V. 1. I will sing of grace and justice, and praise you, O Lord.
3. soon in the beginning he gives such a teaching to the kings and princes that they should praise and thank God where they have good order and pious servants at home or at court; from this they should learn and know that it is a special gift of God and not their own wisdom or ability.
4 For it is so in the world, that no man is so rude or so unskilful, that, when he is in command, he thinks to do well, and does not like anything that others do in command; as that servant in the comedy of Terentii desires, saying, Oh, I should have been a king! And Absalom said behind David his father unto the men of Israel, Thou hast a good cause, but there is none appointed of the king to question thee. Oh that I had the rule of the land, and that all things should come before me, how well would I do justice etc. 2 Sam. 15, 3. 4.
(5) These are the masters of cleverness, who can bridle the horse (with great wisdom) in the butt, and can do nothing more than judge and master other people; and when they get hold of it, everything goes to ruin with them, just as it is said: He who is entitled to the game can do it best. For they think that when they get the ball in their hands, they will hit twelve skittles, since there are only nine on the board 1) until they learn that there is also a path next to the corpse.
1) Compare Walch, St. Louiser Ausg. vol. XXII, 665, note 3.
6.. Such people do not praise and thank God, nor do they think that it is God's gift, or that they should ask and call upon God for it, but they are presumptuous, and think that their reason and wisdom are so certain that they cannot lack it, and they want to have the honor and glory of being able to rule in front of others, and to do everything well; just as if the good man (who is called our Lord God) should sit idle, and not be present where one wants to do something good. So then he does, and looks through his fingers, and lets the children of men measure and make the tower of Babylon; then he comes in three times, and scatters them, and destroys everything, so that no one understands what the other says [Gen. 11:1 ff.] And it serves them right, because they conclude that God is like their counsel, and want to be smart enough themselves, and have the honor that is due to God alone.
(7) I have often, when I was still in the monastery, seen and heard wise and sensible people advising, who presented it so powerfully, surely and beautifully, that I thought it was impossible that it could be missing. Well," I said, "it has hands and feet, it is alive; and I certainly thought it was, as if it had already happened and was there before my eyes. But when they attacked it and wanted to bring it to work, it went back so shamefully, and the beautiful, living advice became much more vain than a dream or a switch is, and I had to say: "Well, if that was a dream, then the devil relies on pretty, beautiful advice. How vain is all appearance and glitter where God is not involved.
*) Instead of this heading, which we have placed, the original has: "The first verse. In each of the following verses, the number of the verse is set there in the same way as a heading, which we have not imitated.
After that I learned the saying of Solomon, Proverbs 8:14: "Both counsel and action are mine"; and St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 3:7: "He who plants is nothing, and he who waters is nothing; but it is God who gives prosperity. But the children of men do not believe it until they know it; but, if they can advise, they think that the thing must come to pass. How can it fail, they say, it is as certain as that seven and three make ten. And it is true, mathematically, that according to number and reckoning seven and three make even ten, and if they fail not, the council is made; but physically, according to the deed or in the work, it is so, that God can melt the seven pieces into one piece, and make seven into one; again, the three divide into thirty; so then it is no longer the certain ten in deed, which were there before in the council.
9 So, I think, it will also happen at court; for I have not been at court, nor do I desire to be, God continue to protect me; but by the examples it is well to remember. As, the pope Clement and the king of France had the emperor before Pavia quite certainly, and could not miss them; they also keep it counted that seven and three had to make ten. But what kind of deed followed such advice, they both experienced. How the wise Venetians made a mistake with their certain advice against Emperor Maximilian! How often have the papists lost so many fine, certain counsels against the Lutherans during these twelve years! All histories are full of such examples, and whoever is at court should of course learn enough of such examples daily from all kings and princes.
(10) For the king or prince sits wise and prudent for himself, and has grasped the matter by all five corners; to this then comes a jurist 1) or lawyer with his book, and finds the law often written in it, certain and clear, that [it] cannot fail; after that, a great man, for whom the head is much too small for great minuteness and wisdom, finds it so firmly founded and deeply rooted in natural law that [it] cannot be overthrown by all the world; at last they ring together,
1) Jurgist - master of rage.
and bombs the big bell, that is, a bishop, prelate, theologian, grown by himself or otherwise made, who brings God's word and the holy scripture. Here the devil himself must give way, and let the matter be right, fair, good, and also divine. There sit the four pillars of the kingdom or principality, which could also carry the heavens, if God would command their wisdom to do so.
(11) Here is none of them that sighed up to heaven, and sought counsel and action of God. For they are either such godless people that their conscience does not let them pray or call, or they are so sure and certain of their wisdom and things that they disdainfully forget it, as if they needed nothing; or else they are so accustomed to counseling that they are stubborn in their unbelief. So our Lord God must sit idle above, and may not come into the council of such wise men, and meanwhile chats with his angel Gabriel, and says: "Dear, what are the wise men doing in the council chamber, that they do not take us into their council as well? They should want to build the tower of Babylon once again. Dear Gabriel, go and take Isaiam with you, and read them a secret lesson at the window, and say [Isa. 6, 10.]: "With seeing eyes you shall see nothing, with hearing ears you shall hear nothing, with understanding hearts you shall understand nothing." [Is. 8, 10: "Decide on a council and nothing will come of it; talk with each other and nothing will come of it"; for [Proverbs 8, 14] "both council and action are mine". Et factum est ita, so it shall be.
(12) Here you might say, "Should we not do what is right, what reason teaches, what God means? What is the purpose of rights? What is reason good for? What do you theologians teach? Should it all be nothing? Answer: We are not condemning or rejecting law, good reason and holy scripture here, but rather the unfortunate addition and defilement of our presumption, that we do not approach such counsel and law with the fear of God and humble, earnest prayer, just as if it were enough for someone to have a right or a good thing, and to want or to bring the counsel to fruition quickly, as if of his own ability.
This means to despise God and to want to be the man who can do it and take honor, and it is against the first commandment. Therefore such an addition makes the greatest injustice out of the best right, the greatest folly out of the most beautiful reason, and the greatest error out of the holy Scriptures. For where the first commandment is not, nor does it shine, all the others do not shine rightly, and there is all false reason.
13. Therefore it is said: It is not enough that you have the most beautiful right and the best cause, and that your counsel is most certain; Indeed, the more beautiful your right and the better your cause, the less you should be presumptuous and insist on it, but the more you should fear God, who delights to desecrate the most beautiful right and to overthrow the best things, because of presumption, because you rely on it and insist on it, by which you spoil everything, and provoke and anger God against you; for He is hostile to presumption and presumption, as it takes away His honor and strives against the first commandment. Therefore he also resists with all force, as St. Peter says [1 Ep. 5, 5.), those who hope. The children of Israel (Judges 20:22 ff.) had the very best right against the Benjamites, which is scarcely heard of, nor were they twice so severely beaten by the unrighteous and small band, theirs a much larger band, that they lost forty thousand men in both battles, until the third time they learned to put away presumption and call upon God for counsel and action, then they won again and kept the right.
14 But it is and remains the way in royal and princely courts, as well as in the lower classes, that everything is done out of presumption, if it is done in the best way, and they console themselves that they are well justified; but some are much worse off that they have great goods and power; God is always forgotten, therefore it is and will be according to that. But still, because our Lord God's small group, the church, prays for the kings and lords, they enjoy such prayers as the unworthy; otherwise it should happen quite horribly. For the children of Israel also had to pray for their enemy, the king of Babylon, that [it] might go well with him and his kingdom, until so long that
His hour came, when he had plagued and subdued his intercessors too much, so that he deserved the end of his kingdom. So now we also pray for our tyrants, until they also deserve it by murdering and persecuting us, and when their hour comes, they will perish without all mercy. Amen.
(15) Let this be the first lesson and admonition from this Psalm, that a prince or lord learn and know that a pious household, faithful servants and good government are God's gift, and a great gift, and his highest treasure, where he has one, two, three faithful men at court, or in offices (although this is much), and thank God for it, with a request that He preserve and improve such treasure for him. For the world is too wicked, false and unfaithful, as David says (Ps. 116:11): "All men are false"; especially at court, where everyone, or the greater part, 1) seeks not to increase like the prince, but to warm himself and grow fat; let it be to the prince as God wills.
(16) Thus a prince cannot look into the heart of anyone, and so his rule must remain in darkness, because he must rule and manage with and through such people whom he does not know, nor does he know how they are minded, and he walks even as a chariot that drives in the night, and must go to darkness, 2) often not knowing whither, and when he thinks he is going there, he has gone astray, sometimes overturns, breaks rope, wheel, and all. For Christ says [John 12:35], "He that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth." But Christ's kingdom is not like this; he knows all hearts, and whoever wants to be unfaithful to him deceives himself and does no harm to his Lord, but the Lord can turn his servant's wickedness to his benefit and best; this cannot be in the worldly regime, where hearts are hidden.
(17) But that which the psalm calls "grace and justice" is not said of God's grace and justice, but of the grace and justice which a prince exercises toward his servants and subjects. For it is also said at court that a prince or lord is gracious, that he shows great mercy to him or to his servants.
1) Thus the Wittenbergers. Erlanger: toin large part.
2) "Gedunk", that is, discretion, good discretion.
etc., and justice is almost as much as punishment; as is the way of the court: I will let the right go; item: Do you want mercy, or right? For when the princes offer justice, it is almost at the point where the shirt hangs. So here David also speaks politely or princely of mercy and justice, that is, of benevolence toward the pious and punishment toward the wicked. A prince and lord must need both of these things. For where there is vain mercy, and the prince lets himself be milked and trumped on the mouth, neither punishes nor is angry, then not only the court, but also the country becomes full of bad boys, and all discipline and honor perish. Again, where there is vain or too much anger or punishment, there is tyranny, and the pious cannot catch their breath from daily fear and anxiety.
(18) For so say the heathen, that is, daily experience: Summum jus, summa injuria, strict justice is the greatest injustice. Just as it may be said of grace: Vain grace is the greatest disgrace. Just as a father can do no greater unpaternal deed to his child than to spare the child the rods and leave him to his will; for with such foolish love he finally sends a son to the executioner, who must then drag him to the gallows with the rope.
19 Measurements are good in all things; there belongs art, yes, God's grace, that one may hit it. But in such a case, because the means are not good to hit the core, then this is shot to the next purpose, that grace has the process before the right. As also here David calls the grace before, and after it the right. For where it is ever not to be met, it is better and safer to be lacking on this side than on that; that is, it is better to have too much mercy than too much punishment. For too much mercy can be recovered and less, but punishment cannot be recovered, especially where life and limb are concerned.
(20) Nor can all evil on earth be punished, especially the secret evil wiles; as it is said, He that would avenge all evil would never have to take a sword. And the pagans say: 1) Si quoties etc., if
1) In the Wittenberg and in the Jena in the margin: "Ovidius".
God so often should strike with thunder and lightning, so often people sin, he would not have thunder nor lightning enough in a short time. [It is enough to punish the public and conscious misdeeds. If God wants to punish the secret evil deeds, he will reveal it; nothing remains unpunished, be it secret or obvious; we see daily that the secret evil doers, as thieves, murderers etc., come into the hands of the executioner in the end, by God's judgment and punishment, without which he himself punishes with water, fire, pestilence etc. And if a prince or lord seriously makes it clear that he does not want to suffer any public misdeeds, and diligently strives for them and sees to it, he easily prevents many evil deeds, even though he must suffer the secret deeds until God Himself punishes them or gives them into His hands to be punished.
21 It can also happen that one cannot punish a public wickedness, especially so hastily; as one reads of David, 2 Sam. 3:27, when he did not punish his cousin Joab, who was his captain, all his life, even though he had committed two evil deeds (as David himself complains, and also curses him), namely, Abnet and Amasa, both captains of the army, and more pious than he, murdered him treacherously, but let him remain in his office and honor, but ordered his son Solomon to punish him afterwards [1 Kings 2:28-34]. Item: Jacob did not punish his son Reuben either, until he wanted to die, he cursed him, and turned away from him the glory of the first birth, namely, the kingdom and priesthood [Gen. 49, 3. ff.]. For such a case may arise that one cannot punish a wicked man so soon without great harm and danger to others; yet all punishment should finally be directed to the terror and correction of others (as St. Peter and Paul teach) and to the peace and safety of the pious, Rom. 13, 4. 1 Petr. 2, 14.
(22) But when such journeys and damages exist, this cannot be told nor grasped; God must himself give it to the prince or lord, that he may consider, according to his highest ability, where, when and to which knave he should or must lend a bill. For if David had so promptly
If Jacob had punished his son Reuben so quickly because he was a pilgrim and among his enemies, he would have caused a great calamity against himself. And if Jacob had punished his son Reuben so quickly because he was a pilgrim and among his enemies, he would have caused a great calamity against himself. For he was also almost angry that his two sons, Levi and Simeon, had struck Shechem, and in the end he cursed them both. So I heard in Welsch land to Sems of emperor Friedrich 1) say: We have learned from your emperor many sayings, especially this: Qui nescit dissimulare, nescit imperare, he who cannot overlook or overhear cannot rule; for they would have liked to see him go through with his head and smell their damage.
23. summa, that we do the matter differently: God has two kinds of people on earth, in all kinds of ranks; some have a special star before God, whom He Himself teaches and raises up as He wants them to be; these also have a good wind on earth, and, as it is called. Happiness and victory. What they have begun will continue, and if all the world should strive against it, it must go forth unhindered. For God, who puts it into their hearts and drives their minds and courage, also puts it into their hands, so that it must come to pass and be accomplished, as Samson, David, Jehoiada and the like. And not only does he sometimes give such people among his people, but also among the wicked and the heathen; and not only in princes, but also in citizens, farmers and craftsmen. As, in Persia the king Cyrum; in Greece the prince Themistoclem and Alexandrum Magnum; with the Romans Angustum, Vespasianum etc., item, in Syria he gave all salvation and happiness through the one man Naeman, 2 Kings 5, 1. Such people I do not call drawn or made, but created, and by God driven princes or lords.
1) In Luther's "Notes on the 5th Book of Moses", Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. Ill, t381 This saying is attributed to Emperor Frederick the Third, who is mentioned once more in this writing, not to Rothbart, as Walch says in the register (Vol. XXIV, 278d).
24. These are such skilled people that they do not need much teaching or writing about what to do and how to do it, and before they are taught what to do, they have done it. 2) Without needing God's word to teach them, they attribute their good fortune and great deeds to God, and give Him the glory from whom they got it, and do not praise or glorify themselves; which they do not do without God's word, nor do they know how to do, therefore they rarely come to a good end, as all histories testify. For example, the female warrior Hannibal did not learn from anyone how to fight the Romans and defeat them so horribly, because he had the right master and scripture in his heart, and did everything before he could be taught; he also went against all other wise men's advice and teaching.
(25) And I must tell here as an example what Cicero writes about it, how Hannibal, when he had fled to the great Antiocho for help against the Romans, and was held magnificently, there was a famous philosopher, Phormio, who was demanded by Antiocho that Hannibal should hear him. And Phormio demonstrated his art, preached several hours about wars, about captains, how they should be skillful, and what was due to a good warrior etc. When all the others were highly delighted and admired such a sermon, Antiochus asked Hannibal how he liked it. [Hannibal said: I have seen many old fools in my days, but none so great as this Phormion. Cicero praised such an answer and said: "It was truly right: Hannibal had fought and defeated the Romans so long and often, forcing all the world, and Phormio wanted to teach him, who himself had never seen an army or a defense in his lifetime.
Here the student is quite unequal to such a master, and if Phormio had known and experienced at best what war is and how one should fight, and was called a master of the art, he should still not take Hannibal as a student before him, but pull off his little beret before him and speak: Dear doctor in warfare.
2) Only the Wittenberger has interpungited correctly here, and put a punctum. The meaning is: Only this is necessary for them, that they are instructed by God's word etc.
For Hannibal was not created to be a pupil in the art of war, but others were to learn from him and be his pupils, as he was created by God Himself to be a master in this art, and not educated or made by other men; otherwise it goes as they say: Egg teaches the chicken, and the sow masters God, and Phormio equips Hannibal. Although the world is always full of such Phormions in all classes, and they are called Master Klügel, the shameful, harmful man, who can do everything better, and yet he is not the man. And if Hannibal had been replaced by a hundred others who had Hannibal's strength, courage, people, art, armor and everything else, and even more, they would have been able to do all of them, and none of them would have been able to do 1) what Hannibal did; as none of them was able to do to Carthage, not even his brother himself, neither before nor after.
27 So also when David was about to smite Goliath, they would teach him, and put on him armor, and armed him. Yes, dear one! David could not wear the armor, and had another master in mind, and struck Goliath before it could be known how he should do it; for he was also not an apprentice boy, trained in this art, but a master, created by God for this purpose [1 Sam. 17:36 ff].
028 Therefore if the king of Syria had put in Naaman's place a more wise and skillful man than seven Naamans, he would not have been able to keep so good and fine a house in Syria by him. For it was not Syria nor the king who educated Naaman, but God (says the Scripture [2 Kings 5:1]) gave salvation and happiness in Syria through Naaman; he would not have done it through anyone else, as it is no longer written about anyone else. If now also a Phormio had come here, and had wanted to teach this Naaman to keep house and to govern Syria, he would have met it just as finely as that Phormio met Hannibal. Therefore one also speaks in German: Es ist der Mann nicht; item: Der Wirth ist nicht daheim. House and farm, land and goods are always there; but the heirs or landlords and princes are not always there.
1) This is a breviloquy instead of: so they all would not have done that, and none of them would have done that, the etc.
What one has gained, the following one loses; and again, another following one regains it, where God wants to give it.
(29) We see in daily stories and experiences that parents leave to their heirs a great estate, land and people, finely arranged and ordered, and that the heirs take great pains and trouble to maintain or improve it, and work more than their parents did, but it still melts away and spoils under their hands, and all their work and care is in vain, so that I myself have often heard parents say of their heirs: Ah! our son will not do it. Why not? Is it the same house, estate, land and inheritance, and he is industrious and active? Yes, but it is no longer the same man who is the landlord in the house. With the host the house changes: Novus rex, nova lex, another man, another fortune. For God's wonders do not inherit, nor are they our own or subject to us, like the goods, house and farm. God wants to be free to give such miracle people and precious stones when, where and to whom he wants.
(30) Thus, in all classes, one sometimes finds men who are brilliant and skilled above all others; and among boys or apprentices, one who learns more in one day than another learns in five years. Some, when they look at it, can do it, attack it, and do it well, while others learn and work all their lives, but never do it as well. Mr. Fabian von Feilitz 2) was not a doctor in law; but when he heard a thing, he advised it and hit the mark, since otherwise a doctor would have had to search a thousand sheets, and yet perhaps hardly hit the mark. Why? He was not a learned nor educated, but a created jurist, and did not need Phormion, who had long preached to him about sharp or blunt, about bad 3) or crooked law.
31 Duke Frederick blessed, Elector of Saxony, was created to be a wise prince to rule and keep house in peace, as he was in his time.
2) Compare Tischreden, Cap. 45, § 36, Wakh, St. Louis Edition, Vol. XXII, 1255. There, We elsewhere, the name "Feilitzsch" is written.
3) "Bad" here stands for "straight. "
in the Roman Empire, as they say, lux mundi. He had the way (as I have subsequently learned from those who were around him) that he let his advisors advise, and he nevertheless did 1) the contradiction, but with such reason and justification that they could not speak against it. Now he had not learned this, nor was he educated for it, but it was in him beforehand; and although some great men and many Phormiones grabbed the reins from him, would have liked to rule him, he still put on his horns and let no one be good or right who wanted to advise him. He also said that his advisors had often advised him almost well and good things, but he had not accepted them, but had quite stubbornly opposed them. Why he did this, he alone knew; but surely God put it into his mind, because he was one of God's miracle workers and was created so. For if he had given it out of his hands and allowed himself to be ruled, his luck and wisdom would have been reversed, and he would have come to the point, through his wise counsel, that he would have had to pick up a spoon and trample a bowl.
32 Thus one reads of Augusto that he wanted to lay down the regency from his hand, but was afraid that it would turn out worse, and kept it. For wise councillors and clever people often pretend to be of great use to princes, but do not know that seven harms lie behind such small benefits. They mean well, of course, but they do not think that God has higher thoughts than they do; just as if he had to approve what they think is good and useful.
I have to say one more thing about him, because he was my dear master and made me a doctor. Once, Doctor Hennig Gödde 2) wanted to teach him housekeeping, and said: "Most gracious sir, why let E. C. F. G. keep fire with green wood and not with dry wood, for it is a nuisance? My dear doctor," he said, "what is good advice in your house is bad advice in mine. So he was a man in all things.
34. but from the measure he has a lot of monkeys and
1) Erlanger: that he.
2) Otherwise also written "Göde"; usually called "D. Henning". Compare Tischreden, Cap. 4, K 82. Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. XXII, 214.
They have made a few visits with it, and left it behind them. For many (some of whom I have known, some of whom are still alive), when they saw that H[erzog] Friedrich was doing well and making him famous, thought to follow the example, and also wanted to become wise, began to contradict everything that was pretended, and that should be the highest wisdom, that they let no one be good or right, and wanted to be H[erzog] Friedrich with such work. But they were not created Frederick, but made themselves Frederick, and remained nothing else than useless Phormiones, who could talk and wash much wisdom, and yet were neither created nor educated for wisdom. Just as the hypocrites make themselves pious by good works, so the man must first be pious on the inside and then do good works.
Here it was such a ridiculous game, and the bells sounded on their necks and ears, that they could be heard for miles around. And what could be more ridiculous than a monkey wanting to do a man's work? And what could be more foolish than a fool wanting to do a clever man's work? It is just as if the donkey wanted to play the harp and the sow wanted to spin; her paws are subtle and well-skilled for it. The Greeks say: A monkey, even if he were dressed as a king, would still be a monkey.
But it goes like this in the world: Where God builds a church, the devil comes and builds a chapel next to it, yes, countless chapels. Same as here. Wherever there is a fine man, be it in the spiritual or in the secular state, the devil also brings his monkeys and ghouls to the market, who want to do everything, and yet it becomes a vain monkey game and ghoulish work. For they are not the people (says the Scripture) through whom God wants to give happiness and salvation. They, however, the unrighteous people and morose fools, do not mean anything else, because they have to stand, as the righteous wise, generous people do, as if nothing more belonged to it, but to stand thus. But the righteous do not pretend to be wise or active, but they are and do. I have seen one of them who could do everything: If one spoke of wars, then he had slain Hannibal, I don't know how many times; if one said
of right and wisdom, he had fifteen Solomon in his mouth, in his heart a whole swarm of fools; no one was anything, 1) he was it all; therefore they called him Doctor Spieß, because he was a nobleman and Reuter.
37 But his lineage has almost increased, that not only in royal and princely courts are many Doctor Spiess, but also in cities and in the countryside everyone wants to be a Doctor Spieß, and if he can have the regiment, he truly seals it so that one must say: Doctor Spieß has been here. For when it comes to the meeting and to the emergency, the way is found that they are no good, and the cat drops the light, and runs after the mouse, and disappears both, the doctor and the spit, with each other, without that he must be called Doctor Spit. Ah, where there is nothing inside, nothing comes out.
38 Yet it would be unfortunate and untrustworthy if such Asia and Asia were foolish in minor matters, such as housekeeping. But when it concerns land and people, kingdoms, principalities, and such great, important things, both in war and peace, that then one wants to be Hannibal or Naaman, who is nothing more than Phormio or Hanswurst, and yet subjects himself to such works, since he is not the man created to be, that is the wretched devil, and causes misery and all misfortune.
39 Now they begin to praise natural law and natural reason, as if all written law had come from them and flowed from them; and this is true and well praised. But there is the mistake that every man will think that natural law is in his head. Yes, if you were Naaman, Augustus, H[erzog] Friedrich, Fabian von Feilitz, I would believe it; but where do you reckon that you are none of them? If H[erzog] Friedrich put his own words into your mouth and his thoughts into your heart, you would still be nothing other than what you are, and would remain Phormio and Hanswurst, as before, and neither happiness nor salvation should be with you. So also the pagans write, forced by experience. It happens that two do the same work; nor do they say, this one does right, that one does wrong.
1) In the old editions: "jchtes" instead of: something.
right; because it lies with the person. If God wants to have them, it must be right, if it is like Claus Fool. If it is not the person or the man, it is not right, even if nine Solomon were in his head and fifteen Samson in his heart.
(40) If natural right and reason were in all minds, which are equal to the minds of men, then fools, children and women could rule and rule as well as David, Augustus, Hannibal, and Phormiones should be as good as Hannibales; yes, all men should be equal, and no one should rule over the other. What a turmoil and desolate thing should come out of this! But now God has created it so that men are unequal, and one should rule the other, one should obey the other. Two can sing with each other (that is, praise God equally), but not speak with each other (that is, rule); one must speak, the other must hear. Therefore it is also found that among those who presume and boast of natural reason or right, there are many more female and great natural fools. For the noble jewel that is naturally called right and reason is a strange thing among the children of men.
We will leave such miracle-workers of God this time, together with their monkeys and miracle-workers of the devil; for God's miracle-workers, and those of David or Hannibal, are done in such a way that they do not need your and my counsel in their regiment, as they have a better master who creates and drives them. As Aristotle also says in Politicis that such people are the masters and the law itself; and the jura themselves testify that an emperor is the living law on earth.
The apes, however, ought to give them reasonable advice and say that they should do so; but they do not want to do so, but are like the true miracle workers, and do everything according to them. For the devil rides them and leads them; although even the true miracle-workers sometimes decay and try their luck too high; or, when their hour comes for God to take their hand away, because of their presumption and ingratitude, they fall.
2) Thus the Wittenbergers and the Jena". Erlanger: he.
So they realize that then neither counsel nor reason can help any more, and they must perish as Hannibal did. But they feel it well, and their heart tells them quite certainly, when fortune wants to turn, or when they have it over with presumption. Let us now take before us the others who are not miracle workers, nor are they so driven by God.
(43) Here the question arises: Should we learn nothing or follow the good examples of wise and great men? Why are such examples set before us, just as in the spiritual realm the Scriptures set before us Christ and his saints as examples? 1) Answer: Oh who only could! Certainly one should follow good examples in all classes, but so far that we do not become monkeys and play monkey games. For the monkey wants to do all things and follow them; but he does as it is written in the book of the wise: When he saw a farmer splitting a large log, he went and sat on it on horseback and split it with the axe, but he had no shirt on, and the horns fell into his splits, and he forgot to drive in a wedge, so he threw out the axe, jammed and crushed the horns, so that he had to remain a monkey or eunuch for the rest of his life; nevertheless, he had followed the farmer. So it also goes to all of his same untimely successors.
(44) It is said, Let every man examine himself, what he is able, if he will follow another: for we are not all alike. If anyone is so weak that he cannot walk well, it is no disgrace to him that he does not walk in the same way as a strong man, but stand up honestly to him, that he may be led and guided, or walk by a rod until he comes as far as he can, and praise the strong man who walks so far ahead of him. It is said: He who does not have lime must build with mud; and yet he is also called built and followed the lime masons; but not equally well done. And what does a sick person do, that he wants to work or run like the strong man, without spoiling or killing himself the more? So, if
1) Taken by us from Walch's old edition. In the other editions: "as in the spiritual state the Scriptures form us Christ and his saints as an example?
If Doctor Martinus cannot write or preach epistles as well as St. Paul to the Romans or St. Augustine, it is honest for him to open the book and beg a party from St. Paul or St. Augustine and preach after them. If he does not do it so well, nor does he do like them, he should think that he is not St. Paul or St. Augustine, who jump far ahead of him and he follows them.
45 And if Doctor Spiess cannot be as wise and highly reasonable as Duke Frederick or Fabian von Feilitz, it behooves him to go and be taught, or read the books of law, which are set by the heroes of wisdom for the teaching and example of those with little understanding and weak reason, whom they should crawl after, because they cannot run or jump after them from themselves. If Phormio does not know how to win as well as Hannibal, he should stick to Hannibal and learn from him as much as his nature is able to learn; what he does not achieve, he should leave to Hannibal and think that he is Phormio and not Hannibal.
46 But this is the devil and plague of the world, that in all things, in bodily strength, greatness, beauty, goods, countenance, color, etc. and in wisdom and happiness alone we all want to be equal, since we are the least equal of all; and, what is even worse, each one wants to be above the other in this, and especially Doctor Spiess and Master Phormio, who may also master the right miracle-workers and consider them fools, and no one can do anything right to the disgraceful fools and clever ones; as Solomon says [Proverbs. 26:16], "A fool is more wise than seven wise men who establish justice." The poison of original sin is innate in us, and the bites of the apple, by which the devil has made us wise and like God. That is why fools do not want to be fools, and Doctor Spiess is the greatest doctor, and Master Klügel is the greatest master on earth; these rule in the world. God plagues us with such people.
The pagan Plato also writes that there are two kinds of law, justum natura, justum lege. I will call it the healthy law and the sick law.
Call it law. For what happens by the power of nature, that goes through freshly, even without all law, tears well through all laws; but where nature is not there, and should bring it out with laws, that is begging and mending; happens nevertheless no more, because in the sick nature is. As if I had laid down a common law that one should eat two rolls and drink one cup of wine at mealtime. If a healthy person comes to the table, he eats four or six rolls and drinks a jug or two, and does more than the law allows. If a sick person 1) comes to the table, he eats half a roll and drinks three spoonfuls, and yet does no more by such a law than his sick nature is able, or must die where he should keep the law. Here it is better that I let the healthy person eat and drink what and how much he wants without any law. To the sick I give measure and law, as much as he can, so that he does not have to follow the healthy etc.
Now the world is a sick thing, and just such a fur, since skin and hair are not good on. The healthy heroes are strange, and God gives them dearly; yet they must be governed, if men are not to become wild beasts. Therefore, in the world, it remains a common patchwork and beggary, and is a real hospital, since both princes and lords and all rulers lack wisdom and courage, that is, happiness and God's activity, as the sick lack power and strength. Therefore, one must mend and puzzle here, help oneself from the letters or books with heroic law, sayings and examples, and thus be and remain the pupils of the dumb masters (that is, of the books); and yet never do it as well as it is written there, but crawl to it, and keep to it, as to the benches or sticks, and also follow the advice of the best, who live with us, until the time comes that God again gives a healthy hero or miracle man, under whose hand everything goes better, or even as well as in any book, who either changes the law or masters it so that everything in the country grows and blossoms with peace, discipline, protection, punishment, so that it may be called a healthy regiment, and yet next to it with his life.
1) Erlanger: "the sick person".
is supremely feared, honored, loved, and after his death eternally praised. And if a sick or unequal one wanted to imitate him and be equal or better, God certainly sent him to the plague of the world, as the pagans also write: The children of heroes are vain plagues.
For what is the use of great, high wisdom and excellent hearty good cheer or opinion, if it is not the thoughts that God drives and gives happiness to? They are vain thoughts and futile opinions, even harmful and corrupting ones. Therefore it is very well said: The learned, the perverse. Item: A wise man does no small folly. And all the histories, even of the heathen, testify that the wise and pious men have corrupted the land and the people. All this is said by the self-wise or sick rulers, whom God has not driven, nor given luck to, and yet have wanted to be. So the regiment was too high for them, they could not bear it nor lead it out, so they were crushed under it and perished, as Cicero, Demosthenes, Brutus etc., who nevertheless were of the measure of wise and understanding people, that they would like to be called light in the natural right and reason, and finally had to sing the miserable lament: I would not have meant it. Yes, dear, the good meaning makes many people cry. Summa, it is a high gift, where God gives a miracle man, whom he himself rules: the same may be called a king, prince and lord with honor; he himself may be lord, like David, Augustus etc., or councilor at court, like Naaman in Syria.
Therefore also Solomon speaks in his Ecclesiastes [Cap. 9, 11]: "To run does not help to be fast, to fight does not help to be strong, to be rich does not help to be wise; to be pleasant does not help to be able to do everything well, but it all depends on time and luck" etc. What else is this said, but this much: Wisdom may be there, high reason may be there, beautiful thoughts and clever ideas may be you; but it helps nothing if God does not give and drive them, but everything goes behind.
(51) Let this be said at once enough of the first verse of this Psalm, in which David praises God and gives thanks for His good rule
and households. So that he confesses that he did not establish and maintain it out of his own high reason and wise thoughts, but out of God's cooperation and activity, who gave him everything and promoted and blessed it with happiness and salvation. From this all princes and rulers should learn (as I said) that they are not the ones who rule well, but the one who gives prosperity and blessing to it, so that they do not let the Doctor Spiess and Master Klügel fool them, but trust God and call upon Him to guide their hearts and lead them to blessed rule, and not to withdraw their hand, nor to let them themselves go along in their own wisdom and beautiful advice, and to suppress measly things that are too high for them; For it is of no avail, and the end will be foul and stale.
V. 2. I act carefully and honestly with those who belong to me and walk faithfully in my house.
In these three verses one after the other [vv. 2-4] he shows how he has kept house and ruled his kingdom according to the spiritual state, namely, in the word and service of God; the other four verses show how he has ruled in the worldly state. This is the whole Psalm.
(53) And first of all he says: "I act carefully and honestly with my own, I walk faithfully in my house"; as if he should say: "It is not my reason nor wisdom, O Lord God, that I rule my kingdom and my house so well: As if he should say: "It is not my reason or wisdom, O Lord God, that I rule my kingdom and my house so well, and that I deal honestly and rightly with my own, but it is your blessing and work. Here he indicates two things that he is able to do for his person as a miracle man: First, that he governs his kingdom carefully and honestly, and keeps it by God's word. For so we read also 2 Sam. 6, 2. ff., how David with earnestness and wholeheartedness sought out and set up again the service of God and the ark. "For in the days of Saul," saith he, "we asked not, neither sought we the ark" [1 Chron. 14:3]. As if to say that the service had fallen under Saul, and the ark lay in the dust; but now he brings it forth, and gathers all Israel to it. Item, he also wanted to have the temple built; but God commanded it to his son
[2 Sam. 7, 2. ff.], but nevertheless he instituted many services, and made psalms and strings to God's praise. And Summa, as he also boasts elsewhere in the Psalter [Ps. 60, 8. Ps. 108, 8.]: Deus loquitur in sanctuario suo, that is, I have in my kingdom the right, pure word of God, and blameless, honest doctrine, so that I do not establish or hold idolatry, sects nor divisions, or otherwise erroneous teachers.
(54) This is what he means when he says: "I act carefully and honestly with my own. "Prudently", that is, according to God's word; for this word is also found in the 2nd Psalm, v. 10: "And now, ye kings, be wise", that is, let yourselves be instructed, hear God's word, and you will reign blessedly and happily. So here also: "I act prudently", that is, I let God's word guide me, therefore my reign also goes wisely and happily. But "righteous", that is, blameless and pure, that I let no false faith nor article be mixed in with it; for so this little word is called Thamim [XXXX], without blemish, without spot, pure, fine, unadulterated.
55 Truly, this piece may be praised as an example to all kings, princes and lords, as a miraculous work, which they may follow as far as anyone can. For it is not common kings or rulers who imitate David or make him equally good, but God's miracle workers, to whom he gives it in mind and heart, so that they attack it with earnestness and also carry it out. For such earnestness and deeds are not in reason, nor in natural law. All kings and princes, if they follow nature and the highest wisdom, must become God's enemies and persecute his word, as the 2nd Psalm, v. 1. 2. says: "Why do the nations rage, and the kings rebel against the Lord and his Christ?" All the histories of all kingdoms show this, that even in the Jewish kingdom hardly three kings are praised very well, and David is the only example of all of them; the others have all ruled with idols and false prophets, and have persecuted and murdered the true prophets and condemned God's word.
56. therefore it is not surprising that world
These kings, princes and rulers are enemies of God and persecute his word; it is their nature, inherent in them, and the nature and characteristic of reason, that they have no other grace or understanding to think or do. Therefore the other psalm paints such color in their helmet and shield, and calls them adversaries of God and of his Christ. And we see that this is the way things are in the world, as it is written in the psalm.
But where there is a king, or a prince, or an Abel, who take care of God and His word with earnestness, yes, with earnestness (I say), you may well consider them to be God's miracle workers, and call them strange wild beasts in the kingdom of heaven. For they do not do this out of reason or great wisdom, but God stirs their hearts and drives them in a special way, so that they do not resist God like other kings and lords, but promote his word, following the example of David, as far as God gives them and helps them.
For if reason or high intellect were sufficient for such a miraculous work, our kings, princes and lords in the German lands would long ago have opposed God's word differently. For there is no lack of high reason; thus God's word is presented so powerfully, brightly and clearly with preaching, singing, saying, writing, painting, that they must confess it to be the right word of God, and have nothing more to say against it than that it was not started by them or ordered in the Concilio. Therefore they do not call it heresy, but novelty and impiety. Now what is the use of their high reason? What does it help that they know and see that it is right? Truly, if this should help, then they would have come these ten years ago well above David; for he did not find and had it so powerful and clear.
(59) But God did not choose them to be such miracle workers and to perform such miracles at His word and service. Therefore he lets them remain unseparated, in the common crowd of the other kings and princes, who, as the 2nd Psalm, v. 2, says, persecute God and his Christ; as Solomon also says [Eccl. 7:14]: "Behold the works of God, that no man can better him whom he despises." But
but they are not excused by this. For even if they do not have the grace to perform miracles in the service of God, they should do them as much as they can, or at least not oppose and persecute them. How said Julius, [the] pope? If we do not want to be pious, let us not prevent other people from being pious.
(60) Truly, David began the little song on a high note, singing that he had ruled wisely and blamelessly; who can know or imagine how much and great opposition he had to suffer in it, and even take upon himself many a great hatred? It will not have pleased all the great and the rich that he has cleared up all idolatry and trouble, and kept everyone to the one pure worship. Of course, they also praised their old noses as the best, and did not like to let their former fathers' customs and habits be taken or changed: and if there was a people on earth that held fast and hard to idolatry, it was David's people, that is, the Jews.
61 In David's legends it is well known that many were secretly hostile to him, and when they gained space, they helped him to push, to chase, to plague, and to do all kinds of harm: yet he sang it out, and dared everything to God and his word. Therefore he can sing with all honor before all kings, as an example: "I act carefully and honestly with my own. Keeps therefore the finest order, according to Christ's teaching, Matth. 6, 33.: "Seek first God's kingdom, and His righteousness, and all the rest shall be added unto you." But a man belongs to this, who may dare and attack, driven and guided by God.
And walk faithfully in my house.
62) Secondly, because he has so divinely governed his kingdom, he has also drawn his household to God's word, so that he may not (as St. Paul [1 Cor. 9:27] says) teach others and himself become criminal; who earnestly commands the bishops, that is, pastors and preachers, that they should first govern their own households well, chaste and quiet wives, obedient and pious children.
so that they do not annoy the Christians more with their housekeeping, nor do they improve with preaching; and he decides straight away [1 Tim. 3:5]: "How can they preside well over the church, if they preside evil over their own houses? There is no other way. He who is in earnest to serve the church faithfully and to punish sin can certainly not suffer that his house, wife, and child should live wantonly and wantonly. But if he lets his house live unrighteously and according to his will, he will certainly not take great care of the church and others. So he is no longer a priest or preacher, but a wolf and the devil's companion, as he allows the devil to do as he pleases in his home and in the churches, as the pope, bishops and priests have done and still do.
63 Thus, if a king or prince at court or in office can suffer blasphemers and despisers of his word or enemies, and lets them publicly lead an evil, shameful life, do violence and injustice to people, and does not punish and defend them where and how he can, what would help them, if he were to fiercely promote God's service, word and honor in the whole country? One would say of him, Luc. 4, 23: "Physician, help yourself"; and in German: Hans, take yourself by the nose. For the others look more at his court, servants and officials than at his command, and they follow his example more than his command, and excuse themselves with his example against his own command. So then, what he builds with his hands, he tramples and breaks with his feet.
64 But how it went over David is to be reckoned with. For the courtiers and officials like to be free and would rather be lords of the land themselves, and they are, too, where David does not rule. And if they have to do it, which they do not like to do, they can nevertheless watch and lurk until they see their time, and they can hide their bogus eyes and their mischievous faces for a while; as the mischievous Ahitophel was David's closest and best counselor for a long time, and at the end he helped him to trample him underfoot, and soon after paid himself and took over with his own hands.
Thus a margrave of Meissen said: "A lord should not be afraid of those who are far away from him, but of those who follow him at first, because they would much rather step on his head.
66. And it is true that when God wills a prince and a country well, he gives him a fine Joseph or Naaman to be around him, by whom all things go well and prosper; as also Sirach says [Cap. 10:5]. But if he wants to harm a prince, he gives an Ahitophel also to the pious David at his side and on his heels, who can thus stand (as Scripture says of Ahitophel [2 Sam. 16, 23]) as if God spoke through him, and also deceives the pious David himself for a time. So it is very difficult at court to recognize the great larvae of the devil and to govern them, that God must here (where it should go well) govern the Lord Himself against all courtiers, or give a pious Joseph, in whom the prince's trust is not lacking; otherwise it truly does not go off without harm, both to the prince and his people.
67 And who can tell the cunning and wickedness of the noble servants at court and in the offices? And even if one could tell it all and describe it in detail, what good would it do? It would not make them any better, but, like the Jews from Christ's good sermons, much worse. A pious householder or burgher cannot rebuke a wicked servant or maid, that is, make a little wretch pious, and must suffer, where he wants to punish one wretch, that the wretch does him two greater wretches in return, especially where the regiments are slack and loose: how then will a prince or lord alone make so great and so many wretches pious in his court and country? Especially when they want to be so free and powerful, and also make a secret Catherin or Käthen together against their lord, who may well be called bound to a beautiful iron maiden Käthe.
A householder walks on foot, and often bumps against a wood or stone, and gets up again, even if he limps a little; but a prince and lord is a great householder, who rides large, expensive stallions, which want to be a part of his life.
The stallions are full of the best fodder, have the bridle free and long, do not suffer the spurs, go crosswise in the alley, beat around, bump, bite, be very highly honored and feared under the saddle and jewelry of their master; finally, when the mood and the rumbling arrives, lay the master on the pavement, so that country and people have to refresh and cool on him. Let these stallions be drawn and taught by another than I, and let such a hare's head be stalked by the devil, 1) for such game belongs to such a hunter.
69. Therefore, if one of the two does not happen, either that God gives grace to the servants, so that they themselves may willingly be pious Joseph and Naaman, on whom the Lord may rely; or that the Lord may give a feared, serious, strict courage of a hero, who must be almost half-Matthew 2) or tyrannical, and trust no one at all; So one may mend and punish as much as possible, be patient besides, and think that God is not at home, and has withdrawn his grace from the same country to punish sin, and that such punishment is better than a worse one, because it cannot be otherwise; as the examples are many in the books of Kings.
(70) What could Samuel do, since his king Saul let himself be seduced by Doeg and others to do great harm? And Jeremiah also had to see under the pious king Zedekiah 3) all the misery that the court servants were doing, until God came upon them with punishment.
It is the greatest plague of kings and princes (especially of the pious ones) that they not only have to suffer unfaithful, false, bad boys as the "greatest" lords in the land, but also put and make them; like David Ahitophel, Solomon EderEser. It happens to them in the large household, like the citizens in the small household, where one must suffer and take a thief and a knave as a servant, and a whore and a thief as a maid.
I have often heard Emperor Frederick the Third say how the princes in the empire
1) On this proverb, compare St. Louis Edition, Vol. VIII, 1905, note I.
2) On Matthias of Hungary, compare Table Talks, Cap. 65, K 7. Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. XXII, 1470.
3) In the old editions: Sedechia.
He had complained that he had allowed the "Brüheschenken" to rule at court. He once replied to this: Yes, it is certainly not theirs, he also has a brewer's gift at his court. One notices in this and other things that the same Emperor Frederick truly did not lack wisdom, reason and power; but the courage and thoughts that should do it were not given to him by God. If he had been a Matthiaske 4), he would have put brewing gifts together with early morning and evening gifts, and still he would have gone out. Therefore, because he was not the miracle man who could make a new fur, he had to mend and patch the old bad fur as much as he could, let the other go, and let God make it. Not much better before him was Emperor Sigismund, a fine, highly intelligent, pious, feminine man, since there was no lack of reason and power, but too little to the things of his time, with thoughts and happiness.
Therefore Solomon says 16:1, 2: "A man's heart is his own, but from God comes what the tongue should speak. Each man's ways seem pure, but only the Lord makes the heart sure." O such and such like sayings are great, excellent, and quite royal sayings against the wise and conceited. It is good to do well (he says), and the way is pure, right and deliciously good; hui! now quickly done, because it looks so fine to us. Yes, he says, it is truly his intention, and it would be good that it should be so; but it is written that God must also be there, and not only teach the tongue how it should speak and counsel, but also how the heart and courage should be sure and fresh, so that it may work out well. If this is not there, then the fine, pure way and the beautiful counsel are nothing at all, so that you cannot speak properly with your tongue, nor think properly with your heart, and the beautiful way follows the path of cancer, and the fine counsel turns into shameful foolishness and harmful ruin, both of the master and his subjects. And it serves them right. For they want to do what they were taught to do by
4) Cf. § 69.
God are not created, want to jump, because they can not walk, and count money out of an empty pocket, and the like Gaukelwerk treidelt.
74 Thus let this piece, which David sings here about divine stewardship, be a miracle that God has given him to do, above all his high reason and ability, and let it be an example set for all other lords, whom they should follow, each one as much as he is able; except that he should not do better than David, and should not sing such a song any higher, otherwise he will certainly get mad and make a sow before he reaches five notes. For the Germans also say: The evil of the fall is for him who does it better than he can; et factum est ita. It also happens that they fall terribly when they overdo it, and get the right falling sickness, that they should rather jump over two stairs than do such a fall. And the pagans say: Tu nihil invita facias tentesque Minerva. 1) Et iterum: Quod natura negat, nemo feliciter audet, what you cannot lift, leave it. For they have it in experience that no great man or miracle man has ever been sine afflatu, that is, without a special inspiration from God, yet mighty and much wiser men, and highly rational men have always been. And Jeremiah also writes that God aroused and drove the courage of the Medes and Persians against Babylon.
75. these words, "with those who belong to me," are in Hebrew, Mathai Thabo elai [XXX XXXX XXX], and will perhaps make it me
the strict rabbis will not let it be good that I have Germanized it so freely; but I prefer good sense to their quarrelsome letter. I say this so that they will not think that I did it out of ignorance or lack of knowledge. For David wants to say: What comes to me, or as long as it comes to me; that is what belongs to me etc. And herewith is also touched a miraculous virtue of David, which is called: Wait of thine own, and that which is commanded thee.
76 For it is a common vice and harmful vice in all the world, in all classes; when it comes to the court, it is not much use either, and is called in Greek
1) Horatii ars postier", v. 313.
To have much to do where nothing is commanded, and to leave much where much is commanded. The Latins call it: Foris sapere, domi desipere; meanwhile I will call it lazy wit, and it is also one of the fruits of original sin, naturally innate and inherent in us, that each one soon gets tired of what he is commanded to do, mixes and strikes himself in other things, which he would do idly and which are not commanded to him, wants to be clever and busy in other things. The unstable mercury, where one wants it, there it does not remain; thus, what these should do, they cannot do, but what they choose, they must do.
And, that I may be the highest, the pope, bishops and the whole papacy should well wait for the gospel and the souls, so they have the lazy rogue here in the back, must rule worldly for it, wage war, seek temporal wealth; and they do that gladly, and are wise. Again, worldly kings should wait for the reign, but they must stand in church, hear mass, and be completely spiritual. As they now interfere in the cause of the Gospel, they forbid what God has commanded, as, in both forms of the sacrament, Christian freedom, marriage, according to the example of Pope Benedict.
Also, at the imperial congresses of this virtue, one commonly finds that the necessary things are moved, prevented, and often even left behind.
So, where a David or a miracle man does not rule at court, it is certain that Squire Faulwitz is very clever and has a lot to do, since he is not commanded to do anything; but what he is commanded to do stinks and disgusts him, and cannot wait; it also serves to mislead and hinder all the others with his masters. Here it is not right for him in the kitchen, there in the cellar; here in the office, there in the council chamber. However, he neglects his own order, so that nothing happens.
80 Now he does not do much harm by giving better advice to others where he can; for one should praise such people who first carry out their own office well, and then give good advice to others, especially where it is desired and publicly necessary. But he 2) Faulwitz respects
2) "He"-Mr.
He is not concerned with his actions and orders, and in the face of great prudence is preoccupied with other things that are not necessary or required, or, in the face of great laziness, does something else himself that he desires.
81. he is also a useful guest among Christians when he comes among them, and teaches the pastors to pray, or to do a lighter thing when they are to study and preach, or drives the laity to the outward ceremonies, and makes faith and love prevail; as Christ says: "They have tasted mint and till, and have left off the most grievous things in the law. etc. [Matth. 23, 23.]
In housekeeping, when servants and maids do what they think is good, but do not do what they are told, they still want to do well. They adorn a house finely, and are quite a useful, blissful servant. Yes, like the servant with the three blackbirds, of whom it is said that his master sends him out to look for the lost cows, and he stays outside so long that his master runs after him to see where he is. When he comes almost close to him, he asks the servant: Have you found the cows? No, said the servant, but I have a better healthy. What did you find then? The servant said: Three blackbirds! Where have you got them? Said the servant, "One I see, another I hear, and the third I chase. Is not this a wise and diligent servant? Should not a householder become rich with such servants?
Here belong those of whom it is said: They pick up a spoon and tread down a bowl, or, where there are great goods, as in kings' and princes' courts, where they spoon in and spoon out, make a great reckoning. When they have offered the king one florin, all ears and eyes must be filled with how great counsel has been given; but when many thousands of florins have been wasted, no rooster crows.
But nowhere is he so good as among the men of war. If they open their mouths and do not wait for their entrenchments with great diligence, they are blown to pieces and must then say: "See, I did not mean that. But who can illustrate all the examples of the scoundrel, when he reigns mightily everywhere, where masters and fathers of households do not watch diligently themselves?
85 Therefore David saith, I will take care of mine own, and wait for them that are about me. Let other kings also take care of their own, lest, when I am too wise and busy with strangers, I neglect myself and my own. And David may well give thanks for such virtue; for it is indeed a fine, lovely thing and God's special gift for a brave, industrious man, who waits for his own with diligence, and makes it his business with earnestness, especially in God's word, and does not let foreign business err. Obedience is the crown and honor of all virtue; but if slothfulness is found in it, then the dunghill, or (as Isaiah calls it) the rain of sloth, has corrupted it, and it becomes a vain scribbler, a bungler, a soaker, who neglects much, and can neither make nor do anything for love or thanksgiving to anyone.
For this reason, St. Paul teaches the preachers and bishops in 2 Timothy 2:4 that a servant of Christ should not be involved in worldly rule, but, as he also says in Romans 12:7, he who is a teacher should wait to teach and not let anything else or better hinder him. For he has seen that in the future the bishops would leave the ministry of preaching and seek the worldly things. And Christ, when he was asked by one to make his brother share with him, said, "Man, who has made me a judge? [As if to say, "Let me not be sworn in this matter; go to those who are commanded to do so; I am a preacher who is commanded to do otherwise.
Follow in the Psalm:
V. 3. I will not take an evil thing for myself. I will punish the transgressor and not let him stay with me.
So far he has thanked God that He has given him grace to believe rightly and to serve God, both in His kingdom and in His house, that he has not committed idolatry nor false doctrine or worship, and thus has done what was good and pleasing in the sight of God. Here he praises and thanks God that he has also given him the other gift, that he has kept himself from evil, false worship.
and thus to remain steadfast and firm in the good and right faith. For where God gives His word and service, the devil does not celebrate to spoil it or to hinder it.
Therefore it is not enough to start well and do right, but it is necessary to persevere and not be carried away or provoked, as Christ says [Matt. 24:13], "He who perseveres to the end will be saved. Non minor est virtus, quam quaerere, parta tueri. And in the worldly state it is the same: He who cannot also defend himself will not be able to nourish himself for long. What is the use of gaining a lot, and not being able to defend anything, nor to keep it from enemies? So, what is the use of starting and getting God's word, faith and service right, and not being able to stay with it, nor to keep it against the devil? but to be driven by all kinds of wind, as St. Paul says Eph. 4, 14: Let us grow and become strong in Christ, so that we do not, like children, let ourselves be carried about with all kinds of wind of doctrine etc.
89. So now he says, "I do not take upon myself an evil thing." Evil thing; in the Hebrew it is written: Verbum, seu rem Belial. Belial some make the devil's name; and often in Scripture it is written: The children of Belial, these are bad boys, wicked people, who are neither obedient to God nor to men. I think St. Paul, when he calls the end-Christ anomus, wicked, 2 Thess. 2, 8, meant this word Belial. For Belial, as the Hebrews say, is called absque jugo, who does not want to be subject, as the end-Christ exalts and sets himself above everything that is called God etc. The devil also so. Therefore it rhymes well here, since David thanks God that he also protected himself from all evil, and did not let himself be turned away from his right faith and good nature, which he led under God's word, nor did he let it lure him away.
90 Now it is indeed a great thing to stand firm on the right way against all devil's chapels, agitations, deviations, superstitions and false teachings. For false doctrine and false preaching always have the most beautiful appearance, the greatest and most followers of the mighty, wise, rich, and holy on earth; while the right way is despised and has no followers, heresy and devilry must be added to it.
teachings. Belial alone is the most beautiful devil who can disguise himself into an angel of light and make God's word darkness in the hearts of men.
This can be seen in David's Psalter, how diligently he guarded himself and warned others, as Ps. 1, 1: "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked" etc. And especially he made the 119th Psalm on it, which is read at the prime, third, sixth, ninth in the monasteries and convents. As if he should say: "It is a great thing who has the right doctrine of God and may hear His word; but it is so great who can also stick to it and keep it pure and fine against Belial and his servants, who always oppose it; as St. Peter warns us, 1b. Peter warns us, 1 Ep. 5:8: "Be sober, and watch; for your enemy the devil walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour; which resist with steadfast faith." Here you hear that it must not be the milk faith that begins to serve God, but the firm faith that must resist Belial and his evil things.
(92) There is no doubt that David, in the beginning of his kingdom, found many errors and abuses among his people, which until then had been established under Saul and remained, with whom he had much to do, and felt great resistance; for he often and miserably complains in the Psalter about the false teachers. For (as said [§ 89. 90]) Belial not only lures from the right path with the great, glorious appearance of lies, and with the despised, miserable form of truth, but also does it by force of tyrants, since body, property and honor are in danger, there is always cross and suffering, hatred and persecution, but the false saints are quite free, safe and happy children. Item, there are also good friends and relatives with faithful advice and good opinion, next to the example of the great crowd of the powerful, rich, wise in the world. The weakness of our own flesh and the old Adam are also involved, so that it is difficult and sour to remain firm and to endure the end. Therefore the Holy Spirit has so much to do and comforts his own, as Ps. 27, 14. and.
31, 25. "Be of good cheer and undaunted, all ye that wait upon the Lord." And Sirach says [Cap. 2, 1. 2.], "Dear son, if thou wilt serve God, send thy heart to temptation; hold fast, and be not enticed nor frightened by it. "etc.
93. Although such a piece is a great miracle that he himself remains so steadfast and constant in God's word and service against all kinds of trouble, and keeps himself pure from all kinds of evil of the devil and his mobs, it is still much higher that he subsequently boasts that he hates the transgressor, that is, I not only hold fast to God's word and service for myself and my person; but, where I also notice one of my servants, or those who belong to me, who transgresses, and speaks or does differently than God has commanded, I am an enemy to him. Now it was not lacking, he had many a fine man, who was otherwise dear and valuable to him, as he was useful and necessary in his house and kingdom; for often the wicked have from God many fine, high gifts and skill in worldly things, which one cannot well do without in the house or in the regiment, against which the pious cannot be disciples. Just as Ahitophel, at that time, went far beyond all the wise and prudent in the kingdom of David, that his counsels were respected (as the text says [2 Sam. 16, 23.He was a wicked man, a traitor and a mischief-maker in his heart, and after that David feared no one so much, and prayed against him, saying, "O Lord, make the counsel of Ahithophel foolish" [2 Sam. 15:31].
Such useful, wise, female people, who do so much good in the kingdom and in the house, and have earned themselves so well, and yet are ungodly, wicked boys, hate and leave for God's sake, there belongs a man who can do more than eat bread. For it seems that if they were not there, the kingdom would perish and no savings would remain in the house. Therefore, if a lord or landlord is to hate and leave such useful servants, he must certainly have a lion's heart, and be a miracle man in God, who can put his kingdom and house in the redoubt, and rely solely on God.
and say, "Well, before I suffer my God's enemy in my kingdom or house, I will rather let everything perish, and think, "He who gave me this kingdom or house can give me another and even more. Abraham had to think that when God told him to sacrifice Isaac, the promised son, God would raise Isaac from death, Hebr. 11:19.
95 For it is so in the world, especially in the court of the lord, that there is little Joseph or Naaman, but much Ahithophel and Ziba; who do, as that abbot saith, 1) His humble brethren stooped very low toward him; but they mean not me, but look for the keys of the girdle. So they serve at court a lot, and do a lot of good, not for the sake of the lord, but think by the keys, so that they can take the lord and break the claws, so that the lord can neither hate them nor leave them afterwards with any good reason or right. But if he does so, 2) then the calendar and register is full of all virtue, more than days in a year they have done in the kingdom and house, and then throw dirt and excrement at the Lord, spit at him: Fie on you, who shall serve such: Lord, on whom all faithfulness and service is lost? then make proverbs and rhymes, which they write on the walls: Dear smock, do not tear, master service does not erbet etc. item: [Prince's Grace] April weather etc.
But if he does not, then he must suffer such malice from them against God and his subjects that he cannot answer for it, and must say, "Yes, Squire Ahitophel, you are pious. But they go along freely, as if they had almost done well, and do not think (although they know it well and feel it in their hearts) that they are such evil-doers and scoundrels, who have not only earned no mercy with their evil deeds, but also vain disfavor with their good works; they secretly rejoice that they have fooled dear David as honestly as the shameful Ahitophel. That a pious king and lord is indeed a wretched man, for whom
1) Erlanger: da; Wittenberger and Jenaer: dass.
2) "over it" is here so much as: defsemor-chchtet. This meaning is missing in Dietz.
one should pray well. For if David has not been able to overcome, no ruler or lord (if he wants to please God) should provide for himself that he will be better off.
97 It would have been a bad virtue for such a great king as David to have hated a peasant of Thekoa or Gilo; but to hate the lords of Jerusalem, and of his court, Ziol, is too great, even if it were David himself. But he is something more than the David of Bethlehem, but a hero and miracle man, who tears through and lets God rule, who is his Lord; and if he should lose a hundred Ahitophel, then he would rather keep his Lord God, who is called Almighty, and can create and give many, many kingdoms, which 1) he would certainly not deserve any of his bad boys (if he should tolerate), because he would guard them in heaven with his own hands.
98 Again, it is a shameful thing that happens in the world and at court, that many a fine man serves faithfully and well, and then is miserably abandoned or even rejected, and another rogue comes in his place, who then takes everything that he has earned, so that he could not lure a dog out of the oven. Jesus Sirach writes a powerful saying about this, Cap. 26, 25-27: "There are two things that grieve me, and the third thing that provokes me to anger: when a man of valor is made to suffer poverty at last, and the wise counsellors are despised at last, and he that departeth from the right faith" etc. If this did not happen at court, how could Sirach have known or said this? And this is what the most insignificant bumblebees do, which the earth carries, which can only spit and wash a lot, and fill the ears of a king or prince, so that he becomes deaf to his faithful servant. Just as the bumblebees, the ineffectual, pest-like vermin, which cannot make honey, eat up everything that the pious little bees make, without being able to scrape, buzz and hum with their wings as much or even more than the right dear bees.
1) In the issues: which.
2) Here "honey" is of the neuter gender, as we see from Z 121 at the end.
So also the pagan Terentius says (not from his own head, but from the words and examples of great lords and wise men): Truly, whoever is as skillful as you are can easily bring upon himself all the honor that other honest people have earned at great cost. This is what he mockingly says about a great, coarse fool and a foul-mouthed bumblebee, whose name was Thraso, who would have been good for nothing, except to protect a weir or fill a ditch with it; although even such honor would have been too much for him; and yet he made such great noise and spittle, as if he were the only one who could not be like him on earth.
(100) But it goes on like this, and the world must suffer such people as its real pestilence, blood boils, Frenchmen, fevers and other misfortunes of the devil, where God Himself does not mercifully keep house, until the hour comes that [it] once ceases. For God remains judge on earth, as the 58th Psalm, v. 12, says, and what is not right must always perish until the last day, when it will all cease at once and forever. But we must suffer that the louse may feed in the bark and walk on stilts in the old coat.
But where there are ungodly kings and lords, who, according to the other psalm, are the adversaries of God and of his Christ, there is no one better or more favorable in the court than such transgressors, of whom Solomon says, Proverbs 29:12: "A lord who delights in lying, his servants are all ungodly. For godless lords must and will also have such servants, and they also like to run and force their way to such lords, so that they become rich, help drive out the pious, or even strangle them. "Lying" is Solomon's term (as is often the custom in Scripture of the same word) idolatry, false worship, false doctrine; as Ps. 4:3: "Ye lords, how long shall my honor be profaned? How do you love vain things so much, and lies so gladly!"
102 And this word here in this verse, "transgressors," also means to depart from God and His word, as a woman departs from her husband. Hos. 5:2: "They slay much and deceive," that is, they practice great idolatry, and thereby provoke the people to deviate, or
Transgression from the right worship. This can also be seen in all the prophets: where a king has been idolatrous, it has struck, and there have been found enough boys who have served the king well, and have driven the pious out of the court and out of the country, so that in Ahab's time there was not one true prophet in the country, while eight hundred others were well fed by the queen Jezabel, as one reads in the first book of the Kings [Cap. 18, 19]. King Saul had the Doeg and his companions, who helped David and his family to put on all the plagues. The Doeg served his master so well that he killed eighty-five priests and destroyed a whole city, Nobe, with its women, children, livestock and everything in it, 1 Sam. 22:18, 19, without any cause at all and so completely innocently, only that the priest had given David food in his distress, and had spoken God's word, and did not know otherwise, because Saul still loved David as before, and had to call this good deed rebellion against the king etc.
In our times, I think, we should see enough examples of how people rage against God's word at court, and protect and strengthen idolatry and lies. The transgressors have much to do, and are intemperate to persecute and strangle the pious; and it is the great fault of the pious that they seek and hear God's word, or that they desire God's works and creatures (as marriage) or His order and sacraments; whether they are obedient and serve with body and goods in the most obedient and willing way, that does not help. But the bloodhounds, the Doegites, see well that [it] is well done with their masters, and carries bishopric, benefices, money and honor. Therefore their desire is to shed innocent blood, and to persecute the saints of God and members of Christ, so that they may preserve their lies and transgressions mightily. David complains about this in many psalms, especially in the twelfth [Psalm, v. 9]: "It is full of the wicked everywhere, where such loose people are exalted." But let it go, it will and must be so, where God does not give grace to His David at His court to hate the transgressors; as is said.
104. thirdly, he says: "I will let him
will not cling to me." So in Hebrew it reads: He must not cling to me; like Gen. 2, 24: "The man will cling to his wife." Hereby he indicates that he not only hates the transgressors, but also hates them constantly, that he will not let them cling to him in any way nor in any way. For the transgressors or false saints are able to masterfully penetrate to the lords or princes, so that they would also like to seduce a chosen David; they know how to turn and drag the lead 1) very finely. King Jehoash was a fine king as long as the priest Jehoiada lived (says the Scripture [2 Kings 12:2]); after Jehoiada's death he was so wicked (no doubt by such sittim or transgressors) that he had Jehoiada's son Zachariam strangled between the temple and the altar; since Christ also says Matth. 23:35, and the Scripture also mournfully laments this 2 Chron. 24, 22: "And Jehoash the king remembered not the good that Jehoiada the father had done for him, but slew his son." And Herod also loved John at first, heard him gladly, and did much (as the evangelists write [Marc. 6, 20.]); then he had him beheaded for Herodias' sake. Pious servants often cannot approve of everything that their masters do, and have to contradict it, especially against the transgressors, as this Zacharias did; and the truth is unpleasant, and no one likes to be punished. But a transgressor and a hypocrite does not have such a ride, but can read and listen, speak and do what one likes to hear.
It is indeed a great, great miracle (as David praises here) when a prince should and can hate the transgressors or spiritual scoundrels and devil saints, and thus separate them from him, so that they do not stick to him, cling to him, or remain around him in any way. For no doubt some of David's great princes and lords and friends will have sung sweet songs to him, praised this and that, praised our cousin here and our brother-in-law there, so that they would come to court and soar in high places and regiments, regardless,
1) "Bleuel" a flat wood with a handle for beating. On the grinding of the bleuel, see Bilmar, Idiot. p. 42 Metz).
whether they were pious or not. For one likes to attach such bracelets to the great lords as vain useful gems in the kingdom, where God does not endow them with David's spirit, according to which the false worshippers of God constantly know to avoid.
Now, until then he has praised God, how he himself has remained pure and firm in the right worship and word, and also kept his court and servants there, and hated false servants everywhere and constantly avoided them. Now follows the last verse of his spiritual regime.
V. 4. A wicked heart must depart from me; I will not suffer the wicked.
Here he goes to his court, and visits the whole country in his kingdom, and speaks especially of the false teachers and idolatrous priests, who were now and then in the country. For it is found in Scripture that even Moses himself did not reign so well, idolatry remained under his rule; as St. Stephen Apost. 7, 43. from the prophet Amos [Cap. 5, 25.] scolds the Jews that they carried the idol Remphan with them in the desert and worshipped the idol BaalPeor in the land of Moab, 4 Mos. 25, 3. and so from then on under all judges and prophets (however pious they may have been) secret idolatry always remained to the least, that without doubt not even under David's reign everything was pure and holy. But he was diligent and always resisted, so that it did not break down freely and publicly. For the devil neither celebrates nor sleeps. So the spiritual regiment, truly, must not celebrate nor sleep, otherwise it is lost. For even though one watches and works, it still takes effort and work to keep the word of God pure; what should it become, then, if one sleeps and snores securely? as one, unfortunately, did in the papacy, and let everything fall apart that the devil wanted, and now he is established, he does not want to let himself be cast out, nor does he want to concede a little bit.
(108) Now here, in this verse, the devil and his church are briefly and finely painted, namely, that he has a perverse heart and is wicked. "A perverse heart" is what we call heresy or false doctrine, for it is
pervert God's word and service. They turn the word around and make it better; as, where God commands us to build on His grace alone, and not on ourselves or on men, as He says in Exodus 20:2, 3: "I am your God, you shall have no other gods," they teach us to build on our own work, always creating and teaching other, new ways, and everything must be reversed, as God also does.
Thus he also reverses God's word in paradise, when God said to Adam Genesis 2:17: "If you eat of the tree [of the knowledge of good and evil], 1) you will die. No, said the devil, if you eat of the tree, you will not die, but will become like God. Therefore Christ calls the devil a father of all lies [John 8:44]. For what God (who is truth) speaks, he turns around and makes a lie out of it, as all heretics, his disciples, did afterwards. What God says must be wrong, what they say must be right. And so do our lords of the papacy: what God speaks must be heresy; what they speak (whether they know and confess that they speak against God's word), that speaks the holy Christian church and the spirit of Christ, whether one knows that the devil calls them to speak so. This is the first piece of the heretics, which is called "a perverse heart". Of course, a perverse heart will also have perverse words and deeds. For "a hasty wicked man (saith Christ Matth. 12, 35.) bringeth forth evil upon his wicked treasure".
Evil" means harmful, murderous, bloodthirsty people. For an idolatrous man, if he has first killed God's word in the heart through lies and idolatry, he can much less let people live through envy and hatred. That is why Christ calls the devil a liar and murderer. His children, the false teachers and liars against God's word, must be similar to the same father. Just as Cain, when he fell from the truth into lies, had to become a murderer, and since he could not commit it on anyone else, he had to prove it on his own brother.
111 But where they cannot or may not kill, they do not refrain from harming.
1) The bracketed words are missing in the Erlanger.
do. They are called and are evil, that is, envious, poisonous, harmful people, who day and night seek to do harm and damage, and although they cannot kill the body with their felling, nor help it with their counsel or heart, yet they do not lack a complete, whole will and desire, and their greatest sorrow is that they cannot do enough evil. Therefore Solomon [Proverbs 1:16] and Isaiah [Cap. 59:7] say that their feet are quick to shed blood. False doctrine and murder want and must be with each other, as all Scripture, all histories and daily experience testify. The devil wants to have man completely dead, the soul by lies, the body by murder. Therefore, where he does the first, he quickly penetrates the other, and where the serpent enters with his head, he certainly pulls the tail in, and wants to be completely inside.
(112) And such lies and murders are first of all the true devil, if they are worse than Cain's lies and murders, who had no pretense of his wickedness, which was a simple mischievousness, and his wickedness, which was simple wickedness; for he did it not as a service of God, but out of anger and revengefulness. But the hypocrites, the right liars and murderers, make a service out of it, and do it out of zeal for God's honor and the salvation of souls; as Christ says John 16:2: "They will put you under ban (that is, they will condemn your truth as blasphemy and deceive souls, to preserve their lies, that is, God's praise and honor, and to preserve the salvation of souls), and whoever kills you will think he is doing God a service." For with this they want to prevent that the whole multitude must die or be punished by God, as Lord Caiphas also gave the same holy, divine advice, saying [John 11:50]: "It is better to kill one man than that all the people should die." It is a wise, delicious counsel, and reigns mightily in the world.
These far surpass their arch-father Cain, and are two-fold liars and murderers. The first lie is that they fall from the truth and do not have God's word. The other, that they have used their lies for truth and
They want to hold worship, and have done great worship by condemning and blaspheming the truth; yes, they are sevenfold liars and murderers, because they fall away from the truth and cling to lies. Then they want to take the lies for truth, and the truth for lies, and defend them, and finally they condemn and blaspheme the truth as the devil's word, and praise their lies as God's word; thus they make God out of the devil, and God out of the devil, put hell into heaven, heaven into hell. So, the first murder is to kill people; the other, to consider such murder as a preservation and endowment of life, and to do service to God with it; and consider it right that they should not grant life to any heretic (as they call it), and be guilty of not granting it to them, and condemn all those who consider such murder to be murder and wickedness, wanting badly to have considered it a benefit and salvation of life.
But where shall we put our liars and murderers, the Junker Papists? They are three times worse than these. For their lies and murder have no appearance as if it were worship. They know that their lies are lies against God's word, and that their murder is murder, not for God's service; and there is no leaf of ignorance here that would cover them, like those; and yet they are not simple lies and murder, like Cain's lies and murder, but they make a pretense of their own by force, against their conscience. And they do nothing else than to say in effect: "We know well that our lies are lies against God and his word, and we have neither reason nor cause to pretend that we could boast of them as truth. But nevertheless, we want to violently, wantonly, and knowingly drag the name of God here and desecrate it, and have made and kept up the pretense that our lies are God's word, and have the devil for a god, and again God for a devil; and whoever does not want to keep this, let him die, and nevertheless keep such wickedness and murder for God's service and salvation of life; although we ourselves know that it is murder and wickedness, and that God's service may not be thought of or kept up with some pretense.
These are the last and final liars and murderers, who bring it to the third and lowest hell. Therefore, no example can be made of them, nor can they be said to be superior, and they have no equal, and they alone belong to the kingdom of the end of Christ, which should be an unspeakable abomination. For how can men become more wicked, if the devil himself cannot be more wicked or more wicked? But before the end of the world and until the last day, the devil must have such saints, and thus force Christ to keep the last judgment the sooner.
And that we come back to David, that would have been enough for royal virtue, that David would have remained innocent of all lies and murder in his kingdom, that he would not have had an evil conscience, set up some lies or idolatry, nor guilty of some murder or innocent blood. For let us also recognize this as a gift of God, where a man, especially a prince, can be free with a good conscience, that he has not been the cause of some error or some deceived souls, nor of any murder, nor of any drop of innocent blood, because of these kings and princes, even in some of God's people, little is found, the others have all remained in the common heap of kings, which the Holy Spirit describes in the 2nd Psalm, v. 2. Psalm, v. 2, enemies of God and His Christ, so that He may clearly judge them as liars and murderers against God's truth and service, and thus count them among the terrible bunch of bloodhounds and devil saints, over all of whom the innocent blood shall come, which was shed from the beginning of the race, from the first blood of St. Gabriel to the last blood of the saints [Matth. 23, 35].
But dear David is highly gifted and such a noble, special hero that he is not only innocent of all lies and murders that would or might happen in his kingdom, but also stands against such liars and murderers, does not want to suffer them, and fights with all his might so that they have to leave. Oh, what a great multitude of false teachers, idolaters, and heretics he has had to expel here, or shut their mouths, so that they are not allowed to make a noise or move. But on the other hand, he has punished all pious, faithful, right teachers.
He not only allowed the people space, freedom, peace, protection, protection and entertainment, but also sought out, demanded, called, ordered and commanded them everywhere to preach the word of God purely and loudly and to serve God righteously. As can be seen in 1 Chron. 16, where he himself so diligently instituted, ordered and appointed all worship, and made psalms himself, in which he instructed them how to teach and praise God, and incited and ordered many others to do the same work of making psalms. No, says the dear David, I do not want to suffer the liars and soul-searchers, as well as the bloodhounds and murderers in my kingdom; they shall not so deceive my people, and the faithful priests and teachers shall not so murder or persecute, but they shall depart, and I will not suffer them, so that the right teachers may safely, freely and joyfully praise my God, and preach to the people in a useful and blessed way.
O, what a beautiful, lovely kingdom this has been, when God's word has once also received a pious, faithful king! There everything had to stand very well, green and blossom in all wisdom and virtue; as God's word does not remain without virtue. That is why the noble book, the Psalter, was made at that time, the like of which has not been found among the people. Of course, there were more learned men in the Scriptures at that time than ever before or since among the people, and none will be equal to this high school of David, whether it be high or low. "As the ruler is (says Sirach [Cap. 10, 2.]), so are his officers, as the council is, so are the citizens"; for where the king himself attacks the things and goes ahead, there it must well go.
But how strange such kings are, and how short their work lasts, is shown by the example of his son Solomon, who first improved and decorated the work of his father, but finally, when he grew old, he let the women fool him and make fun of him, and founded idol churches and idolatry. That is why he could not sing this royal psalm to the end, like his father David, who also made two other psalms in which he praised his great gift and thanked God for it, as if the sixth psalm had been sung.
The first Psalm, in which, v. 1, he calls his kingdom a golden rosebush of God, because [v. 8] God speaks in his sanctuary, that is, God's word was in his kingdom.
Now that the purpose has been achieved, David has set himself as an example and masterpiece for all pious kings and lords, how to seek God's kingdom and His righteousness first, and how to keep the subjects faithful to the word of God and to the pastors or preachers, not allowing the evil spirits and perverse, evil hearts to deceive the souls and to murder or persecute the innocent. Whoever is able, and as much as he is able by the grace of God, let him follow and do his best. No one will ever do the same as David, who has the advantage over all kings and lords, because he has done it too well. But every man can be at least careful that he is not in the company of murderous kings and princes, or, as the second Psalm, v. 2, says, the enemies of God and Christ, so that he does not help or give cause to the evil spirits to deceive souls and shed the innocent blood of righteous teachers and Christians. Nevertheless, it will be enough trouble and work for him to keep the preachers and God's word in the country; especially in our times, when people are so terribly ungrateful and scornful, and the devil is enraged beyond all measure, that it must be grasped that he wants to go out with the people so that they will henceforth be completely free, without all preaching and teaching.
For, now that they have been freed from the papal coercion and its manifold deceitfulness, they think to be completely free and free from all God's obedience and service; they would also like to be free from all worldly rights and order, and the devil has them full, both spiritual and worldly rebellion, against God and man. And those who seek, indeed need, such freedom from the pope most of all, as bishops, princes, canons, nobility, who want to keep other people under the pope with great force; for they do not give a straw for all papal teaching, they alone want to have such freedom. And in spite of the pope, that he now gives the bishops
and princes, as he did before, they should become Lutheran against him seven times, and force him a little bit, 1) as Luther did, which they will finally do, as Revelation John 17:16 predicts. Other people, that is, the Lutherans, who have earned such freedom at great cost, shall remain under the Pope's compulsion and publicly recognized lies, or die and be driven out. That is, we shall be the diligent bees that make the honey, but they, the lazy bumblebees, want to eat the honey.
For this reason I say this, whoever wants to accept it as a warning, because everything and everyone almost wants to be free, and despises God's word. For there is an old prophecy among the images of the end of Christ, which says that at the end of the world, when the deception of the end of Christ will be discovered, people will become wild and crude, fall away from all faith, and say that there is no more God, and thus live in all wantonness, according to their own lusts etc. (2 Thess. 2, 3.]. Such old images truly move me very much, and are especially true. For not to have God means to believe neither this nor that, but to be free from all teaching and preaching that is done under God's name. For one cannot have God except by word and faith alone, just as St. Paul says [Eph. 2:12] that the Gentiles were without God before, when the world was full of gods, but they had neither word nor faith from God. And also [2 Thess. 2, 4.] says that the end-Christ will rise, not above God (for that is impossible), but supra dictum et cultum Deum, that is, above God's word and service.
Such epicuri and God-rejecters are now publicly tearing into Germany, as it was torn into Welsh country before, and (unfortunately) wants to become a Welsh regiment, both in worldly and spiritual state. This was brought in by the Curtisans and Landsknechte, as they have seen and learned in Rome and in the Welsh country; with the same Welsh regiment will also come the Welsh plagues and misfortunes; so it is over with Germany, and will be called fuit.
124. once a fine man talked to me.
1) zwagen - zwacken.
Man (and why should I not call him), He Assch von Cram blessed, and asked whether men of war (where they would otherwise be believers) could also take pay with a good conscience? I also answered in writing. 1) Among other things, there were speeches (I don't know how) about the great usury, which is called the envelope, both word and deed, unknown to me before. How, I said, do people not have a conscience that is afraid of God's judgment and hell? Yes, he said, they speak thus: Do you think that there is still a guy in this guy? Such a word stung my heart, because I had neither suspected nor worried about such impudent speech in the German land. But God grant that they are few among the nobility and not many among the peasants.
For such companions will help the dear gospel to descend very soon and in a hurry, and to bring the last darkness, since Christ says [Luc. 18, 8]: "Do you think that when the Son of Man comes, he will find faith? And both he and St. Paul say that the last day will come at night, when it is darkest.
And to this end, the dear noblemen, bishops, cardinals, canons, who are free of semper and proud, help with all their might and full speed; they leave, indeed, make many parishes vacant and desolate, so that the rabble may quickly become raw, wild and pagan, neither hear nor learn anything about God and the salvation of souls; so that one can see how completely pious Epicurians they themselves are, and want to make all the world like them, epicurious as well. Well, it is their office, they should do so; they are not worth better. God's wrath drives them to help the cause to its end, yet they pretend that they do not want to suffer Lutherans; just as if they were serious about keeping and teaching their own papal doctrine, which would be ten times more unpleasant to them than Luther's. Sed mitte vadere, sicut vadit; quia vult vadere, sicut vadit.
127 Because such a terrible and completely papal, that is, epicurean and Welsh, nature is concerned, so help whoever can help, and have mercy on the poor youth, our dear
1) Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. X, 488.
Offspring, in addition to all God's chosen children who are yet to come, and not all of whom have yet been born, who must also come to baptism and to Christ through our service and handing, to which we are also called, and live precisely for the sake of the same; otherwise our faith would be enough for our person, no matter what hour we die. And woe to all woe, where we throw such service and calling to the wind! God will demand it of us and will take account of all the descendants of souls who are neglected by us.
Therefore I say again, let David be who he can be, and do according to his example what each one can do, especially the princes and lords who have authority from God and enough good to do so; and he will give much more, even a hundredfold, and in addition eternal life, as he promises so abundantly [Matth. 19, 29]. And it cannot happen anymore that so much will happen, so that the schools and the preaching chair (which may not give much) will remain, because so many monasteries, convents and fiefdoms are available. The above prophecy will certainly be fulfilled. God grant that we may be found beforehand ([as those who] have done and taught against it) 2) together with all who are dear to us, to have departed in a good hour, and to be done with Lot from the damned Sodom and Gomorrah, amen. This is what is said about the first part of this psalm. The other part of this psalm is the four verses as follows:
V. 5. I will destroy him who slandered his neighbor; I do not like him who has a proud spirit and high courage etc.
Therefore, David has illustrated with his example how pious kings and princes should serve God, so that by their help and assistance God's word and honor may be promoted and the wrong spirits may be controlled. And thus he led them to the church in a right and Christian way, not, like the hypocrites, to serve God by burning candles or other foolish work, which serves the temporal wealth and honor of false teachers, but, with right earnestness and spirit, to serve the
2) These brackets are placed by us for easier understanding.
pure doctrine and God's order, for the benefit of the souls' bliss. Now he gives himself here also as an example in the secular government, how a pious prince should act among the people or subjects, protect each one from the other's violence and iniquity, help to the right and maintain it, and leads him to the right town hall.
It is, praise be to God, now evident enough to all the world how the two regiments are to be distinguished; for the work in Himself also shows such a distinction abundantly enough, even if no commandment or prohibition had been given by Christ about it. For we can see that God scatters worldly rule or kingdoms among the ungodly in the most glorious and powerful way; just as he lets the good sun and rules serve over and among the ungodly, and yet does not establish a word of God or ministry among them, nor does he teach or instruct them through prophets, as he did in Jerusalem among his people. Nevertheless, he calls such worldly rule of the wicked his order and creature, and lets them abuse it as badly as they can. Just as he lets a boy and a whore use his body and soul, yet he wants to be praised (as he is) as a creator, Lord and sustainer of such bodies and souls. From this it must be understood that the worldly kingdom is different and can have its own being without God's kingdom.
Again, we see that he separates his spiritual kingdom so precisely and sharply from the worldly kingdom that he lets his own suffer all misery, misery and poverty on earth; and as little as he gives the godless kingdoms from his kingdom, so little does he give his own from the godless kingdoms. For the emperor at Rome certainly never had the word of God nor prophets, through which he would have arisen and become so powerful and sustained. So also St. Peter and Paul at Rome did not have a footprint wide own nor straw, by which their one might have preserved itself, let alone rule or reign. At the same time both kingdoms were at Rome; one was ruled by the emperor Nero against Christ; the other by Christ through his apostles, Peter and Paul, against the devil. And for the sign that
When Peter and Paul did not reign in the kingdom at Rome, one was crucified and the other beheaded. Now this is the crucifixion and the beheading of the reign of the Holy Spirit on earth. Again, as a sign that Nero did not reign in the kingdom of Christ, as an enemy of that kingdom, he had the chief princes of that kingdom, St. Peter and Paul, executed, as if they were 1) enemies of his temporal kingdom.
132. over such a work and testimony of history Christ stands, and says: "the kings of the Gentiles rule over them, but you do not," that is, do not think that I want to make you worldly lords; let the Gentiles have their rule. Again he says [Matt. 8:20], "The foxes have holes, and the birds have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." Now then, where will he lay his hands and feet, and his whole body? Did he lie in the manger and in his mother's womb and arm, even in the ship on a pillow? But this is the opinion: My kingdom is not, on earth to be, to lie, to eat, to drink, to clothe (although the need of the body takes an hour or two, like a guest), but another, which remains there, if such everything ceases. But the fox's hole is his [the fox's] kingdom; when he no longer has that, all his kingdoms are gone, and he with them; for without a hole he cannot remain. But I remain without worldly rule.
I always have to inculcate such a difference between these two kingdoms, and to chew the cud, to drive it in and to wedge it in, even though it is written and said so often that it is annoying. For the wretched devil does not cease to boil and brew these two kingdoms into one another. The worldly lords always want to teach and master Christ in the devil's name, how he should lead his church and spiritual regiment; so the false clergymen and the spirits of the rotten, not in God's name, always want to teach and master how to order the worldly regiment; and so the devil is almost very idle on both sides, and has much to do. May God resist him, amen; if we are worthy of it.
1) In the old editions: would-, is: would they.
(134) Yes, does David also do in this psalm as your interpretation suggests, and mixes spiritual and temporal rule into one another, and wants to have it both ways. Traun, here I should probably have hit myself in the cheeks, and be caught and beaten with my own words; especially when the sharp antilogists would come over this book, who hold me like the eel 1) by the tail, and know how to put on all my disgusting speech. Well then, if the most holy father Pabst with his own will not be merciful to me nor help me out of such distresses, then help me the dear Lord Jesus Christ, whom they are hostile to and persecute. And so say to this: All reason, even a child of seven years, must say that to command and to obey are two different things, just as to rule and to serve are two different things. For the one is called authority, the other we may call inferiority; that is clear enough and also spoken in German. Now we must let God our Lord be the one supremacy over all that is created, and we must all be vain inferior to him (if we do not want to be with love, then we must be with sorrow); then nothing else will come of it (praise to God). For He Himself says Ps. 68, 5, Lord be His name, and the children call Him in faith the Almighty God and Father.
When a preacher therefore says from his office, both to kings and princes and to all the world, Think and fear God, and keep his commandments, he does not mix with worldly authority, but serves and is obedient to the highest authority. Therefore, the whole spiritual government is nothing else but a service to the divine sovereignty. Therefore they are also called God's servants and Christ's servants in the Scriptures; yes, St. Paul also says [Rom. 15, 16.] served the church and all the Gentiles. So also, when David, or a prince, teaches or is called to fear God and to hear his word, he is not a lord of the same word, but a servant and obedient one, and does not mix with spiritual or divine supremacy, but remains a humble servant.
1) In the Wittenberg and the Jena: "Oel"; in the Erlangen: "Ohel". For our release, compare St. Louiser Ausg., vol. XX, 3iö, Z10 the form "Oeß" and our note on it.
Subordinate and faithful servant. For in the sight of God and in the service of His sovereignty, everything should be equal and mixed, be it spiritual or secular, the pope as well as the emperor, the lord as well as the servant, and there is no distinction here, nor respect of person; one is as good before God as the other. For he is one God, all the same Lord, one as your other. Therefore, they shall all be in the same obedience, and even mingled together, like one kitchen, and all be obedient to help one another. Therefore, in service or subjection to God, there can be no rebellion at all in the spiritual or temporal regime. For out of obedience or service there is no rebellion, as in the world, but out of ruling and wanting to rule.
This means that when the high spirits or wise men want to change and master the worldly law in a territorial and glorious way, they have no command or authority over it, neither from God nor from men. So too, when spiritual or secular princes and lords want to change and master God's word in a territorial and glorious way, even to say what one should teach and preach, this is forbidden to them as well as to the least beggar; that is, they want to be God themselves, not to serve or remain under God's word, but, like Lucifer, to be like God, yes, to be above God, and thus to pull themselves out of under God and into God's authority, and finally to set themselves above him. That is why all the quarrels and complaints are about the amount of spiritual and temporal rule, because of the superiority and not because of the inferiority. For everyone wants to create and make a new thing, but no one wants to serve and obey, both in divine and temporal matters. This is the grievous original sin, inherent plague, ingrown poison from Adam's hereditary stock and paternal blossom, since the devil threw and poisoned him with the word, when he said: "You will be like God. The same damned divinity makes it that everything is mixed into each other.
A secular lord or landlord cannot suffer, and is not to suffer, that his subjects want at the same time.
If a man be servant and master in his house, and what the Lord commanded or forbade them to do or to do, what would become of such a household? But if it is to be right, then one pious servant must say to another: "Dear, you know that our Lord wants this and that and has commanded, therefore let us be obedient, and each do his own. Such a pious servant certainly does not interfere with his master's authority, but serves faithfully, and helps his master to maintain his authority and the servants' obedience, as Joseph did in Egypt against Pharaoh, and David also against his enemy Saul; and all the world must say that such a servant is not a master, but the most submissive and faithful servant. So, when here David mixes himself (as it seems with a great saint) in divine or spiritual regiment, and speaks to his own: You shall do so and so as God has commanded; then he is not a lord, but a faithful servant of his God, whose honor and dominion he seeks submissively.
But if he had said: Dear people, this and that our God has commanded, you know it; but I will not have it so, but command you, as your temporal king and lord, whom you owe to obey, body and soul, that you do otherwise; that might have been called quite well mixed in each other spiritual and temporal, or divine and human regiment. As is done now in our time (praise God and lament!), and as was done before by the noble Antiochus and his like, of which enough has been written for many years. Whoever notices it, let him notice it; whoever does not, let him leave it; God will not suffer such a mixture, as he has never suffered it until now. Well, stop it, it is enough of it.
139) Coming back to David, in his worldly rule, we hear here also in the Psalm many fine princely virtues that he has practiced. For in this piece he does not act as one should serve God (as in the first), but as he has held people to the law, each one against his neighbor. For how the spiritual regiment or office is to direct the people over against God, rightly
The worldly government should govern the people among themselves and ensure that body, property, honor, wife, child, house, yard and all kinds of goods remain in peace and security, and may be blessed on earth. For God wants the government of the world to be a model of true happiness and of His kingdom of heaven, like a show or a masquerade, in which He also lets His great saints run, one better than the other, but David best of all.
(140) Indeed, God subjected and commanded the temporal government to reason, because it is not to govern the salvation of souls nor eternal good, but only bodily and temporal goods, which God subjects to man, Genesis 2:8 ff, for which reason nothing is taught in the Gospel about how it is to be kept and governed, without it saying that one should honor it and not oppose it. Therefore the pagans (as they did) can well say and teach this; and to tell the truth, they are far above the Christians in such matters, as Christ himself says [Luc. 16, 8] that the children of this world are wiser than the children of light; and St. Paul says 1 Cor. 1, 26. f. that not many wise, noble, strong are called, but what is foolish, weak, despised, God has chosen etc.
Just as we still experience daily how quick, cunning, clever and agile the children of the world are, compared to us pious, silly, good, simple creatures and sheep, so that if God had not stood with us and turned their great wisdom into foolishness, they would have achieved much in another way long before we would have become aware of it. For God is a mild, rich Lord, who casts great gold, silver, riches, dominions, kingdoms among the wicked, as if it were chaff or sand; so he also casts among them high reason, wisdom, languages, oratory, so that his dear Christians are to be regarded as mere children, fools and beggars compared to them.
And what can it say much? The imperial law, according to which the Roman Empire still reigns today and will remain until the last day, is nothing other than pagan wisdom, which the Romans, before Rome was ruled by Christians or by God, had not yet understood.
has himself heard something, have set and ordered. And I think that if all lawyers were baked in one cake and all wise men were made into one drink, they would not only leave things and affairs unconceived, but would also not be able to talk or think about them. For such people have had to practice in great trades, and have learned to know many a man's mind, and have been gifted with great reason and understanding. Summa, they have lived, and will live no more, who have had such wisdom in the worldly government.
On the other hand, one can see what a childish, silly, bad thing ecclesiastical law is, even though many holy, excellent people have been in it, that even the jurists themselves say: Purus canonista est magnus asinista. And it must be said, it is the dear truth; for they are very much absorbed in other thoughts, have taken little notice of worldly wisdom.
Therefore, whoever wants to learn and become wise in the secular regime may read the pagan books and writings, which have truly been beautifully and abundantly painted, both with sayings and images, with teachings and examples, from which the old imperial rights also came.
145. and my thought is that God therefore gave and preserved such pagan books as the poets and histories, such as Homerum, Virgilium, Demosthenem, Ciceronem, Livium, and afterwards the ancient fine jurists (just as he also gave and preserved other temporal goods among the pagans and the ungodly at all times), that the pagans and the ungodly should also have their prophets, apostles and theologians or preachers for worldly rule. Just as St. Paul calls the Cretan poets Epimenides their prophets, Titus 1:12, and St. Matthew calls the three holy kings Magos [Matt. 2:1] because they were priests, prophets or teachers of the Arabs. So with them have been Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Ulpianus etc., as with God's people Moses, Elijah, Isaiah etc., and their emperors, kings, princes, as, Alexander, Augustus etc. have been their Davides and Salomones.
146. for like the spiritual and holy prophets and kings the people have
taught and governed people to come to the eternal kingdom of God and to remain in it; so these worldly, pagan, godless prophets and kings taught and governed people to maintain the worldly kingdom. For since God wanted to give temporal rule to the pagans or to reason, he also had to give people who could rule with wisdom and courage, 1) who were inclined and skilled to do so, and who maintained it; just as he always had to give his people true, pure, faithful teachers who could rule his Christian church and fight against the devil. From these two parts all kinds of books, laws and teachings have been made and have remained until now. The pagans, on their side, have their pagan books; we Christians, on our side, the holy scripture books. The former teach virtue, righteousness and wisdom for temporal goods, honor and peace on earth; the latter teach faith and good works for eternal life in the kingdom of heaven.
147 And how could one paint a prince or king on earth more finely, because the pagans have painted their Herculem? What more could one desire in a worldly prince, if he were like Herculem's deeds, or followed him? True it is, sin or vice run with under; what is the wonder in a heathen, so well also the saints of God, as David etc., have fallen? But in the regiment they remained fine heroes. What is missing Alexandra Magno and his father, Philippo? Item, Augusto, Trajano, and their like, if one should have princely examples to the secular regiment? And, I will be silent about other books now, how could one make one of his books in worldly, pagan wisdom, because the common, silly children's book is called Aesopus? Yes, because the children learn it and it is so mean, [it] does not have to be valid; and lets everyone think he is worth four doctors, who has never understood a fable in it.
However, it must be remembered here, as it was also said above [§ 23 ff.], that the worldly wise or worldly rulers are not all equal, but as David is in his time and in his regiment before other saints of God.
1) Added by us.
Interpretation of the 101st Psalm. Ps. 101, 5.
a miracle man, as an example to all pious kings and princes; so also here. Although all the heathen are like the heathen, and all have been like men and sensible, yet there must have been some miracle-workers among them, who have done it for and over others in the best way, which the others may not have equaled, but, as much as they were able, they did, and mended the evil fur, as well as they were able, as it still goes and must go. For just as God does not make all His holy people equally prophets or learned, nor equally highly gifted, so also among the Gentiles He has not made the noble stones as common as the pebbles in the street, but has also rarely given them a fine hero, as He still does. For none has yet come to be like Homero or Alexandra, none like Virgilio or Augusto, and so on. [Even among the blind pagans there remains such a miraculous deed of God that it is not their wisdom, but only God's gift, where they have been or done something special.
For this reason, in the Psalm, the good, dear David gives thanks and praise to God for his worldly rule, not to his reason nor to his power. For such high, princely virtue (be it David or Hercules) also belongs to God's activity. The pagans, who could not know where such a difference of princes came from, called it Fortuna, luck, and made a goddess out of it and honored it highly, especially the cleverest, most powerful lords of Rome. The cleverest among them, as Cicero 2c, say that it is a divine inspiration, and conclude that no great man has ever been made by his own powers, but by a special secret inspiration or inspiration of the gods. For they saw how strangely fortunate one man was over another, since one could lead a cause that was not half, not even the seventh part, as skilled with reason, strength and force as many others who should have done better, and yet did not know how to approach, nor how to take counsel or action with all their wisdom; as happened to Demostheni and Ciceroni. This is also what the Germans say in the proverb: He who has luck leads the bride home.
150 And especially must such divine trie
The devil is especially hostile to the Gentiles, his subjects, for the sake of God and His word, as Ezekiel says of Jerusalem. For the devil is especially hostile to them, more than to the Gentiles, his subjects, for the sake of God and His word, as Ezekiel, Cap. 5, 5, says of Jerusalem: "Behold, this is Jerusalem; I have placed her in the midst of the Gentiles." As if he should say: All around she has vain enemies, and the devil himself, for my sake, who do not grant her the little ones with the sows, nor life, let alone a free, good, royal rule in the world. Therefore, God Himself (as the Bible teaches us) has always had to protect and preserve His people's kingdom with His own power and miraculous deeds, through vain miracle workers, whom He chooses and raises up for this purpose. For although the devil is also hostile and abhorrent to the worldly rule of the Gentiles, he hates God's rule on earth much more grievously than the saints, because he has always used the kingdoms and power of the Gentiles, as all the Gentiles around Jerusalem have shown; and he will never let go of it until the last day, when he will have to stop. So David sings of his first virtue in the worldly kingdom:
He who slandereth his neighbor in secret, him will I destroy.
151) Do you hear here that he does not now act against God, but looks among himself and takes care of his neighbor, that is, he also wants to do right by the people, like a secular king. But there are two kinds of slander at court: one that concerns the king or prince himself, as when one speaks evil of him, curses or blasphemes him; as the peasants also use to curse their lords. David (in my opinion) does not speak of this, and the pagans have behaved differently and differently in this matter; each one may take an example of this as he pleases. The magnanimous princes have generally despised it. When the great Alexander was told how evil was spoken of him, he did nothing about it, nor was he angry, but said: Regium est benefacere, et male audire, Ei, it is royal when we do well, and the people are evil.
talk about it. As if he should say: Royal virtues are too high for the foolish rabble to understand, and too good to be praised by useless people. He learned this from his prophet Homero, who writes of an unfaithful man, Thersite, who could do nothing else but curse his king. Some Roman emperors have also said: "In the free city of Rome there must be free tongues.
But it was a mortal sin among the people of Israel, as it was among many other nations. For the Jews considered it blasphemy, and even killed the true holy prophets, who by official duty and God's command had to punish both kings and prophets, as we read in all the prophets. But their office did not help them: if they punished the kings' vice and idolatry, it had to be said that they blasphemed God and the king, and were quickly killed. Therefore the saying of Moses, 2 Mos. 22, 28. had to serve: "Thou shalt not curse the gods, nor blaspheme the ruler of thy people." With the saying and the sword of Moses much innocent blood was shed, just as now the name of the church and the authorities must also kill and torment many innocent Christians.
The world is a thistle-head, and when you turn it down, it stretches out its thorns. Before our gospel came, no one knew how to preach from the authorities (as they would be a good state); now that they have been praised and exalted by the gospel, they also want to be over God and his word, and command what is to be preached and believed. Again, if one punishes her, it shall be called sedition. I would also like to say, like that preacher, when he said of the rabbit strip that the head would be evil to strip (but meant the princes and lords): Strip you, he said, the devil. Well, it goes as it should go, without that on the right way nothing wants to remain; it wants to go out either hotte or schwode, as the rumbling and mad 1) nags do.
The other slander goes to the neighbor, as the text says and complains. For David thus clearly confesses that there were such boys at court who tempted him. What else could he say against them so harshly that he would have
1) In the old editions: "kollern und tollern".
not only for a royal virtue, but also for a divine miracle that he was able to eradicate such vices in his court? What is not there, one must not eradicate.
But perhaps he will speak only of his time and of his pants? Now and in our time (God forbid) they are no longer at court, they have all become pious; and if they were, they would not be (whether God wills it); as a fool's spirit says: If I have done it, then, whether God wills it, I have not done it, nor I, nor you, nor my brother, nor my brother-in-law; the shameful nobody has done it, he does all evil deeds, and nevertheless remains free, unpunished before all law and force, and also in all regiment, be it great or small. But reserved, either master Hansen or the devil his right, if God wants to give it into their hands; the same can also (I am very surprised) find the hostile nobody, as Solomon often preaches and warns in his sayings.
The pagans make a good post, and say about a strange god, who is called Momus, who can leave nothing unpunished, therefore his name is also called Momus, that is a reprover. He almost praises what other gods have done to man; but one thing is forgotten and disgracefully done, that there is no window or stove hole made in man's heart, through which one can see what people have in mind and think; 2) and if each one knew how to beware of the other, because it would be painted on his forehead (as we Germans say) what he had in his heart, and no liar, hypocrite, flatterer, nor some false tongue could do anything, much less accomplish anything. But the high reason of wise people hereby complains about the hypocrites and false hearts, and cannot be satisfied nor think what God means by letting us be plagued on earth by false people one below the other; for it thinks, where it would have been present, it would have given God good advice to create man in such a way that he would have to have a window to the heart at the left teat.
2) degenerate - averted, prevented.
For if false tongues were at court and in the regiment, 1) the sword would often remain in the scabbard, since it would otherwise, without need, cause great misfortune, blood and murder; [it] would also certainly not remain so deeply hidden in the books, but would freely come out and rise, like the dear sun, to all who otherwise must suffer injustice. Well, it is the fur, in which neither skin nor hair is good, as all histories testify; without what God does good in it and mends it; that the poor impatient Momus (to speak after the flesh) is not angry without cause, and would gladly that [it] were otherwise. Therefore, David has created this very close, and almost hit the most noble vice and evil at court, as if he had experienced it, that tongues are more harmful than swords and all weapons, be it guns, spears, mice, and how evil it may be called. For where evil tongues were gone, there would be no need for a sword. Therefore also David speaks in the Psalter, Ps. 57, 5: Their tongues are sword and spear. And we Germans say of an evil word that it is an arrow. Item: This is a stab that does not bleed etc.
What more shall I say of it; it is too high for me, who have not been at court and in the regiment, and am gladly far from it, without thinking that it goes there, as in Christ's kingdom, in which I am a little and quite tried and experienced, and to me, I should say to my Lord Christ, the false tongues do the 2) utmost harm. I have heard two pieces in the secular regiment from people who are now dead, whom I believe, and have seen a piece or two myself. If the others (as I do not know) are also of the same kind or worse, then God help all princes and rulers, and must praise (to speak paganly according to reason) who has gone far away and become a monk or hermit. For I see that in the secular regiment there are also heretics and red spirits, who do not fight and war with the sword (for they are much too timid for that), but with the tongue.
159 Well, I do not want to know more about it, nor can I, because that the Meloschni (that is
1) thäten - Hori odstarent, not hindered. Cf. Col. 668 in this volume.
2) "den" is missing in the Erlanger.
Hebrew), tongue thresher, or (in German) washer, should and must be a fine little cat that can lick in front and scratch behind. He must have the two virtues in him: one, that he can lick well; the other, that he can scratch even better. As David himself paints his Doeg, that he could lick king Saul very well, and speak what pleased him well, and scratch poor David so shamefully, that even thereby over eighty priests were strangled. Such a kitten must have two persons: one who licks it, that is Saul; the other who scratches it, that is David. But at last Saul goes down with his cat, and David remains a master, unscratched, unbitten, and also uneaten. For David says here that they must be destroyed. If he denies it, they will probably find out.
The pagans say of their Hercule (who was their David) that he let himself be fooled by the women at last. One of them put the veil on him, the other one gave him the cam and spindle in her hand, and he had to spin with great love. Well, one must believe that such high princes, like David over Bathsheba, 3) become fools in love with women; but I do not believe that he spun; But I do not believe that he has spun; but the poets and sensible people have painted and improved this with words, that if a female prince or man can otherwise not overcome a tremendous miracle, and if he has overcome all enemies around and around (like Hercules), he still cannot overcome the domestic devil, the native enemy, but the sweet lady and beautiful queen Omphale, with her beautiful face and smooth tongue, puts the veil on the dear Herculi and calls him to spin. There then sits the high victor, who has torn all the lions, captured the infernal dog, slain the Centauros and Lapithas, strangled the dragon, and what more wonders they write of him; there he now sits (I say) and drops his club, takes the spindle in his hand, and his beautiful Omphale threatens him with the rod, where he does not spin right.
161. with it the poets have painted the beautiful kitten, called adulatjo, at court, the
3) In the old editions: Betsab".
trumped the princes and lords on the mouth, and called her to do what she wanted; but with such a beautiful figure and with such sweet speeches that the dear Hercules thinks it is the angel of God, and he himself is not worthy to have such a beautiful lady, as the Omphale is, and becomes her willing, submissive servant; but not without great harm to those whom he should have saved with his club meanwhile, protected and helped against the evil boys.
162) Whether any king or prince has been, or will yet come, who has not been deceived by such a beautiful figure, I do not know, and I will let them take care of it; but I do know from the holy scriptures that the highest king of all kings, David himself, has not remained safe from it. For what his own son Absalom did to him with a beautiful figure and fine words is evident enough. After that, Ziba so finely greased his mouth and tickled his ears in due time that he took from poor Mephibosheth, to whom he had promised some goods before, and gave half of them to Ziba the kitten; Ziba scratched the same from Mephibosheth with his licking of King David. He still boasts here in the psalm that he destroys the slanderers, and at the end of this psalm we will ask him why he can boast about what he has not done or had.
It seems to me that the prophets of the pagans do not want to give any king the honor of having remained undeceived by such a beautiful bride, because they paint the very best prince in paganism, Hercules, as having to spin. As if they should say: What Hercules has not done, you should leave to other princes; what he has not had, you should also suffer; he has had to spin, it will also have to be spun with you. And how can it be otherwise? He who is to rule must trust people, otherwise what would he do in his regiment? But he who trusts is certainly deceived; as the Germans say: Trauwohl rode 1) the horse away. And the Hebrews Ps. 116, 11.: "All men are false." For this is good
1) "reit" in the old editions is the imperfect.
I must be sure that no court servant or servant who serves unfaithfully or does harm will speak the worst of himself and disgrace himself. That would be a great fool; but the kitten must clean and adorn itself for the guests we will get. Therefore, this bride must and will remain for a while at court and in all regiments, both high and low.
164 One writes of a margrave of Meissen, 2) who is said to have said: A prince should not be afraid of enemies who are far away from him, but of those who follow him on foot first; for they would rather step on his head. This was a strange man, and he did not want to suffer this bride (as it appears) at his court. But I let him be wise and boast; I nevertheless worry that he will not have cut off the pages of bacon before hell, and will have left the rink at the door. I understand nothing in such things, without thinking that he who has a wicked pelt will not be able to pierce all holes, much less resist all new holes. It remains the same: where there is an unhealthy body, there are also leprosy, pus, and other filth. But the regiment is such a beggar's coat and a child with leprosy, which has smallpox 3) and measles. Therefore, there must be some pious Josephs, Naaman, Nathan, Zadok, 4) who keep it alive and alive, so that it does not perish; the others are pox, sores, Frenchmen, St. Valtin, Anton, 5) (as they paint themselves with such curses now), who make such a body unhealthy, as Ziba, Ahitophel and their like.
But who can speak enough of vice or harm? The pagans have made a lot of books about it, especially Plutarchus. But it is called: Strife the devil. It is an unfathomable evil, so that the world can
2) See K 65 above.
3) Bockeln - smallpox.
4) "Zadok," 1 Kings 1:8. In the old editions: Zadoch.
5) About St. Valentine, the patron of falling sickness, and St. Anthony, the patron "of the holy fire" (the rose, St. Anthony's fire), compare Luther's sermon on the Ten Commandments, St. Louis edition, vol. Ill, 1159 f. and 1161.
The kingdom is pestered like a dog with its shillelagh; perhaps so that they do not become too proud and wanton. Nevertheless, David boasts here that he has done his part in this and has paid for it thoroughly. For where a prince should knowingly let himself be milked so shamefully, since he could well resist it, that would be a wicked game, since always vain bells and never a heart 1) would be chosen; there I would certainly lose all my goods, perhaps even be stabbed to death over it. It is too much for a prince to let himself be milked secretly and steal the milk, so that he cannot defend himself. Therefore David must have attacked and angered many a great lord 2) with this virtue. For what glory would it be if he had destroyed a groom or a farmhand? But royal, princely slanderers, who sit not only at court, but also in the countryside, in offices with in: That is David's virtue, and an example of princely courage, especially driven by God; as we have often said.
166 Under this vice one should also understand and comprehend the happy, lovely court jailer, called Neidhart, traitor, and the whole tree, with all its branches and fruits. For David does not want to speak of spiritual or angelic envy, which no worldly king or prince can recognize, judge or punish. That is why he paints and calls envy by its outward fruit, since it can be known, which means to slander. For Envyhart cannot prove his wickedness at court; he must first slander, and then scratch and suppress the innocent, so that it may appear that he is not Envyhart, but a good friend and lover of justice, and that the innocent who is scratched must bear the name, so that justice may be done to him.
167. he must be able to act as if he were sorry, as Sirach says Cap. 12, 15. 16.: "The enemy gives good words, and laments you very much, and acts friendly, and can also cry; but in his heart he thinks
1) "Bells" and "Hearts" here are names of the suits of playing cards.
2) In the editions: "angreiffen"; but the Jenaer gives in the Druckfehlerverzeichniß the correction: "angrieffen".
3) "probably" is missing in the Erlanger.
He will fall you into the pit, and if he gets room, he cannot be satisfied with your blood. If someone wants to harm you, he is the first, and poses as if he wants to help you, and falls 4) and overthrows you viciously. Then he shakes his head and laughs in his fist, mocks you and opens his mouth.
Oh, what an abominable text this is! But how certain a truth it is, is shown by many innumerable examples, of which also the heathen books are full; that David attacks this vice as the first and worst, which reigns most violently in the regiments; as one speaks in rhyme: Neidhart, Eigennutz, junger Rath, Jerusalem, Troja, Rom verstöret hat. But for this time enough is said about it for the Psalms; further one may read other books about it; for all heathenism cries out as hard against this house devil as the Scriptures.
Follows the other virtue:
I do not like him who has a proud spirit and high courage.
What has this virtue to send to the court? or, where does such unpleasant vice come to the court, that King David cries out that he cannot stand that someone is proud and arrogant? Yes, where else should such herbs grow, except in the reigns, where there is great power, honor, good and friendship?
Sometimes a beggar is proud and haughty, but no one is afraid of that, but everyone laughs at him and says: "Poor hope, the devil is wiping his ass. And even though it is almost pressing, it can do nothing, because it has nothing in its belly. Aesopus says of this, how the frog puffs itself up and wants to be as big as the ox; but the young frog says, "No, dear mother, if you tear yourself to pieces and burst, you cannot be as big as him. 5)
But David speaks of serious courting, which can do harm, and is common at court; as the mighty, rich, great people can do. And just as he does not speak of spiritual backbiting, or of enviousness, so he does not speak of the
4) "und fället" is missing in the GrhriMk^'!
long.
So here, too, he is not talking about spiritual pride, but worldly pride. For worldly pride is exalted in worldly things here on earth; spiritual pride and envy must be in paradise and among the angels of God, since one wants to be holier than the other, and fall over it into the abyss of hell, and after them follow the false prophets, and all the red spirits in the church and among God's children.
172 In sum, so that we come to the end of the Psalms, pride of place or courtly conduct is not peasant's courtly conduct, in clothes, ornaments, going upstairs, tails, and such lazy things. Although among the princes and lords, nobility and citizens, such things are now also quite predominant, and no one knows how high he would like to be above the others. But this is all purely peasant courtliness, and an example or allegory; for the horses are also proud in this way, and feel their adornment and honor. And if we wanted to call it politely, it is Hansel's courtly conduct, not the prince's courtly conduct, or private and not regimental courtly conduct.
In Greek, however, pride of court and courtly conduct is called tyrannis, in German Wütherich, since a king, prince, or lord could well walk in a gray coat and have no golden, silken, or velvet courtly conduct about him at all, and yet in his regiment plague either his neighbor or his subjects with thumping, defiance, oppression, and all kinds of misfortune, for no other reason than that he has a desire to rage, and would rather be feared than loved. And because there is peace in the country, it may well happen; but if there is war, he must again fear as many tyrants as he has horsemen and lansquenets, and must still give them money. So it all pays off; because he is a tyrant at the time of peace, and takes in money, so at the time of war he must buy vain tyrants for his money about his neck.
174 But David is speaking here of the regimental courtliness against the subjects, and not only boasts that he himself was not courtly against his subjects (which is
1) Wittenberger and Jenaer: "Haus"; both in text and margin. Erlanger: "Hanfes". The sense is the same in both cases.
This is truly a high royal virtue), but he also did not allow his court servants to do so. He has set an example high enough. For to have power, honor, wealth, dominion, and not to want to know it, or not to become proud of it against his subjects, is not the work of common reason nor of bad human nature, but must be the virtue of Hercules or David, inspired by God. Everyone may read such humility of David himself in the books of Samuel; there his humility, as a miraculous deed of God, is painted in a truly fine way, as he shows himself so finely friendly towards his people, even in war, not only in peace.
(175) The secular regiment, like a domestic regiment or marital state, is distinguished in four ways. The 2) first, that they both love each other, husband and wife. The other, that they are enemies to each other. The third, that the man loves his wife, and she is an enemy to him. The fourth, that the woman loves the man, and he is angry with her. Which of these four is best and worst is easy to understand.
176 Thus, where a country stands in such a way that master and servant love each other, and are faithful to each other, they will remain well before their enemies; and if they are not powerful, they can become so; as is written of Solon and the city of Athens. For there humility goes against humility, and they are friendly to each other.
But where prince and country hate each other, as one writes of Sicilia, there a prince becomes a poor schoolmaster, as happened to Dionysio. For there it is hope against hope; as the Latin Historici write of an emperor who said: Oderint,3 ) dum metuant; grief against grief. What such a regiment does, therefore, many years presents to our eyes with daily examples the noblest, yes, even the most miserable country on earth, Italia.
Thirdly, where the prince loves and the country does not love. Ah, this is our Lord God's own rule! For so he laments in all the prophets, that he loves his bride, and yet she will be a whore. So
2) In the old editions here and in the following cases: "the", because "distinction" is feminine.
3) Erlanger: Oäeruut.
Our Lord God must be a cuckold (as they say in Saxony); sed per synecdochen tamen, that is, not all of them; nevertheless, some were also pious virgins in the faith. Many fine emperors at Rome have had such a regiment, some of whom have been innocently strangled; and after the first is the very best. For our Lord God is still able to see to it that when His bride becomes a whore, seven thousand men do not worship Baal and remain a pure virgin. So it must work out in the end that a pious prince remains, and those who are hostile to him perish in the end, and he still finds pious subjects who stand by him. I do not have to give examples here, because the old and foreign ones are not respected, those of our time are not believed.
The fourth [difference], where the Lord is evil and false, and the people are pious and faithful. Ah, this is the praiseworthy regiment which God's children must suffer, who must not only suffer their 1) tyrants, but also pray for them, and grant and do all good. Such a lord was Emperor Julianus; who had now learned that the Christians should suffer injustice; [so] he took away their goods, and mockingly and scornfully said: Your Christ has suffered you hot. In Babylon the Chaldeans also did so (as the 137th Psalm, v. 3., says) to the poor, pious, Jewish captive people: "Dear, sing us a little song of Zion." The papists, especially the bishops, are now using such hope and pride, and are making a mockery of the obedience of their most faithful and pious subjects, and are also calling them to their Christ and Gospel, because they know that their pride is being suffered, and are not moved by God's wrath and vengeance, which has almost recently been enraged against such Julian and Chaldeans.
180 The pagans write (for, as [§ 144] said, in worldly rule their books, sayings, wisdom shall also be accepted), once the wise man Bias was asked, who was one of the wise men in Greece (that is, he was a pagan, worldly-wise prophet): which of the tame animals would be the worst, and which would be the worst of all
1) Erlanger: hers.
among the wild animals? He answered: Among the tame animals, a flatterer is the worst; among the wild ones, a tyrant is the worst. So I would not have answered, but: Among the tame animals are famous for bad worms cats and horses, among the mild ones the wolves and foxes. But they are experienced in regiments, and know how to talk about things. For it teaches 2) one to speak and do need, who otherwise would or could speak and do nothing.
A tyrant wants to be free, like a wild animal, and create what he pleases. A flatterer does not want to be free, but presents himself as the most loyal subject, even imprisoned in service; nor is he above the tyrant with freedom. For the tyrant may be publicly reproached and hated; but the flatterer must be praised and honored. The tyrant does all evil, the flatterer does all good. Therefore meill David is nevertheless also of the mind, that he puts the envious and flatterer in front, as the cunning rogue over all. For also Neidhart sent the devil into paradise, because no worse messenger could be, who would bring Adam and Heva in all misery.
(182) Therefore, dear David (as stated in §174) is an example that a king should not be proud or arrogant or tyrannical for his own person; nor should he allow his court servants to be tyrannical and proud over his subjects. And whoever can do this, let him praise and thank God for it, if he is a Christian or a believing man who knows that such high virtue is God's gift. For it is not enough if he is not proud or tyrannical in his own person, if he allows his servants or officials to deal with his subjects as they please.
He must not trust anyone not to be tyrannical, because David himself and Solomon both complain a lot about it, and it is not to be hoped that the world has become better since then; as Solomon says Ecclesiastes 1:9: "As it was before, so it is still, and there is nothing new under the sun. And in German: Es ist kein Amt so klein, es ist Hängens wert. Divine and right find the offices, both of the princes and officials; but
2) In the old editions: lerM
of the devil are they commonly, who are inside and need [them]. And, if a prince is a wild beast in heaven, then the officials or court servants will also be much more wild beast inside. That is what the evil, corrupt nature does, which cannot bear good days, that is, it cannot use honor, power and dominion divinely; the little office, however small it is, they take a cubit long, since they do not have a hand's breadth, and always want to be God themselves, since they should be God's servant.
For St. Paul, when he praises the authorities highly in Rom. 13, 6, he truly gives them the highest honor by calling them "God's servant". And who would otherwise think so highly of it (from the heart and without constraint), if one did not have to regard her as God's servant? If she herself wants to be God and rule tyrannically with Lucifer, and does not think otherwise than to do everything and anything for the sake of her own benefit, avarice, peace, splendor, then she may also wait for what is written in the Magnificat [Luc. 1, 52]: "He pushes the mighty from their seats, and lifts up the humble. As has happened, and still happens daily, both to high and low rulers, both to princes and to officials. For it is our Lord God's rhyme, which St. Peter writes, 1 Ep. 5, 5: "God resists the proud"; and from the beginning of the world he has been harsh about it, crushing many tyrants who did not want to believe it until they learned it, as Pharaoh, Sanherib etc. As the heathen also write of their giants, that they fought against the gods, and carried mountains one upon another. And Sirach says [Cap. 40, 10.] that the flood came because of the tyrants; as can be easily understood from Moses [Gen. 6, 4. ff.
Follows the sixth verse in the Psalm, which is the other verse from the worldly regiment:
V. 6 My eyes look for the faithful in the land to dwell with me, and I delight to have godly servants.
(185) My dear David, if you have had and preserved such a choice and such a royalty in your country, you may indeed not only be a true royal prince, but also a royal prince.
be called king. But I am surprised if you have destroyed all slanderers, traitors, envious, proud, tyrants, and all unfit, wicked officials and court servants, and so purely exterminated them, where you have found others in their place, especially, as the text says: faithful and pious. Otherwise, in other kingdoms, and also with us in German lands (at least some of the time), admit it quite evangelically, as Christ says Matth. 12, 43. ff.: When one devil executes, seven worse ones come in his place, and the longer the worse; as the histories or fables say 1) of the widow, who prayed for her tyrant that he would not die soon; and of the beggar, who almost very much scolded the one who shooed the flies out of his wounds. 2) I heard Doctor Staupitz say how Duke Frederick had complained several times that the longer he ruled, the less he could rule, because the people became so strange that he did not know whom he should trust. This was a strange speech for me, who thought that such a great, wise prince's rule would have no offense or challenge. But from my church regiment and from common households of all landlords methinks I now smell such words of understanding from afar; the taste and the grip will be felt by others, namely pious princes and lords (for the others have always more luck neither right), whom God help and be gracious to them. Amen.
186. If David had helped, as he boasts here, he would have taken the whole country before him, opened his eyes, looked around for faithful, pious people, where he could find them, and brought them out, without regard to person; just as God also does, who also distributes his gifts, not according to the appearance of the person, and makes of the shepherd boy David such a great, wise, blessed king, and lets Saul, the king, become a fool, an unhappy and worthless man.
It is true, it should be so, that the personals, who are in reputation, as kings,
1) Instead of this "say," which we have taken from the old edition, the editions bring: "say" after the words, "shooed out of the wounds."
2) The widow asked for her tyrant, so that a worse one would not come; the beggar scolded, because now worse, hungry flies would come.
Princes, lords, Abel, high and low, should also be wise and pious according to their status; for they therefore have a high, noble title, shield and helmet before others, and have the power, goods and honor of the world, so that they alone should rule justly; but there is a lack of the own mind of our Lord God, who holds us all equal to one dough, one like the other, and does with us as he wills. Therefore he often gives wisdom and virtue to a nobleman, which he does not give to three princes, and to a commoner, which he does not give to six noblemen. For he does not want to be subject to the human creature (as St. Peter calls it), free and unbound, as a true God, even if it is beautiful and fine. For who would not wish that, the higher state after birth, the higher wisdom and virtue would be there. But it cannot and will not always be so; that is our Lord God's fault, not ours; [he] could make it so, if he wanted to; we cannot make it so, as almost we would like to and would do it; for it is said in Ps. 100, 3: "He makes us; and we ourselves do not make us."
It is said of Emperor Maximilian that his masters at court were annoyed when he used his scribe or priest (as they say) for such honest and imperial dealings, messages, and rhetoric. But again he complained: he must use what he could, because they would not do it, nor let themselves be used etc. Yes, they wanted to have the honor, dignity, power and height of the court, but they did not want to touch the court's labor and work. To deal with letters, writing and reading in the chancellery is clerical; to work in trades, council and embassies is servile, and not peasant work, but also donkey work: yes, a court cannot do without such court donkeys, let it be done by the prince himself, or whoever does it for him. The regiments do not want to lie on the cushion and rest, or sit behind the stove like a lazy, sleepy dog; they want to have worked. Therefore, necessity forced Maximilian to do as David had done and to look around the country for people who could work diligently and faithfully and support his regiment, be they nobles, clerks, priests, or whatever.
For it is good to be a court horse and a court mule; but to be a court mule is toil and labor, unpleasure and weariness; nevertheless, if a court mule did, 1) then a court horse and a court mule would not eat, drink, walk idly and play so superfluously.
It may well be that Maximilian saw how they were not only unwilling but also unskilled. For because the nobility at court and elsewhere corrupts itself from youth with indulgence, gambling, proclamation of buildings, and grows untrained, unbroken, inexperienced in its own will, that it does not become much more skillful men, especially in the wine countries. For, as St. Paul says, that from indulgence become wild, savage, rough, careless, ill-tempered men, who then can not be right in any matter, but with the head and throbbing they want to go through, just as if regiment were such an easy thing, as indulgence is, and should well make good things evil, and evil things much before make worse than better. I have often seen my sorrow, what fine, well-groomed bodies and souls there are among the young nobility, 2) like the beautiful young trees, and because there was no gardener to pull them up and keep them, they are chewed up by pigs, and abandoned and withered in their sap. They say themselves: Farm life sow life. But it is always a pity that such fine people should be trampled under such sows; nevertheless, it harms the whole regime, both lands and people, where the youth is corrupted.
But every country must have its own devil, Welschland its, France its; our German devil will be a good wineskin, and must be called Sauf, because it is so thirsty and holy, which cannot be cooled with such great drinking of wine and beer. And such eternal thirst, and Germany's plague will remain (I worry) until the last day. Preachers have increased with God's word, rulers with prohibition, the nobility some even among themselves with obligation; they have resisted, and resist
1) Here "thäte" stands for: not there WÄe.
We are still confronted daily with great, horrible damage, disgrace, murder and all the misfortunes that happen to body and soul, which should deter us. But drunkenness remains an almighty idol among us Germans, and does like the sea and the dropsy; the sea does not become full of so many waters that flow into it, the dropsy becomes thirstier and worse from drinking. Sirach says [Cap. 31, 34. 40, 20.] that wine was created (as also the 104th Psalm, v. 15, says), that a man may be glad of it and strengthen life; so drunkenness makes us mad and foolish with it, gives us death and all kinds of pestilence and sin with it. Now, there is neither time nor space here to speak of the sour god Sauf; he does indeed pay his faithful servants in the end, so that they feel it.
191 Again, to David, who wants to be a king of kings, to take from among his people those who are able or not. This was the way and the right of the people of Israel, just as they did with wives, and a king often took a citizen's daughter. The Turk also has such a choice and a kingdom in his kingdom. But whether a king or prince should do it now, I will not and cannot advise; unless emperors, kings and princes would do it with the whole empire. Before that happens, we want to see the supreme Lord of all lords coming up in the clouds and going away with him. However, the regiment, the evil fur, may remain a plump regiment, and let God command (the personnel unmixed) whichever one he wants to bring forth and raise up. Just as I would not have the imperial rights mixed or changed, although both lords, subjects, judges and jurists not only live contrary to them, but also confidently abuse them. For the pagans also say that the change of regiments and rights is not possible without great bloodshed; as all histories testify; and before a new way of the empire was established in the German land, it would be devastated three times.
For this reason, I do not take kindly to Master Klügling, who masters secular law, or to all those who want to do better. Although it sometimes seems to me that the regiment and jurists may well also be of a Lutheran opinion.
should. But I worry that they would get a coiner. For God does not esteem the temporal regiment as great as His own eternal regiment, the church regiment; therefore I cannot hope nor do I want that they will get a Luther. Since there is no other regiment to be hoped for in the Roman Empire than the one indicated by Daniel [Cap. 2, 29. ff.], it is not advisable to change it, but to mend and repair it, whoever can, because we are alive, punish the abuse and put plasters and Swedes 1) on the patches. But if the patches are plucked out with ruthlessness, then no one will feel the pain and damage but such clever balancers who would rather pluck out the sore than heal it. Well then, Germany is perhaps ripe, and I worry, worthy of a strong punishment; God be merciful to us. I know well that I (praise God!) am not minty; whoever can do better, to him I would gladly put my poor Pater noster from the bottom of my heart, if only I could also put the Amen. For I have said it many times (but who would believe me until it was known?): The changing and the improving are two different things; one is in the hands of man and God's decree, the other is in God's hands and grace.
V. 7. I do not keep false people in my house; liars do not prosper with me.
193 It is a common complaint in all classes and lives about false, lying people, as one says: There is neither faith nor belief anymore. Item: Good words, nothing behind them, and what is called white is black. The ancient Romans almost blamed such vices on the Greeks, as Cicero himself says: "I grant the Greeks that they are learned, wise, skillful, eloquent people, but faithfulness and belief are not respected by the people. And before Cicero, Plautus says in one person: "Dear fellow, I may not pay for water, air, earth, heaven; but what else I should have in the house, I must buy in Greek good faith, that is, I must pay for it in cash.
1) "Sweden" (ointment?) is written in the sermon on Joh. 16 "Schwelen". Cf. St. Louis ed. vol. VIII, 653, § 95 and the note to it.
Well, such an unfaithful, false people has now long since suffered its punishment from the Turk, who also paid it in cash. Welschland has also learned that they can promise and swear whatever they want, and then mock if they have to keep it. Therefore they have their plague honestly, and both Greeks and Whales must be examples of the other commandment of God, since he says that he shall not go unpunished who abuses God's name.
No virtue has so highly praised us Germans, and (as I believe) so highly exalted and preserved us until now, than that we have been considered faithful, true, steady people, who have let Yes be Yes, No be No, as many histories and books are witnesses to. And I do not know much about court justice; but nevertheless I have experienced how Duke Frederick was so strangely hostile to liars, and I myself once heard from his brother H[erzog] Hans that he said: "Well, this one told me this, that one tells me this; someone must be lying. I know this for a fact, that it made me laugh, such pious princes seriousness and anger about the lies. So have been many other princes before. We Germans still have a little spark (may God resound and blow it out) of the same virtue, namely that we are nevertheless a little ashamed, and do not like to be called liars, do not laugh at it, like the whales and Greeks, or make a joke of it. And even though the Welsh and Greek naughtiness is disappearing, God have mercy on us, there is nevertheless still the fact that no one can speak or hear a serious, horrible word of shame, for if he is called or scolded as "a liar".
(196) And it seems to me that there is no more harmful vice on earth than lying and unfaithfulness, which divides all the fellowship of men. For lying and unfaithfulness first divide the hearts; when the hearts are divided, the hands also depart from one another; when the hands are divided, what can one do or create? If merchants do not keep faith with one another, the market falls to ruin. If husband and wife are not faithful to each other, she runs out behind, the husband runs out in front, and
goes, as the latter says: "Fend off, dear elf, fend off that we do not become rich; you break jars, I break pots. If a mayor, prince, king does not keep faithful company, the city must perish, the country and its people perish. 1) The people of the city must be protected. That is why there is such shameful division, discord [and] misfortune in the French country. For where loyalty and faith cease, there must also be an end to the reign. Christ help us Germans.
197 If there is such vice at court or in offices, as David confesses here, then it must also follow. For whether peasants and citizens cheat, lie, deceive and insult each other is not yet the worst devil, because they are not in the regiment; but when it comes to the high people, so harming the country and the people, that is the Beelzebub. As Pope Julius [II] and later Clement [VII] did against the emperors (as the popes have done much); and when princes do the same against each other, and finally officials or court servants also against the subjects, there are many promises, promises, promises, oaths and oaths that crack the beams, and everything is vain friend and brother.
Pope Julius also had the Sacrament divided into three parts and made an eternal alliance with the Emperor Maximilian and the King of France; just as God the Father, Son, Holy Spirit is One God, so such unity should also be firm. But soon after the letter was sealed with dirt. For the Most Holy Father was at odds with the Son and the Spirit. It is said of a Swiss that he had often been present when one had acted in some matters, had promised and sworn hard, and yet had kept nothing: I wanted (he said) that we should swear once that we would not keep any more oaths, so that it would have an end.
Well, it is evil (says Solomon) when the old lie, that is, the high, honest, mighty rulers. One praises the Turks that they keep faith and loyalty (this will perhaps make them so powerful). If it is true, so be it. But it is certainly true that if so many people hold loyalty and
1) "the" is missing in the Erlanger.
If David had kept the faith, or if he had been as truthful and constant as they would have liked others to be, he would not have had so much to do with false, unfaithful people and liars in his court. It is a wonder that in such a holy nation, under such a pious, holy king, there were also false men and liars. For if he had not had them among him, why should he boast so highly of his royal virtue in this? Such toil and labor has come to him because of faithful, pious servants. If then his court, the court of such an excellent king, has stood thus, then we heathens, too, may not any king or prince esteem his court much better, nor more sacred, and let this psalm be painted on the walls.
The eighth and last verse:
V. 8. Early I will destroy all the wicked of the land, that I may cut off all evildoers from the city of the Lord.
200 That is, I cannot tell all the vices; but this is the sum of them, I suffer none. For he has told some, as St. Paul tells Gal. 5:19 ff. of the works of the flesh, saying, "These and such shall not possess the kingdom of God." So David also counts several pieces here: Transgressors, wicked, perverse slanderers, proud, hopeful tyrants, false liars; then says, Summa, all, all, all ungodly etc., all transgressors I cut off, that is, I suffer neither ungodly in spiritual government, nor transgressors in worldly. For he would also have told of avarice, usury, thievery, robbery, drudgery, murder, indulgence, fornication and the like, which are also not strange among the nobles. And who has ever done it, or could still do it, that he should write out all wickedness from piece to piece in a book, let alone in a psalm? as it is well seen, even in our time (let alone the old), that one always, in order to control such vices, makes one law another, one right another, one order another, one way over another, and there is (as Solomon rightly says) no end to bookmaking [Eccl. 12:12]. Books he does not call paper and ink, but doctrine and order, which are always
new over new in the world, and yet hardly resists or controls.
(201) Is it not grievous in David that he reproaches us all on earth so shamefully and publicly, and sings in all the churches? he saith sheer evil of all classes: Kings are not pious, princes are not pious, lords and nobles are not pious, citizens are not pious, preachers, prophets are not pious. For this is how he deals with all of us through this psalm, and leaves no one without good; therefore he speaks ardently that he must purge and exterminate evil teachers and false rulers. There are still some pious kings, princes, lords, citizens, peasants, servants, maidservants, preachers and pastors who have to stay; or they want to take David with us, where he will go, because he himself is also a king and prophet. But our Lord God's counsel is the best, that he intend to thrust heaven and earth into one heap, and make another new world. For this world is not fit, there are too many boys in it and too few pious people, it will not and cannot go anywhere; just as the Lord's Prayer teaches us. For if it were right and possible on earth, there would have been no need to pray: "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. For the high and wise kings and princes could have done it out of their power, if it had been possible for nature, for they really tried it to the utmost.
If a prophet or preacher wrote so vehemently of or against false teachers and evil rulers, he should be scolded and condemned seditiously. But now he is a king and does this himself; he would like to have spared the honors, and at least to have eaten and bitten into himself some pieces, as no doubt many a king and prince has done, and perhaps still does. For just as women do not like to be called whores (even though they are in fact whores), so kings and lords do not like to hear courtiers scold them and punish them as the unjust and wicked, because this seems too close to honor. But David goes out and does not mince words, makes it coarse and unreasonable enough, and does not want to bite anything,
boasts that 1) it was very well done that he so shamefully scolded his own at court and also destroyed them. If it has turned out well for him, and he will not be taken for a nonsensical fool, like all the other prophets, by his fellow clowns, then it is a miracle to me, and he will have experienced it well.
Of course, at that time Ahitophel, Joab, Abisai, and other of his princes and court officers or officials did not want to do wrong, but all of them considered their actions to be praiseworthy and honest, as has happened and still happens in other kingdoms and among us Germans; no one does wrong, everyone does right. As I myself once heard from a great Hansen, no man has ever been an enemy of the Gospel on earth. Therefore, David must not only have been a bold hero with his fist, but also a free man with his tongue. It will certainly be the real David who tore the bear, strangled the lion, and slew Goliath; imitate him.
204 He also reputedly performs such miraculous deeds early. Such "early" here means not of the day, but of the regiment's early hour, that is, he has eradicated such vices soon and in lines, before they have come into their heat at half or full midday. For where a vice is allowed to break down and become a habit, there is no counsel; as Seneca says: Deest remedii locus, ubi, quae- vitia fuerunt, mores fiunt, when vices become a habit, it is done; and the poet Ovidius very finely says: Principiis obsta, ward off the evil when it begins; for where it gets out of hand, help comes too slowly. But the best in the game is provided (they say), and a David belongs to it, who is so brave and sharp; yes, he must be especially enlightened, so that he notices the early hour, and recognizes the beginning of the vice, and quickly eats the eggs of the Un[ge]ziefers in the nest, before the noon sun makes caterpillars out of them. Otherwise, where they oversleep the early hour, their troubles become too thick and too great before they realize that they are
1) Instead of "as" one would expect: that it. Perhaps "than" is a misprint for "that", which is: that. The "it" often fills in after "that".
2) Erlanger: yours.
(as if their hands were tied) cannot help.
205 They say, "The tree should be bent because it is young; when it grows old, it wants to be unbent, or it breaks. Tell me, who wants to control usury and drunkenness in German lands now? If idolatry had been resisted in the papacy, the gospel would have remained pure. Now, also the French virtues are taking hold in Germany (especially in the regiments). Nobody sees it, nobody fights it. After that, when we no longer want to suffer it, and would like to have it controlled, the caterpillars will sit in all the leaves, and will be said to have slept too long. My dear Doctor Staupitz used to say: When God wants to punish someone, he first makes him blind, so that he does not have to see where his danger and harm begin; as it is also written in the Gospel Matth. 13, 25: "When the people closed their eyes (and that means to keep their eyes shut and not to see or notice), the enemy came. When the weeds grew large, the damage was first seen in their sleep; and when they wanted to pull it out, they did so: Too long 3) (said Christ, v. 29.), "ye also would pluck up the wheat; let it grow until the harvest." Therefore, truly, my little David must not have been a little peeler (as they say), who may have known great peelers so soon. How mistrustful a king he must have been; how carefully he must have considered all the words and works of his servants; and yet he remained a gracious, humble, kind, comforting lord.
(206) Dear one, let us here at the end take to task the glorious king, who may boast so gloriously of his reign, as if no water had ever been distressed in his time. First of all, look how miserable and poorly his kingdom began, since he had to be insecure under Saul for so long; and after Saul's death, oh how he mended himself before he was confirmed as king. After that he himself fell into adultery and great sin against God, from which, as a punishment, his son Amnon
3) So it says in the original and in the old editions. Walch has changed this and shredded for it: but too late. This has reprinted the Erlanger.
Weakened his own sister Thamar, and was therefore also strangled by his brother Absalom [2 Sam. 13, 1. ff.]. The same Absalom then drove out David, his father, and defiled all his wives, and was 1) after his merit dreadfully stabbed, 2 Sam. 5 and Cap. 16. Joab, his field captain, treacherously stabbed two of the best princes and councilors, 2 Sam. 20, 8. ff. Ahithophel, his secretary, and all Israel fell from him and sat against him. Last also the rebellion [of Seba, the son of] 2) Bichri, 3) afflicted him severely; I let alone the pestilence, since God punished his sin with, 2 Sam. 24, 15. Who knows what more misfortune he suffered that is not written? Dear David, come now and boast to us of your beautiful rule, and praise God for it. Is not the unfortunate Herod's regiment much worse to look at, or that of the pagans in Greece; what shall we say to this? I advise that it be ordered to the sharp lords in the papacy, who can unite everything they teach against themselves in their laws; hence they call their book concordantia discor- dantiarum. Truly, rightly baptized and named.
(207) Now, I will leave David here, and consider (as there is no doubt) that he must not rely on my or any man's counsel and help in such distress, because he has such a gracious God, who holds him so gloriously and high, that he boasts of him everywhere that David is his faithful servant, who has done all his will, and in addition [Christ] 4) was born of his seed, and was not ashamed nor despised to become such a king's son. Now what harm is it that we believe (so that we do not call God a liar) that his rule is the kingdom of God?
1) In the issues: will.
2) Added by us.
3) 2 Sani. 20, l. The original edition offers "Bichri". This has been changed by the Wittenberg, the Jena and the Erlangen (not well, we think) into "Sichri".
4) Added by us.
the highest, the best, the dearest in the sight of God, even though before us men (who will not judge more harshly than God Himself) it can be seen in the most shameful way? But if I wanted to do so, I could quite well tolerate such contradictory things, and recently say: David's regiment has gone as he boasts here; but that he has encountered many misfortunes, that he has had to suffer, precisely because he has ruled them well and seriously. But if he also sinned, he did not defend the sin, like Saul and other kings more, but also stopped and desisted. For whoever wants to rule or should rule, he will have to have the devil for a godfather. Thus it is also said above [§ 20] that a king or prince cannot punish secret evil deeds until God reveals them; it is enough that he does not punish revealed or otherwise public vices. 5)
208 Here I will conclude it, I hope I have done it well. I call it good, where it will please few people and annoy many people. This is almost as sure a sign as the manger and swaddling clothes were sure signs to the shepherds. But if it pleases everyone, then it is certainly an evil, shameful work that I have done, but I hope that I have behaved well. But if it pleases everyone (since God is for it), then it is a lost work in the name of God, and no one is served by it. But, whoever lets it be known that [it] does not please him, he will certainly feel hit and know himself guilty, and just with that confess that he is or would like to be one of those whom David paints here; as Christ says [Matth. 12, 37.]: "Out of your mouth you will be condemned." And the heathen, as Cicero, also say, If no man be called so to punish vice, he that is angry about it betrayeth and giveth himself to be guilty. Christ our Lord be merciful to us all, and remain (in strong faith) our dear Savior, Amen.
5) Erlanger: let.