1. what idolatry is.
2. to establish worship without God's command.
3. the nature and character of the idolaters or works saints.
4. from the idolatry of Baal Peor.
5. idolatry of Moloch, the idol of the Ammonites.
6. Jeroboam's calves and the cast calf of the Jews.
7 Idolatry is naturally inherited by us.
8. where idolatry initially come from.
(9) Apart from Christ, all worship is idolatry.
10. 11. Idolatry and its punishment.
12. end of idolatry and idolatrous.
13. beginning of idolatry.
14. from the Astrologia.
The world is full of idolatry.
16. idolatry in the papacy.
17. that Jacob put away foreign gods, and from Cain.
18. idolatry and superstition is common to all.
19. warriors have commonly had and used a lot of superstitions in the papacy.
20. the pagans' monkey work of the holy of holies and others.
21. of the golden calf.
22. of the sacrifice of the people.
23. idolatry, which is practiced with the monks and nuns.
(24) The idolatry of false teachers is for all time.
25. 26. Of idolatry in invocation of the saints.
27. of foreign gods.
What idolatry is.
1. what idolatry is.
Idolatry is and means all kinds of holiness, worship and spiritual being, glittering from the outside as beautifully and gloriously as it can, plus all kinds of heated and ardent devotion of the heart, of those who want to serve God without Christ, the mediator, without his word and special command. For example, in the papacy, it was considered one of the most spiritual works when the monks sat in their cells and wrote about God and His wonderful works; when they were so fervently inflamed in their great devotion that they lay on their knees, prayed and had their contemplation of heavenly things with such great joy and devotion that they thought they had great joy. Then they cast out all thoughts of women and all that is perishable, thinking only of God and His great wondrous works. All this, which reason considers to be vain angelic spirituality, is still a work of the flesh, as St. Paul clearly indicates when he speaks Gal. 5:19, 20: "But the works of the flesh are manifest, which are adultery, fornication, idolatry, sorcery" 2c.
Therefore, all kinds of religion (let it have a name and appearance, as great and holy as it may be), since one wants to serve God without His word and command, is nothing else but idolatry. And the holier and more spiritual they seem, the more harmful and poisonous they are; for they lead people away from faith in Christ, and make them rely on their own powers, works, righteousness; as this time of the Anabaptists is also, who want to be far better than others 2c. And of all monks, especially of the Carthusians, order, fasting, praying, hard shirts, the most holy works, rule and whole life, which state, however, was held in the papacy the most holy, are vain carnal works: for they hold that they are holy and become blessed, not through Christ, whom they regard and fear as a strict, wrathful judge, but through their order rules.
So now no one can persuade the papists that the corner mass is the greatest blasphemy and idolatry on earth, the like of which has been so abominable in Christendom since the beginning of time.
The apostles' time has never been, for they are blinded and hardened. Therefore all their understanding and knowledge of God and all divine things is also perverse and wrong, considering that to be the right and greatest worship, which is the greatest and most abominable idolatry. And again, that is idolatry, which is the right and best worship, but to know Christ and believe in him. But we, who believe in Christ and have his mind, can, praise God, know and judge everything, but can be judged by no one with truth, 1 Cor. 2:15.
2. setting up worship without God's command.
One of them asked: How can one prove that whoever establishes a church service out of good opinion and devotion, without God's word and command, is lacking the right God and serves a foreign god? He answered: A man honors and calls upon God for this reason, that he turns to Him for comfort, help and all good things. If the same invocation and honor happens according to God's word, that man turns to God for all graces because of his promise and promise made to us in Christ, he honors and calls on the true, living, eternal God. But if he performs a work or service of God out of his own devotion and discretion, in order to appease God's wrath, to obtain forgiveness of sins, eternal life and blessedness, as is the way of all hypocrites and saints of works, then he honors and worships an idol that he himself has invented in his heart, contrary to God's command and commandment, and is an idolater and idolater; and it does not help him to think, I do it in honor of the right God: "For whatsoever is not of faith is sin," Rom. 14, 23.
3. the nature and character of the idolaters or works saints.
(Cordatus No. 887.)
The idolaters do as the musicians do, for as often as God wants them for His service, He cannot make them do it. Although he preaches to them in his word the way, the time and the place of his service, he does not make them do it.
they do not want. All hypocrites, papists, and even all natural people do the same. All of them want to worship God and seek Him as He does not want them to, in high groves 2c. So let him wait for us, because it annoys him. Idolatry is God's angerer, irritant, challenger and embitterer of His house, of which God says [Jer. 11:8]: they have chosen their own ways, and I will confront them for their inventions.
4. Baal Peor's idolatry.
The Jews write to the Gentiles out of envy and annoyance: It was such a service and such a way, that before the image of Baal Peor, one has torn open and thrown one's butt. This is not the opinion, for all idolatries and idolatry have ever been so arranged that they have had a semblance of spirituality and holiness. But I think it was such an influx and service, as with us in the Pabstthum St. Valten, 1) St. Antonius, Cyriaci and Rochi, and the like; that Baal Peor should not do harm to the people, nor spoil them with pestilence, cold fire, Sanct Valtens pestilence, or other plagues.
Also I consider it to have been a disorder, similar to our pilgrimages and church masses, that they (as written in Ex. 32, 6. of the idolatry of the cast calf) got up early in the morning, prayed and sacrificed, then ate and drank, and later here two, there two got together and went out under the bushes to do their baptism 2c. The way has been very common before this time in the Pabstthum with the pilgrimages that one has visited in the cross week of the holy place or churches, about a half, whole, two or three mile way from the cities. And when two could not come together to commit their fornication, they went to such pilgrimages, atoned for their lust, but under the pretense of the holy service. There is still much of this abominable nature under the cursed papacy; may God put an end to it, amen.
1) d. i. Valentin.
5. idolatry of Moloch, the Ammonite idol.
This idolatry has had a great appearance and glorious prestige, as if it were dearer and more pleasing to God than the common worship commanded by Moses in the Law. Therefore, many people who seemed devout, spiritual and holy from the outside, when they wanted to show God a pleasing service, sacrificed their sons and daughters out of great love and devotion in honor of God, as they thought, and thought that by such work they would become righteous and dear children of God. They did not mean otherwise, for in this they followed Abraham's example, Genesis 22, and pleased God with it.
Against this the prophets preached fiercely, calling it sacrificed to idols and devils, not to God, as the 106th Psalm, v. 37, 38, testifies: "They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the devils, and shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters, which they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. And Jer. 32:35: "They have built the high places of Baal in the valley of Benhinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters to Moloch, whereof I commanded them not; neither did it ever enter into my mind that they should do such abomination. "2c. Jeremiah continued on 7. But the prophets had to lie and be damned heretics.
This idolatry was also common in the papacy, but in a different way. The parents were praised blessed who gave one or more children into the monasteries, so that they became monks or nuns, since they could serve God day and night 2c. Hence the common saying: "Blessed is the mother who has given birth to a child who has become a spiritual person.
These sons and daughters were not burned in the flesh and sacrificed to idols, like those mentioned above, but they were thrown into the jaws of the devil, who, through his apostles, the pope and his multitude, miserably murdered their souls with false doctrine, so that they relied on their works 2c. Now, "he was a murderer and a liar from the beginning", Joh. 8, 44. This his handiwork he does without ceasing, daily murdering in many ways.
Wise countless people all over the world. Those he cannot kill physically, he kills spiritually, through lies and false teaching, but under the appearance of truth and wholesome teaching. Summa, "he goes about" without ceasing "like a roaring lion" 2c. Know how to judge thyself, "that thou be sober and watchful, and resist him steadfastly in the faith," 1 Pet 5:8, 9.
Of the idol Moloch spoke Anno 1540 D. Luther (as M. Hieronymus Besold, blessed, has diligently written it out), that the holy scripture often remembers Moloch, and that Lyra and the Jews' Commentarii said that it would have been an idol, made of copper and brass, like a man, who would have held his hands in front of him, in which they would have put glowing coals. When the brass image became hot, a father went and sacrificed to the idol, took his own child and placed it in the idol's glowing hands. However, they rang and tolled with bells and cymbals and blew horns so that the parents did not hear the child's cry. Against this all the prophets cried out, especially Jeremiah (Cap./, 31. 19, 5. 32, 35.). And the prophets write that Ahaz sacrificed his son in this way. (2 Kings 16:3) In the 106th Psalm, v. 37, it also says this. All this was done out of the opinion and tradition that they had thought: If I sacrifice to our Lord God, I will sacrifice something delicious to Him; what shall I sacrifice to Him, a calf? I will sacrifice My own son to Him.
6. Jeroboam's calves, and that cast of the Jews.
The calves remain in the world forever, until the last day, not that anyone should make and have made for him new calves like those; but in whom a man, putting his trust and confidence in God, makes for him, like Jeroboam, calves, that is, other and strange gods, which he honors and worships instead of the one, right, living and eternal God, who alone can and will counsel and help in all distress. So now all these calves serve, who abandon themselves
on their art, wisdom, strength, holiness, wealth, honor, power, alliance, good fortifications, fortresses, and in sum, on everything, be it what it may, since the world builds on and defies them; for such reliance on perishable creatures is true idolatry and idolatrousness.
7. idolatry is naturally inherited.
(Cordatus No. 1034.)
We all easily fall into idolatry because we are all idolaters by nature, and since idolatry is innate in us, we like it very much.
8. from where idolatry initially arose.
(This § is found in the great interpretation of the Epistle to the Galatians, Cap. 4. Walch, old edition, vol. VIII, § 151.)
(9) Apart from Christ, all worship is idolatry.
(This § is in the great interpretation of the Btief to the Galatians, Cap. 4. Walch, old edition, vol. VIII, § 153.)
10. idolatry and its punishment.
Idolatry is called and is, if everything is not done, taught and done according to God's word, as it prescribes and teaches us. For where one wants to serve God, one must consider not what one does and the work, but how it is to be done, whether God has also commanded it, since "God" (as Samuel says 2 Sam. 15, 22.) "is more pleased with the obedience of His word than with the burnt offering.
Therefore, whoever does not obey God's voice is an idolater, even if he praises the highest and most difficult divine services. For it is the characteristic of idolaters that they do not choose what is easy and small to look at, but what is great and difficult. Such things have been seen in monks, who always and almost daily devise new services; but because God has not commanded it in His word, it is vain idolatry, along with it and always blasphemy, contempt for God's word, avarice, injustice, violence, unjust courts and judgments, and the like.
For what men set up for worship without God's word and command is idolatry; as the Scriptures say.
Therefore, one should flee idolatry with the utmost diligence, as it is not followed by evil punishment, but by final and extreme destruction. For since God punishes the injustice done to one's neighbor with terrible scourges, as is seen in the prophets and histories, how much more severely and cruelly will he punish when he sees that his honor is defiled and oppressed by godless people through idolatry, false doctrine and idolatry? Oh, the punishment will be much greater than a man's heart can think or his tongue can utter.
11. a different.
All worship that is performed without God's command is ungodly and idolatry. Although such worship is praised in fathers who had God's command. And from this rule all monasticism and idolatry in the priesthood and elsewhere can be judged and judged.
12. end of idolatry and idolatrous.
The life of idolaters is not only arduous, for they do not celebrate or rest, and they get sour, but idolatry is sure to be followed by misfortune and ruin, even if it is blissful in the first place, and receives great goods and power. On the other hand, the right, true, pure religion must suffer hunger and sorrow, be fiercely contested and persecuted. But how the idolaters use such goods can be seen in the papacy, in foundations, at the courts of cardinals and bishops, and it happens with them just as Moses says: "When he was fat and full, he became lustful" 2c. Deut. 31, 20.
And the secular authorities defend and protect such ungodly beings and abominations; for kings and princes (which the Scriptures call shields Ps. 47:10 because of their office, which they should serve with their power) are commonly patrons of ungodly beings and idolatry. But what will be the end of it? Namely, as Samuel says in 1 Sam. 12, 25: "If you do evil, you will be wronged.
then both you and your king will be lost." For idolatries, which one performs and does in order to avert God's wrath, provoke God to anger even more. Thus, the papists of today, with their masses, pilgrimages, and invocations to the saints, do nothing but promote their ruin and downfall, and hasten to punish them. For God can suffer nothing less than contempt of His word, which always follows idolatry for and for. From this comes strife and dissension, hatred and enmity of the right pure doctrine, and murder; for the idolaters want to defend their false doctrine and idolatry, not only with insults and blasphemies, but also with their fists.
Therefore, God is forced on both sides to look into it and to judge, so that the godly are not oppressed, and the idolaters do not go unpunished, because they have deviated from God's word and have created new services, with which the other simple and unintelligent people, as entangled and confused with nets, may not come to the right knowledge of God. Which sin, however, those who are in the teaching and preaching ministry should punish 'freely and unashamedly, regardless of their high dignity and dignity. For the prophets, as seen in Hosea, chap. 5:1, not only punish the house of Israel in general, but also publicly name the priests in particular; item, the king's house, that is, the king himself and the whole court. They did not ask that there was great danger that the authorities were thus publicly punished and touched, and that they were scorned for it, and that their sermons were reproached as seditious. For another and greater danger pressed upon them, namely, that they saw that by such examples of the authorities the subjects were also seduced and provoked to sin.
Therefore it is highly necessary to punish the founders and masters or perpetrators of such offenses, especially if they are in high offices, powerful and learned; although it is not without danger. Above all, however, the abuses in the papacy and other errors are to be punished with seriousness, and one is to
Do not turn to the judgment of the worldly wise nor be deterred, who think that the right pure doctrine could nevertheless be preserved, if one did it carefully and cleanly, that one dealt with it gently and quietly, and for the sake of common peace let the adversaries pass and go a little, see through the fingers, do not lead with the seed bell. No, dear sirs, the danger of arousal is greater, which righteous, faithful teachers and preachers can neither counsel nor control in any other way than to freely and unashamedly punish what they see to be evil and wrong, false and seductive.
13. beginning of idolatry.
I hold, said D. M. Luther, that idolatry has its origin and has come from the right religion: that the holy fathers commanded their children and told them to pray early; after that the descendants worshipped the sun early. As then all idolatry commonly has its beginning from imitating the right worship, and wants to embellish itself with a semblance of divine word and the pious examples that have had God's command. .
(The following paragraph at Cordatus No. 1431.)
Every idolater is stingy; the work saints [religiosi] are idolaters, therefore stingy. The true righteousness has pity, the false, indignation. Everyone who deals with (his own] righteousness. 1) is sad and safe, and the holier [religiosior ---- scrupulous], the stingier.
14. from the Astrologia.
(Contained in Cap. 70, § 4, last paragraph.)
The world is full of idolatry.
All the world (also God's own people, the Jews) has been full of idolatry, for one went there, the other there, worshipping as much as they had mountains and trees in the land, which were pleasant and beautiful; as is seen in the prophets, and we have also done in the papacy. Such was the high idolatry, since they worshipped God with earnestness.
1) Justitiarius cannot possibly mean "judge" or "judicial officer" here. That would be an idea quite foreign to Luther.
They sought, sacrificed and fasted, and hurt the body with it. But no one was served by it but the devil and his own thoughts. This then is the greatest dishonor and blasphemy that God encounters in the world, which arises from not knowing Christ; for everything that is apart from and without Christ, be it ever so glorious and great, is nothing but blasphemy and idolatry.
After that, there is another grosser idolatry, where the great god Mammon, that is, money and goods and the like, is honored and worshipped, since one's heart clings to it and trusts in it. The world is also full of such gross idolatry; for emperors, kings, princes, noblemen, citizens, peasants, go about with the crude block, the shameful mammon, the wretched helper of necessity; everything is attached to it. Thus God is blasphemed and dishonored everywhere, both with the subtle idolatry of hypocrites and great saints, as among the Jews were the Pharisees and Sadducees, and among us are the Carthusians and monks: they worshipped their own righteousness, great merits and holiness, virtues and good works; and with gross idolatry, since most of them despise God and cling to mammon. This is what goes on throughout the world, that people do not honor God, do not ask about Him, do not call upon Him, do not thank Him.
16. idolatry in the papacy.
D. Martinus said how in the papacy on the feasts of St. Catherine and other holy martyrs these words and prayers were read and sung: O God, have mercy and be merciful to those who commemorate my memory. God answered: "Come, my beloved, what you have asked, you have received. So this is where idolatry came from. ,
After that they unashamedly taught: The saints can do more than God has commanded them, have more merits than meritlessness. There the saying of St. Paul had to be used to Colossians, Cap. 1, 24, where he says: "Now I rejoice in my suffering, which I suffer for you, and make up in my flesh what is still lacking in afflictions in Christ" 2c. He had to serve them for the
They did this for their idolatry and for the merit of their other works, which they shared and sold to others. Since St. Peter says 1 Ep. 4, 18: "If the righteous is hardly preserved, where will the ungodly and the sinner remain? Nor did the desperate boys Opera "supererogatio- nis, remaining works, which they did not need, impudently invented.
That is why the great deception of the devil came with the pilgrimages to Grimmethal, where people were blinded as if they were mad and foolish. Servants, maids, shepherds, women, left their profession in the queue and ran there. It is rightly called Grimmethal, Vallis furoris; there was no one who would have spoken a word against it. The bishop of Würzburg was silent about it and agreed to it, and because we now speak against it and say that it is wrong and idolatry, we are persecuted to the utmost. If we had had faith in Christ, we could have easily recognized and judged this; but because we have abandoned it, we have fallen into all kinds of darkness. How the good N. in H. and near N. built a chapel for a horse. Well, let us pray and be brave, and keep faithful to God's word.
17. that Jacob put away foreign gods, and from Cain.
(Cordatus No. 1590.)
Since in the first book of Moses [Cap. 35, 2.] it is read about Jacob that he had removed the foreign gods, one must not think as if he had only removed or broken one or the other idol, but that he had completely changed the false worship. There will have been a being and the true worship has often fallen, as when one reads [Gen. 4, 26.] that Enos began to call on the name of the Lord, because the true worship was violated by Cain, who was an evil-doer; but it should not have been, because by the promise of the Lord 1) [Gen. 4, 15.
1) In the original erroneously xntris. - The preceding words: "but it should not have been" are either to be understood with Dr. Wrampelmeyer: "he was not predestined for that" or, as it seems to us, it would be better to change "had" into "would have", which fits better into the context.
If he said, "I'll beat you seven times over," he only got worse, and so he will have been a seemingly fine saint of the world, and he did not want to be ungodly.
18. idolatry and superstition are common everywhere.
(Cordatus No. 945. 2)
The Turks, the Tartars and all the pagans very often use writings and magic signs to fortify themselves against weapons. This abuse finally reached the Christians, and Maximilian was very superstitious in matters of war. The pagans slaughtered in danger even what was dearest to them. The cause of this is that they know nothing of faith and prayer, which are the advantage of Christians.
19. warriors have commonly had and used a lot of superstitions in the papacy.
(Cordatus No. 946. 947.)
Not only superstitious, but also foolish was the vow of Jephthah, who killed his daughter after the victory, before which the Holy Spirit came upon him [Judges 11:29]. But God lets His saints be fooled. If a godly man had been there, who would have told him not to kill his daughter, the law would have suffered a mitigation, he [God] would not have meant it that way, he would have saved the daughter, as Jonathan was redeemed [1 Sam. 14, 45.] from the vow of his father Saul.
The histories of the Old Testament are very glorious, but to us, when we read them, quite dead; but to the believer they live, like the history of Jephthah, which is followed by such great lamentation and lamentation over the virgin for two 3) months, which [lamentation] happens without a doubt [Judges 11:37], because she was to die without children, as can be seen in Hannah [1 Sam. 1]. And for sensible spouses barrenness is something [very] hard, which one easily realizes in the joy we have in our children, who are the sweetest pledge of marriage.
2) A part of this number was drawn to the following §; however, we let it follow here completely.
3) In the original erroneously "three" months. Cf. 11, 37. 39.
20. the pagans' monkey work of the holy of holies and others.
The Gentiles took it from the Jews and imitated them with the holy of holies, that they had their places and corners, where one asked the idols for advice, where they gave answers; these were also dark and gloomy. But the holy of holies was a dark place in the temple, so that the kingdom of faith is indicated, which cannot be grasped and understood with any reason, but only with faith. In this way the Gentiles also imitated and followed the Jews in slaughtering and sacrificing their children; for it was a good service to God in the sight of reason to slaughter and sacrifice children, as if to say, "If we had something dearer, we would also dare to do it and serve and please God.
21. the golden calf.
When the people in the desert, because Moses was on the mountain, set up a golden calf with Aaron the high priest, Exodus 32, they did not want to honor another god or have many gods, 1) but only wanted to change God and His service, beyond what Moses had prescribed and commanded them. Not all, but only the most noble and a part of the people agreed. They wanted to indicate that God wanted to be honored and reconciled by sacrificing calves.
Such sacrifices were before the law, coming from the fathers and taken. And the worship of the Jewish calf was taken from the Egyptians and was a tradition: they honored an ox and an idol, Apis, just as the people of Israel did, as St. Stephen tells Apost. 7, 41. ff. But this worship of the Egyptians is a tradition of Joseph, who sacrificed oxen and calves.
22. of the sacrifice of the people.
(Lauterbach, July 21, 1538, p. 100.)
On July 21, there was talk of human sacrifices that were still taking place, which were only
1) Cf. Walch, old edition, vol. VIII, 2114, § 246.
Emperor Carl in our time and erected Minorite monasteries in their place. It was said that at the court of Ferdinand there was a priest's robe of that idolatrous service, which was made of various colored bird feathers, but the sleeves were small, the hands of gold, set with artificially carved and other precious stones. Adorned with this garment, the priest awaits a revelation and then chooses a child or adult to sacrifice with great reverence from the people. Luther said: "It is not to be wondered at that such idolatries are still going on, since in the lifetime of the most holy prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah this idolatry was in bloom among the people of God, against which the prophets fought to the death. For idolatry always has the greatest prestige.
23. idolatry, which is practiced with monasticism and nunnery.
There must be sects, said D. Luther. M. Luther, who practice idolatry as long as the world stands, and with the highest devotion give the errors a great appearance and prestige. Just look how much weeping and wailing there was at the blessing when the parents gave their children into the monasteries to be blessed; especially the maidens when they sang the Regnum mundi. Oh! what weeping there was when the parents sacrificed their children to Moloch and burned them. It was a horrible sacrifice in the past, especially when the parents' natural love and inclination towards the children was great, because they were not blocks and sticks.
(24) The idolatry of false teachers is for all time.
D. M. Luther was brought a great book, which a Frenchman, called Wilhelmus Postellus, had written about unity in the world, in which he tried hard to prove the articles of faith from reason and nature, so that he would convert the Turks and the Jews, and bring all people (they would have as many different kinds of worship as they always wanted) to one faith. Then said D. M. Luther said: "It is too much to fast for one bite, although others have fasted before us.
In the past, the French also wrote books of natural theology, with which they wanted to prove the Christian faith from natural reason. But this one has fared according to the saying: Frenchmen lack brains. There will still come enthusiasts, who will dare to put all kinds of idolatry with a sham and cover on the faith and thereby embellish it. Then Philip Melanchthon said: He had heard of a merchant who had seen in Jndia that they worshipped serpents, and that the people there had honored a large serpent and dragons with the highest worship.
(25) Of the invocation of the saints, which is also idolatry.
The question was asked: "Where did the papists originally get the calls of the dead saints? Then spoke D. M. Luther: Perhaps they took it from the pagans, who divided God into innumerable images and idols, and assigned and gave each one its office and work. As they invented and pretended that Pallas was such a goddess, through whom society, peace and friendship among men would be preserved. They did the same with other idols, so that each one had his own humble work. The papists unchristianly imitated them, thus denying God's omnipotence, and each of them had a special opinion apart from God's word, according to his own mind, in the most certain way.
Just as once there was a sacristan who, when he was to consecrate many hosts over the altar, thought that he had not spoken congruously according to the Grammatica: This is my body; but said: These are my bodies. He then boasted of his art and said, "If I had not been such a good grammarian, I would have committed heresy and consecrated only one host. Such fellows, said D. M. Luther, the world will produce many, that the Grammatici, Dialectici, Rhetores and Philosophi will falsify the holy scripture and make a mixture out of it and their art; since one can highly
Each should remain in its place, as and for what it is ordered by God, not brew into each other. Theology should be empress, philosophy and other good arts should be its servant; not rule and master it, as Servetus, Campanus and other enthusiasts do. May God preserve His dear Church, which is carried by Him like a child in its mother's womb, and protect it from such scholastic and philosophical theology.
26. another one of invocation of the deceased saints.
(Lauterbach, April 3, 1538, p. 53.)
The invocation of the saints has been a terrible blindness and a source of money; nevertheless, the papists do not want to turn back. Summa: Even the dead have had to help to strengthen the foundation of the pope, because the invocation of the saints and the satisfaction for the dead have carried everything. The dead have borne much more than the living. Superstition nourishes more than religion; the former is the master, the latter the maid. 1)
27. of foreign gods.
Doctor M. Luther was asked: How one could prove that having foreign gods means so much as to establish and establish a worship against God's word? To this he answered and said: Deus et cultus sunt relativa, God and worship belong together, one cannot be without the other. For God must be the God of every man or people, and is always in praedicamento relationis, referring and drawing on one another. God wants to have some who call upon him and honor him; for having a God and honoring him belong together, sunt relativa, as husband and wife in marriage, neither can be without the other. Therefore whoever sets up and establishes a worship service of his own, out of his own devotion, without God's command, is an adulterer and idolatrous, as a wife is when she keeps company with another, and woos him, and again; and seeks one another.
1) This is immediately followed in the original by Chapter 33, § 3.
God, for the right, true God, even though he thinks he is doing God a righteous service.
What idolatry is.
This actually means to commit idolatry: without God's command, out of one's own devotion, to make a
Service to God. For he wants to be unmastered by us, how we should serve him: he wants to teach us and pretend it: his word should be there, it should shine and guide us. Without his word everything is idolatry and vain lies, however devout and beautiful it may be.