of peace. The ungodly always have such an appearance and glitter in the world, but in truth and in action they were scorners, mockers and rebels. But from God's word one can judge and recognize these fellows; therefore let us love the dear Bible and read it diligently.
(This paragraph in Cordatus No. 1381.)
No art is easy for man now, except theology. I would give all my fingers to it, except for three, that it would be so easy for me, too. But I can't get through it any better, because I say, devil, lick me in the ass.
(Cordatus No. 384 this paragraph.)
He who has only one word from the Word of God and cannot make a whole sermon out of it is not worthy to ever preach. I have often decided to carefully think through the holy ten commandments, and when I began with the words: I am the Lord, your God, I have usually stopped at the word I and cannot yet understand it enough, when will I go through the whole decalogue in thinking it through?
(From here to the last paragraph of the § in Cordatus, No. 93. 109. 110. 111. Ill a. Ill d.)
The ancients distinguished a threefold theology. The real one, which they called the historical one, as the history of the Passion of Christ and indeed the writings of all the evangelists; the symbolic one, as when Christ is called a shepherd; thirdly, the mystical one, which teaches to seek God negatively. But I have set my sermon on the oral word, whoever wants to may follow me, but whoever does not want to, let him leave it. But this is immeasurable above us, not among us, as many enthusiasts scoff. Also those who seek to explore higher things with their thoughts than the simple word of God prescribes are similar to them. Of these the prophet says: I have had a dream, I have had a dream.
In spite of [StJ Peter, in spite of Paul, John, and all the saints, that they understood fully only One Word from the Word of God, for His
Wisdom has no limit, but what is ours, as reason, insight and everything else, is it not circumscribed by a certain limit?
The saints understand the word of God and can speak of it, but they do not learn it. The scholastics have used the parable of a ball; when it lies on a table, it is indeed grasped completely with the eyes, but the table touches it only at one point.
1) I have made an effort, and I have done so with all diligence, and yet I have not yet fully grasped a single word from the entire Scripture. That is why I have not yet come out of the children's teaching, but rather move daily in the spirit what I know, and seek the right understanding of the holy ten commandments and the Christian faith. And indeed, it displeases me to some extent that I, such a great doctor, may or may not want to, have to stay with all my learning with the learning of my Hänsichen and Magdalenichen and go to the same school in which they are brought up 2). For who of all men understands in its full extent, as it must be understood, only this word of God: Our Father, who art in heaven? For whoever understands these words in faith: the God who has heaven and earth in his hands 3) [is our Father], immediately concludes with complete confidence of heart: Because this GOtt is my Father, and I am His child, who will be able to harm me? For I am a Lord of heaven and earth and all things that are in them. The angel Gabriel is my servant, Raphael my carter, and all the other angels are ministering spirits in all my needs, and are sent to me by my Father who is in heaven, so that I may not strike my foot against a stone. And then I believe thus: If my good Father leads me to and has me thrown into a dungeon, if he soon afterwards has my head cut off, or if he has me drowned in water, - that this [that we are thus tempted] may happen, so that we may realize how completely we are
1) The following except for the last paragraph before the
Nov. 7, 1531. (Cf. Cord. p. 507.)
2) In the manuscript uduuntur. Perhaps: aluutur?
3) Here is a gap in the manuscript.
When we have learned these words, or rather only this one "Father", then the faith in our heart falters and our weakness thinks: Yes, who knows if it is true? But I know one word, which is the most difficult in the whole scripture, namely "Thine" in the first commandment. (Ex. 20, 2.)
When he spoke this at the table, with a full and fervent heart, under the midday meal, his wife said, "Why do you speak without ceasing and do not eat? But he said, "I would have liked this very day, before the women began to preach, for them to pray. You are to say an Our Father beforehand.
After that, I [Cordatus] tried to bring him back to the previous thoughts, and asked what one should answer those who urge plerophoria [complete certainty in doctrine] like Campanus? He answered, Against plerophoria no one ever taught in Wittenberg, but they talk about the question whether there is anyone who has this plerophoria. And he said, we must be sure of our doctrine or faith, and so on.
4) At another time, Luther said about the understanding of the Holy Scriptures that no one should remember that he had tasted the Scriptures, because he had ruled the church for a hundred years with the prophets, John the Baptist and the apostles. Therefore, it is a great miracle to understand God's word correctly.
(10) That the Scriptures are difficult to understand.
M. Luther wrote these words in Latin on a piece of paper in 1546, when he was in Eisleben and lived only two days later, and left them on his table. I, Johannes Aurifaber, copied it, and Mr. Justus Jonas, Superintendent of Halle, who was in Eisleben at that time, kept the note with him.
1 Virgilium in Bucolicis nemo potest intelligere, nisi fuerit quinque annis pastor. Virgilium in Georgicis nemo potest intelligere, nisi fuerit quinque annis agricola. 2. Ciceronem in epistolis (sic praecipio,) nemo integre intelligit, nisi viginti annis sit versatus in Re- publica aliqua insigni. 3. scripturas sanctas sciat se nemo degustasse satis, nisi centum
4) The last paragraph of this § will probably be nothing else than Aurifaber's translation of No. 3 in the next §.
annis cum Prophetis, ut Elia et Elisaeo, Joanne Baptista, Christo et Apostolis, Ecclesias guber- parit. Hanc tu ne divina Aeneida tenta, sed vestigia pronus adora. 2Bir finb SBettler, hoc est verum, 16. Februarii Anno 1546.1 )
Otherwise he also said that the clever and great men of the world do not understand God's word, but the lowly and simple ones do; as the Lord Christ also testifies in Matt. 11:25, where he says: "I thank you, heavenly Father, that you have hidden these things from the wise of the world, and have revealed them to babes and sucklings. And Luther said that therefore St. Gregory had rightly said: "That the holy scripture is water in which an elephant swims, but a sheep walks through it with its feet.
11. from the contempt of the divine word: how the world holds itself against God's word.
(The first paragraph is omitted because contained in Cap. 4, § 3 and § 23.)
2) On another occasion, D. Justus Jonas spoke to D. Luther about a nobleman in the country of Meissen, who cared for nothing so much as how he collected much money and goods and great treasures, and that he was so very blinded that he paid no attention to the five books of Moses. The same had given this answer to the Elector of Saxony, Duke Johann Friederichen (since his Electoral Grace had talked with him much about the doctrine of the Gospel) and said: "Most gracious Lord, the Gospel is none of your Electoral Grace's business. Then said D. M. Luther: Were there also little ones? And he told a fable, how the lion had invited all the animals as guests, and had a delicious, glorious meal prepared, and also invited the sow. When the delicious dishes were served to the guests, the sow said, "Are there also small animals? So are our Epicureans now. We preachers set before them in our churches the very best and most glorious food, as eternal blessedness, forgiveness of sin, and God's grace;
1) For this, see another relation in De Weites Sammlung von Luthers Briefen, Vol. VI, 414.
2) This seems to be another relation of Cap. 28, § 5.
they throw up the rebuke, and scrape for thalers: and' what should the cow Musealen? she isset probably Haberstroh. This happened once to a priest, Ambrosio R., of his parishioners. When he admonished them to listen diligently to God's word, they said: "Yes, my dear pastor, if you would have a barrel of beer brewed in the church and call us to it, we would gladly come. The gospel in Wittenberg is like the rain that falls into the water, since the rain is of little use: but if the rain falls on a sandy field, and since the seed is meager and withered and burned by the sun, such rain refreshes the land and makes it fertile.
That the world's ingratitude and contempt may drive away God's word.
(Lauterbach, Nov. 17, 1538, p. 172 f.)
After that Luther said: "We will, God willing, be diligent to leave a righteous church and school for our descendants after us, so that they may know how to teach and govern righteously: although the great ingratitude and ungodliness of the world frightens me that this light will not stand for long, not more than 50 years. For this has always had its course, as in the time of the archfathers it flourished for a time under Adam, Noah, Lot, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Josiah and Ezechia, and has always come between these the Baal, then it had to be pulled out again.
Consider how the word of God had its course in the time of Christ, which did not last fifty years; indeed, soon in the time of the apostles heresies of false brethren went forth. Arius soon followed. After that Ambrose, Hilarius, Augustine restored the word of God. Soon after, it was extinguished again by the Vandals and Longobards. After that, it was in Greece and other countries; it wandered continuously, as now in Denmark and England and, I hope, also in Italy, but not without great persecution, because the church grows through the blood of the martyrs and is purified by it, because [Ps. 116, 15.] the death of its saints is valuable.
held before the Lord, and before God the blood of the pious is held in honor. When this is shed, Abel's blood cries out in heaven, and God must hear this. But that such great wickedness and ingratitude and godlessness arise in the world now that the gospel has risen again and the Antichrist has been struck to the ground; this is because before the light of the gospel was brought to light again, people did not see or recognize sin in this way. But now, because the bright morning star has risen, the whole world awakens, as if from a stupor, and sees to some extent the sin that it could not see before in sleep and in the dark night.
I hope that the last day will not be long, not more than a hundred years, because God's word will fall again and great darkness will come through the lack of servants of the word. Then the whole world will become animalistic, and will walk in such a crude life in the most certain way. Then the voice will sound (Matth. 25, 6.): "Behold, the bridegroom comes." For God will no longer be able to suffer it.
13. of the future loss of the divine word.
In 1536, on the 2nd day of December, Luther spoke of the future hunger of the Word of God, and of great tribulation and sorrow that would follow, such as had not been from the beginning of the world, according to the saying of Christ Matth. 24, 21.And how now such affliction is already present, namely, the oppression and corruption by tyrants and fanatics, since the spiritualists especially torture, frighten and mislead the consciences in such a way that they do not know which way is right or which doctrine is right. And said D. Luther: "No greater harm can befall us than when God's Word is taken from us and falsified, so that it is not pure. God protect us so that we and ours do not experience this harm: he would rather let us die first, or kill the Turk, or otherwise die blessedly with grace.
(This paragraph in Lauterbach, on Jan. 10, 1538, p. 8.)
Where people have the truth, they are always safe. But in error they are very careful and try very hard, just as a wanderer walks safely on the right path, but is very anxious on the wrong path. That is how it is with us now.
14) The future lack of righteous preachers of the divine word.
D. Luther said: "In a short time there would be such a lack of pastors and preachers that the present righteous preachers would be scratched out of the earth again, if they could be had; then the papists, and also our peasants, who plague the preachers so much, will see what they have done. For physicians and lawyers remain enough to rule the world; but one must have two hundred pastors in a country, since one has enough of one lawyer. If there were only one lawyer in Erfurt, that would be enough. But it is not the same with the preachers. Every village and small town must have its own pastor. My most gracious lord, the Elector of Saxony, has enough lawyers for his country and people, but he must have 1800 pastors. In the meantime, we still have to make parish priests out of lawyers and Medicis. You will see.
15. where God's word is taught, people are the most wicked.
In all lines, from the beginning of the world, where God's word is taught and preached purely, people are most wicked and commit the greatest and most heinous sins, as in the time of Noah, Abraham, and the Lord Christ and the apostles; for then the world lived most ungodly and in the highest ingratitude and wickedness. So also now, in our time, the people are very presumptuous ingrates, and much more stingy than they ever were before: they do not like to help a poor person with a penny. But it shall be so. However, whom one will deceive, 1) that one shall well know.
1) So Stangwald, instead of: "if they will be deceived".
16. prophecy of D. M. Luther of his teaching.
(The beginning of this § to "names" in Cordatus No. 141.) Those who do not want the core in my life, will worship the shell when I am dead, that is, the name. And said upon it, Let every man send himself into the time, and use it, and cut in, because there is yet harvest; and as the Lord Christ Joh. 12, 35. saith, "Walk in the light, because ye have it, that darkness overtake you not."
17. of the excess and contempt of the word of God.
(The first paragraph of this § in Lauterbach, April 14, 1538, p. 62.)
That day he admonished his wife to read and hear the word diligently, especially the Psalter. But she boasted that she had read and heard enough and knew it, God willing, she lived by it. Luther answered with a sigh: "Thus arises the weariness and contempt of the Word, that we allow ourselves to think much, want to know it, and yet do the contradiction, and want to be unpunished for it. This leads to misfortune, and God makes us hungry for His word. There will be many new interpretations and the Scriptures will be neglected. That is why I would prefer that my books not be printed, because of the future mobs that will cause all kinds of misfortune. For in my first books I gave the pope a lot of slack, and then I also interpreted the passages of Scripture a little too leniently, as I had read them at the time.
At another time, Doctor Luther spoke of the excess of the divine word and said: "The world has become very secure, and relies on the books it now has, and thinks that if people read them, they can do anything. And he said, "The devil would have made me more lazy and secure, thinking, 'Here are the books, if you read them, you can do it. So the Anabaptists and Sacramentarians also make them believe that if they only read a little book, they can do everything. Against such certainty I pray forever, and repeat my Catechismum after Lin
other, like my little Hans. And pray daily that God will keep me by His holy, pure Word, that I will not grow weary of it or think that I have studied it out.
Otherwise, he once said that the nobility, burghers and peasants, and almost everyone, high and low, knew the gospel much better than he, Luther, or St. Paul himself, as they thought. For they were wise, and thought that they were more learned than all the pastors: but they despised not the pastors, but the Lord and chief of all pastors, who commanded them to preach; who again will despise them, and be their enemy, and take hold of their heads, that they may feel it; he that saith Luc. 10:16, "He that heareth you heareth me," and "he that assaileth you taketh hold of the apple of my eye." Zech. 2, 8.
(Seven lines omitted here because contained in Cap, 65, § 8.)
18. ingratitude of the world for God's word.
( Cordatus No. 1400.)
Since [God] gives His Son for the servant, and the servant is ungrateful, even wanting to kill the Father and the Son who redeemed him, is this not an ingratitude worthy of all the Turks, pestilence, etc.?
19. what God's word drives out.
At the table, where the doctor had several scholars as guests, the gospel was discussed, as it had come to Sweden, Denmark, and now to other foreign countries: for even in Hungary, where the Turk reigns, the gospel is preached, and from the same place those who would be called to the church office were sent to Wittenberg, and had them ordained there; as the reformation of the churches in Carinthia shows. Then said D. Luther said: "Praise be to God, who wants to rule even in the midst of his enemies. He will reign even in the midst of his enemies and be known under the cross. For tyranny and persecution will not drive out nor eradicate the Gospel, 1) but our shameful, cursed, harmful ingratitude and disgust for the dear Gospel.
1) Cf. cap. 37, § 148, near the end.
20. The enthusiasts despise God's word.
(Cordatus No. 1264. 1265.)
It is astonishing that the oral word is so despised by the sectarians, since even Christ after his resurrection would have appeared to his disciples as a mere ghost if he had not comforted them with his words. It is the devil's only concern that he should take away our swords. But the Scripture says differently [Ps. 45:4], "Gird up thy sword at thy side, thou hero; put it forth, lash out."
When Schweinsfeld 1) had debated with me for a long time, he finally said: "Doctor, you must put the words "this is my body" out of your eyes, then we will come to an agreement. It is certain that the pope did it this way from the beginning, before he arrogated to himself the sole authority over the interpretation of the word; thus he crucified Christ. Let us only take care of the word, and we will crucify them again.
The antinomians are despisers of the divine word.
(Contained in Cap. 22, § 53.)
22. that the persecutors of the Christians and the divine word have little luck.
Emperor Diocletiani's persecution, said Luther in Eisleben, was very great, because he was willing to murder and exterminate all Christians, and had twelve thousand Christians killed at once. And when all the executioners and their servants had grown tired of the slaughter, he had new executioners 2) brought in and had the Christians beheaded, and thus thought to deter the Christians from the divine word with his tyranny. When this did not help, he also raged against the female gender, which he reviled and dishonored. He had two trees bent down against each other and tied an arm and a foot of a woman to each tree.
1) A derisive name for Caspar von Schwenkfeld in Silesia, as also "Stenkefeld . Walch, old edition, vol. XX, 2195.
2) So Stangwald instead of executioner's knife.
The tree was then broken open and the women were torn to pieces. Or he would hang them naked on the trees with one arm or leg and let them hang until they died. If they wanted to cover their shame, they could do it with the arm that was not tied to the tree.
Finally, when everything was in vain, and the Christian matrons and women did not want to fall away from the divine word and their dear Lord Christ, he had hot lead poured into the backs and fronts of the women (to speak with breeders) and strangled them. When the Roman Empire became empty of people and desolate, so that there were no more farmers, cobblers or tailors (because this emperor killed countless people through his cruel tyranny), the emperor was told that he would not be able to do anything with his tyranny. For he would either have to let the doctrine of the Gospel be preached freely, so that he would retain subjects in the empire; or, if he wanted to kill all the Christians and clear them away, that he would have to endure the danger that he would have the Roman empire quite desolate and empty of people. When Diocletianus, the emperor, found out that his slaughtering and strangling were of no avail, and that God's punishment would also befall him, and that he would not be safe in life and limb, he resigned from the empire and became a hortulanus, planting herbs and grafting trees. So this tyrant lost his empire because of the persecution of the Christians, and had to let Christianity remain, which he even wanted to exterminate. So, I also think, our Emperor Carl will start something vicious against the Gospel, that he will lose all his Netherlands. Johann Pommer once told me that in Lübeck, in an old chronicle, a prophecy was found in the town hall that around the thousand, five hundred and fiftieth year, a great uproar would arise in Germany on account of religion, and after the emperor would get involved, he would lose everything he had. But I do not think that the emperor should start a war because of the pope, especially because war costs a lot of money. For
If it were without money, I think the emperor would have caught something for his person long ago, but to go out money for the pope, the emperor is not lenient.
Unfortunately, in 1546, after Margaretha, only five months after Luther's death, a war was started by Emperor Carl against the Estates of Augsburg. Luther's death, a war was started by Emperor Carl against the Estates of the Augsburg Confession, in which Duke Johann Friedrich, Elector, was captured before Mühlberg; the Landgrave of Hesse rode on escort to Halle to the Imperial Majesty, and was also imprisoned there. Soon after this war, at the Diet of Augsburg in 1548, a change in religion was made, called the Interim, which caused all kinds of unrest in Germany. After this Schmalkaldic War, Emperor Carl had no luck at all, neither before Costnitz nor before Magdeburg, nor before Metz, which city he wanted to win back to the empire, and at that time the King of France had inside. In the end, Emperor Carl handed over the empire to his brother, King Ferdinand, moved to Spain, and died in a summer residence built close to a monastery. It is said that His Majesty had her res gestas painted on some cloths, of which there were twenty pieces. His Majesty had these hung on the wall in the cloister of the same monastery, and often let himself be carried for a walk in the same cloister, and sat there in front of the painted cloths, and remembered what had happened in the war campaigns, sieges, field battles and otherwise, what he had used for war chiefs, captains and captains, and also what luck and misfortune he had had there. And when His Imperial Majesty came before the cloth on which the history of the Schmalkaldic War and the imprisonment of the High Elector of Saxony, Mr. Johann Friedrich, before Mühlberg had been painted: then His Imperial Majesty used to sigh before it and to say: If I had let him remain who he had been, I would also have remained who I had been. And it is so; for His Imperial Majesty, after the Elector's imprisonment, had little luck nor victory against her enemies.
People willfully resist God's word.
D. Luther once said: "If I had known in the first place, when I began to write, what I have now experienced and seen (namely, that the people were so hostile to God's word and opposed it so vehemently), then I would have thought of
I would never have been so bold as to attack the pope and almost all men and enrage them. I cried that they sinned only out of ignorance and human infirmities, and did not support themselves in deliberately suppressing God's word; but God led me up, like a horse whose eyes are blinded, so that he does not see those who run toward him.
And the doctor then said that a good work is seldom done or happens out of wisdom or prudence, but everything must happen in an insanity or ignorance. So I went to the teaching and preaching ministry with my hair: but if I had known that I now know, ten horses could hardly have drawn me to it. So Moses and Jeremiah also complain that they are deceived. No one would take a wife like that, if he really thought about what he should have in marriage and in housekeeping. To this Philip Melanchthon replied: He had diligently observed it in the histories and noticed that no great special deeds were done by old people: the great Alexander's and St. Augustine's ages did it; after that one becomes too wise, and old people do a thing thoughtfully before they do it. Then said D. Martinus said: You young fellows, if you were wise, the devil could not get along with you; but since you are not, you may also do ours, who are now old. Our Lord God does nothing great by force; as they say: If the old were strong and the young wise, that would be worth a lot of money. The spirits of the mob are vain young people, Icari, Phaetontes, who flutter in the air, Gemsensteiger, on top and nowhere off, and want to push the twelve cones on the boßleich 1) around, since you only have nine on it; whimsical heads, as Zwingel and Oecolampadius were also.
24. contempt of the divine word is severely punished.
(The first paragraph Cordatus No. 994.)
I have already survived the greatest plague, namely the contempt of the Word, the uttermost and most ungodly wickedness of the world, the noth-.
1) Cf. Walch, old edition, vol. V, 1182, § 5.
Cap. 1. of the Word of God or the Holy Scriptures. § 24-27.
The only thing that has to follow as a punishment is the abominable things in this world. If I wanted to curse someone very much, I would curse him for the contempt of the word of God, then he would have all that is evil at once, namely internal, external and eternal evil, which the world will not always despise.
In all histories it is seen that where God's word has been preached purely, and it has been despised, punishment has soon followed, and the despising of pure doctrine always precedes punishment; as the examples of the times of Lot, Noah, and the Lord Christ indicate. And because now there is hardly a nobleman, a shepherd, a burgher or a peasant who wants to walk on the pastors and preachers with his feet, I believe that God will punish the ingratitude and contempt of his word severely. The preaching ministry must indeed remain in the world, either righteous or adulterated; for the world does not want and cannot be without worship, and the Turk must also have his priests and church servants, otherwise he could not maintain his regiment: but where one despises God's word, there it wanders away, and the true God and his worship are lost.
Otherwise D. M. Luther said at another time of contempt of the divine word: that if God's word would come to a place, then from that time on also the contempt of the same would be there; this would be certain. And this was also seen in the Jews. God sent them the prophets, Esaiam, Jeremiam, Amos and others: finally he sent them Christ, his Son, even the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, when the apostles were divided and went into the whole world. All of them cried out at the same time: repent; but nothing would help, they all had to be held up: and all the prophets were killed, Christ was crucified, and the apostles were chased away. But soon after Jerusalem lay in the mire, and such destruction continues to this day. The same will happen to the German land, which now also despises God's word. I think that a great darkness will follow after this light of the gospel, so that the gospel will no longer be heard publicly in the pulpit, and after that the last day will soon follow.
(25) He who despises the word of God is not to be argued with.
(Except for the last paragraph Cordatus No. 1073. 1074.)
Whoever admits that the evangelists write God's word, we will meet him. But whoever denies this, I will not exchange a word with him. For then this will also happen in Christianity: Against him who denies the main reason, one must not dispute. Yet all Jews, pagans, and Turks say that the Bible is the holy scripture. For this book has the highest testimony. And there is no harm if some say that the five books of Moses are not written by Moses, but they are written by Moses.
Idle questions are to be avoided in Moses, like that of Egranus, Moses writes, the birds lived in the water, since he means the air here. That would be just so [if one asked] whether the beard had been earlier than the man, and one answers: Certainly, for the goats and he-goats were created with a beard on the fourth day before man, but Adam on the sixth day. Such questions are to be answered only with mockeries [ironiis illudendae].
The Biblia was unknown to the people in the Papacy. Doctor Carlstadt began to read the Bible only in the eighth year after he had become a doctor, because he and Doctor Petrus Lupinus had been driven to read Augustinum.
The Bible is a source of inspiration for the Bible.
Doctor M. Luther said in Eisleben, shortly before his death: that at the Imperial Diet in Augsburg in 1530, Bishop Albrecht of Mainz had once read the Bible; now one of his councilors came to him and said: "Most gracious Prince and Lord, what is Your Lordship doing with this book? Then he answered: I do not know what kind of book it is, for everything in it is against us.
The Bible is hated by the worldly wise and the sophists.
Doctor Usingen, an Augustinian monk who was about my preceptor in the Augustinian monastery
26 Cap. 1. Of God's Word or Holy Scripture. § 27. 28. 27
at Erfurt, once spoke to me when he saw that I was so fond of the Bible and liked to read the Holy Scriptures: Brother Martine, what is the Bible! One should read the old teachers, they have sucked the juice of truth out of the Bible, the Bible causes all turmoil. That is the world's judgment, said D. M. Luther, of God's word, as is also seen in the other Psalm. For if we say to the great men, And now, ye kings, let yourselves be instructed, etc. if they say no to it, and will not suffer the doctrine; then we must also let them go as good fellows.
28. the swarmers' error of God's word.
(Lauterbach, May 10, 1538, p. 77 ff.)
On May 10, he read a book by Bullinger, who was very vehement against the Anabaptists, who despised the oral word, and otherwise against those who appropriated too much to the word, for they sinned against God and his divine omnipotence, just like the Jews, who called the ark of the Lord God in 1 Sam. 6; Bullinger, however, as if he were trying to keep the right center, taught the true reason, which was the right use of the word and the sacraments. To this Luther answered and said: "He is wrong, does not know himself what he means. I see their deception well, they do not want to appear to have erred, and [claim that] we and they have stood on two extreme things [extremes]. They reject the oral word and the power and effect of the sacraments altogether; but we press hard upon them. Now they seek the middle way, and praise the Word and the sacraments, so that we too may drop our extreme opinions and be one with them. Previously they taught that the oral word and the sacraments were only signs and slogans of love. Thus Zwinglius and Oecolampadius went too far. When Brentius resisted, they softened their opinions as if they had not rejected the oral word and other means, but only condemned some gross abuses. They thus separated the word and the spirit from one another; they separated the
Man who preached the word, from God, who worked; the servant who baptized, from God, who cleansed [through baptism]; and think that the Spirit is given and works without the word. Let this word be but an outward watchword, which findeth the spirit that is before in the heart. Now if the word does not find the spirit, but an ungodly man, then it is not God's word. And so they lie, and define the word not according to God who speaks it, but according to the man who receives it, and yet they want this to be the word of God, which produces fruit, which brings peace and life, but because it is not effective in the ungodly, it is not the word of God. Thus they teach that "the outward word is, as it were, an object, an image that explains something, and they determine only its material use, not wanting it to be an instrument and effective cause, a bearer of the Holy Spirit and the beginning of justification. They are drowned in this error and do not understand themselves. Oh, dear Lord God, if only someone would be angry to death against the devil, who so resists the word and rages in the papists and enthusiasts. He sees well that the oral word and the outward office of the church are doing him harm. That is why he is now spreading various errors against it; but I hope God will strike against it recently.
But a Christian must certainly say: The word of God is one and the same word, whether it is preached to the pious or to the ungodly, just as the church is among sinners; and the same word, whether it bears fruit or not, is a power of God, which makes blessed all who believe in it [Rom. 1, 16.], and which will judge the ungodly, Joh. 12, [44. ff.]. Otherwise, the wicked would have a very good excuse before God, that they could not be condemned, because they would not have had a word, since they would not have accepted it. But we say that the preacher's (even though he is a man) word, absolution, sacrament, is not the work of a man, but the voice of God, the cleansing and effect of God, but we are only the instrument and co-workers of God, through whom God acts and works. We
do not want to grant them that metaphysical distinction: Man preaches, the spirit works, the servant baptizes, absolves, but God cleanses, forgives etc. Not at all. But we conclude: God preaches, baptizes, absolves. "It is not you who speak" etc. "He who hears you hears me"; "What you will solve on earth" etc. (Matth. 18, 18. 20. Luc. 10, 16.) So I am sure, when I go to the pulpit to preach and read, that it is not my word, but "my tongue is a stylus of a good writer" (Ps. 45, 2.). For God speaks in the holy prophets and men of God. There man and God are not to be metaphysically divorced, but I am simply to say: this man who speaks, be he a prophet, or an apostle, or a righteous preacher, is the voice of God. Then the listeners should conclude: Now I do not hear Peter, Paul or a man, but God Himself speaking, baptizing, absolving. Dear God, what comfort could a frightened conscience receive from a preacher if it did not believe that his words were God's comfort, God's word, God's judgment! Therefore we conclude simply: God works through the Word (or He works nothing everywhere), which is His vehicle and instrument in the heart. For even the words of Balaam's donkey are not the donkey's words, but God's words; and the very word that comes out of the mouth through the lips: "Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you", Matth. 9, 2. penetrates the heart of man, and he is comforted.
But that the word brings forth and works different fruits is God's secret will. The wind blows where it wants (Joh. 3, 8.). It does not behoove us to inquire into it. I cannot say why I am happy now and cannot be happy soon; why I have a better desire for the word one time than another, since I always have the same word. I am not always delighted by the word in the same way.
If I had such a desire for God's word at all times, as I do at times, I would be the most blessed. But dear St. Paul, who complains (Rom. 7, 23.) that he sees another law in his members that contradicts it, was also mistaken. Should the word therefore be false
if it does not happen [at all times]? Summa, this determination of the word has been in great danger from the beginning of the world, and has stood much that men would be certain that it is God's word when a prophet or apostle speaks.
But the enthusiasts are still papists and do not understand the power of the Word of God. I am very surprised at what they may preach, read and write. Oh, dear Lord God, keep us by your word, do not let this treasure be taken from us, but accept it with thanksgiving and keep it. The papists and the enthusiasts do not want to be recognized for having erred, and they deal with the mendacious, as he did, who torments the passage of 1 Sam. 6, that they called the ark of the Lord God itself.
29. The Use and Effect of the Divine Word. Only God's word is certain and insurmountable.
(Cordatus No. 36.)
Frederick (the Wise, Elector of Saxony) said: He had noticed that even if something was thought out by human reason, however astutely, something more astute could still be invented and produced 1). God's word alone is invincible, and the gospel is higher than all reason. This he perceived from the answers of Christ, like that of the interest, likewise of John, whether his baptism was from heaven or not. (Matth. 22, 17-21; 21, 25.) 2)
(30) Apart from the Word of God, nothing is certain.
It was once said that one had read and written much without all understanding; to which Doctor Martinus said: "A great light has indeed now dawned upon us, for we have not only the words, but also the understanding of the same. Praise God that we know what is right. No sophist has this saying, Habac. 2, 4: "The righteous lives by faith", nor can he interpret it,
1) adtruäi, which has cordatus, gives this appropriate sense. Therefore, the conjecture of Dr. (Wrampelmeyer), ukstruäi, is at least unnecessary.
2) On this §, see Walch, old edition, Vol. IV, 267 6.
neither did the fathers understand him: for to be righteous and to do righteousness they interpreted in many ways, except some Augustine. Such great blindness is in the dear fathers. Therefore, one should read the Holy Scriptures first and foremost, after which one may also read the fathers, but with modesty, because they do not always speak and judge correctly about God's things. But those who turn from the Bible to the commentaries and books of the fathers, their study is endless and futile.
31. You should be sure of God's word.
In matters of religion, concerning God's word and doctrine, one should be certain of the thing, and not waver, so that the confession may stand in the challenge, and one does not say afterwards: I would not have meant it; for as such speech is otherwise dangerous in worldly matters, so it is very harmful in theology. Therefore the canonists, the pope's hypocrites and other heretics, are quite a Chimaera, and a horrible beast of wonder, whose face is like a beautiful virgin, and the body is like a lion, but the tail is like a serpent: that is, their doctrine seems beautiful, seems pretty, seems beautiful, seems beautiful, seems beautiful, seems beautiful, seems beautiful, seems beautiful, seems beautiful, seems beautiful, seems beautiful, seems beautiful, seems beautiful, seems beautiful, seems beautiful, seems beautiful, seems beautiful, seems beautiful. Their doctrine is beautiful, seems beautiful, and what they teach is pleasing to reason and has a reputation; then their doctrine breaks through with force, for all false teachers commonly have the brachium saeculare attached to them, but in the end it is a slippery uncertain doctrine, just as a snake has a smooth skin and wipes through one's hands.
At another time, D. Luther said: "First of all, we must know whether this doctrine of ours, which we lead, is the word of God; for if we know this, then we can firmly build on it, that this thing shall and must remain, and no devil shall overthrow it, much less the world, with all its courtiers, how much they rage and rage against it. I, praise God, certainly hold my teaching to be the word of our Lord God, and have now chased away from my heart all other beliefs, whatever they may be called. And I have almost overcome these heavy thoughts and temptations, since my heart said for a while: "Are you the only one who knows the right thing?
Word of God pure? And all the others do not have it? Thus Satan also sets his sights on us, and violently storms in with the name and title of the churches: Yes, he says, what the Christian church has hitherto decided and considered right for so many years, you overthrow as if it were wrong, and destroy both the spiritual and the temporal government with your new teaching. I find this argument in all the prophets, where the noblest leaders, both in the churches and the police, say: We are God's people, because we are in the proper government, founded and appointed by God: What we, as the largest and best group, conclude and recognize as right, that is to be held: Who are you fools, that you want to teach us? are you hardly a handful? Truly, one must not only be well prepared and armed with God's word, but also have the certainty of doctrine, otherwise one cannot stand in the battle; one must be able to say: I know for certain that what I teach and hold is God's, the high Majesty in heaven's, own word and final decision, and the eternal unchanging truth; the rest, everything that does not agree with it or is contrary to it, is vain lies of the devil, false and wrong. And that alone does it, that one starts a game and stays with it and says: You others all err and are wrong, but my teaching alone is right and God's certain truth, I stay with it, even if the whole world says otherwise. For God cannot lie, because I have His word, which I cannot lack, nor be overcome by all the gates of hell; and I have the consolation that God says: I will give you people and listeners who shall accept it: let me only worry, I will stand over you, you only stay firm with my word.
One must be sure that the doctrine is right and the eternal truth, and not ask anything about how it is held by people. Therefore Christ says John 8:46: "Who among you can reprove my doctrine? but if I tell you the truth, why do you not believe me?" And all the apostles were most certain of the doctrine; and St. Paul especially practiced the Plerophoriam, when he said to Timothy, "I do not believe you.
Theo 1. Ep. 1, 15. says: "It is a precious and valuable word that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. For faith in God through Christ must be certain and firm, so that it makes the conscience happy and satisfies it. And St. Peter in his 2nd Epistle Cap. 1, 19. says: "We have a certain, firm, prophetic word, and you do well to pay attention to it, as to a light that goes out in the dark" etc. If one has this certainty, then that is the victory against the devil; but if one is not certain of the doctrine, then it is not good to argue with the devil.
If you are to be saved, you must be so sure of the word of God that even if all men said otherwise, even if all angels said no to it, you alone could still stand on it and say: I still know that this word is right.
(This paragraph at Cordatus No. 209.)
No face will I have, no miracle will I allow, no angel will I believe who teaches me differently than God's word. I believe this and God's works because these two are in harmony with each other and in all things, from the beginning of the world. For the Word remains the same from the beginning, and I experience in my thinking and feeling that it works as God's Word says, and in all histories we see the works of God agreeing, for as a thousand years ago, so God still works today. I want the word, I do not want miracles. Erasmus, however, wanted miraculous signs because, although he had the word, he did not keep the word.
With the word of God one can defend oneself against the devil.
(Composed of Cap. 26, § 2 and Cap. 24, § 59.)
The gospel reveals the secret wickedness of men.
(This § is taken from the sermon after Christ Day in the Hauspostille. Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. XIII, Col. 99, §§ 41. 42. 43; Col. 101, §§ 45. 48.)
34. majesty and glory of the divine word, that God speaks to us through it.
The majesty and glory of the divine word is inexpressible, and we can
Never thank God enough for this. Reason thinks: If I should hear God the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth, I would run to the end of the world. Listen, brother! God, Creator of heaven and earth, speaks to you through His servants, pastors and preachers, baptizes, instructs, teaches and absolves you Himself through the mystery of the Word and the Sacraments: these words are not Platonis, Aristotelis, or other high scholars and men, but God Himself speaks there.
And these are the best preachers, who teach the common man and the youth in the most simple way, without subtlety and prolixity, 1) just as Christ also taught the people through crude parables. Such are the best listeners, who gladly hear God's word and believe it simple-mindedly: even if they are weak in faith, if they only do not doubt the teaching, they can still be advised and helped. God can suffer weaknesses, yes, even gross bulbs and errors, 2) if one only recognizes it and crawls to the cross again, also asks for mercy, and corrects himself and diligently hears the divine word, believes it, and changes his sinful life accordingly.
David says Ps. 119, 113: "I hate the fluttering spirits, and love your law"; he wants us to diligently pay attention to the power of the divine word, and not to despise the oral word, as the enthusiasts, and especially Schwenkfeld, do now. For God wants to act with us through such means, and also to work in us.
(From here to the end of paragraph Cordatus No. 473.)
It seems wonderful to me when a person (like Michael Stiefel) takes the trouble to tell me one word from the Gospel, which God in heaven has spoken to me before. That is why the ancients said that neither one who preaches nor one who baptizes is to be rejected.
In Balaam's time there were both righteous and false preachers and teachers. That now the text 4 Mos. 23, 3. says, Bi- *.
1) Cf. cap. 22, § 74, and Cap. II, § 13, the last paragraph.
2) Cf. cap. 2, § 24.
Moses said that he went and asked the Lord for advice, which is to be understood as meaning that he asked the advice of righteous teachers, who advised him that he should not do anything against God. Moses then explained himself and said, "He no longer went to the judge, as he had before, but to a false teacher and a false prophet.
This way of speaking, that they asked God for advice, gives us an indication that they held up God's word, and that they did not look at those who spoke it, but looked at what they spoke. Thus Rebekah, Gen. 25, 22, did not ask God Himself, but Shem, or an archfather, for advice. For God has always had certain persons and places in the world by and through which He has made His will known. Thus he sent Moses, and through him revealed his word to the children of Israel, so that when he spoke something, they had to say, "This was not given by Moses, but by God himself. After Moses he sent Christ. His teaching is certain, so is his person, so that we cannot be mistaken nor deceived about what we hear from him, that God himself has certainly spoken it; as the heavenly Father says Matth. 17, 5: "This is my beloved Son, whom you shall hear." And when Christ ascended into heaven, he sent the apostles into the whole world, first instituting baptism and his supper. Now, when God's word is heard and the sacraments are received, we can say with truth: God says so. Thus, many times, when I was in temptation and in fear, Philip Melanchthon, or O. Pommer, or even my housewife, comforted me with God's word, so that I was satisfied, and felt: God says this, because the brother said it, either because of office, or because of the duty of doctrine; for God seriously commands that one should hear Christ, and Christ says that we should hear the apostles.
And this also deceives the sacramentarians and other enthusiasts who speak of God's things according to their thoughts. But we say that one should hear what God says.
1) Cf. cap. 7, § 160.
Now God says before the creation of the world: "Let there be the world! then the world came into being and stood immediately. He also says the same thing in the Lord's Supper, that the bread (which he gave to his disciples) is his body; so it is certainly there, as the words say, and does not hinder Bullinger's cavillation here, since he pretends that, because Christ's body is not seen, it does not exist nor is it present; for here he did not create the visible, but the invisible [things], in the form and manner that he willed and pleased him. That God has preserved his word in the world, and that the kingdom of the Lord Christ has remained in the world in the papacy, is one of the greatest miracles of our Lord God. But our Lord God takes some hearts, to whom he reveals his word, and gives them a mouth for it, and preserves it, not by the sword, but by his divine power.
The word of God is a fiery shield to all who trust in it.
The word of God is a fiery shield, because it is more proven and purer than gold tried in the fire; which gold loses nothing in the fire, and nothing comes off it, but it endures, remains and overcomes everything. Therefore, he who believes the word of God overcomes all things and remains eternally secure against all adversity. For this shield fears nothing, neither the gates of hell, nor the devil, sin, or death, but the gates of hell fear him; for the word of God endures forever, sustaining and protecting all who trust in it. Otherwise, without God's word, the devil has won the game, for no one can resist him, nor ward him off, without God's word alone: whoever grasps this, and firmly believes in it, has won. Therefore, we should not forget the divine word, much less despise it, as the devil seeks it.
God is certainly sought and found in his word of Christ.
(This § is from the Great Interpretation of the Epistle to the Galatians, cap. 1. Walch, old edition, vol. VIII, [trans.] § 56 and § 55.)
(37) That all our actions and life should be arranged according to the divine word.
God also has his guidelines and canons, which are called the Ten Commandments, which are written in our flesh and blood; and the sum of them is: that which you would have done to yourself, do also to others. And our Lord God keepeth these things: for by the measure that thou measureest thou shalt be measured again. God has marked the whole world with this guideline and yardstick: those who live and do according to it, good for them, for God will reward them abundantly here in this life, and the same reward can be shared by a Turk and a Gentile as well as a Christian.
God Himself speaks through the Word, and such a Word is powerful.
D. Luther once spoke of God Himself speaking to us through His Word, and said: If it is true that God speaks to us in the Holy Scriptures, and you still doubt it, you must 1) think in your heart that he is a liar who speaks a thing and does not keep it. But believe thou that he is the supreme divine majesty; therefore, though he open his mouth, it is as much as three worlds, he poureth out the whole world with one word, Gen. 1; and Ps. 33:9 it is said, "When he speaketh, it is done; when he giveth, it standeth."
Therefore, first and foremost, a certain distinction should be made between the word of God and the word of man. A man's word is a small sound that passes into the air and soon vanishes: but the word of God is greater than heaven and earth, even death and hell; for it is the power of God and endures forever. If it is God's word, then it should be taken for it and believed that God Himself speaks to us; therefore one would gladly learn His word. David saw this and believed it, for he says in the Psalter: "God speaks in His sanctuary, I am glad of it. Ps. 60, 8. And we should also rejoice in this, but such joy is also often oversalted for us; as then
1) We have omitted the word "either" with Stangwald.
David also had to endure many temptations, including murder, adultery and expulsion, so that he would walk and remain in the fear of God. That is why he says in the 2nd Psalm verse 11: "Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling". Somebody rhyme this together, be glad and be afraid. My son Hans can do it against me, but I cannot do it against God. For when I sit and write, or do something else, he sings a little song to me; and if he wants to make it too loud, then I start him a little, he sings on all the same, but he does it more secretly, and somewhat with worry and timidity. So God also wants us always to be joyful, but with fear and reverence for God.
God's word is the highest consolation. (Cordatus No. 1832.)
The highest grace is to have the word of God, for he who does not have it will one day fall into despair. This is what David says [Ps. 119, 21. "Cursed are those who lack your commandments" and [Matth. 15, 13.]: "All plants [which my heavenly Father did not plant, me will be choked out]."
40. the gospel is a mystery
(This § is in the church postil. Walch, St. Louis ed. vol. XI, 523 § 19; Col. 519 § 9.)
By the Word of God the world, especially the Church, is governed and sustained.
(Lauterbach, Nov. 4, 1538, p. 157. Follows Cap. 3, 8 77.)
Speaking is a great and divine gift to men; for by word and not by force wisdom rules men, instructs, edifies, comforts, soothes in all situations of life, especially in matters of conscience; therefore God has given His church an audible word and visible sacraments. But Satan resists this holy ministry of preaching with all seriousness and would like it to be destroyed, because this alone would destroy his kingdom.
It is truly a great and marvelous power of the oral word, that through such a weak word, which comes out of man's
The devil, who is a very hopeful spirit, is chased away and put to shame by the hissing of the human mouth. That is why he is so vehemently opposed by the sacramentarians, who even despise it, as Carlstadt calls it a hissing of the human mouth. I will be silent of the Anabaptists who blaspheme the oral word. St. Paul says (1 Thess. 2, 13.): "When you receive from us the word of divine preaching, you receive it, not as the word of men, but as the word of God." Item, to Romans, Cap. 10, 14: "How shall they believe, of whom they have heard nothing?" Likewise, in 2 Thessalonians, Cap. 2, 4. he says of Antichrist, who exalts himself above all that is called God or worship, above God who is preached (ëåãüìåíïí). Otherwise, besides this word, every fanatic would make up a special worship and God. Rom. 1. (v. 16.): "There is a power of God which makes blessed all who believe in it." And Matth. 10, 20: "It is not you who speak, but it is your Father's Spirit who speaks through you." Nevertheless, the sacramentarians are so bold, and unashamedly reject the oral word, since they conclude: "No external thing makes blessed: the oral word and the sacraments are external things; therefore they do not make blessed.
I answer: It is much another, God's outward thing, and man's. God's outward thing is wholesome and very powerful. The poor people thought that the external preaching ministry was the same as the cold human traditions of the papists. So the devil went with Schützen: 1) Flesh is of no use (Joh. 6, 63.). If this argument were valid, an unspeakable harm would have followed, for he would have rejected all external means. The devil has also seen this, for he is wont to start with the lowly until he rises to the heights.
1) The manuscript has: "So gienng der teuffel mit fchutzenn." The meaning is perhaps: The devil himself, through his members, has perverted God's word with fiery arrows against the truth, in order to destroy and exterminate it. Aurifaber has: "So the devil also dealt with Zwingel, and drove him, since he said etc." Bindseil I, 44th: "So the devil went with schertzen." Possibly, however, it is to be read: "So the devil went about with shooters." Then the meaning would be: the devil gave such stupid reasons to the ignorant ABC students. Cf. Cordatus No. 1488 in Cap. 60, § 13.
God instructs man's heart, reason, hands and feet through His Word.
God alone instructs the heart through His word, so that it first comes to know itself, so that it may know how evil and depraved it is, even that it is an enmity against God; as St. Paul testifies Rom. 8, 7. Then God leads man to come to the true knowledge of God, and to be rid of sins, and after this miserable and short life, to attain eternal life. On the other hand, human reason, with all its wisdom, can go no further than instructing people how to govern themselves and live honorably in this temporal and transitory life: that they may do what is good for them in the sight of the world, and that they may leave off what is bad and evil for them. Item, how one should learn to govern, to keep house, to build, and other good arts, that one learns in philosophy and from the pagan books; and nothing more. But how to know our Lord God and His dear Son, Jesus Christ, and to be saved, this the Holy Spirit teaches only through the divine Word; for philosophy understands nothing in the matters of God. And I am very concerned that it will be mixed too much with theology, although I do not dislike the teaching and learning of philosophy. I praise and approve of it, but it requires modesty; let the philosophy remain in its circle, for which God has given it, and use it like a masked person when one plays comedies, and as one otherwise uses worldly justice. But that one wants to mix her into the theologiam, as if she also belonged to it, that does not do, it is also not to be suffered. And I do not like it at all that faith is called a thing, or a quality, or a skill, or an accidental thing; for these are all philosophical words, used in schools and in other worldly affairs, which reason can understand. It thinks that true faith remains in us like the paint on the wall; but faith is a thing in the heart that has its essence for itself, given by God as its own work. But
not such a substantia and self-existent thing, ut in praedicamentis corpus est substantia, as one otherwise teaches the boys in schools, that a corporeal thing, so one can see, grasp and touch, is a substance and self-existent thing.
43. God has bound us to the oral word.
Doctor M. Luther once sighed for the sake of the sects and cults that despised God's word, and said: "Oh, that I were a good poet, I would gladly write and make a delicious carmen, song or poem about the benefit, power and fruit of the divine word; for without God's word everything is nothing and in vain, especially what one does in matters of faith. Therefore, God has bound us to His oral word when He says Luc. 10, 16: "He who hears you hears Me." There he speaks of the oral word that comes out of a man's mouth and sounds in other people's ears, and does not speak of the spiritual word that comes from heaven, but that sounds through the mouths of men. The devil has challenged this from the beginning of the world, and has opposed it, and would gladly eradicate it; therefore let us stay with this medium and means, and hold the word in honor. For some years now I have read the Bible twice a year, and if it were a mighty tree, and all the words were branches and twigs, I have knocked on all the branches and twigs and wanted to know what was in them and what they were capable of, and always knocked down a few more apples or pears. 1)
44. how to teach God's word correctly.
The Word of God must be taught and shared correctly, for there are two kinds of people: 2) Some are frightened and grieved in conscience, as they feel their sin and God's wrath, and have remorse and sorrow over it; these are to be comforted with the Gospel. Then there are hard, wicked, hardened, stiff-necked hearts, which must be comforted with the preaching of the law.
1) Cf. § 1 of this Cap.
2) Cf. Cap. 9, § 16; 12, § 19. § 43. § 62; 22, § 60; 26, § 16.
and punish them, and hold up to them the examples of divine wrath. As, Elijah's fire; item, the flood, Sodom's and Gomorrah's downfall, and the destruction of the glorious city of God, Jerusalem, for these same stubborn heads must be attacked and terrified.
45. the listeners of divine word find guilty to feed the preachers.
(The first paragraph to "Commandment" at Cordatus No. 309.)
The hearers of the divine word are more obliged to feed the ministers of the word, than that they should not fornicate, steal etc.: for the ministry of preaching concerns not only the first table of the ten commandments of God, but especially the first commandment. St. Paul also tells the Corinthians that "whoever serves the altar should also live from the altar, and the ox that feeds should not have its mouth tied", 1 Cor. 9, 9.
But how does the world maintain the preaching ministry? Luther spoke of this in Eisleben shortly before his death and said: "The poor preachers are now treated strangely. For if they now have a patch of wood, beautiful meadow wax, arable land or vineyards in their parishes, it is taken from them. One shares with them, just as he in the fables of Aesopi made a pact with Mercurio 3) that he would give half of everything he found to Mercurio. When he found a sack of dates and almonds, he went and peeled the almonds, and put the almond shells on one side, together with the date kernels, and put the almond and date kernels on one side. He gave half of the almond shells and date kernels to Mercurio, but kept the almond kernels and date kernels for himself. So the portion that the peasants give to the poor preachers and priests is nothing else, but dead shells, chaff, grubs and such small things.
The Word of God points to all divine states and teaches how to conduct oneself in them.
(Lauterbach, May 29, 1638, p. 89.)
The Holy Scripture tells us in the shortest and most explicit way how to live rightly. In
3) Cf. Mathesius, St. Louis edition, p. 216.
In religion: that you believe in God, and that you love your neighbor as yourself etc. In the secular regiment: Be obedient to the authorities. In the domestic regiment: love your wives, educate your children. But the pope despises all these as common, worldly things. Our Lord God could be rich if he wanted to, if he would take the plagues, diseases and misfortunes to himself and sell them for money. What would he redeem for money! In the realm of the pope, however, it has been almost so conceived that every single disease had its idol and intercessor. That is why Cardinal Cajetan at Augsburg said with sobs: "Don't tear up this perfectly ordered rule.
The Word of God alone overcomes the devil's fiery darts and all temptations.
As a black artist, called Faustus, was thought of over the table in the evening, M. Luther said seriously: The devil does not use the magician's service against me: if he had been able and capable of harming me, he would have done it for a long time. He has often had me by the head, but he still had to let me go. I have well tried him, what a fellow he is. He often hit me so hard that I didn't know whether I was dead or alive. He also brought me into despair, so that I did not know whether there was also a God, and I completely despaired of our dear Lord God. But with God's word I have rescued myself. There is no other help or counsel, except that God helps you (with a word spoken by a man, or otherwise seized by one). But if one does not have the word of God, then it is soon over for us, for then he can ride and drive people according to his will.
The Word of God is and remains the Word of God, whether we believe it or not.
(This § except for the last paragraph at Cordatus No. 254.
15. IN. 17. 18.)
The Anabaptists have come into their error for no other reason than that they have not received God's word and work in due form.
of honor. For they think, out of ignorance and godlessness, that baptism is based on their faith, for they believe that God's work cannot be solid unless it is built on human foundations. They also think that God's work is nothing because I do not think it is, and that God must give way and repeat His work for the sake of my unbelief. He does not do that. If I am baptized without faith or in unbelief, my unbelief shall be transformed, and I shall yield to God and believe His work, because God's work is perfect in itself and cannot be changed. I will explain this by an example: Ten years ago I heard the Ten Commandments preached, which I did not believe then; but now I believe them as God's laws. In this change I have changed, not the ten commandments, which have always remained the same. Likewise, if my overlord had commanded something three years ago, but I had not obeyed, it would not follow that his command had become futile because of my disobedience, and he himself will therefore not change his command, but wants me to change my disobedience. It is the same with infant baptism, if the case is made that their [the infants'] baptism was not powerful because of lack of faith. But I do not consider that the children are without faith when they are baptized. For they are offered to Christ by the church, and since the church prays for them, they receive faith.
The Anabaptists say that a child is not worthy of baptism because he does not believe, as if this were a correct consequence: he is worthy of baptism who believes and has faith. Wouldn't that be robbing God of what is his? For it is God alone who baptizes, therefore he does not baptize in vain, but he baptizes a sinner who is unworthy of baptism, yes, he baptizes a man who is worthy of damnation. Therefore, if anyone does not want to err or be deceived, let him not say that he was baptized because he believed, but let him boast that he was baptized by God's own hands. But if you wish to be baptized again, you deny that you have been baptized by God, which God has not done.
will let go unpunished whose work you, O man, are bringing to nothing; for he has commanded to baptize in his name.
These clear words: "Baptize all nations," likewise the command of Christ, and in addition to these two pieces, the example of the church, which baptized children for over a thousand years, urge me that I cannot believe the rebaptizers according to that [their] way, nor do they allow me to be rebaptized.
Baptism must be where Christians are, and Christians are where baptism is; for God does not let His work be in vain and without all fruit. For as the rain from heaven does not depart without fruit, which is nevertheless a bodily thing, and which God causes to fall upon all men without distinction, how should the sacraments be without fruit, which God has ordained and instituted for His children, whom He has begotten through the blood of Christ? The sacraments, the Bible and certain ceremonies of the Christians must also be with the heretics who want to be carried as Christians and be called by the name of the Lord. Without these, no one is in God's people, not even in name, neither in fact nor in reputation. False faith is the work of men, therefore it is without good fruits. But true faith, which is directly God's work, cannot be without good works. Therefore, where God leaves baptism and preaches the gospel, it will not return empty.
What God has commanded (as preaching, baptizing, administering Sacrament) is not our work and we do not do it.
God does not base His word and work on our piety and worthiness; yes, even a prankster and a knave, as now happens in the papacy, may preach or hear a sermon, baptize or be baptized. But such a rascal must be converted if he wants to be saved, and change his unbelief and sinful life: but God's work remains as it is, for and for God's work.
49) To whom the divine word is useful.
(This § is in the church postil. Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. XI, 546 f. § 2. § 4.)
50. where one loves the word of God, there dwells God.
Concerning the saying of Christ John 14:23: "He who loves me will keep my word, and my Father and I will come to him and make our abode with him," Luther once said: "Heaven and earth, even the castles of kings and emperors, are not able to make a dwelling place for him; but in the man who keeps his word, that is where he wants to dwell: although Isaiah Cap. 66:1 calls heaven his chair and earth his footstool, but not his dwelling place. If one then searches long where God is, he will find him in those who hear Christ's word, as the Lord Christ says here: "He who loves me keeps my word, and we will make our home with him. Surely no one could speak more childishly or more simple-mindedly than Christ, and yet disgrace all doctors with it. It is not in sublimi, sed humili genere to speak in this way; and if I were to teach a child to speak, I would teach it thus: He that loveth me keepeth my word. It is not to abstain from food, from meat, from women, from money; that is to ask the devil as a guest with all his company.
The Word of God alone does everything.
Doctor Luther said: "Just as God makes everything out of nothing, and creates light out of darkness; so also his word makes that in death there must be nothing but life. Therefore, whoever clings to the word of God and follows it, will finally experience what David says in the Psalm: "When God speaks, it is made, and when He calls it, it stands there," Ps. 33:9; but before one comes to this experience, one must suffer something; for God's way and nature is to create and make everything out of nothing.
The word of God is twofold.
(Abridged from Cap. 24, §15, the last two paragraphs.)
53. the power of God's word.
(Cordatus No. 767.)
Great is the power of the Word of God, indeed, the Epistle to the Hebrews rightly calls it
[A double-edged sword, because it has the twofold power to comfort and to frighten. Those, however, who neglect this source, will again drink from the puddles of void. Scribes drink which are scraped out and read with very great difficulty, but with little benefit. Chrysostom writes almost nothing pure but of infant baptism; Jerome treats of his devotions. Neither of them commemorates the authorities, nor do they praise the world's regiment, but they were (as they say) hermit-like, 1) like our monks. Everything has to go in monkishly. But those who want to teach others and govern in the church must know the world, because monastic thoughts are not suitable for governing.
(Here 19 lines are omitted because contained in Cap. 7, 8178.)
The word of God alone is to be believed and not doubted.
(Cordatus No. 459 and 1568.)
A challenged person does not join those who want to investigate the highest things, but the church that thinks about faith and grace, because if two become one in her, why it is that they ask, they will be heard [Matth. 18, 19]. This they shall believe, and they shall be saved. Furthermore, whatever the ministers of the Word or other godly people speak to the afflicted in the name of God, they are to be believed, because they are commanded by God to comfort and teach. That is why confession and absolution are so important.
That someone may have the true sacrament, likewise baptism, likewise the true word which I preach, for this I stake my soul, for this I will also die. This is not valid, 2) for he who believes will be saved etc.
1) In the original äsvotarii. I do not know a concise expression for it, but the sense of the word is undoubtedly the same as "monkish". Monks do everything out of their own devotion, without God's word, without knowledge of life. Compare what Luther says, especially about Jerome's teaching and life, Walch, old edition vol. IX, 422, § 17, and vol. Ill, 612, § 7.
2) namely: without own faith based on God's word.
I do not rely on any other faith, but on the Word. Here is an example: If I give you a hundred guilders and put them under the table, but you think it is lead or tin, it is you who are lacking, not me, as it is still money and good gold, if you do not think it is. So God does not lie when he promises eternal life; only see that you believe it and consider it to be true.
Those who have God's word pure and hold fast to it are poor.
(Cordatus No. 863.)
Where the truth of the gospel is, there is poverty, according to the words [Isa. 61, 1/: "He has sent me to preach to the wretched," and [Luc. 7, 22.]: "To the poor the gospel is preached." In former times great monasteries were given full, now not even a penny. Superstition and hypocrisy give money enough, truth goes to Parteken. 3)
(Here 10 lines are omitted because contained in Cap. 5, § 26.)
True Christians are ready to suffer death and all misfortunes for the sake of the gospel, but hypocrites flee the cross.
V. Luther said: He had a table-goer in Wittenberg, named Matthias de Vai, a Hungarian, who had also lived in Luther's house in Wittenberg. This one, after he came home to Hungary and became a preacher there, was at odds with a papist preacher. When the pope accused him before the monk George, Woida's brother, then governor and regent of Ofen, and in the interrogation one had harshly condemned the other, and the monk could not reconcile the parties, because each wanted to be right, the monk George said: Harret, I will soon know which part is right or not; and go to and set two barrels of powder in the marketplace at Ofen, and say: Whoever wants to defend his doctrine, that it is right and the true word of God, let him sit on the barrel of one, and I will put out fire: who then remains alive, when the fire
3) Go to Parteken - go begging.
with the powder, so that it does not burn, the teaching is right. Then Matthias of Vai quickly jumped on one of the barrels and sat on it, but the pope did not want to get on the other barrel with his help. Then the monk George said: Now I see that the faith and doctrine of Vai is right, and your, the papists', religion is wrong: he punished the same papist priest and his assistant for four running Hungarian guilders, and had to pay and maintain two hundred soldiers for him for a while; but he let Matthiam de Vai preach the gospel publicly.
And Luther said: "No one on the papist side wants to dare to go into the fire, but our people go confidently into the fire, yes, into death; as one experienced in the past with the holy martyrs, St. Agnes, St. Agatha, Vincentio and Laurentio. Should the papists now be driven to the fire for the sake of their doctrine and religion, oh how many would fall away. Illi sunt Martyres active, non passive. Emperors, kings, princes and lords now drive out and murder the Christians, so the Turk accepts them, defends, protects and handles them. Papistae nolunt regnum Christi, habeant ergo regnum diaboli. This is what Luther said at Eisleben in 1546 shortly before his death, and he also said: We are respected in the world ut oves occisionis.
Next, in Paris, two nobles and two magistrates were burned for the sake of the Gospel: the theologians got the king of France to light the fire himself with a straw wipe. We are like a bunch of sheep that do not go to pasture, but stand in the barn, waiting when they are put on the spit or in the pot.
Preaching God's word brings the cross.
(Cordatus No. 1.)
When God preaches His word, He adds one thing so that the word may be understood. For example, when he preaches that the cross follows the word, the pious experience the cross soon after hearing the word. In the same way, when faith is preached and good fruits follow faith, it is impossible that the one who has been taught by
If a man is righteous by faith, he should not also do good works in his own time. And if this did not happen, no one would understand God's word rightly, because action interprets the word rightly. This is what Christ wants when he says: "Now I tell you before it comes to pass, that when it is done ye may believe." [John 13:19Z
58. Whoever wants to teach and confess God's word must not wait for honor, but for the holy cross.
Whatever gifts our Lord God gives to the people of the world, they take the glory from it; thus people boast of goods, power, wealth, wisdom, art etc. Our Lord God allows this to happen and suffers it; only God's word and religion (if it is otherwise righteous, pure and unadulterated), since he alone wants to have and keep the glory of it; how just. Therefore he hangs the dear cross, shame, persecution, the world and the devil on the necks of us, who are righteous, faithful teachers, to keep us in humility, so that he alone will keep the honor and we will not become trustworthy. For this reason it rhymes that if one wants to seek honor and good in theology and in God's word, as if he wanted to take coals from a fiery furnace, he would certainly burn himself. Let every theologian, yes, every Christian, be guided by this; otherwise nothing will come of it, if he does not want to be a false teacher and a muzzling Christian.
59. word of god Art.
(Cordatus No. 261.)
In the time of Christ and the apostles (that I say so), the gospel was a doctrinal word; later, among the entire papacy, it was a reading word. Now, however, it has become a fighting word and no longer wants to suffer its enemies, but to get rid of them.
60. God's Word is the body in which God's children are conceived and born.
Just as in the world and in the household a child becomes an heir only by being born into the hereditary estate; so make
faith alone to God's children those who are born through the Word, which is the mother in whom we are conceived, born and brought up; as the prophet Isaiah Cap. 46, 3. says about it. Just as we become children of God through such a birth, which God accomplishes without our doing, so we also become heirs in the same way: but now that we have become heirs, we are free, set free from sin, death and the devil, and have eternal life and righteousness.
61. God's word is to be preferred over all persons and things.
(This § is found in the great interpretation of the Epistle to the Galatians, Cap. 2. Walch, old edition, vol. VIII, § 55. 56. 63. 67. 68.)
62. through whom God keeps his word.
(This § is transferred to Cap. 66, § 33, where it belongs).
The word of God is to be firmly believed, but the wickedness of the world is so great that the last day must control it.
(Composed of Cap. I, § 80, end of first paragraph, and Cap. 51, § 2, end of penultimate paragraph).
A rhyme by D. M. Luther of the New Testament Book.
The will is a noble book, Great art, wisdom it teaches, Blessed is he who keeps it, To him God will bless all his things.
For God's word abides forever, And shares the kingdom of heaven with us,
We must leave this world, for the Word holds fast with us, and strengthens us in the time of death,
And helps us out of eternal death.
Another rhyme of D. M. Luther about the words of the psalm: Beati omnes, qui timent Dominum; found in A. Erasmi Sarcerii Liberei, among the Colloquiis Lutheri.
(This § is in Walch, old edition, IX, 1356.)
In matters of religion, one should judge from God's Word and not from human wisdom.
(Contained in Cap. 55, § 2, subsections 4 and 5.)
In the past, there was evil study, especially in the Holy Scriptures.
In our time, studying was evil, since theology and all the good arts were despised, and fine, clever minds were plagued with sophistry. Aristotelem, the pagan, was held in such esteem that whoever denied him or contradicted him was considered the greatest heretic in Cologne and condemned; since they did not understand Aristotelem, the sophists obscured him much more. As the monk did, who spent two hours in the passion sermon with this question: Utrum Quantitas realiter distincta sit a Substantia? Whether the quantity in itself is distinct from the essence? And showing this example, he said, "My head could creep through this hole, but the size of the head cannot. So he separated the head from its size, as a fool. A bad grammarian could have solved it in a simple way and said: the size of the head, that is, the largest head.
With such foolish work, fine, skilful minds were burdened, and neither in good arts nor in theology were they properly instructed and taught. Thus Antipho, Cusa, Cardus, Bovillus and others have labored miserably and tried how they could bring that which is round into the square, also comparing the right string or equal lines with the crooked. Now we have blessed times, God wanted the youth to make good use of them, and to study diligently in those arts that are now flourishing and green.
The word of God is not to be judged by the fruits and lives of the hearers.
(Contained in Cap. 11, § 25, subd. 1.)
The Gospel is the best new newspaper.
As one once told sad new newspaper about D. M. Luther's table, D. M. spoke. M.
Luther: The gospel brings good new news, and these are certainly from Jesus Christ, our dear Lord and Savior; otherwise I know of few good new news in the world. There is no greater thing and grace, than if we could believe that God spoke with us; if we believed that, we would already be blessed.
70. contempt and corruption of God's word is the greatest wrath of God.
(Cordatus No. 1361.)
Because God gives everything for free and ceaselessly serves people, He bears this reward that they crucify and despise His Son and persecute all servants of God, but He also knows this reward that He gives to His despisers, the Jews and Greeks, the Turks, the Germans and Italians the Pope.
(Here 6 lines are omitted because contained in Cap. 1, 8 13, end of first paragraph).
71) What is the purpose of the contempt of the divine word?
When it was once said how God's word and His servants were despised in the world, both among the nobility and also among the burghers and peasants, then said D. Martinus said: "Let this contempt be our consolation, admonition and reminder to give thanks to our Lord God for this great gift and grace, that we may be those who love His Word, gladly hear it, learn it, and delight in the Holy Scriptures. For it is a great punishment and terrible judgment and wrath of God that a man is so hostile to God and His holy Word that he will not hear it, and in addition neither honors nor respects the servants of the Word, but dishonors and despises them.
The people with whom the Scriptures have to do.
(Contained in Cap. S, § 25.)
73. the sacred scriptural custom.
The Holy Scriptures, especially in the New Testament, have the custom of turning a peculiar saying into a common one.
As when I say, Let Moses be put to death, I make of a single and particular Moses a common Moses, which extends to all things, and a common example, which applies to all the laws that try to catch and bind the consciences. The same saying is found in the 69th Psalm, v. 26, where David says, "Let his dwelling place be desolate," because it is a special saying, speaking of the synagogue and Judaism. And St. Peter, Apost. 1, 20, this saying from Judah the betrayer, who is a forerunner of the synagogue, which took Christ Jesus; as if Peter wanted to say: Therefore the synagogue with its rulers and great men shall perish for a thousand devils 1).
The word of God appears to reason as a vain lie.
When Luther was asked by someone about the word of faith, that it was contrary to reason and common experience, and that the church in the world was most plagued and challenged by the devil; yet the Lord Christ says, John 16:33: "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world"; is there nothing else in the church but sorrow, cross and persecution? The doctor answered and said, "Do you not know that everything in the Scriptures is a lie according to reason? But we are to believe that God wants to prove His power and strength in weakness, and let His wisdom be seen even in the highest foolishness: but blessed is he who believes it.
That the Jews have better teachers and scribes of the Scriptures than we Gentiles.
When M. Luther read the Psalter at one time, he was very surprised that David had such a spirit, and said: Dear God, what high people these were! This David was a husband, a king, a man of war, and a preacher: he dealt with worldly matters, with which he had to do, and yet he wrote such a beautiful book. Thus the New Testament of
1) Stangwald has instead: "for a thousand devils" "in reason."
written by men who were Jews, for the apostles were Jews. Thus, God wanted to indicate that we should worship God's Word, hold it dear and honorable, dear and valuable. We Gentiles have no book that rules and reigns in the Church, except that St. Augustine alone is a doctor and teacher in the Gentile Church before the others; therefore we Gentiles are not at all like the Jews. Therefore St. Paul also makes a fine distinction between Sarah and Hagar, and the two sons, Isaac and Ishmael: Hagar was also a woman, but not equal to Sarah. Therefore, it is a great presumption, hopefulness, and bravado on the part of the pope that he, as a man, has been allowed to set himself against the Scriptures without Scripture, and to exalt himself above them.
Luther's complaint about the quantity of books and his admonition that the Bible should be read carefully.
D. Luther once complained about the quantity of books, that there was neither an end nor a measure to writing, and everyone wanted to make books, and said: "Some did it out of ambition, so that they would also be famous and get a name from it. But some did it for the sake of pleasure and profit, and thus promoted such evil. Thus, through so many commentaries and books, the dear Bible is buried and scorched, that one does not even pay attention to the text. Since in all good arts and faculties those are the very best who are well read and well grounded in the text 1). For in law, a good jurist is one who is well practiced and well known in the text; but now they also soon turn to the scribes and commentaries. When I was young, I became accustomed to the Bible, read it often, and became familiar with the text: there I became so well acquainted with it that I knew where every saying stood and was to be found when it was spoken of; thus I became a good textualis. Only then did I read the scribes. But in the end I had to put them all out of sight and put them away, because in my conscience I could not be satisfied with them, and so I had to
1) Cf. § 6 of this Cap.
again with the Bible; for it is much, much better to see with one's own eyes than with foreign eyes. Therefore I would also wish that all my books were buried nine cubits into the earth, for the sake of the evil example, that otherwise every one would follow me with many books to write, so that one would be famous. No, Christ did not die for our vain glory, that we might have fame and honor; but he died that his name alone might be hallowed.
The first is the first of the two fables of Aesop and the second is the first of the two fables of Aesop.
I think that some of the beautiful fables have come from there: When the cruel tyrant. When the cruel tyrant Julianus, a Mameluk and disowned Christian, seriously forbade in the Empire to teach, preach and confess the Holy Scriptures and God's Word publicly, there were two pious bishops (as church history says) who became schoolmasters and taught the young boys in the schools.
78. No one is offended by the simple speech of the Scriptures.
(This § is from the preface to A. T. Walch's old edition, vol. XI V, 2, § 3.)
Why the same thing is repeated so often in the Scriptures.
(Cordatus No. 1605.)
Why Moses and the prophets in constant repetition [tautologia] always bring up the same thing again, one complains about it; but the whole fifth book of Moses is no more than: "I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out" etc. But the Holy Spirit has seen the ungodliness of people who touch the Bible only with their fingertips and forget the treasure buried in it. We have seen in our time how graciously God has delivered us from the tyrants, from the pope, from the zealots, Zwingli, Oecolampad. These cases should comfort us over and over again, but we have already completely forgotten all of them.
80. By God's word one should remain alone and hold fast.
(The beginning of this § is transferred to Cap. 3, § 23, where it belongs. The following is in Kummer p. 378 [Lauterbach p. 87] and follows after Cap. 3, § 23.)
Such visible and physical things we see daily and cannot understand them and are forced to say: "I believe in God the Father" etc. Nor do we fools want to master God in the article of reincarnation and salvation, and much disputing about infant baptism and the secret powers of the sacraments, so we poor fools do not know where the great Junker Fart in the belly comes from. So it is said that when God speaks A Word, the whole world should tremble, believe and obey. Away with the exceedingly godless Papists, who dare to prefer the fabricated prestige of their church to the Word of God. For this Papist argument is the highest and most intolerable blasphemy, so that they spit God in the face. Great indeed is the patience of God who endures this. But it has always been so. For the God of Bethel was held in high esteem by the people of God, but the God that Jeremiah preached was of no value at all. It costs our Lord God so much to keep his power and mercy with a few. He must smite many kings before a few people learn to fear him, and he must make many harlots and knaves blessed before a few sinners learn to believe him. Therefore the prophets and apostles do not labor in vain, that we may abide in the word of God. For without this word we are lost. If we do not wrap ourselves in this God who has become flesh and has been put into words, then we will soon be devoured by the devil.
The word of God is to be heard, not pondered according to God's majesty.
(Contained in Cap. 2, 8 9, paras. 2-4.)
82. a different.
(Lauterbach, Sept. 12, 1538, p. 131.)
A Hungarian presented Luther with strange, ludicrous and unnecessary questions, which he had written down. Luther said: Ah! that
We remain with the revealed will of God, because God has revealed everything to us in Christ, whom we should listen to: He knows how to solve all these "arguments". Yes, God wants to give us everything in Christ, only we should humble ourselves in true obedience. But we don't want to, and apart from Him we are fools, and we deal with the question why God does it this way, lets it happen this way, and we also want to be a little bit in the game.
83. a different.
(Contained in Cap. 4, § 16.)
That God's word was preached much more powerfully in the time of the apostles, and ours now, and was spread farther than in the time of Christ.
(Contained in Cap. 12, § 26.)-.
85. contempt of the divine word.
(Cordatus No. 256 and No. 257.)
The things of God are so evil that I can no longer advise them. For nothing of all that he does with us, even in the most merciful way, remains uncorrupted for him. This can be clearly seen in the words of God. As often as he gives it to the world again, it is despised, mocked, persecuted and eradicated from the world, as much as there is in it. If he does not give it, we are condemned. But if he has given it, we condemn it, and we condemn it by deed and by denial. For if we believe, we do not; if we disbelieve, we deny. Since this is how his word is in this world, what, I ask, happens to all his works, even to himself?
It will happen again, as it did before, that all those who now advise the world for its salvation will run away into the deserts, because of the exceedingly great ingratitude, which always turns the best into the worst.
86) The essence of a thing is to be separated from its custom, and alone
Staying with God's Word.
(Contained in Cap. 22, § 34 and again in another redaction Cap. 37, § 71.)
The Word of God performs great miracles, but everyone wants to master it.
The teaching of the Gospel has done great wonders, even in our times: it has cast down and disgraced the monastic vows and the abominable idolatry of the corner masses, which nevertheless have a great reputation and appearance. Oh, if only we would also thank God for this and remember back in what horrible darknesses we had been in the priesthood, from which God has thus graciously redeemed us, without any merit on our part, through His Word, which we so shamefully despise, and thereby provoke God to anger, so that He must punish us. But now everyone wants to be a master of the Scriptures, and everyone thinks that he understands them very well, and has even studied them; just as St. Jerome, in his preface to the Bible, complains that there has not been an old fool and a foolish hag, nor a washed-out sophist, who has not presumed to be a master of theology, and has torn them apart.
All other arts and crafts have their preceptors and masters, from whom one must learn them, and also order and laws, according to which one must judge and keep; only the holy Scriptures and God's Word must be subject to every one's pride, arrogance, will and presumption, and be mastered, twisted and interpreted as each one understands and wants it according to his own head; hence also come so many cults, sects and aversions; God forbid them.
Without God's word, the ceremonies are filth and dung.
Let us pray diligently for God's word, that God's name alone may be hallowed; for if the doctrine is not reformed, all reforming is in vain with life: I throw in all ceremonies without God's word. Although the papists have never said or taught anything about righteous ceremonies. Whoever wants to have a right church, he must adhere to the word by which everything is preserved.
The word of God is not learned without challenge.
D. Luther once said: "I did not learn my theology all at once, but I had to search deeper and deeper for it. My temptations have brought me to this, for one can never understand the Holy Scriptures apart from practice and temptations. This is what the fanatics and the mobs lack, that they do not have the right opponent, namely the devil, who teaches them well. So St. Paul also had a devil who beat him with his fists, and thus drove him with his temptations to study diligently in the Holy Scriptures. So I have had the pope, the universities, and all the scholars, and through them the devil on my neck: they have chased me into the Bible, so that I have read it diligently, and thus finally attained their right understanding. If we otherwise do not have such a devil, then we are only speculative theologians who handle their thoughts badly and speculate with their reason alone that it should be this way and that way; as the monks in the monasteries also did.
After all, you can't learn other good arts or crafts without practice. What kind of a physician or doctor would he be if he stayed and ran in schools all by himself? He must, indeed, bring the art into use and begin to practice it, and the more he acts with nature, the more he sees and experiences that he does not yet have the art rightly and perfectly. So must a lawyer and every craftsman and artist do: what should not such be in the holy Scriptures, since our Lord God has a mighty adversary?
It is also a great grace of God that one has a certain text of the Bible before him, from which he can say: This is right, I know that for sure. People think they know everything soon after they have heard a sermon. Zwinglius also thought that he knew it well, but that it was a bad art. But I know that I can't yet do the Lord's Prayer properly, as a learned, old doctor I usually am.
I am, or should be. No one can be learned without practice and experience. That is why the peasant said: "Armor is good who knows how to use it properly. So the holy scripture is certainly enough in itself, but God grant that I may also catch and make the right use of it; for if Satan disputes with me, as if God were also gracious to me, I must not make this statement against him, that he who loves God with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his strength, etc. will possess God's kingdom. For the devil will soon reproach me, and come up to me and say, "You do not love God," as my conscience convinces me. But I must take hold of the saying, and use it against the devil, that Jesus Christ died for me, for through Him I have a gracious Father, who has reconciled me to Him, and as St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 1:30, "He was given to me by God for wisdom, for righteousness, for sanctification, and for redemption.
90. that the ingratitude against God's word will make our churches great.
Do harm.
D. Luther said: Our church will not suffer such great distress and danger from the tyrants and their persecution as from our own, and from our great security, wit and carelessness. For even though the pope will try all sorts of things against us and will subject himself to them, and will give and give much to his patrons, in the opinion and hope that if this sect of ours (which is what he thinks it is) and doctrine were suppressed, he would get back everything that he has lost so far: But this will not happen, whether God wills it or not, the word of God would perish in the German land, and then God would not stay away long with the last day, and thus, as the last, break into this terrible night, and push the bottom out of the barrel. Otherwise, the tyrants, fanatics and heretics will only drive us into the Bible to read it more diligently and to sharpen our prayers more earnestly.
91) The bet HLtt's for that the teaching of the divine word soon must perish.
D. Luther said at Eisleben that omnes sapientes mundi thought that the teaching of the Gospel, because it had begun suddenly, would not last long, but would fall again of its own accord. That is why the present bishop of Magdeburg, Hans Albrecht, has the saying: One must command much of the time. He hoped that the papacy in the German land would again start: he is rightly instructed in Rome, therefore he does not ask anything about our doctrine. The children of the world do not say otherwise: When the thick cloud has passed, it will probably smell differently.
Preaching God's word annoys the world.
(Contained in Cap. 4, § 62.)
93) How to stand against the despisers of the divine word and the sacraments.
Dear sirs (said D. Martinus to the parish priests and the clergy, and those who were with them), let us wait on the church with preaching, pure doctrine and sacraments. Whoever will not go to the sacrament, 1) nor learn the catechism, you shall not go to him in his sickness, when he is to die; but let him lie down like a sow: neither take care of him, nor let him be buried in the churchyard, to the horror and disgust of others.
94. How God spoke to the fathers.
D. Martinus was asked: How God would have spoken with the fathers, when John says, Joh. 1, 18.: "No one has ever seen God"; and contrary to this the patriarch Jacob would say, Gen. 32, 30.: "I have seen the Lord face to face"? To this the Doctor replied: "God spoke to the fathers through visions and appearances, so they saw God's face, and not God Himself; as we have God's face and see Him through Word, Sacrament,
1) Cf. Cap. 19, § 15; Cap. 21, § 18.
-the churches key, in the parents and authorities order. These are God's faces and larvae. For "face" in Scripture means God's appearance, presence and mercy; as David says: "Lord, do not cast me out of your presence. And on the other hand, "to see God's behind and back" means to see God's wrath. According to the grammatica, this means God's face and back. But spiritually, the ancient teachers interpreted God's back from Christ's humanity. So Moses wanted to see God's face, that is, His glory, so that the people would believe him; therefore Moses, as a common person in public office, desired to see God's face, that is, His omnipotence, wisdom and goodness: which three do not distinguish nor separate the person, but are assigned and given to the persons, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. But God seems weak, foolish and evil in our eyes. This is called seeing God's back and seeing Him from behind; as Paul speaks of the weakness of the crucified God, of the foolish and foolish word.
95. how the world wants to abolish and settle the division in religious matters.
(The first paragraph of this § is omitted because taken from the writing: Wider den Meuchler zu Dresden. Walch, old edition vol. XVI, 2069, § 164)
Item, it said D. M. Luther that Mr. Conrad Hoffmann would have said to the bishop of Mainz, Albrecht, Cardinal, three and twenty years ago, that he should control and ward off the religious dispute in time, so that a large incendium would not arise from it. Then the bishop of Mainz said: It is a monk trade, they will probably tolerate it themselves. But he would have known it (said Doctor Luther) since that time.
2) At that time, Doctor Luther also told that in Rome the Pope's fool had once been with some cardinals, who had been beaten.
I) The same narrative, according to Lauterbach, is found in Cap. 27, § 54.
2) This narrative somewhat modified also Cap. 27, § 102, in the last paragraph.
how one would like to do with the Lutherans, so that they could be eradicated? But they had said that the Lutherans cite the Holy Scriptures and St. Paul so violently against them and attract them in their books and writings; this would be in their way, so that they could not suppress the Lutherans. Then the fool said to them that he knew good counsel to get rid of Paul and that his teaching would not be against them. The pope would have the power to elevate saints; St. Paul should also be elevated and placed among the saints from among the apostles, so that his dicta would no longer be apostolic.
That the divine Word and the Christian Church may be preserved from the raging of the world.
Count Albrecht of Mansfeld's chancellor, Georg Lauterbeck, returned from the day in Frankfurt in 1546 and told Luther over the table in Eisleben how Emperor Carl and the Pope were taking such swift proceedings and actions against Bishop Hermann of Cologne and were planning to expel him from the lands and people. Luther then said: "They have lost the matter, they cannot do anything to us with the Word of God and the Holy Scriptures, therefore they want to fight against us with wisdom, force, cunning, practices, deceit, violence and weapons. They themselves give us the testimony that the wisdom, truth and Word of God are with us. But here the papists say, "How shall we do to him that we oppress Christ and his gospel? How shall we do to him that we suppress Christ and his gospel? Let us use deceit, violence and cunning to hinder its progress. And it comes to pass, as the other Psalm v. 2 says, "The kings of the land rise up, and the lords take counsel with one another." What do they want to do? "Against the Lord and his anointed." They want to make this other psalm true. But it follows soon after: "He who dwells in heaven, laugh ye." God still thinks he wants to remain well before the angry young men, and the devil thanks them that they should take me, a poor man, into their rods. I have now been in the council for six and a half thousand years, ruled and made all the laws. Dear nobles, don't get so angry, run away.
from the wall, do not crush your head. "Be ye wise, ye kings and judges of the earth." Receive the Lord Christ, or the devil shall smite you: "that ye perish not in the way." I believe that God wants to overthrow the Pope, so that the last day will come. This is a right hopeful psalm against the same fellows. It starts out silly, but ends proudly: "So that you will not perish on the way. There will be a fire, therefore "good to all who trust in him." It is a proud, high psalm. He says: Behold, what you lords do, "he who dwells in heaven," he takes care of our affairs, and then grabs the great lords between the spurs and rides them to water. It will not help yet.
And Doctor Martin Luther said that in the face of the world's great, weak practices we have no other consolation than that our God is called "not a God who is far away, but a God who is near," Jer. 23:23, and after that a God of mercy. The same sees all these practices: he does not forget them, for he has a great memory. But what does our Lord God say about this? He thinks that he is a poor disciple, and thinks, "How will my son and I fare? The angels are all terrified, and
think: Where do we go from here? Where do we want to stay? But I assume that God will say: This plan or practice does not please me; then nothing must come of it. For even if they intend this and that, and even if all four winds and four elements are against us, we must still hold fast to God: if he will not have us alive, let him have us dead; but we know otherwise, for the dead will not praise you, O Lord.
I have angered the pope very much with the evil pictures. Oh how the sow will raise her rump in the air. But even if they kill me, they will first eat the dirt that the priest, who rides on the sow, has in his hand. I have put a golden bowl in the hand of the priest, and he shall first credence it. I have a great advantage, my lord is called Shefflemini, who says, "I will raise you up at the last day." And so he will say, Doctor Martine, Doctor Jonah, Mr. Michael Cöli,1) come forth; and will call us all by our names, as the Lord Christ says in John, Cap. 10, 8: "He calls them by name." Be fearless.
1) Cf. 48, § 39. His signature under the Schmalkaldic Articles. Walch, old edition, vol. XVI, 2389.