Matthaei Cap. 6, 9-13. *)
Beginning of 1518.
(Agricola's preface.)
To the excellent and highly learned Mr. Christoph Blank (Plangk), the well experienced licentiate of both rights, his patron and master, Johann Sneider wishes Heil!
Man is a god for man. For the ancients (vetustas) believed that the deity is nothing else than useful for the people. Therefore, as Lactantius testifies, they began to call men gods. For it is said that mortals imitate the gods the most when they are benevolent to their brethren. This has been proclaimed by the prophets in countless prophecies; this has also been confirmed by the founder (dux) of our religion, Christ, namely, that we should love one another and do good to one another. Therefore
whoever behaves in this way is a Christian, but whoever behaves otherwise is rightly called a scourge for Christians (christianomastix). But you, esteemed Christopher, are the model of a Christian life, chaste in soul and body, and have this as something innate and special, that you come to the aid of the oppressed and lacking not only with advice, but also with action, which in this earthly life is above all the best, noblest, most excellent and most pleasing to God. That is to build the living temple of God, which (as Paul testifies) we are. And (to say nothing of others, it is an expert talking to an expert) you have not only been generous to me, but even exceedingly generous, for there are hundreds (trecenta) of benefits that you have done to me. You have been my benefactor in a kind and friendly way and have taken care of me, a person still unknown to you for a while, and still you are my benefactor and take care of me. When I consider this and do not find that I have anything with which I could prove my gratitude to you, my spirit is shattered and my mind frightened. But I am comforted by both your goodness and your willingness, since it is not hidden from you that he who gives what he is able gives enough, and that even the good will in great things (in magnis voluisse) is considered something quite beautiful. Therefore hand over and
*) During Lent in 1517, Luther preached a series of sermons on the Lord's Prayer. One of his students, Johann Agricola from Eisleben, copied them, added his own explanations in part, and had them printed by Melchior Lotther in Leipzig without Luther's knowledge and will (cf. the introduction to the 20th volume of the St. Louis edition, p. 41 f.) under the title: "Auslegung und Deutung des heiligen Vaterunsers durch den ehrwürdigen und hochgelehrten Herrn Martin Luther, der heiligen Schrift Doctor, Einsiedler reformirter Augustiner Orden, in Sachsen Vicarius, zu Wittenberg. In 1517. year preached in the fast and his disciples put one together. He added a Latin dedication to the licentiate Christoph Blank (klan^L) to this writing, which is dated January 13, 1518, and signed himself as "Joannes [neider". In the same year, three new editions were published in Leipzig, one by Valentin Schumann, another by Martin Landsberg, the third without indication of the printer; another edition was published by Martin Landsberg in 1519. It is first included in the Hallische Theil, p. 90; then it is also found in the Leipziger, vol. IX, p. 327, and in Walch's old edition. The Latin dedicatory letter is found in the Hallische Volume, p. 90; in the Leimiger Edition, Vol. XI, in the Preliminary Report, p. 20 (the Weimar edition, Vol. II, p. 76, erroneously says: "without the Latin dedicatory letter"); in Walch's old edition, Vol. VII, Preface, p. 10. We have translated it into German and placed it before the text itself. We reproduce the text according to Walch's old edition.
I dedicate to you, you who are my protector, this booklet I have prepared as well as possible, an interpretation of the Holy Lord's Prayer. I have collected it from the lectures and public talks of the incomparable man Martin Luther (Luderi), my teacher, who should not be called without a superior title of honor, who has as many hearts as Ennius is said to have, partly collected, partly copied, also added and added a few things that seemed to be useful, and managed that it can be read in German. Now I am publishing it under your name, as what I am able to do according to my very small talent (for luck is stepmotherly towards me), instead of my thanks, and hand it over to you, as it were, as a pledge and a kind of monument of my love towards you. Farewell, most esteemed benefactor. Wittenberg, January 13, 1518 AD.
1 When Christ's disciples asked him to teach them to pray, he said, as Matthew 6:7, 8, 9 writes: "When you pray, do not talk much, for no one is heard in many words. Yet your Father knows well what you need before you begin to ask. Therefore you shall ask:
Our Father, who art in the heavens" etc.
2 Because this prayer has its origin in our Lord Christ, who taught us, Matt. 10:38, that we should deny ourselves and take up his cross and become his disciples, it will undoubtedly be the highest, noblest and best prayer. For if he had known a better one, the pious schoolmaster, he would have taught it to us.
Division of the prayer.
In this prayer there are seven petitions. It may also be called seven teachings or instructions to govern human life. Also, as the holy bishop and martyr Cyprian writes, there are seven indications of human poverty and destitution, with narration of human frailty, how man is even found in a dangerous state here on this earth, because he is called nothing else but a blasphemy, mockery, mockery of God's name, as follows:
The first request:
Hallowed be your name.
The second:
Come to us your kingdom.
Thy will be done, as in heaven, and in earth.
The fourth:
Give us this day our daily bread.
The fifth:
Forgive us our trespasses. So and we forgive our debtors.
The sixth:
And lead us or lead us not into temptation.
The seventh:
Special deliver us from evil. Amen.
Our Father, who art in the heavens.
4 First of all, no one should be offended if he hears one praying differently from another. For there is nothing wrong with it, if only the meaning remains, even if the words are changed. According to this, everyone who reads this booklet must keep to it.
If a man begins to pray, "Our Father, who art in the heavens," and does this with his heart and mouth, he confesses that he has a Father, and the same in the heavens, recognizes himself abandoned in misery. And he who prays in this way stands with a lifted up heart to God. And this then is a high prayer, that it is not possible of man's nature to ask, except the spirit of Christ be in the heart. For if one wants to seek it inwardly, no man here is so perfect that he can say with truth that he has no father here; that he has nothing, for in God he hopes; that he has nothing of his own, but that he is a complete stranger, and that nothing belongs to him. For our nature is so poisoned that it always seeks its own.
When I look at the way of the dear old bishops, who were eleven hundred years ago, how they so with great work, effort and diligence attracted the people to the other life and to Christ, I wonder and deceive myself, how it is so complete.
deviate. Alas! God be lamented that nothing else is done now, except to lead the people into works, and Christ is left behind. So nowadays one prays many rosaries, crowns, psalters, and little prayers written with red ink, solely on the opinion that God will grant us health of the body, long life and goods, and to redeem sin through the indulgence that is given for it. I do not reject them, but it would be much better if you prayed a few Our Fathers with an inward, heartfelt desire, with attention to what the words contain.
(7) If the opinion is: O Father, O God, how am I your disobedient son! You are in heaven, I am on earth; how far am I from you! I realize that I am here in misery, in foreign lands, while my father and his dwelling place are in heaven. Now, dear, pious father, I am not with thee; thou art in joys, I in affliction and constraint; thou in peace, I in peril. From this now arises in the heart a hope to God. For he recognizes that no one among all creatures can help him to heaven, except his Father. As it is written in John 3:13: "No one ascends to heaven except the one who descended, the Son of Man. In his skin and on his back we have to ascend; then man will be able to love God. But we put our comfort, our blessedness, only in much crying, babbling, singing and singing, which Christ forbade when he said Matth. 6, 7: "No one is heard in many prayers.
(8) If anyone should say, "It is also written in Lucam, Cap. 18:1, that you should pray without ceasing. Answer: With the heart, and that the heart may always be open to God. For He does not want to have great splendor with sacrifices or songs, Isa. 1, 11, but only the quiet secrecy of the heart, as the 51st Psalm, v. 8, says etc. Some heretics have interpreted the saying of Luke to be said only of the prayer that is done with the mouth. This was not Christ's opinion. For he gives a prayer briefly, and that leaps into the heart, so that the man starts up: O Father, where am I? who am I? and where shall I go, if I am not there where I ought to be? Oh, dear Father, lead me and guide me, for I will hope in you as a child should hope in his faithful father. Ah, what hast thou seen in me, that thou hast chosen me to be a son? Do you then learn to know yourself and despise yourself, to love God, and to completely submit to him?
9 So let all working people pray this prayer, even if they themselves do not know what they are praying. 1) And I think that this is the best prayer when the heart goes out to Christ. And this I consider the best prayer, when the heart flies to Christ. Meanwhile another is standing in church, turning over the leaves, counting the paternoster grains, and rattling them very much, and thinking with his heart far from what he confesses with his mouth. This means nothing prayed. For to him God speaks through Isaiam the prophet Cap. 29, 13: "The people worship me with their labia or lips, but their heart is far from me." Item, the priests and monks, who are supposed to pray their tides 2) and are limp about, without all attention, go on one part and without all shame, say: Ei, now I am happy, I have paid our God; speak to that: Now I have not driven a goose across the path of God; and they become hopeful, and think that they have done enough. But I tell thee, and admit it, that thou doest enough for Christendom; but God will say, as said above, "The people worship me with their lips, but their heart is far from me."
(10) For the sake of greater proof, all the teachers of Scripture conclude that prayer is nothing other than the lifting up of the mind or heart to God. From this it follows that no thing is called prayer, be it song, murmur, speech, writing, or the like, unless the heart rises up to God. He who prays heartily prays, and not he who turns over a lot of leaves and rattles a lot with the paternoster stones.
(11) The holy and worthy Father Jerome, in the book he wrote about the lives of those who lived a solitary life, writes among other things about a man who carried a stone in his mouth for thirty years so that he would not speak. But with what did this man pray etc.? Undoubtedly inwardly in the heart, in which God has the greatest power, and of which he alone is a knower and investigator. Ps. 139, 1. ff.
(12) But it helps much to hear the words and to seek what they want. No one should presume to pray with the heart, except those who, by divine grace, are accustomed to abstain from all sensual things. And these are the perfect ones. Otherwise the devil will mock and deceive you. For this reason, let each one be aware of the words he utters with his mouth.
1) Meant is: "all who labor", according to Matth. 11, 28. in the Vulgate: gni taboratw. We also encounter this expression in Luther's Scripture, 815 of the following number.
2) d. i. horas canonicas.
(13) And let every man take heed, when he hath received a little grace, and feeleth devotion, lest he come forth with the hidden serpent, the hope, and say, Oh, I pray with my mouth, and with the Gentiles, and have such devotion, that I think there shall scarcely be another that doeth it so rightly as I; for this hath the devil inspired in thee.
14 Now it is to be noted how properly Christ sets this prayer. For he does not allow each one to pray for himself alone, but for the whole assembly of all men, saying, "Our Father," not, "My Father. See how highly God esteems the love that He Himself is. If he is the Father of us all, he wants us to be friendly and brotherly to one another, John 13:34, and to pray for one another as much as for ourselves, and even more.
The first request and its interpretation.
Hallowed be your name.
15 O a great, exuberant prayer, if it be prayed with the heart! though of short words; and there is none greater among the seven petitions, than that we pray, "Let thy name be hallowed. God created all things and gives all things, only that His name may be honored. He has no need of our goods; but He wants us to give Him glory, and to ascribe to His name all that is wondrously wrought by the creatures. For he cannot suffer us to write his name on our foreheads; he wants to do it, not we. Therefore, here, in the Lord's Prayer, mine must be changed into ours, if we ask for another, and ours into his, because it belongs to God.
(16) It is a wretched thing that we are of such perilous estate here. For if we ask that his name be hallowed in us, it is not yet hallowed. From this it follows that while we live, we profane, mock, defile, blaspheme the divine name. Now in all Scripture I know of no teaching or indication that more subtly reviles and destroys this life in time than this prayer. Who would not desire to die, if he loved God otherwise, so that he might come out of this world, in which nothing is done but blasphemy?
Two things are honored and blasphemed by us, the holy divine name.
17. all that Christ suffered, endured, and bore in his life, and what they gave him
We are truly in our souls, because we have falsely put on the cross, its scratching, chastisement, crowning, and all that the pious, faithful Christ received for us. 1) Therefore it would be better a thousand times that we wept more for ourselves than for Christ; as Christ Himself says to the women who were sorrowfully following Him to the cross, Luc. 23, 28."Daughters of Jerusalem," that is, all you my daughters, all souls, "weep not for me, but for yourselves and for your children," that is, learn how you are skilled in yourselves, by yourselves, know yourselves rightly; and so you will see why I suffer this bitter death and mockery, then you will weep for yourselves. So Christ was accused by Annas of being a blasphemer and tore his robe, Matth. 26, 6. ff. To this Christ did not answer; as a sign that, speaking in a human way, no man is able to do anything but blaspheme God. But if we were not, God would have answered for it. And it is the same with this that we ask, because we profane God's name, that He may give us grace, so that He may be sanctified and honored in and through us.
To the first.
18. first, the divine name is honored in and by us, if we do not take his divine word or name for our piety, benefit, and improvement, but for a misuse, as we are forbidden in the first and second commandments; that is, if we use it for sorcery, or to fortify our lying speech, and in sum, if we do not live thus, as God's children are natures.
(19) A pious child is one who is born of pious, honest parents, and is conformed to them in all respects; and then he may rightly possess and inherit the goods of his parents. So also we are children of God, if we have the virtue, nature and quality of our father in us. Our Father is merciful, as Christ says Luc. 6, 36.: "You shall be merciful, even as your heavenly Father is merciful." Kind, as Christ says Matth. 11, 29.: "Learn from us, for I am of a humble heart and kind," patient, just, chaste, truthful, strong, obedient, simple and bad. And these are vain names of God, which are all included in the little word "thy name". For the names of all virtues are the names of God. Now it follows that the children of God are also
1) The opinion will be: The sin and punishment that lay on Christ is in truth ours.
as Matthew writes in the fifth chapter, v. 9: "Blessed are the peaceful and kind, for they shall be called children of God." And so much is said in the summary: Children of God are kind, friendly, patient, peaceful people, chaste and pure, compassionate, merciful, of a kind heart to their neighbor. And that they are so, they have not from themselves, but from their Father Christ, who so purified, adorned, and adorned their hearts. But because we do not feel in ourselves that we are kind and friendly to our neighbor, helping him as much as we can, we are in a dangerous state and children of the devil. For Christ says, and is the test of the children of God: "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them", or begin to do it, Matth. 7, 12.
20. to note: God's name is so holy in itself that it needs no sanctification from us, but we ask that it be sanctified in us. Now we sin against God and dishonor His name when we do not live as children of God, but as children of the devil. If he recognizes himself as a scoffer of God, then all hope, arrogance and conceit will lie low.
(21) It is to know how in this God shows us our meager life and testifies that we are blasphemers of His name. On the other hand, he lets us see his goodness. For if we know that we are no longer able to do anything, he wants to be our helper; only that we start to ask him. He will forgive us when we complain of our distress: "O Christ, I know in myself that it is true that I can and cannot do anything; therefore, my crucified Christ, I call upon you for help; help me, for otherwise all help will fail me.
God, our salvation, came for the sake of sinners. For He Himself says Matth. 9, 12: "The healthy have no need of a physician, only the sick". He also calls His disciples orphanos, that is, abandoned, desolate people; He wants to help them. Also in the Psalter, Ps. 10, 14, the prophet calls Christian souls pupillos, orphans, that is, little children who are deprived of their parents, who have no comfort, when he says: Pupillis ego er<? adjutor, "of the forsaken I will be helper." Therefore there is nothing better, for if a man goes into himself and sees what is wrong with him, he will not find counsel or help in or through all creatures. So he will have to seek Christ. And this is what St. Augustine calls: compelle intrare. One finds many a person who, without the help of God, intends to
or, if it already needs God's help, it does not keep the right measure and order; as, with the decision, where it did not please God that he would leave it standing and lying. The work that he had begun goes back; he does not cease to seek various means, but everything is left behind. And so, he sees that all good counsel is too little for him, his reason does not help him, he lacks wisdom, understanding, wit, and so he starts: Oh, my God, I see that all is lost, do help me; thus says God, "I would have liked to hear this song for a long time, for I have let it be shouted out by all the prophets, who publicly said with a loud voice: Ecce, Deus vester, "Behold, this is your God, who wants to help you", Isa. 35, 4. Also in the New Testament John the Baptist testified of me, who marked me with his finger and said, "Behold the little lamb of God, which bears and takes away the sin of the world," John 1, 29. Whether he should say: If there is anyone who is in need, who lacks counsel or anything else, run to this man; he is the one who has come to help you. He also says himself Matt. 11:28: "Come unto me, all ye that are troubled, and suffer pressure, or constraint, or vexation; for I will give you rest." So Christ our Father also teaches us here that if we dishonor his name, we should pray daily that he will give us that he may not be honored; for he alone can and will do it, and no other.
On the other hand.
In the first part, it is decided that those who recognize their infirmity and thus desire help from God. This part will now affect the hopeful, who believe themselves to be pious and holy. And there are many of them, God be praised, most of all among the clergy and the worldly, who always say, in all that they do, Oh, I have such a good opinion; I mean it so sincerely well; such and such a one will not follow me; I would have shared his heart in my body; and I will not suffer the unrighteous, the wicked, or have fellowship with them, lest it be said, Oh, if he had dealt with such, I would have thought him more pious. Seeking only their name, honor and rumor, they forget Christ's name. Also in everything they start, they put first: I will do this in honor of the Almighty God etc., for the benefit of common Christianity, and the like. But where their exquisite conduct does not go on, they are so insufferable, and become so impatient, that no one can get along with them. Thus one sees
because how they meant it. Of them Christ says Matth. 7, 15. 16.: "Take heed, and beware of false prophets, which present themselves in the garments of sheep, simple, pious, holy, and in their hearts are as full of rage as wolves. Say, if you want to know them, be careful what fruits they bring.
(24) Thus, when it is said to them, We have all things from God, as from a pious father; they say shamefully, O who does not know? and think they understand well what it is. But when it comes to a meeting, and one speaks to them of their honor, despises them, holds them in low esteem, one takes something from them, or if God sends them something disgusting, they retreat and stand like fools. And if they think they have been wronged, when it is right, they raise their voices: Oh God, look down from above, you know that I am wronged; and they fall into such foolishness that they may say that they are wronged before God. O you hopeful saints! Where is your understanding now, since you said before that everything is from God? Now, if that which is taken from you is not from God, why do you ascribe it to yourself, and say: Oh God, have mercy on me, that I am so wronged? You poor man, if it is God's, and they do it to you, where does it rhyme that they should do you wrong in that which is not yours? God says through Job, the pious prophet, Cap. 41, 2: Omnia, quae sub coelo sunt, mea sunt, "All that is under heaven is mine," I have made it and created it; why do you claim yours and that you are wronged? If they touch your honor, your reputation, your good name, your property, and what you have, they touch Christ's property. For if Christ withdrew his help and hand, the devil would soon devour you. But he stands and waits for us, the pious God, and when he lets one fall, he does it out of vain kindness, so that man may see where he is and where he has been. Otherwise he stands and watches, he has not forgotten us; "he is also not far from us," as the Scripture manifoldly indicates, Acts 17, 27. 17, 27. When also Stephen said, Apost. 7, 55: "I see heaven open, and the Son of man standing at the right hand." John also speaks Revelation 14:1: "I have seen the little lamb (that is, Christ) standing on the mountain," etc. so that he looks like what we do: He is our watchman on the watch or spikel 1) Sion. Oh, how comforting this is to us!
25 Therefore, it should be noted that no more powerful teaching or instruction can be given to the
1) d. i. sxsoula - wait.
Yelpers and afterkosers, for if they are told how they do all this to Christ, which they show to their nearest man with scorn, with cutting off their scent. Who then is forgotten that he may do wickedly against God?
26. But a child of God, even if all adversities come to him, says in everything he begins to do, it is also the very best according to his own discretion: "Oh, dear Father, I intend to do this, let me think it is good; but if you do not like it, do it as you will. Do it only that your praise, honor and glory may come from it. If this does not follow, dear father, let it go back.
27 And so all our works must be directed solely to the honor and praise of God's name. For the Scripture says Ps. 111, 9: "His name alone is holy," and He alone is a Lord, holy and high; it follows that our name is profaned, unholy, unworthy, and we are servants and subjects. God also cannot and will not suffer His honor to be taken from Him; neither can we, according to our ability, ask for more, nor does He ask for anything but the praise of His name. But if we want and should praise him, we must disgrace ourselves: Our disgrace, and that we invent ourselves unfit, is his praise. For as soon as this knowledge is in us, we run, as said above [§ 22], to Christ etc. But how God alone wants to have the glory, I have said enough in the sermon on Zachaeo. We also see it well with ourselves. If a famous painter had painted a beautiful picture, and someone else came and wanted to say that he had done it, and wanted to praise him, it would make the painter very angry. So also and much greater God, our painter etc.
Epilogus, a short term of this request.
28 Now this is the opinion and sum of the whole petition: Oh, dear Father, let your name be sanctified in us, that is, give us grace to live in such a way and to be so pious that your divine name will not be honored by us in our lives; otherwise, without your help, we will defile and dishonor your name.
29. From this understanding the other prayers are also understood, and it will be necessary here to tell from this, that God's name alone is to be sanctified in and through all our works, be they of whatever circumstance they may be, which is the manner and quality of right prayer; and set such a decree.
Conclusion.
30. where not finally, primarily, modestly, especially, divine name and his praise in and
is sought by all our works, first of all in our prayer, then our works and prayer are unclean, blaspheming God and His holy name.
The prophet proves the conclusion in the 111th Psalm, v. 3: Confessio et magnificentia opus ejus, "God's work is nothing else but praise and greatness. There the prophet calls human life a praise of God. Now God's praise stands in our desecration, if we are abandoned, go alone in ourselves, close all senses. And is also the opinion of St. Paul to 1) Timothy, 1 Epist. 5, 5. Why the widows are caused to pray daily, is the opinion that if we ask, we shall be all widows, that is, forsaken in ourselves. So Augustine says: Asking comes from necessity and accident of danger and temptation; therefore the mind must be withdrawn from the senses. Otherwise we can ask, but we cannot ask well, for that we have only through the saving grace.
32) Note: All the prayers that have the appearance of being for this or that disease, do those who pray for it firmly believe that they will get what they ask for. And this foolish holiness is now so rampant that I cannot keep quiet about it, I must say something about it and warn all those who are Christ's children. People now think more of a prayer written in red ink than of the Gospel. First of all, there are St. Bridget's prayers, and many people are found who completely believe that if they pray these prayers daily, they cannot be damned, and thus want to make a certainty of blessedness, and also want to plead with God with our prayer, which he does not like to suffer to the ground. After this are eight verses Bernhardt; if you pray these, you will earn as much as if you had prayed out the whole Psalter. I will say more: If you pray from the heart alone, "Let your name be hallowed," it is more than if you pray a hundred Psalms without a heart. There are also other prayers, perhaps invented from behind the stove, that God will not let us fall ill, that He will protect our goods, possessions, fields, meadows, than those of Sancto Lamperto, Sanct Annen, and the like. All these supplicants should know that they should take good care not to regard any other prayer as greater than the one that God has taught us. And they should recently take this as a lesson: If they do not find Christ in prayer and praise of His name, they should not look at red ink, but let it go. This is also shown by the mother of the children of Zebedee, who asked the Lord for two sons.
1) In the old edition: to the.
sitting, one on the right and the other on the left, as Matthew writes, Cap. 20, 20. 21. 22, the Lord, chastising her, answered, "Woman, thou knowest not what thou askest." For by the right hand is understood in Scripture, as Augustine says, the human effect wrought by Christ; by the left hand temporal goods. So Augustine says about the Psalter, as he introduces the saying Canticorum, Cap. 2, 6: Laeva ejus sub capite meo, et dextera ejus amplexabitur me, "The left hand", that is, all goods, honor, wealth, pleasure, and what is perishable, "he will put under my head, and his right hand will encompass or grasp me", that is, he will lead you into his life. Proverbs 3:16: "In the right hand of God is life eternal." Also Christ says, Matth. 25, 33. how all those who stand on the right will be blessed, those on the left, damned. For there is all evil, sin and wickedness, the devil with all his company. On the right are all pious elect and angels, all virtue. From this we learn that all the prayers that are made for temporal goods, honor, wealth, health, and the like, where Christ is not present, are on the left, and are condemned by God; but where God is sought, they are on the right, and are given by God, and restore Him, as it is written Luc. 1:48: Your saints will praise You forever from world to world.
The second request and him interpretation.
Come to us your kingdom.
(33) In this other petition we are admonished of our poverty, sickness and misery. For while we pray: Oh Father, let your kingdom come; but what is yet to come is not now; we confess that his kingdom is not here. We are in misery, affliction and sorrow, even among the enemies; therefore, dear Father, give grace that your kingdom may come, that we may come out of the unknown land and power of the enemies into your kingdom. So this is the other indication of human frailty, as stated above [§ 3], which Cyprian, the holy bishop and martyr, thus calls. Since there are enemies, it is necessary that we must fight them, defend ourselves, if we do not want to be slain by them. We are also always under the power of the devil, as long as God's kingdom does not come into us, our flesh and the world; for something of ours or of the devil always wants to rule in us, and desires
with great diligence, to rule alone and have the upper hand. The law of the members, or of the flesh, compels you, by command of the devil, to sin and to unmistakably weigh down your conscience. Hic enim jugum oneris, et virga humeri, et sceptrum exactoris sentitur, Is. 9, 4.
(34) For no tyrant has ever so treasured, so oppressed, so weighed down and subverted his subjects, as the devil, through the lust of the flesh and of the world, weighs down and challenges the conscience of man. Oh God, how many are those who remain under this power of the devilish tyrant forever, if they want to, because it seems funny to them. For this reason they gather innumerable goods, build such a dwelling place, as if they wanted to dwell here forever, when we have no lasting place here, as St. Paul says Hebr. 13, 14. And all these or the like pray this prayer without heart. For if they did it with heartfelt desire, they would say: Father, deliver me from this life, that we may live in your kingdom. St. Paul prayed in this way when he said Phil. 1:23: "I desire to be delivered from this life, that I may be with Christ." But this they do not prove by their works, which after all tend to be according to the heart. And are like a silver pipe that blares and shouts, etc. without soul and heart. Therefore, God mocks us. But let it be lamented to God that our holiness, which we hold in high esteem, is likened to organ pipes.
Of two kingdoms, God's and the devil's.
(35) The devil's kingdom is the realization of all sins, wrath, envy and others, such as deceit, forgery, betrayal of one's neighbor, slander. In it dwell all those who follow their desires, the world and the devil's counsel, and to whom this life is pleasing: and if it were their due, they would live here forever. And so the kingdom of the devil belongs to them.
The kingdom of God does not come before, for where there is peace, humility, discipline, chastity, love, and other good virtues, there is beautiful tranquility, without anger, without hatred, without favor, without deceit, without deceitfulness, all sweetness, kindness, truthfulness, simplicity, gentleness, kindness, goodwill; it begins here in this time, but in that life it will be accomplished.
37. Would anyone like to say, "How can I tell when the kingdom of God is coming to and within us, or is about to come? Answer: Christ says it himself in Luc. 17, 20. 21. when he was asked by the spiritual Jews, when the kingdom of God should come? Yes, he says, "the kingdom of God will not come until
come with a sensual evaluation", with the great splendor; "neither will they say, Behold, or there it is. Perceive, the kingdom of God is within you." In the same way Christ admonishes all his elect, telling them how many future false prophets there would be, Matth. 24, 23. 26.: "Beware, if they tell you that he is (hear Christ) in the wilderness, do not go out"; you must not look far for it, you have it with you.
And this is knowledge.
Take diligent note of yourself, whether you are more inclined to good or evil. If you find in yourself that you have the love to do good and to be kind and gracious to your neighbor from the bottom of your heart, if you know yourself to be completely inferior to all creatures, if you are willing to help the poor, then the kingdom of God has risen in you. Thus man becomes more and more virtuous, until we die; so in that life it is accomplished.
(39) Now many of them, when they hear that we must come to God's kingdom by dying, would rather do without it that they might live. And they pray this prayer without heart. But if you do not find this in yourself, you have the devil's kingdom in you, and you are in a dangerous state, since the adornment and decoration of the devil's kingdom are sin and wickedness.
40 So it is nothing else said, "come your kingdom", because: Dear Father, let us not live here long. Or: If it pleases thee, give us thy grace, that we may become skillful servants, in whom thy kingdom may take its rise; and all this according to thy divine good pleasure; as follows:
The third digit and its interpretation.
Your will be done as in heaven and on earth.
The first request, as mentioned above [H 15 ff], demands divine praise from us, glory and honor for his name. The other is our piety, that divine grace may make us pious here. The third wants to have our will broken and divine will established. For it will be necessary, if God's will is to stand, ours must perish. For they are contrary to each other; as Christ clearly shows when he asked his heavenly Father in the garden to take from him the cup of torture, yet he says: "Your will, and not mine, be done," Matth. 26, 39. If there was such a will in Christ after mankind, what do we poor worms want?
How can we be sure that our will is good? That is why St. Bernard says about the Gospel of Mary Magdalene: We can will, but we cannot will well. For to will well is to make perfect, which is God's alone; to will evil is to suffer 1) wrongdoing, which is ours. We may also of our own nature do nothing else, but fall, and lie, and be sick. Here Bernard throws down the teaching of Aristotle, since he says: A man is a master of all his works in the beginning, in the middle and in the end. But how can and may this exist, since the will, to which Aristotle gives the greatest power, is not able to will anything good? As soon as we follow our will, we become ours, and then the devil's. Therefore, he who does good does not wander freely according to his will, but freely gives himself and all that is his away to the will of God. For this reason, no one can do well or want to do well except through the saving grace.
(42) So we pray: O Father, I find in myself that my nature is inclined to evil, that it always seeks its own, its rumors, benefits, piety in worldly or external things and in internal or spiritual things. I beg you, break my nature, my will, let it be as it pleases me, that it may please you alone. But how this is to be understood will follow clearly afterwards.
Follow how these three petitions intertwine.
Now it is a strange thing that God calls us to ask things that are against us. For if his will be done, our will must be broken. But if my will is destroyed, and divine will alone prevails, then my house and the devil's kingdom are also broken, and the kingdom of God begins to come within me. But if this happens, there is nothing else in me, but greatness, sanctification, praise, giving, praise of the divine name, and all this by the pure grace of God. Therefore, since in heaven there is nothing else but one will, for all the saints say: O God, here is nothing but your will, we also pray that such a union of human and divine wills may take place on earth and in us. And these three prayers approach Christ, honor Him, and disgrace us, because we do nothing but what displeases God. But from all this, nothing else arises, except God's praise, which stands, as said above [§ 31], in our desecration. Our goodness must be nothing,
1) Breakdown - infirmity, sin, as in Ps. 103:3.
until such time that Christ has his good. But who is he that desireth to live with his Father in displeasure, when we must, and cannot do otherwise? For his will is not done, neither do we; therefore we ask his help.
44 And the more deeply human nature is defiled, the more comfort it has. For Christ says Matth. 5, 17: I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. And in the Gospel he expresses the depth of the law, that is, that it is impossible for us 2) to fulfill it, but we seek one who will help us to do it. This is the comforting message (gospel) that shows us Christ, that we run to him and ask him. For it is he who has come to our comfort, help and assistance. So God teaches us that we should know ourselves, who we are, and that we are entitled to help. This is how humility grows, and man receives hope, trust and love for his pious God, who has allowed himself to be helped, so that he may be released from his poverty, thus acting miserably etc.
(45) Come out now, O you who are worthy of hope, who boast of your good will, and say, if it is not to your liking, Well, I meant it so heartily well, I wanted to have helped a whole city, but the devil will not yield; and they think their will is right and good. Oh, that's it, that's it for you. Do you not hear that our will always strives against God? But thou shalt say, O God, I thought it should be good; but if thou wilt not, I am well content. etc.
Now, unfortunately, it has come to this, that one says to the people from the pulpit, unashamedly and publicly: O man, have only a good opinion, will and intention to do as much as you can; do what is in you, so you cannot be lost. Oh God! how we have gone astray, if there is no good will, thought, intention, opinion in us; and if we do what is in us, we do nothing but sin.
(47) Thus they say: God is so kind that he does not lay upon man that which is too heavy for him to bear. Answer: Yes, he puts on man that which is too heavy for him of himself, for the sole reason that he may see that he is unable to do anything of himself, and call upon Christ, as stated above [§ 21]; for by his help he can do it, and not otherwise. Item, God's will is the most noble will, and our will is wretched, poor, evil, bad and inept. Therefore, the best will we may have is of no account against God. Even if you had the good opinion that you wanted to convert the whole of Christendom and bring it to its blessed state, you would not be able to do so.
2) In the original: useless.
However, if you were able to raise the dead, you must not trust in it, but freely surrender it to God alone, saying: "My dear God, I think it is good; if it pleases you, let it be done; if it does not please you, let it remain behind.
48 Thus you say: Why then has God given me a free will? Answered Augustine: The will of man, outside of grace, is a servant, and not free, it is a servant; but it is free when it is judged by grace. For grace makes us well-disposed. The Scriptures are full of this, which would be too ludicrous to recount.
49 But you say, "Aristotle taught that reason always guides man for the best. Answer: Human nature is so poisoned with all its powers that it can do nothing good of itself. Therefore, if man's reason and understanding are not purified by divine grace, it is more inclined to evil than to good. Therefore, Aristotle's probation out of the dark hole will have little place. But it is enough for us to know that in all laws of all popes, emperors or others, where God's will does not prevail, human reason is not able to do anything.
(50) Now the Sententionarii say that when a man has repented of his sin and confessed it, he is in grace, and what he does afterward is good, if he has a good mind and intention; and they think that the mind, which they call bonam intentionem, is in evil alone, when it is in good and best, as it seems to us. Therefore all this is very unlike the truth; for they dreamt it thus from Aristotle. But Augustine and Ambrose give it a much different form, and say: If I am in grace, grace does not remain, but Christ gives a greater one; so that the latter recedes, and so long, until a perfect man becomes. Therefore, when a man feels a reluctance in his purpose, it is one of his teachings that he should not stand still for God's sake; he should let it go and say: O God, let your will be done and not mine.
But if we want to see what arises from the good conduct (as they call it), we notice, and it is in broad daylight, how nowadays one bishop fights with the other, one church against the other, monks, nuns, priests in all places in honor of God and for the benefit of the church, quarreling and warring, which are nevertheless vain devilish incitements, and specimens of devilish inspiration, thoroughly found in the truth.
Finally, it follows that we do not come to the kingdom of God unless our will is broken, so that man is led and says: O my dear God, there is hell, there is heaven, chastity, holiness, good works, in this I have the opinion, but, dear God, I set it free to you, do with it what pleases you, for my will is not as good as yours; therefore, let your will be done and go ahead. And so man must be calm, so that even if it pleased God, he would go to hell for his own sake. But when this happens, the kingdom of God comes within us. For Adam is now dead, and Christ reigns; and in the house one does nothing but praise God; as the faithful prophet David says Ps. 84:5: "Blessed are they, O Lord, who dwell in Your house," for from the beginning to eternity they will praise You. Therefore the first petition is the greatest, and may not come true in us unless the other two petitions that follow have first come true in us.
Term of this request.
Therefore it is said nothing else than: O Father, give us grace, so that we may break our will, so that we may freely trust in you, patiently letting your will be done, whether it be evil or good. O God the Father, your will be done, and then your kingdom will come, and so in us will be honor and glory, and also the sanctification of your divine name.
The following request indicates the order to ask. For in the first three, God alone is sought. And if God has His own, we may well ask for our needs. He also gives it Himself. This is what Christ means when he says Matth. 6, 33: "First seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all necessities will be thrown to you.
The fourth request and its interpretation.
(55) Up to this point we have used the little word thine, thine, in which we give glory to God. But now we begin to ask for our needs.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Man is composed of two natures, the body and the soul. The body must have its food to sustain itself, and without it it cannot live. But the soul must not be deprived of its food either. From this we learn that there are two kinds of food for the human being, the body and the soul.
Spirit and body, internal and external, as St. Cyprianus says.
(57) First, in a bad sense, we ask for the bodily bread in which all bodily needs are met. For we know that when all fruits are dear, and only bread is cheap, it is called a good time; but when bread is brought, everyone says it is an evil, evil time. Nor is it, at my discretion, without special grace that we grow weary of eating all food but 2) bread.
Now let us notice the order of the words. First he says: Ours, that we forget not our neighbor, as touched above [§ 14] in the beginning. Then he says: hodie, id est, hoc die, to this day; not from tomorrow, but today. For Christ says Matth. 6, 25. ff: "You shall not be careful what you eat or drink, [what you] put on, wherewith you clothe yourselves. Look at the birds of the air, which neither sow nor reap, neither do they gather grain into the barns, and your heavenly Father feeds them. Also look at the flowers of the field, the lilies, roses etc. They work not, neither do they spin; yet I say unto you, that Solomon, the mighty and rich king, in all his glory, was never so adorned as one of these." The Lord then said: "If this is true, that your father keeps and feeds the grass which grows today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, what care will you have? Are ye no more than grass and birds?" When in another place he says, "Neither be ye careful what ye do tomorrow; for the morrow bringeth with it its own soxge." The opinion of all these is that we should seek our need, and so strive to do it, with the attachment, if it is pleasing to him, and not contrary to him. But if it is against him, we should let it go, hoping and trusting in him above all things. For he will not leave us. So David says in Ps. 37:25: "I have been young, I have been old, and I have never seen the righteous forsaken (but he is righteous who firmly hopes in him through faith), nor his children seek bread.
59 But now we are shown in what condition we live here. We are without food, and we would not have it if he did not give it to us. Look at our poverty and destitution, misery and wretchedness. We are and dwell in this dear time; we also are pilgrims, as the
1) d. i. Deficiency.
2) alone -except.
Another petition says, in a foreign land; remembering our Father Christ who dwells in heaven; but we cannot go that way unless he gives us bread that we may not break. And while we walk among the enemies, he must lead us and guide us, and not lead us in. He must also keep us from evil. Otherwise, if he turns his hand away, man is in the power of the enemy, in evil and all misfortune. But if our meager life is defiled, and God gives us the bread of His grace, then we walk in His strength, that is, while we live, until we come to Mount Oreb (1 Kings 19:8), that is, to Christ.
The other and spiritual mind.
The other request in the spirit that Christ wants from us. (For if we are devout, we must not worry about what will be lacking in our bodily goods for our need). Therefore, according to the true Latin interpretation, it is written in Greek: (Panem transsubstantialem) give us a substantial amount of bread. And here, because I see that it is necessary, because the Easter feast is approaching, 3) we want to stand still for a while and say something about it.
61 Thus it is to be noted what food the spirit or soul has, what its food is, and how, in what form and manner, or by whom it is satisfied.
What is the food of souls.
(62) Just as the body, when it hungers, has a desire for bodily bread until it is satisfied by it, so the soul's hunger demands food when it desires it, and the desire is the soul's hunger. As is found in an example, where the stingy man hungers without ceasing for gold and silver, the hopeful for honors, and the like, in which we seek a desire, pleasure, or popularity. But the soul's food is called, when it forms in itself that which it desires, and does not cease to have it. The pleasure then in acquired beloved thing is called its food.
Now our soul may not find enough food and satisfaction in any worldly, perishable good. For the miser may not be satisfied by money, yet he desires much more, and so each in his own state. Therefore their desire of the soul, in what is now mentioned, becomes wider and wider. The Scriptures call all miserly men money and honor, unchaste men, and those who are worthy of hope, fattening pigs,
3) Easter fell on April 12 in 1517.
And with them Christ acts in such a way that they become much more bitter, stingy, unchaste, hopeful, because their lust grows from day to day, and becomes greater and greater.
But if the soul, which is a spirit, is to be nourished and satisfied, it must also enjoy and need spiritual food. For Christ says in Matthew, Cap. 4, 4: "Not only does man live in bad bread, but in every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Here Christ clearly indicates that the food and sustenance by which the life of the soul is sustained is in the hearing and meditation of the divine Word. Likewise in John, through a whole chapter [Cap. 6.] he says of this life, which goes and is sustained by the bread that came down from heaven, which is Christ; when he says [v. 53. 1: "The bread is my blood and flesh." [V. 48.:] "I am the bread of life." [v. 35.:] "He that cometh to me shall not hunger, but shall be filled: and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." And by this alone may we be satisfied; for this is [v. 33. 1 the bread that gives life to the world.
Therefore, the opinion is brief: The food of the soul is in the words, works, life, suffering, death, bloodshed, coronation, scourging of Christ, Our pious God. If you make the 1) soul imagine this 2), it will be spread out and made fresh, infected and stimulated to devotion, love, chastity, penance, piety, and other such things. For this reason Christ is called in Scripture a fattened calf, Matth. 22, 4. So now our soul is fed by all the words and works of Christ. Also, every drop of Christ's blood, every thorn that pierced his tender head and skull, every blow on his cheek, every taunt and mockery that they manifoldly put on our pious Christ, every tear or tear that he wept, is a judgment by which the food of souls is prepared. This is also the opinion of the Scriptures, of all the prophets and apostles, especially of Paul, and also of Christ himself, that men should now come to know Christ, who he is, and for whose sake he suffered such manifold persecutions and tribulations. Thus we find ourselves, 3) that we find those for whose sake he did all these things.
(66) And if we take this to heart and consider it, we will undoubtedly do good.
1) "the" put by us instead of: "the".
2) In the original: this one.
3) In the original: in us.
very excited. For why? It is impossible for the soul to rest if the work or suffering of Christ warms in it; and it will now be necessary to teach the people how they should unlearn the virtues, and Aristotle's teaching and art must remain behind. But now one does not teach, God be praised, how one should only do many good works, what and how much indulgence or other good one should get from it. From this arises our own good pleasure, and measurement of how much reward God should give us for it. The devil enters all this, lifts up our hearts, and with such a pretense, which we consider holy and good, alas! introduces us into the sorrowful hopefulness with a great cunning, and in the end completely takes it over. But that it is true, listen to what Christ says in John 6. When he told the Jews and his disciples how they should do godly works, they asked, v. 28, how they should do them, Christ answers, v. 29, "This is God's work, that you believe in him whom God has sent," that is, in Christ. St. Paul also says this in all his epistles, especially to the Galatians Cap. 2, 16: "The righteous man does not live in the multitude of works, but in faith." And this is how it goes: "If I find in myself nothing but poverty and wretchedness, sin, wickedness, unrighteousness, unchastity, arrogance, impatience, hatred, and all uncleanness, I take comfort in the fact that Christ is rich, powerful, without sin, pious, righteous, chaste, humble, patient, peaceful, pure, and true, and believe that his good works, torture, bloodshed, death, and all such things have become mine. Therefore, even though we do not have it, even though we do not fulfill the least of the law, let us comfort ourselves that Christ has it, who alone has fulfilled the law. Let us hold fast to him, on whose back and in whose skin we will ascend into heaven, for he is the way. And he who seeks another way errs, as it is written in John Cap. 3, 13: "No one ascends to heaven except He who descended, the Son of Man."
(67) So also the Christian Church, our Mother, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has ordained that the Gospel should be read daily in all masses, even in a high place, so that everyone may hear it, that all devout Christians may draw and receive nourishment for their souls from it; also that those who, because of their work, do not otherwise have to do so, may see Christ for a little while and hear His Word, so that they may be preserved in their souls for the day from a fall into sin, and resist the devil.
Form and manner in which the feeding and saturation of the soul may take place.
(68) Now all pious Christians weep over themselves and their wickedness, that they are so impotent, miserable, and so poisoned and wounded in their nature that they do not want to be healed and made whole, but God sends His beloved Son, Christ, from the high, heavenly dwelling place to comfort us and make us whole; and this out of mild kindness and love. This they firmly form in their hearts. When they hear a Gospel reading, as an example of how Christ went up a mountain from his disciples and prayed all night, Luc. 6:12, the soul thinks: "Oh, how my most sweet God, who is so innocent, just, chaste, pious, and without all sin, has done this; how am I so lazy, how do I sleep day and night? Up, up, call on him, I will also do something for his love. For he has done it for our sake. And if the soul is tempted to be conformed to Christ; or if it hears how Christ of Pilate is hard-bound to the pillar, wretchedly, miserably torn, cut to pieces, that nothing is left whole in his body, that he has also fallen down with weakness and faintness, and is comforted by no one, then the soul says: "Oh, how my pious Christ lets himself be torn to pieces for my sake! behold, how he stands so naked and bare! oh, how warmly and how much he takes care of me, and all without guilt! how I walk in pleasure, in peace, in rest, in health, in beautiful clothes, and he is bleeding and dripping with blood! I would have deserved it ten times more! I should be scourged more etc., I also want to do something to my God's will. And so think of doing something greater afterwards.
It is also impossible for the soul to stand still when it is thus stirred. Therefore, we see that love, righteousness, repentance and other virtues flow from the wounds of Christ; and it is certain that what does not flow from Christ's wounds is unfit and displeasing to God. So the bride in Canticis says to Christ, her betrothed: Thou hast breasts overflowing with shame, adornment, and fragrant herbs Hohel. 4, 10. So we must suck what is ours from the wounds of Christ, repentance in particular. If God so loved me, and I so forgot Him, and sinned against Him, why did I do it? For then the blood of Christ must work in thee, and warm thee; so shalt thou come to a right newness of heart, when thou hast the food. The heart is immediately torn apart, and says, "I am filthy, say, what have I done?
and to love God. Then the soul is fed and feasted, and the love of righteousness and hatred of sins always increase. And this is a certain argument and sign of the grace of Christ, when the hatred and unwillingness of sin increases and is increased, and the love of righteousness. And whoever does not feel this sign in him certainly has a dead stomach. For he cannot digest this food. And therefore the soul remains hungry, and is not fattened, that is, his heart does not become kind, gentle toward another, does not become humble, patient, loving, kind. And therefore he does not cease to ask that God will give him the same, and waits when God will make him ask; for this is done by grace alone. And if this food is kept in us, our heart is in continual motion and without rest.
And in remembrance of this, God has given us His precious, tender body, and His innocent blood, commanding His disciples in separation, as often as they do this, that is, as often as you say Mass, and sacrificing My body and blood, you shall do it in remembrance of Me. Oh, good God, what a beautiful last thing it is that the essential bread we ask for here is with us daily, by which our soul is fed. In this it is given to understand how the preparation for it is to be done. Christ does not say: "As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you should fast as much and pray as much, etc., but: Remember me only through this. Not that fasting and praying are evil, but that there is nothing noble in them. Therefore, let every priest, or every one who wishes to receive this sacrament, take care that he does not think, if he has confessed, fasted, or prayed, that he is then pure, and so go safely to it; but rather go to a secret place, and take before him the passion of Christ, or a piece of his life, etc., form it in his heart as deeply and heartily as he can; and where it would otherwise be too short for him, he would rather have a part in the prayer than omit it. For he who thus prepares himself is safer than if he had prayed a thousand psalms. St. Paul also says this to the Corinthians, 1 Ep. 11, 26: "As often as you eat this bread and drink the blood, you will proclaim the death of the Lord."
It follows that we should not take before us every day the whole passion, life, or work of Christ, but every day a part; now, how he is executed; now, how he is crowned, mocked, scoffed at, etc., after which man finds more devotion, by which he may be provoked,
and so go into his heart, chewing that itself, so that it may warm up with him, and strength and sweetness enter into the man. But, dear God, how much is ours, who do not know ourselves, and throughout our lives hardly one, or never go into our heart and investigate who we are; only think that if we pray with the crowd, go to church, and live according to the common way, fasting etc., then it is enough; deceive ourselves, then, if we do not investigate and know our heart. That is why it is called a supreme bread, that there is another life, which is above our common nature.
We are all born from Adam and Even naturally, and everything we have from them must be suppressed and put down. For it is unclean and poisoned, and belongs to hell. Therefore we pray, O Father, give us another bread, which may lead us into another nature; from the natural life, which is sinful, into the life of grace, which is meritorious; not to wickedness, but to godliness; from fornication to discipline, from hope to humility, from unchastity to chastity, from impatience to patience, from anger to gentleness, kindness, love, friendship. And all this is given by Christ, not as Aristotle says, but as we accept Christ in his life, works, death and suffering, etc., and that we share in ourselves his sorrow, lamentation, misery, persecution, poverty, affliction, anguish, his wounds, his drops of blood, and all his members, considering why he suffered these things. That is comedere Christum, to eat Christum, and to be fed by him. And so he introduces, above our being, another, higher being. For he makes of the children of wrath children of reconciliation; of the children of nature children of grace; of sinners pious, kind, righteous men; of the children of the devil children of God. And so much is said for this time. The other, how to receive this sacrament of the body of Christ, I will tell at another time.
From all this it follows that we can render no greater service to God than to abandon ourselves, our powers, and all that is within us, all creatures, having no rest in them, in no work, be it as it may, placing our hope, comfort, in God alone. And this does not happen before, because when man is outside of him, abandons himself completely, takes no comfort in anything, because of his own unrighteousness, takes comfort only in knowing one who helps him, who for his sake has borne all this torment and torture mentioned many times. This is what St. Ambrose says: He who is close to God is far from himself. But he who is close to him
himself is near, is far away from God. For our Adam and Christ cannot dwell with each other. But while we seek our own, Adam dwells in and with us. Therefore, if Christ is to come in, Adam (that is, all the covetousness of creatures, the desire and impact of nature) must go out. There is also nothing good in us, God who builds it. He must create it anew, so that man may stand idle and empty of all created things, as in the 46th Psalm, v. 41: "Behold, and be idle, or rest; for I am God." The bow he will crush, and will break the weapons 1) of the old Adam, and his shield he will burn with the fire of his divine love. O man, forgive thyself of power and might! For if you turn your weapons to Christ, you will accomplish nothing. And this must come to pass, as Augustine says, that thou hearest the voice, "Let it suffice thee only that thou hast my grace," 2 Cor. 12, 9. Jeremiah also says Cap. 32, 39, 40, 41: "I will give them a new heart, and new ways: lest they turn aside from the fear of God, I will give them, and will rejoice in that which I have given them." Whether he should say: If I do not give them all these things, they can do nothing but turn away from me. Neither will I rejoice in them, nor in their works, but in them which I give them. So also Augustine speaks in the person of Christ: I am your God, who created you, and must create you anew. David also asks this in Psalm 51:12: "Create a pure heart within me, O God." For if he does not make it new, it is unclean. Jeremiah, Cap. 17, 5: "Blessed is he who puts his hope in God, but he is lost who puts his hope in man and lifts up his arm or the power of his inability," David, Ps. 146, 3: "You shall not put your trust in the children of men, for there is no salvation in them." "The Spirit must make us alive," otherwise we are dead, as Christ says John 6, 63.: Spiritus est, qui vivificat, caro non prodest quicquam.
(74) What then do those say who set dispositions de congruo, ways and means, so that we may obtain grace, when clearly Christ says John 15:5 f.: "I am the vine, and you (that is, all Christians) are the branches of the vine. But which is cut off, it bringeth no fruit." How then shall we go before Christ and open the door? If he says through John, "It is true that I have given you many laws, but without me and my help you will not be able to fulfill them [John 15:5].
1) In the old edition: "Wapen".
75 You say: Well, so I hear, I must become desolate and abandon myself? I answer you: Yes, yes. If you say again: Well, then I despair. No, no, dear companion, the right consolation will only come now. Listen to what God says in Deut. 27:26: "Let all those who do not abide in all those things which are written in the book of the law be damned, that he may do them. Now no man can do this of himself. Should he therefore despair? St. Paul answers the Galatians, Cap. 3, 13. f.: Although all men are outside of grace in the malediction of God, "Christ hath redeemed us from the malediction of the law, having become for us a malediction. For it is written: For it is written, Let every one that hangeth on the tree be forsaken, that the promise of the abbaha might be ours in JESUS CHRIST, and that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." Since Christ has become a promise for us, why would we not hope in Him alone? And the opinion is in a nutshell: Christ, the friendly little lamb, who hung on the wood for us in a maledictory way, is just, pious, chaste, pure, strong, healthy, vigorous, cheerful, peaceful, humble, rich, benevolent, lovely, kind, merciful, patient, compassionate, gentle, sweet, cordial, friendly, blessed, gracious, mild and full of all good. Therefore it will have an unjust, wicked, unchaste, unclean, unfilial, weak, sick, invalid, miserable, afflicted, unhappy, hopeful, poor, proud, despised, stubborn and cantankerous, unkind, unmerciful, impatient, insufferable, hardhearted, bitter, angry, unkind, meager man, and full of all sin. For He says Matt. 9:12, 13: "I am not come for the righteous, but for sinners: for they that are whole have no need of a physician." O a comforting word is this to us, all sinners! How then would you be more comforted, if you could find and know such a helper? So St. Paul says to the Romans [Cap. 11, 32.] and Galatians, Cap. 3, 22: "God hath concluded all men in sin, that he might have mercy on them all," and that the promise might come true in all men. If then Christ has been made a sinner for our sake, he has accepted that which we are: We are all made perfect. This is also the angelic greeting, Luc. 1, 42: "Give the fruit of your womb." For all other fruits of other wives are vermaledeiet. If you could have done good for yourself, Christ should not have died, for he died for the cause alone. etc.
76 But now you say, "If Christ does it, we must not do good, because our doing good is evil and unworthy. So let us be good companions, and so let us live in sins, and let us do evil, that God may give us good; for he will have sinners, and will give his grace to them that seek him not, as St. Paul says to the Romans in the 10th, v. 20, 21, introducing the prophet Isaiah in the 65th, v. 11.: "I was found of them that sought me not, and appeared manifestly, and made myself known to them that asked me not"; and to the children of Israel, v. 2. : "All day long I spread forth my hands unto the unbelieving people, who daily contradicted me." Answer: If you know that God wants sinners, take comfort in the fact that you know yourself to be a sinner. For if thou judgest thyself in thyself, and findest in thyself an unfit, unclean heart, it is clean in the sight of God; for then saith he unto thee, Ps. 51:8, Loos Ecce veritatem dilexisti, "Behold, thou hast loved the truth."
If you also realize how you are so poor and meager, see, as said above [§ 65. 66], what Christ did for your sake, divine love will not let you rest, and then you will do everything out of love. Hence a man surrenders his will to live according to the commandment and will of another, as do the clergy who live in monasteries. For when he looks at Christ's goodness and love, he says: "Why do I persevere, since this is what my pious God has done, I will give my will to another for his love. And this is the reason from which our works should spring, For thus good wine flows from the branches that have grown on the living vine, Christ, John 15:1. Therefore we must finally rest nowhere but in the Lord Christ. As eternal wisdom also says: I have sought rest in all things, but I alone will dwell in the inheritance of the Lord (in haereditate Domini), that is, in that which is purely God; to which man must merely give himself, as Ambrose interprets. This is the opinion of Luc. 10, 41. When Christ was sitting at the table in Martha's house, and Martha was serving the Lord, and Mary was sitting at his feet and listening to his word, Christ says to Martha, when she complains about her sister, that he should tell her to help her: "Martha, Martha, you are sorrowful and careful in or about many things. But I tell thee, there is one thing needful." Whether he said, All works must be done away, and Christ we must keep, and be content with; and the one thing Mary had chosen. Therefore he says in v. 42: "Mary has chosen the best part, and this will be the best part.
not taken from her." So also the Church sings of the Ascension of Mary, and in Canticis is spoken of the Bride of Christ: "Who is she," say the angels, "that ascends through the wilderness, as a rod of incense of myrrh and aromatics?" Hohel. 3, 6. This is, as Gregory says, a diminution of us and our works. In the same way, if one wants to sacrifice, one must pound the myrrh and the aromatics, and then they are set on fire. Thus, if our works are to be pleasing to God, they must be crushed and diminished by us; and then God comes and sets them on fire so that they smoke and rise.
78. is now recently the decision: What God does not build, create, make, set on fire, that does not please Him. Therefore we must not undertake to do anything on our own. And this is the excerpt of this petition.
Now let us begin again, since it has remained. We ask: "Father, give us our daily bread", bodily and spiritual, so that body and soul may be preserved. Whoever wants to read more about this among the scholars, should read Hieronymum on Matthaeum. The Lord Christ gives here, and I also ask that you remember in this request all priesthood, prelates and rulers. For we ask for the bread that must be given to us through the priests. Therefore, one should honor them and not speak ill of them. God has highly forbidden it in Deuteronomy: "You shall not speak evil of your gods", that is, of your prelates and priests, Ex 22, 28. Also God says to Mosi, Ex 7, 1: "I have made you a god of Pharaoh." St. Paul to the Romans, Cap. 13, 1. ff., highly approves it, and is his opinion that we should do the evil prelates equal as great honor as the pious ones. And the reason is: We must not look at the prelates as men alone, but as God sits and rules in them. And this requires a sharp face and a cunning mind to separate one from the other. Thus the 122nd Psalm v. 3. 5. says: "Jerusalem is built as a city, and the chairs sit in judgment." Who has ever heard such a strange thing as the city being built, and we do not see the builder? Item 5: "The chairs (that is, the prelates) sit in judgment," and he who sits in the chairs we do not see. But it has now come to pass that no one is so much persecuted as the chiefs. The devil makes it possible that one speaks of the high estates.
80 Thus you speak: Yes, shall it not be said of the priests, they do it, and it is their fault,
they live that it is sin and shame. I answer thee, It is true that we monks and priests deserve to be deceived; but so all estates live evil, and therefore estates are not evil. In the conjugal state there are many adulterers and adulteresses, but marriage is not evil. A common woman wears gold and silver, but the silver and gold are not evil. So also in all ranks, and especially in this one, which is the highest of all, and in which one sins most grievously. I tell thee also that God is thus a whimsical workmaster, that He governs most the good by wicked rulers. For the prophet says, God will not be moved in the means of the rulers, be he good or evil. Also Joh. 10, 13.: "I am a good shepherd"; whether he said: Ask and do not respect what the hirelings do; I will not be far from you, because I work through them. Therefore, we are not to persecute them, but ask God: "O Father, send laborers into your vineyard," as Christ teaches us Matth. 9, 38. The Lord of the vineyard is Christ, the laborers are the prelates, the vineyard all people.
(81) Neither shall you speak after your prelates, for it is not fitting for you, but only after the preachers in the pulpit. And where they would do it otherwise, they also sin. This is the meaning that Christ was baptized by John. John is the preacher of Christ by which all preachers are understood. John washed the head of Christ with water. Thus the prelates and governors of Christ suffer and are punished by the preachers. Therefore, take care that you do not remember them badly in beer pubs.
Therefore, O dear God, give us such rulers and priests who preach Christ to us. And if I should ask and desire, I would only desire that they govern the people through the divine word. For you know that if this state were right, we would also do well. They are carters, and we are horses; so we are bound together. One blind man leads another; if they fall, we go badly. For Gregory says, "When the shepherd and shepherd go through the broken rocks, it is certain that the sheep will fall into the deep. Therefore this is the greatest prayer of all, because of our need, the middle one among the seven, and is the one that governs the others. Therefore, when we see our prelates fall, we should say: O God, grant that the poor man may rise! For if the chiefs were good, we would smite the devil a little crib 1) and say: In spite of you.
1) In § 94, the form is: "clippings".
The fifth digit and its interpretation.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
First of all, let us notice the kindness of our Father, how briefly he puts the pardon on us, puts it in our hearts, and says: You are a blasphemer of my name, you are in danger, you do and do not do my will, you are a wicked man; but if you want to do everything enough for that, then forgive only your neighbor, and that is more useful than ten thousand letters of indulgence. Therefore the poor, or any race of men, may excuse themselves, that they cannot all manage their hearts. He does not say, So fast much, so pray much, or do this or that, but rather, pardon from the heart. Augustine says: "If you forgive your neighbor from your heart, in the same way that you forgive him, God will also forgive you. God desires nothing else from us than that we love one another as brothers, that we be helpful, friendly and kind to one another, that we bear a kind heart towards one another. As He Himself says John 13:34, "This is My commandment, that you love one another." For when love is present, all other works of friendship follow after it, and "love does not rest," as St. Paul teaches 1 Cor. 13:8.
84. Now there are some who may openly and insolently say: He has done this and that to me, I will and can never forgive him, I will never hold him. O a devilish voice and speech is this from a Christian! Listen, dear man, tell me, what has he done to you? Do you answer: Alas, he has hurt my honor, he has gone along with me falsely etc. Think carefully, dear brother, what you are doing. I ask thee, all that he hath done unto thee, how is it, temporal or eternal? So you say, they are temporal. Why then art thou foolish, and wilt give thy soul, which is eternal, and the image of God, for a corruptible thing? For it is immediately said: I will not and cannot forgive him; I will give my soul to the devil, and I will take it from God. Remember back, dear brother mine. You also do as a noble young lord did. After the death of his father, who had left him much good, God sent him to distress and persecution, so that he became poor. Out of desperate courage he said: "Well then, if you have taken my goods, I will take your soul. Then he became a usurer and was condemned forever. And God be lamented, as one now prays punishment and vengeance upon oneself, with
Corals and crystals, golden and silver paternosters, saying: O God the Father, O Father, do not forgive me; never again give me heaven, for I will not forgive. Look around you, O man! what you ask, how a harmful enemy you are to yourself. See how you curse and maledict yourself. And these are the first to sin against it.
85. secondly, those who sin against them, but think they do not sin, are the trustworthy saints. They are known to talk about and judge everything that another does, and they are not silent because they know something about their neighbor, and so they know how to adorn themselves finely: "Yes, I do not repeat it to him in harm or in evil; I grant him everything good. And so they speak with a good appearance with the mouth, when the heart is much more skilful. O thou gleaner and hypocrite, what dost thou boast of? Inside your heart you are full of hatred and envy. For if everyone were silent and your neighbor's sin were covered, you would reveal the secrecy of your friend, as you falsely say. Therefore you cannot be his friend. For a friend warns his other friend, punishes him amicably in private. But you do not mean it warmly, you speak behind him, before him you are kind. But you should always say, if your brother falls: O God, forgive him for falling today; tomorrow it will be my turn. Then you will paint the devil over the door, and make yourself white and excuse yourself, if you are an enemy: Yes, I am a little enemy to him; he also does it; if he would do it, I would give him my heart in my body, I would do much to him. You see that he has fallen. But if you fell, what did you want? Certainly, that everyone would keep silent about you, and no one would remember and forgive you. Well, do likewise to him. You must also grant him all good from your heart. Not as some do, who say: "I am not hostile to him, I grant him everything that God grants him. etc. For there is still resentment in the heart.
How would it please you if God did to you as you do to your brother? O God! I have a wrinkled nose toward my neighbor; do the same to me, my God. Therefore, if you want to stand before God, he must close his eyes. So you also cover the sin of your neighbor. The prophet says, Ps. 143:2: "Thou shalt not enter, O God, into judgment with thy servant; for in thy presence no living man shall be justified." So make your neighbor be with you in your heart, lamenting and punishing him.
1) In the original: "to GOtt" instead of: o GOtt.
fraternally, asking God for him, not to judge. For then our prayer becomes pleasant. But if it is not, it is sin. It is a terrible thing that prayer is a malediction and cursing of ourselves, which should be a resolution of our sin. It should help us to grace, but it prevents us from it. Recently, the rule that Christ gives in the Gospel is to be noted, as he says Matth. 18, 15: "If your brother has fallen, take him to a secret place alone"; admonish him: "Brother, this is against God, stop it; why do you want to anger your pious God? Keep to yourself, and if you know anything, tell him, and otherwise let it be buried with you in your heart, and tell no one until you come to him yourself. And if thou shalt do so, when thou shalt fall again, God saith, Eh, he hath covered his neighbor's fall; come near, all creatures, and cover this man his sin. For we would have it so, therefore shall we do it, by the law of nature. For he that hath pleasure in the sins of another is guilty of them, and is more defiled than he that hath committed them. This I will prove: The greater the pleasure in sins, the greater the sin. But if the one who has done it immediately thinks, "What have you done? It is wrong," he is ashamed and does not want anyone to know about it: But the barker goes and plays with it, and would not that it had not been done, and so stains and rolls in the filth of his neighbor.
(87) Now you say: Is it true, why should I not say it? and it is so: I have seen it, and know it truly. I say, Thou dost deny; and answer thee, That every one that speaketh the truth, when he ought not, and where he ought not, and when he ought not, and not in season and out of season, doth deny. Thus it is forbidden thee severely of God; therefore thou shalt forbear it, if thou knowest it to be true. Be silent and complain to God, pray for him to rise again. This is what Christ says, all the prophets, all the apostles, and all the Scriptures etc. For the reason of all Scripture is: "Love God and your neighbor. And what you want done to you, do to another."
88 Thirdly, it is to be noted, as is shown here again, the poverty of our wretched life. We are in debt, in a sinful state up to our ears; our score is cut full of crosses, our record keeps inside that we are guilty of everyone, and we ask not only that he forgive sin, but our sin, which is now ours, in which we are drowned.
That is why the holy bishop and martyr Cyprian says: "It is a useful prayer that teaches us that we are sinners, and that before Christ none of us is found pure and innocent.
(89) No one can be saved except he who prays this prayer daily. And even though we begin to become pure here, it does not happen completely, as in that life. Therefore, this prayer must also be prayed, as Augustine says, by all pious, righteous people and those who live in God's grace. There is always something to do that they do not do. It is written Ecclesiastes 7:21: "There is not a righteous man upon earth, that sinneth not in that which he doeth good." But unjust and foolish are those who say with the gleaner, of whom the gospel says Luc. 18:11, "I thank thee that I am not a murderer, unchaste. "etc. I do not know anything that I do; I do not steal, I do not take from anyone what is his etc. So they reckon the outward works, and leave the heart standing, not seeing how it is so full of envy and hatred toward their neighbor, how they seek their own alone, persuading another, since the greatest power lies with them. Listen, are you holier than St. Paul, who says 1 Cor. 4:4: "I know no sin that I have committed, yet am I not justified in it"? Job also says thus. We all have in our poisoned nature an affection of evil inwardly, which God looks upon, in our hearts, according to which we are sinners before God; and if He would not out of kindness and mercy let us go and forgive us, we would all deserve hell. Therefore we pray daily: O Father, give mercy! O Christ, mercy! do not punish. And therefore, O man! Judge thyself, speak of thyself: Behold, who thou art, and thou shalt forget thy neighbor's evil, that thou hast both thine own hands full.
90. From all this it follows, according to Augustine's teaching, that no man is, he is a guilty man. For no man is so pious, so righteous, as to be excluded from this plea. For every one finds displeasure in his neighbor, for which he bears a grudge, and there is none so holy who does not. Therefore beware, all of you.
91. say thou, The scripture saith of Jeremiah and Job, how in their days they sinned not with their mouths, nor with their lips. Item, Lucas praises Zachariam and Elisabeth, the parents of John the Baptist, how they were righteous before God and men; and there are many more of them in the Scriptures. Augustine answers: "Scripture praises the saints as much as it wants, but it always does so in the opinion that they are still sinners. David saws Ps. 14, 3: "They have all become useless, there is also none who does good," only
one, that is Christ. Also John says 1 Epist. 1, 8, and are the words of Christ, "If we say that we are without sin, we are liars, and the truth is not in us."
The sixth putty and its interpretation.
And do not lead us into ridicule.
Here, for the sixth time, is the paucity of our life. For it is a loud challenge and temptation, and he who desires peace and security here is foolish; he may not bring it about. And though we all desire it, yet it is useless to us. Therefore he saith not, Lead, or take away from me the temptation; but: Lead us not into it. Whether he said, "We are surrounded behind and before us with temptation and temptation, and may not escape them; but, O my God, make us not to be overcome and oppressed by them. We have to stand here before the opened jaws of Satan, the devil, and wait when he devours us, as St. Peter says, 1 Epist. 5, 8: O dear brethren, "be sober and watch, for your adversary the devil, as a fierce, ravening lion, goeth about and about, seeking whom he may tear and devour." Behold, our householder and bishop, Peter, saith, "Our enemy seeketh us," and not in one part, but in all ends, "round about," seeking all cunning, needing all guile, that he may bring man to him. And if we feel this, we should run to God and ask: O Father, see how we are surrounded on all sides? O let us not be overcome by all of them.
Two types of examination.
The first is that which is dangerous to the body, such as sickness, poverty, having one's honor cut off, or other such things by which we are provoked to patience. If this comes to pass (learn for God's sake), let no one be surprised. For this is the way of this life. Some say, "I would not be angry if I had my way, and would not have to suffer this or that. Yes, dear fellow, you cannot pass by, it is so ordered, it must be so, as the pious Job says, Cap. 14, 1: "A man born of a woman lives a little, short time - is filled with poverty." But whoever feels it, let him run to Christ and ask: -.
1) In the old edition: "mir mirs".
O Christ, do not leave me without your grace; I will be drowned otherwise. And say with the prophet, Ps. 123:1, "Unto thee have I lifted up mine eyes, thou that dwellest in the heavens"; and Ps. 121:1, "Mine eyes have I lifted up unto the mountains, from whence also cometh my help." When I am in trouble and my brother is in pain, I run to Christ: "O Father, help me, keep this tentatio from working in me anger, hatred or envy against my brother; do not lead me into it, O Christ, so that I follow it. But those who follow the temptation give themselves freely to the devil, and all wickedness grows in them. Because our life is called a temptation by God Himself. Why should we be surprised? If something offends us, we should bear it kindly and say: Well, it is the quality of life. What shall I make of it? No one can be above this, but one can certainly advise it. Thus an old father, when Jerome writes, says to a young brother who asked him to give him advice on how to get rid of his thoughts, temptations, etc., which troubled him very much, and so that they would not come again: "Dear brother, how can you prevent a bird from flying in the air; but you can still prevent it from making a nest in your ear or on your head. So you cannot prevent the thoughts from coming, but you can be careful, by calling on God, that they do not nest with you. And this temptation is bitter.
The other is sweet, but more dangerous than the first. It makes happy people, and in them it does great harm, making hopefulness, unchastity, affection of all sin, especially fornication. For when the devil blows into our flesh, especially of a young man, he sets on fire all his bones, marrow and inner members. Thus says Job, Cap. 41, 12: Halitus ejus prunas ardere facit, "His breath makes the coals glow." So say thou, O father, quench; O let it not burn. Behold, a dead man comes to life from it, from the secret movement into the heart. So whoever feels this and does not cry out must fall, for he follows him and agrees to it. Therefore it is necessary that we groan to Christ, for this is the most dangerous temptation. For it makes man not call, but rest and be merry. So David the prophet says, "In the great sea of this world there are many things, that is, many temptations, temptations and resistances. Now we have come to the point where if one strikes a cliff, he wants to strike it
2) Thus, who - the one who.
and sting, do not want to suffer it at all. Now our life is nothing but condemnation, misery, disobedience. Fasting, misery, sin, temptation, evil, woe, misfortune, pain, woe, heartache; therein stands our doings.
The Seventh and Last Request.
But deliver us from evil; that is, from all that harms us.
95 Here we ask that he deliver us from the painful evil that is hell and everything that is against our body and may trouble us, also from the original evil of sin, as the teachers speak, so that we will not want anything else but evil; that he release us from it, so that the lust of the flesh does not take the spirit captive, as St. Paul says to the Romans, Cap. 7, 23.
Now let us notice how we have asked so far. In the first three petitions we have given God His glory; in the others we have asked for our need, what we need in body and soul, that He may forgive us our sin; and now, at the very last, we ask that He may save us from evil. And this may well be asked at the last.
Now we are here, and take this against the order of Christ. First, we do not honor God and his saints in any other way than to protect us from temporal poverty, dishonor and dishonor; we do not even think of the other requests that should go before, without which this last request cannot be accomplished. For health, good peace we may ask, but for the last. We now take many letters of indulgence, that we may be safe. But I tell you, it is dangerous where it happens that the divine name is not honored and praised. For where this does not happen,
we would rather be condemned ten times over for the sake of Christ. And he who feels and confesses Christ is willing to suffer anything, only that his divine name may be honored.
Order of all said.
First, pray that God may be praised in and through us. Second, that we may live without sin. Third, that we may be delivered from evil. So the first three are for God, the other three are for us, to be freed from sins, so that we may become godly. And when all these have been done, we should pray: Now deliver us from evil. So all prayers and needs are concluded in this. Therefore, if we call upon the saints to deliver us from evil, it is not right for us to seek the glory of God rather than our own benefit, nor the washing away of our sin (for we do not live by it); therefore it pleases neither God nor the saints. The Scripture says Ps, 85, 11: "Righteousness and peace have kissed one another." Our righteousness is Christ, who must be in us first; then comes peace. Therefore, when thou art sick, thou shalt say, When I am well again, I will be so godly, I will take up another way of life. O fool, thou knowest not what thou sayest. Say then: O God, give me strength, give me power, so that I do not fall into impatience etc., and keep still, keep your back closed, and bear it willingly. But now we want to go to heaven in the cradle and in downy feathers, when Christ, our pious bishop, had to climb up on the cross through much pain and torture. Alas, we poor people, what do we undertake, if it is all in vain? In conclusion, God grant us all His grace, that we may live in such a way that we do not anger Him! Amen.
752 Erl. 21, 158-1SV. Luther's interpretation of the Lord's Prayer for the layman. W. VII, 1086-1093. 753