1. what are the biggest annoyances.
2. the best becomes the ugliest.
3. what kind of trouble David has caused.
4. of two kinds of fraud.
5. consolation against the annoyance of the doctrine.
(6) The fear of which the godly offend, that the wicked may prosper in the world.
7. from the saying: Blessed is he who does not take offense at me, Matth. 11, 6.
8. aergemiss of the world.
9. what is annoyance.
1. what are the biggest annoyances.
The wickedness of the church is far greater than that of the Gentiles: for when the Christians go astray and fall away, they are far more wicked and godless than the Gentiles. Therefore the prophet Jeremiah complains in the 4th chapter of his lamentations, v. 6, that the wickedness of the daughters of his people has become greater than that of Sodom. And Ezekiel says Cap. 16, 51: "You justify Sodom with your sins." And Christ says Marc. 6, 11.: "It will be worse for the land of Sodom on the last day than for you."
So it must be, "he came into his own and his own did not receive him", Joh. 1, 11. It makes, truly, the pious quite clumsy that they would rather be dead. As we learn today with great heartache, that many of ours give others trouble; as N. of M. 1) was much vexed, so that his cousin, even though he was a pope, was preferred to him. Therefore, one should diligently pray to God against vexation, so that his name may be sanctified.
1) Count Albrecht von Mansfeld. Bindseil 1, 184.
2. the best becomes the ugliest.
2) From the best of God's creatures come the worst; from the most pious the evil husks. For out of the church come heretics, out of the apostles traitors, out of the angels devils, out of Jerusalem, which was God's host and dwelling place, came the prophet murderers. Therefore St. Paul says Apost. 20, 30: "Even from among yourselves shall arise men speaking perverse doctrine, to draw the disciples unto themselves." Therefore the church has no outward reputation nor succession, it does not pray. Thus from Rome has come the highest profanation and the most desolate abomination. The most beautiful virgins become whores; husbands become adulterers. The same inward and spiritual aversions in doctrine always do the greatest harm, and offend the pious, much more than in life.
3. what kind of trouble David has caused.
(Contained in Cap. 60, § 1.)
2) Same content Cap. 2, § 102.
4. of two kinds of annoyance.
Annoyance is two things: one that one takes, acceptum; the other that one gives, datum. Acceptum, which one accepts, is when one is annoyed by what is done right and well; as, although Christ does everything he speaks and does, out of and according to God's, his heavenly Father's, command and will, yet the Jews are annoyed by it, thinking he is doing wrong. Such a thing is called an assumed error, a false delusion; it is good for nothing and should not be. So the pope and his crowd are annoyed that I teach about Christian freedom. Christians are thus freed from all laws by Christ, not that they should not do it at all, nor be outwardly pious, but that the law cannot condemn them, even if they do not keep it: knowing and believing that Christ has done enough for them according to the law, and gives them all his satisfaction, merit, and holiness, even himself with all his goods for his own. After this, good works also follow willingly: they are neither useful nor necessary for salvation, but only the fruits of faith, which are done to be grateful to God, to honor Him, and to serve one's neighbor. The papists are annoyed by this. But what do I ask of them? Yes, that is why I preach, so that people may know that their teaching is falsified. But what I teach and do is and comes from God's command; that I truly know. We punish them, and reprove their doctrine; but too well for them. As St. Paul says, "I will provoke them to anger and insult, not for their fall and condemnation, but for their resurrection and salvation, if they know it. Well, we must punish false teaching and teach God's word pure and unadulterated. Let him who will not do so be angry and displeased; how then shall we do to him? God, whose Word is, will finally be the judge; we are certain of this. But to defend error is the devil. If our Lord God so lusts to fall that he does not believe God's word to be God's word, we will not hold him, but always let him go; he will well know it, and in his time he will find out, with his great, noticeable and insurmountable harm.
Item: There are two kinds of trouble: One from the outside, as the Turk, the pope, with their followers, who are in full bloom, and do them as they please. This angers and hurts us. The other, within ourselves, which is the greatest, is that I am God's child. If this were true, says my reason (as it is certainly true, because God says it, who cannot lie nor deceive, before heaven and earth must enter), and I believed it, I would throw the pope on his triple crown, and trample the Turk underfoot. But we do not believe it to be true, that is why we are so fainthearted and despondent.
5. consolation against the annoyance of the doctrine.
Much trouble comes from my teaching; but I console myself, as St. Paul did to Tito, with the fact that this teaching is revealed for the faith of the elect, Titus 3:5, for which we also preach, they are in earnest; for the sake of the others I would not lose a word. I have eaten a lot of nuts that were not full of holes, and yet I thought they were good, but they threw them into my mouth and made it full of dirt. Zwinglius, Erasmus are vain nuts with holes that throw them into your mouth.
(6) The offense of the godly, that the wicked are well pleased.
in the world.
This trouble is always in the world, that the wicked prosper and have all that their hearts desire; but the godly and true Christians are afflicted, they are in trouble, and must suffer much. The Psalms complain about this trouble from time to time. So we see today that the bishops, worldly wise men, hypocrites, epicureans soar high, are rich and powerful, are highly honored. In contrast, pious Christians are oppressed, suffer hardship, are poor and despised. This angers and hurts very much. Well, it happens in an inn that foreign guests come and lie down in good beds, and the innkeeper's children have to lie on the hard benches,
or sleep behind the stove until the guests come away: but it has always been the case that the most wicked want to be the most pious.
(Two paragraphs omitted here because contained in Cap. 74, § 1.)
Blessed is he who does not take offense at me, Matth. 11, 6.
(This § is Walch, old ed., vol. IX, 1401.)
8. annoyance of the world.
At the other table of the ten commandments of God the whole world is angry, as which the
Reason partly understands what happens against it. But when God and his word are despised, the world is silent: cry out only when one enters a monastery, or when one eats meat on a forbidden day, and when priests and monks take wives.
9. what is annoyance.
(Cordatus No. 1158.)
Anger is a word or a deed by which the opinion against God and men is corrupted, and it is an active one which I give, a passive one which I suffer.