Luc. 1, 46-55.
My soul exalts God the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my God.
Savior.
For he hath looked upon me, his lowly handmaid, whereof the child shall blessedly praise me for ever.
For he who does all things has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
And his mercy is from generation to generation, to all who fear him.
He works mightily with his arm and destroys all the hopeful in the mind of their heart.
He deposes the great lords from their dominion and exalts those who are lowly and nothing.
He satisfies the hungry with all kinds of goods, and leaves the rich alone.
He takes up his people Israel, who serve him, having remembered his chain of mercy.
As he promised our fathers, Abraham and his followers, for ever and ever.
Preface and Entrance.
In order to understand this holy hymn properly, it must be noted that the Blessed Virgin Mary speaks from her own experience, in which she has been enlightened and taught by the Holy Spirit. For no one can rightly understand God, nor God's word, unless he has it without means from the Holy Spirit; but no one can have it from the Holy Spirit, unless he experiences it, tries it, and feels it; and in the same experience the Holy Spirit teaches, as in his own school, apart from which nothing is taught but pretense, word, and gossip. So, the holy virgin, having experienced in herself that God works in her such great things, when she was lowly, unsightly, poor and despised, the Holy Spirit teaches her this rich art and wisdom, that God is such a Lord, who has nothing else to accomplish, but only to exalt what is lowly, to bring low what is high, and recently to break what is made, and to make what is broken.
2. For at the same time as in the beginning of all creatures he created the world from nothing (from which he is called creator and omnipotent), so he remains unchanged in this way of working, and all his works are still done in this way until the end of the world, therefore from that which is nothing, lowly, despised, miserable, dead, he makes something delicious, 1) honest, blessed and alive; again, all that is something, delicious, honest, blessed and living, makes void, low, despised, miserable and dying; in which way no creature can work, cannot, from not [to] make icht, 2) so that his eyes see only into the depth, not into the height, as Daniel 3. says, "Thou seest above the cherubim, and lookest into the deep," or abyss. And Ps. 138, 6.: "God is the Most High, and looks down on the lowly, and the high He knows from afar." Item, Ps. 113, 5. 6.: "Where is such a God as ours, who sits on high, yet looks down on the lowly in heaven and [on] earth?" For since He is the Most High, and there is nothing above Him, He cannot see above Himself, nor can He see beside Himself, since there is no one like Him, He must of necessity see within Himself and below Himself. And the lower someone is below him, the more he sees him.
(3) But the world and the eyes of men do evil, they only look above themselves, they want to be high, as Proverbs 30:13 says: "There is a people whose eyes look upward and whose brows are lifted upward. We experience this every day, how everyone only strives for honor, power, wealth, art, a good life, and everything that is great and high. And where there are such people, everyone clings to them, there one runs to, there one gladly serves, there everyone wants to be and to become partaker of the high things, so that it is not without reason that so few kings and princes are described in Scripture as pious 1). Again, no one wants to look into the depths, where there is poverty, dishonor, hardship, misery and fear, there everyone turns his eyes away.
1) So in all editions; however, according to parallelism, it seems as if a comma should be placed after "something".
2) icht - something.
3) Song of the three men in the fire, v. 55.
4) Jenaer: written.
from. And where such people are, there everyone runs away, there they shy away, there they are left, and no one thinks to help them, to stand by them, and to make them also something, so they must remain in the depth and low, despised measure. There is no creator among men here who wants to make something out of nothing, as St. Paul teaches in Rom. 12:16, and says: "Dear brothers, do not respect high things, but submit to low things."
Therefore, God alone has such a reputation, which sees into the depths, hardship and misery, and is close to all those who are in the depths, and as Peter says [1 Ep. 5, 5.]: "To the high He resists, to the low He gives His grace." And from this reason now flows the love and praise of God. - No one may ever praise God, unless he loved him before. So may no one love Him, unless He is known to him most sweetly and best of all. He may not be known in this way, except through his works, shown, felt and experienced in us. But where it is experienced how he is such a God, who sees into the depths, and only helps the poor, despised, miserable, miserable, abandoned. The heart overflows with joy, leaps and jumps for the great pleasure it has received in God. And there is the Holy Spirit, who has taught such exuberant art and pleasure in a moment in experience.
5. For this reason God has also laid death upon us all, and given the cross of Christ, with innumerable sufferings and hardships, to His most beloved children and Christians; He even let us fall into sin from time to time, so that He might have much to see in the depths, help many, work much, show Himself a true Creator, and thereby make Himself known, lovely and praiseworthy, in which, unfortunately, the world with its clear-sighted eyes resists Him without ceasing, and hinders His seeing, working, helping, knowledge, love and praise, and deprives Him of all such honor, as well as depriving Himself of their joy, pleasure and bliss.
(6) So also he rejected his only beloved Son, Christ, even into the depths of all misery, and in him he showed his sight, his work, his help, his way, his counsel, and his love.
Will, where all this is directed. Therefore, Christ also experienced this excellently, full of confession, love and praise of God eternally. As the 21st Psalm v. 7. says: "Thou hast made him glad with delight in thy presence," that is, that he sees and recognizes thee. Psalm 44:9 also says that all the saints will do nothing more than praise God in heaven, because he has looked upon them in their depths and made himself known to them, lovely and praiseworthy.
(7) The tender mother of Christ does the same here, teaching us with the example of her experience and with words how to recognize, love and praise God. For since she boasts here with a joyful, bouncing spirit and praises God for having looked upon her, even though she was lowly and nothing, one must believe that she had poor, despised, lowly parents.
008 And that we may set it before the eyes of the simple. There is no doubt that in Jerusalem the daughters of the chief priests and councillors were rich, beautiful, young, learned and most honest, in the esteem of the whole country (as now the daughters of kings, princes and rich men), so also in other many more cities. Also in Nazareth, in her city, she was not the daughter of the highest rulers, but of a poor commoner, whom no one had much regard for, nor paid any attention to, and among her neighbors and daughters she was a bad maid servant of the cattle and the house, no longer, no doubt, because now she may be a poor maid, who does what she is called to do in the house. For thus Isaiah proclaimed, Isa. 11:1, 2: "A rod shall come forth out of the stem of Jesse, and a flower shall grow up out of his root, and the Holy Ghost shall rest upon it." The stem and root is the family of Jesse or David, especially the Virgin Mary; the rod and flower is Christ. Now, as it is unsightly, even unbelievable, that a beautiful rod and flower should grow from a dry, rotten stem and root, so it was not to be expected that Mary, the virgin, should become the mother of such a child.
(9) For I consider that it is not called a stem and root merely because it is above-
The reason for this is that the royal tribe and lineage of David, which flourished and blossomed in great honor, power, wealth and happiness in David's and Solomon's time, was also a great thing in the sight of the world; But at the end, when Christ should come, the priests had brought the same honor under themselves, and ruled alone, and the royal family of David was impoverished and despised, like a dead block, that there was no longer hope nor reputation, that from it again a king should come to great honors. And just when such an unattractive figure stood highest, Christ comes, and is born from the despised tribe, from the lowly, poor little girl, the rue and the flower grow from the person, whom Lord Annas' and Caiphas' daughter would not have considered worthy to be her least servant. So God's work and face are in the depth; man's face and work are only in the height. This is the cause of their praise, which we will now hear from word to word.
V. 46. My soul exalts God the Lord.
(10) The word therefore proceeds from great ardor and exuberant joy, in which all her mind and life are lifted up from within in the spirit. Therefore, she does not say, "I exalt God," but rather, "My soul," as if to say, "My life and all my senses are suspended in God's love, praise and high joys, so that I, who am not mighty of myself, am more exalted than I am exalting myself to God's praise. How then does it happen to all those who are infused with divine sweetness and spirit that they feel more than they could say. For it is not the work of man to praise God with joy. It is more a joyful suffering, and solely a work of God, which cannot be taught by words, but can only be known by one's own experience; as David, Psalm 34:9, says: "Taste and see how sweet is God the Lord, blessed is the man who trusts in Him." First he puts the 1) tasting,
1) "that" is missing in the Erlanger.
then seeing, because it cannot be recognized without one's own experience and feeling, to which no one comes, because he trusts God with all his heart when he is in depth and distress. Therefore, he carefully adds: "Blessed is the man who trusts in God"; for he will experience God's work in him, and thus come to the sensitive sweetness, and thereby to all understanding and knowledge.
My soul. 2)
11. want to move one word after another. The first: "My soul. Scripture divides man into three parts, as St. Paul, 1 Thess. 5:23, says: "God, who is a God of peace, sanctify you through and through, so that your whole spirit and 3) soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the future of our Lord Jesus Christ." And each of these three, together with the whole man, is also divided in another way, into two parts, which are called spirit and flesh. This division is not of nature, but of quality, that is, nature has three parts, spirit, soul, body, and may all be valid or evil. That is, to be spirit and flesh, which is not to be spoken of now.
The first part, the spirit, is the highest, deepest, noblest part of man, so that he is able to grasp incomprehensible, unseen, eternal things: and is lately the house, where faith and God's word dwells within. Of which David, Psalm 51, 12, says: "Lord, make in my inmost being a right spirit", that is, an erect, strong faith. Again, of the unbelievers Psalm 78, 37.: "Their heart was not right to God, and their spirit was not in faith to God."
The other, the soul, is the same spirit according to nature, but in a different work, namely, in that it gives life to the body and works through it, and is often taken in Scripture for life. For the spirit may live without the body, but the body does not live without the spirit. This
2) "My soul" is missing from the Erlanger.
3) "and" taken by us from the Erlanger. Wittenberger: "Body and Soul".
We see how it lives and works even in sleep and without interruption, and its way is not to grasp incomprehensible things, but what reason can recognize and measure. And reason is here the light in this Hanse; and where the spirit is not enlightened with faith, as with a higher light, this light of reason rules, then it may never be without error. For it is too low to act in divine things. To these two things the Scriptures attribute many things, as sapientiam and scientiam, wisdom to the spirit, knowledge to the soul; after that also hatred, love, lust, abomination, and the like.
The third is the body with its members, which works are only practices and customs by which the soul knows and the spirit believes. And that we show a likeness of it from the Scriptures. Moses made a tabernacle with three different buildings [Ex. 26, 33. 34. Cap. 27, 9.]. The first one was called Sanctum Sanctorum, where God dwelt inside and there was no light inside. The other, Sanctum, had a candlestick with seven tubes and lamps. The third was called Atrium, the courtyard, which was public under the sky, before the sun light. In the same figure a Christian man is depicted; his spirit is Sanctum Sanctorum, God's dwelling place, in dark faith, without light; for he believes, which he does not see, nor feel, nor comprehend. His soul is Sanctum, there are seven lights, that is, all understanding, difference, knowledge and cognition of bodily visible things. His body is the atrium, which is visible to everyone, so that one can see what he does and how he lives.
Now Paul asks [1 Thess. 5, 23], God, who is a God of peace, wanted to make us holy, not in one piece alone, but completely, through and through, so that spirit, soul and body, and' everything would be holy. Of causes of such prayer much could be said. Recently: if the spirit is no longer holy, nothing is holy. Now the greatest controversy and the greatest danger is in the holiness of the spirit, which stands only in mere, pure faith, because the spirit does not deal with comprehensible things; as [§12] is said. So then come false teachers, and
The two entice the spirit out; one pretends to the work, the other to the way of becoming pious. If the spirit is not kept and wise here, it falls out and follows, 1) comes to the outward works and ways, thinking thereby to become pious. As soon as faith is lost, and the spirit is dead before God. Then various sects and orders arise, so that one becomes a Carthusian, the other a barefooter, one wants to become blessed by fasting, the other by praying, one by this, the other by another work; and yet they are all their own chosen works and orders, never commanded by God, only devised by men. In addition, they never perceive the faith, teach always building on works, until they get so deep into it that they become divided, each wanting to be the best, and despising the other; as our observers now boast and blow their horns. Against such works saints and pious teachers Paul prays here, saying: God be a God of peace and unity, which such disunited and unpeaceful saints may not have nor keep, unless they drop their things, and all come together in the spirit and faith, and realize that works only make difference, sin and discord, but faith alone makes pious, one and peaceful, as Ps. 68, 7: "God makes us dwell together in one house", 1) and Ps. 133, 1: "How good and how merry it is that brethren dwell together in one house!
Peace does not come from anywhere, because it is taught how no work, no outward way, but only faith, that is, good confidence in the unseen grace of God, promised to us, makes us pious, righteous and blessed; of which I have said much in the good works 3). And where there is no faith, there must be many works, from which follows strife and disunity, and thus no God remains. Therefore, St. Paul is not content to say here: "That your spirit, your soul etc.", but: "Your whole spirit", in which there is even
1) sc. the false teachers.
2) According to the Vulgate.
3) Luther's "Sermon of Good Works." Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. X, 1298 ff.
lies. He needs here a fine word in Greek, ολόχληρον υμών τδ πνεύμα, which is
is your spirit, which possesses the whole inheritance. As if he should say: Let no doctrine of works deceive you, the believing spirit alone has it completely. It is only up to the faith of the spirit; the same spirit that possesses the whole inheritance, I pray that God would protect you from the false teachings that want to make you confident in God through works; which are false consciences, because they do not only place such confidence in God's grace.
(17) If such an inherited spirit is preserved, then the soul and body may also remain without error and evil works. Otherwise it is not possible, where the spirit is faithless, that the soul and the whole life should not go wrong and astray, whether it pretends to good opinion and good conceit, and has its own devotion and good pleasure in it. Therefore, because of the soul's error and false conceit, all the works of the body are evil and rejected, even though a person fasts himself to death and does all the holy works. Therefore it is necessary that God first of all protect the spirit, then the soul and the body, so that we do not work and live in vain, and thus become righteously holy, not only from public sins, but much more also from false and apparent good works. Let this be said enough this time to explain the two words, soul and spirit, because they are almost common in Scripture.
18) After this is the word "Magnificat," which means to make great, to exalt, and to think much of, as of him who is able, knows, and will do great and many and good things. As it follows in this hymn that the word "Magnificat", like the title of a book, indicates what is written in it, so it also indicates with this word what its hymn of praise is to be about, namely about great deeds and works of God, to strengthen our faith, to comfort all lowly, and to frighten all high people on earth. On these three customs or benefits we must let the hymn of praise be directed and recognized; for she has not sung to her alone, but to all of us, that we should sing after her.
19. now it may not be that someone he
or be comforted by such great deeds of God, unless he not only believes that God is able and knows how to do great deeds; but must also believe that he wants to do so, and have a love to do so. Nor is it enough for you to believe that he wants to do great deeds with others, and not with you, and thus to express such divine deeds 1) as those do who do not fear God in their power, and who pusillanimously 2) despair in their struggle. For such faith is nothing, and even dead, like a delusion received from a fable; but without all wavering, without all doubting, you must imagine his will over you, so that you firmly believe that he will and will also do great things with you. The same faith lives and weaves, it penetrates and changes the whole man. It compels you to fear when you are high and to be confident when you are low; and the higher you are, the more you must fear; the lower you are, the more you can be comforted; which faith does not do. How will you do in the time of death? Then you must not only believe that he may and knows, but also wants to help you. Since an unspeakably great work must be done, so that you may be redeemed from eternal death, eternally blessed, and become God's blind. This faith is able to do all things, as Christ says [Marc. 9, 23.], it alone exists, it also comes into the experience of divine works, and thereby into divine love, and thus into divine praise and song, so that man thinks highly of God and makes Him truly great.
20 For God is not made great by us in His nature, which is unchangeable, but in our knowledge and feeling, that is, if we think much of Him and esteem Him great, first according to His goodness and grace. Therefore the holy mother does not say, My voice or my mouth; nor my hand; nor my thoughts; nor my reason or my will magnifies the Lord (for there are many of her who praise God with a loud voice, preach with fine words, speak, argue, write, and paint much about him; many who think about him, and
1) externalize - to let be outside, not to make partial.
2) Wittenbergers and Jenaers: Kleinmüthigen.
(The soul of a person who seeks him through reason and speculates, as well as many who lift him up with false devotion and will); but thus she says: My soul magnifies him, that is, my whole life, weaving, mind and strength hold much of him; so that it immediately feels enraptured in him and uplifted in his gracious, good will; as the following verse indicates. In this way, when someone does something especially good for us, we see that all our life is immediately moved toward him, and we say, "Oh, I think much of him. This actually means: My soul magnifies him. How much more will such a living movement be stirred up when we feel God's goodness, which is abundantly great in his works, that all words and thoughts become too little for us, and the whole life and soul must be moved, as if it wanted to sing and say everything that lives in us.
(21) But there are two false spirits who do not like to sing the Magnificat correctly. The first, who do not praise him before he does them good; as David says Ps. 49:19: "They praise you when you do them good." These seem to praise God almost very much; but because they never want to suffer oppression and the depths, they may never experience the right works of God, and therefore never love nor praise God rightly. So now all the world is full of worship and praise, with singing, preaching, organs and pipes, and the Magnificat is sung gloriously; but to pity that such delicious singing should be done so without power and juice by us, who do not sing before, it goes well; but where it goes badly, the singing is over, there one thinks nothing more of God, thinks that God may or will work nothing with us; so the Magnificat must also remain outside.
The others are even more dangerous, those who turn to the other side, who exalt themselves in God's goods, and do not appropriate them purely for God's goodness, also want to have something in them, want to be honored and held in high esteem before other people, look at their great good, which God has worked with them, fall upon it, and take it as their own, and hold themselves up as something special against the others, who do not have it. Here is
truly a slippery, slippery state. God's goods naturally make hopeful and self-satisfied hearts.
Therefore, it is necessary to note the last word, "God. For Mary does not say, "My soul magnifies itself," nor does she think much of me; she did not want to think anything of it, but God alone magnifies her, to whom she gives it all, expels herself, and carries it all back to God, from whom she received it. For although she felt such an exuberant act of God in her, she was and remained so minded that she did not exalt herself above the least man on earth. And if she had done so, she would have fallen with Lucifer into the abyss of hell. She did not think otherwise: If another maidservant had such goods from God, she would have been just as happy to give them to her as to herself, and would have considered herself unworthy of such honor and all others worthy of it, and would have been well satisfied if God had taken such goods from her and given them to another in her eyes. So she took nothing at all from anyone, and left God his goods free, alone and her own, being no more than a cheerful host and willing hostess of such a guest; therefore she also kept all this forever.
(24) Behold, that is, to make God alone great, to think ourselves great only from Him alone, and not to accept any thing. From this it is seen how they have had great cause to fall and sin, that it is no less a miracle how they abstain from hope and acceptance 1) than that they have received such goods. Do you not think what a strange heart this is? She finds herself a mother of God, exalted above all men, and yet remains so simple and serene that she would not have kept a lowly servant under her. O we poor people, if we have a little good, power or honor, even if we are a little prettier than others, we cannot be like a lesser, and there is no measure of acceptance; what would we do if we had great, high goods?
1) In Latin: uooue sidi huloyuam trauerst - and did not attach anything to himself.
That is why God lets us remain poor, unhappy, so that we do not leave His tender goods untouched, so that we do not think the same of ourselves as before, but let our courage always grow and decrease, according to which goods come or go. But this heart of Mary stands firm and equal in all time, lets God work in her according to His will, takes no more from it than a good comfort, joy and confidence in God. So we should also do, that would be a right Magnificat sung.
V. 47. And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
(25) What the spirit is, has now been said, namely, that which makes incomprehensible things come to pass through faith. That is why she also calls God her Savior, or blessedness, which she neither saw nor felt, but trusted in firm confidence that he was her Savior and blessedness. Which faith she received from God's work done in her.
(26) And verily she doth properly begin by calling God her Lord before her Saviour, and her Saviour before she tells of his works; that she may teach us how we ought to love and praise God merely and properly, and not to seek our own in him. But he who loves and praises God merely and rightly, who praises Him only because He is good, and looks at nothing more than His mere goodness, and has his pleasure and joy only in it. What a high, pure, tender way to love and praise, which is well suited to such a high, tender spirit as this virgin.
(27) The impure and perverse lovers, who are no more than mere pleasure-seekers, seeking their own in God, do not love and praise His mere goodness, but look to themselves, and consider only how much God is good to them, that is, how much He sensitively shows His goodness to them, and does them good; and think much of Him, are happy, sing and praise Him, as long as such feeling lasts. But when God hides Himself, and shows the splendor of His goodness to them, so that they are naked and miserable, then love and praise go out at the same time,
and do not like the mere, insensitive goodness,
hidden in God, love nor praise. So that
they prove that their spirit has not rejoiced in God the Savior, there has not been true love and praise of mere goodness, but much more have they delighted in salvation than in the Savior; more in gifts than in the Giver; more in creatures than in God. For they cannot remain equal in having and lacking, in riches and in poverty, as St. Paul says (Phil. 4, 11. 12.): "I have learned that I can have plenty and lack." Of this the 49th Psalm, v. 19 (Vulg.) says: "They praise thee as long as thou doest them good." As if to say, They mean themselves, and not thee; if they had but desire and good of thee, they would give nothing to thee; as also Christ, John 6:26, says to them that sought him, "Verily I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye have seen signs, but because ye have eaten and been filled." Such unclean, false spirits throw all God's gifts under the bus, and prevent Him from giving them much, nor from working with them in a blessed way. Let us hear a fine example of this:
28) Once a pious woman saw a vision of three virgins sitting at an altar, and during the service a beautiful child ran from the altar, and went to the first virgin, did 1) friendly to her, hugged her, and laughed at her sweetly. Then he went to the other, and did 1) not so kindly to her, nor did he hug her; but he lifted her veil and smiled kindly at her. But to the third he did no friendly sign, struck her in the face, ran into her, and pushed her, dealt with her quite unkindly, and ran quickly back to the altar, and disappeared. Then this vision was interpreted to the same woman: that the first virgin signified the impure, self-indulgent spirits, to whom God must do much good, and more their will than their own, wanting nothing, always having comfort and pleasure in God, not lacking in His goodness. The other means the spirits who have begun to serve God, and may suffer some lack, but not entirely, nor are they without their own enjoyment and desire. He must give them a sweet look at times, and make them feel his goodness, so that they may
1) Wittenberger: himself.
so that they also learn to love and praise his mere goodness. But the third, the poor little Cinderella, has nothing but vain lack and misery, seeks no pleasure, lets him use that God is good, even if she should never feel it (which is impossible), remains the same and uniform on both sides, loves and praises both God's goodness when it is not felt and when it is felt; does not fall for the goods when they are there, does not fall away when they are gone. This is the true bride, who says to Christ: I do not want yours, I want you myself; you are not dearer to me when I am well, nor unlovelier when I am ill.
(29) Such spirits fulfill that which is written [Isa. 30:21], "Ye shall not turn aside from the same right way of God, to the left hand, or to the right; that is, they shall love and praise God equally and rightly, not seeking themselves and their own pleasure. David had such a spirit; when he was driven from Jerusalem by his son Absalom, and stood upon it that he would be eternally rejected, nevermore king and come into God's favor, he said [2 Sam. 15:25, 26], "Go, let God have me, he will surely lead me in again; but if he says, I will not have thee, then I am ready." Oh, what a pure spirit that was, which does not refrain from loving, praising and following God's goodness in the greatest need!
(30) Such a spirit is shown here by the Mother of God, Mary, that she, floating in the midst of the great, exuberant goods, nevertheless does not fall on them, does not seek her enjoyment in them, but keeps her spirit pure in love and praise of the mere goodness of God, ready to accept willingly and gladly whether God would deprive her of them again and leave her a poor, naked, deficient spirit.
Now, how much more dangerous it is to be temperate in riches and great honors or power, than in poverty, shame and weakness, because riches, honor and power give strong incentive and cause for evil: so much more is the wonderful, pure spirit of Mary to be praised here, that she is in such excessive honors, and yet does not allow herself to be challenged, acts as if she does not see it, remains
She is a spirit that is equal and right on the road, clings only to the divine goodness that she neither sees nor feels, lets go of the goods that she feels, does not vent herself in them, does not seek their enjoyment; so that she truly sings for a right, true reason: "My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior. Truly it is a spirit that leaps and skips only in faith; not of the goods of God, which it felt, but only of God, whom it did not feel, is joyful, as of its salvation, which it recognizes only in faith. O these are the right, lowly, single, hungry, God-fearing spirits; of which shall follow hereafter.
(32) From this we may know and judge how full the world is now of false preachers and saints, who preach much of good works to the poor people. And though there are few of them who preach how to do good works, that is, preach the doctrines and works of men, which they themselves have devised and established, yet, alas, the very best 1) among them are still so far from the right, true road that they always drive the people to the right side, so that they teach to do good works and good living not for the sake of God's goodness alone, but for the sake of their own enjoyment. For if there were neither heaven nor hell, and they did not know how to enjoy God's goodness, they would forsake His goodness, unloved and unappreciated. These are vain hirelings and tenants [John 10:11, 12], servants and not children, strangers and not heirs, who make themselves an idol, and God should love and praise them, doing to them what they should do to Him; they have no spirit, God is not their Savior, but His goods are their Savior, in which God must serve them as a servant. These are the children of Israel, who in the wilderness, not having eaten the bread of heaven, would have eaten flesh, and twain, and the garlic (Numbers 11:4, 5, 6).
(33) Now, alas, all the world, all the monasteries, all the churches, are full of such people, who all walk, drive, and hunt in the wrong, perverse, and inaccurate spirit, exalting good works so high that they think they are in heaven.
1) Wittenberger: Best.
But if we are to earn it, then first of all the mere goodness of God should be preached and recognized, and we should know that at the same time, as God out of pure goodness made us blessed without all merit of works, so we should again seek works without all reward or enjoyment, doing them for the sake of the mere goodness of God, desiring nothing more than His good pleasure in them, not caring for the reward; He will find Himself well and will follow without our request. For although it is not possible that the reward should not follow, if we do well out of a pure, right spirit, without the desire for reward and pleasure, God does not want the same greedy, impure spirit, nor will it ever receive the reward. Just as a child willingly serves his father for nothing, as an heir, only for the sake of his father. And if a child serves his father only for the sake of his inheritance and property, he is truly a hostile child, and worthy to be rejected by his father.
V. 48: For he hath regarded the vanity of his handmaid. All the children will call me blessed.
34 Some here have made the word humilitas into humility, as if the Virgin Mary had put on her humility and boasted of it. 1) Hence it comes that some prelates also call themselves humiles; which is far from the truth. For in the sight of God no one can boast of a good thing without sin and corruption. One must boast before Him no more than of His goodness and grace shown to us unworthy ones, so that not our, but only God's love and praise may exist in us and sustain us; as Solomon teaches, Proverbs 25:6, 7: "You shall not appear praiseworthy before the king, nor stand (that is, be something) before the great lords. It is better for thee that it be said unto thee, Sit up, than that thou be brought low before the prince." How then can such presumption and arrogance be attributed to this pure and proper virgin, that she boasted of her humility before God? which is the highest virtue of all, and no one considers himself humble or boasts of it, for he who is humble before God is the most humble of all.
1) Wittenberg and Erlanger: famous.
is the most humble of all. God alone recognizes humility, judges it and reveals it, so that man never knows less about humility than when he is truly humble.
35) The scriptural usage is, that it is called humiliare, to make low, and to bring to nought; and therefore in many places in the Scriptures Christians are called pauperes, afflicti, humiliati, poor, vile, rejected people; as Ps. 116:10, "I am almost greatly brought to nought, or brought low." Thus humilitas is nothing else than a despised, unsightly, lowly being or state; as there are the poor, sick, hungry, thirsty, imprisoned, suffering, and dying people, as Job was in his temptation, and David in his cast out from the kingdom, and Christ with all Christians in their distresses; which are the depths of which it is said above 2 ff.] It is said that God's eyes see only in the depths, and men's eyes only in the heights, that is, they see according to the respectable, seeming, splendid nature and status. Therefore Jerusalem is called in the Scriptures a city, 2) where God's eyes look upon, that is, Christianity lies in the depths, and is unsightly before the world, therefore God looks upon it, and has His eyes always upon it, as He says Ps. 32:8: "I will have My eyes upon you always." So also St. Paul says 1 Cor. 1, 27. 28.: "God makes all that is foolish in the sight of the world to be ashamed of all that is wise in the sight of the world; and makes all that is weak and unfit to be ashamed of all that is strong and mighty; he makes all that is nothing to be ashamed of all that is nothing in the sight of the world." And thus he makes the world foolish with all its wisdom and ability, and gives another wisdom and ability.
Because then his way is to look into the deep, unsightly thing, I have the little word humilitas translated nothingness or unsightly being; that the opinion of Mary is that: God has looked upon me poor, despised, unsightly maiden, and would have found rich, high, noble, mighty
2) Erlanger: Statt; Wittenberger: stet; Jenaer: Stab; Latin: eivitas.
Queens, princes, and daughters of great lords; he might have found the daughter of Annas and Caiphas, who were the rulers of the land; but he cast his purely kind eyes upon me, and used such a lowly, spurned maid, that no one might boast before him that he was or is worthy, and I also must confess that all is grace and kindness, and nothing at all is my merit or worthiness.
Now we have said enough above [§ 7 ff.], how this tender virgin, of an unprepossessing nature and standing, came to this honor quite unawares, that God so graciously regarded her; and therefore she does not boast of her worthiness, nor of her unworthiness, but only of the divine esteem, which is so superlatively and graciously, that he also regarded such a lowly maid, and so wanted to regard her 2) gloriously and honestly. Therefore they do her injustice who say that she did not boast of her virginity but of her humility. She did not boast of her virginity or her humility, but of her unique, gracious, divine reputation. Therefore, the scales are not in the word humilitatem, but in the word respexit. For their nothingness is not to be praised, but God's prestige. Just as when a prince gives his hand to a poor beggar, it is not the beggar's nothingness that is to be praised, but the prince's grace and goodness.
(38) But that such false delusion may be dispelled, and that right humility may be discerned from false, let us expatiate a little, and speak of humility; for therein many greatly err. In German we call humility, which St. Paul calls in Greek
ταπεινοφροσύνη, in Latin affectus vilitatis, seu sensus humilium rerum, that is, a will and mind toward low, despised things.
(39) Now many are found here who carry water into the well; these are they who put on lowly garments, persons, places, words, and also think of them, and handle them, but think that thereby they are before the high and rich,
1) Erlanger: the.
, 2) "so" is missing in the Wittenberg.
Scholars, saints, yes, even before God would like to be regarded as those who like to deal with small things. For if they knew 3) that one did not want to think anything of it, they would let it stand. This is a made humility; for their mischievous eye looks only at the reward and consequence of humility, and not at the little things without the reward and consequence. Therefore, where the reward and the consequence never appear, humility is over. Such may not be called affectos vilitate, who have a will and heart in small things, but have only the thoughts, the mouth, the mouth, the garment, and the mind in them; but the heart looks above itself to high, great things, to which it thinks to come through such a humble ghost. And these consider themselves to be humble, holy
40 The true ones. Humble ones do not look at the consequence of humility, but with simple-minded
They see the low things in their hearts, they like to deal with them, and they themselves are never aware that they are humble. There the water gushes out of the well, there it follows from itself, unsought, that they lead and carry lowly things, words, place, person, clothes, avoid, where they can, high and great things; of which David says Ps. 131, 1: "Lord, my heart is not lifted up, and my eyes have not looked up," etc., and Job 22, 29: "He who humbles himself will be honored, and he who puts down his eyes will be blessed." This is why honor always comes to them unawares, and their exaltation comes to them unawares. For they have been content with their lowly nature, and have never thought of exaltation. But the false humble are surprised that their honor and exaltation remain so long outside, and their secretly false arrogance does not allow itself to be satisfied with its lowly nature, secretly thinking only higher and higher.
41 Therefore, as I have said [§ 34], true humility never knows that it is humble (for if it knew it, it would become arrogant from your regard for the same beautiful virtue), but it clings with heart, courage
3) "wüßten" put by us instead of "wissen" in the German editions. Latin: exptoratum haberent.
She has them in her eyes without ceasing; they are her images, so that she can walk around; and because she has them in her eyes, she cannot see herself, nor become aware of herself, much less become aware of high things. Therefore the honor and height must come to her unawares, and she even finds herself in strange thoughts against the honor and height. Thus Lucas, Cap. 1, 29, says that the angelic greeting was strange to Mary in her eyes, and she considered what kind of greeting it would be, which she had never thought of. If the greeting had been brought to Caiphas' daughter, she would not have considered what kind of greeting it was, would have accepted it soon, and would have thought: "This is a good thing and well done.] Again, false humility never knows that it is arrogant 1) (for if it knew that, it would soon be humiliated by the appearance of ugly vice), but it clings with heart, courage and mind to the high things, which it has in its eyes without ceasing; these are its images, with which it deals; and while it deals with them, it cannot see itself, nor become aware of itself. Therefore the honor does not come to her unthinkingly nor unawares, but finds uniform thoughts. But shame and humiliation come to her unawares, and even in too many other thoughts.
42 Therefore it is of no use to teach humility in the measure that one puts low, despised things into the eyes. Again, no one becomes arrogant by putting high things into the eyes. eyes. Not the images, but the face must be dismissed. We must live here under high and low images; but, as Christ says [Matth. 18, 9.], the eye must be put out. Moses, Book 1, Cap. 3, 7, does not say that Adam and Eve saw other things after the fall than before, but he says: "Their eyes were opened, so that they saw themselves naked", although they were naked before, and did not realize it. Esther the queen wore a rich crown on her head, and yet said, It was as an unclean cloth in her eyes. (Pieces in Esth. 3, 11.) There were not the high ones.
1) Erlanger: Hochmuth.
Images were taken from her, even set before her with heaps, as of a mighty queen, and no lowly image before her; but the face was lowly, heart and mind looked not after great things; therefore God did wonders by her. So it is not the things, but we who must be transformed in mind and spirit; then we will teach ourselves to despise and flee high things, to esteem and seek low things; then humility is basic and constant on all sides, and yet we ourselves are never aware of it. This happens with pleasure, and the heart remains the same and one, as the things change or give, high or low, large or small.
(43) Oh, there is great pride among the humble garments, words, and actions of which the world is now full, who so despise themselves that they still want to be despised by everyone; so flee honor that they still want to be hunted with it; avoid the high things that they are still taken care of, praise them, and let their thing not be the least.
44 But here this virgin shows no more than her nothingness, in which she gladly lived and remained, never thinking of honor or height, nor realizing that she had been humble. Humility is so tender and so precious that it cannot suffer its own prestige; but the image is kept only to the divine face, as the 113th Psalm v. 6. says: "He looks at the lowly in heaven and earth." For he who could see his humility could judge himself to salvation, and God's judgment would already be over, since we know that God certainly makes the humble blessed; therefore God must reserve them for Himself to recognize and look at, and save them from us with training and practice of the little things in which we forget to look at ourselves. For this purpose, so many sufferings, deaths and all kinds of hardships on earth serve, so that we may have trouble and work to shun them and to cut out the false eye.
45. now we have clearly understood from this little word humilitas that the Virgin Mary was a despised, lowly, unseen maiden, wherein she served god, not knowing that her unsightly estate was so great.
would be respected in the sight of God. So that we may be comforted, that although we should gladly be humbled and despised, we should not despair of it, as if God were angry with us, but rather hope that He will be gracious to us; only take care that we are not willing enough and glad enough to be in such lowliness, so that perhaps the false eye may not be too wide open, and deceive us with a secret desire for high things or our own good pleasure, so that our humility may come to nothing. For what does it help the reprobate that they are lowest, because they are not glad and willing to be in it? and what does it hurt all the angels that they are highest, because they do not cling to it with false delight?
46 Recently, this verse teaches us to recognize God rightly, in that it indicates that God looks upon the lowly, the despised. And he knows God rightly who knows that God looks upon the lowly, as is said above [§ 4]. And from this knowledge follows love and loyalty to God, so that man willingly surrenders to Him and follows Him. Jeremiah, Cap. 9, 23. 24. says of this: "Let no one boast of his strength, wealth or wisdom, but let him who wants to boast boast that he knows and knows me"; 1) as also St. Paul teaches 2 Cor. 10, 17: "Whoever boasts, let him boast of God."
Thus, after the Mother of God has praised her God and Savior with a pure, unadulterated spirit, and has not taken anything for herself, and thus has sung to Him of His goodness, she now also comes to praise His works and goods in an orderly manner. For, as 26 ff] said, one must not fall on the goods of God and take them; but by them penetrate up to him, cling to him alone, and think much of his goodness, and then also praise him in his works, in which he has shown us such goodness to love, trust, and praise 3); that the works are nothing else but much cause to love and praise his mere goodness ruling over us.
48. but she takes off from herself to the
1) Wittenberger and Erlanger: erkennet und weiß.
2) "also" is missing in the Wittenberger.
3) Erlanger: generated.
first, and sings what he has done to her; that she may teach us two things. The first: Let every man take heed what God worketh with him, above all the works which he doeth with others. For there shall be no blessedness in what he worketh with another, but in what he worketh with thee. So John 21:21, when St. Peter said of St. John, "But what shall this man do?" Christ answered him and said, "What is it to thee? follow me." As if to say, "John's works will not help you; you must do them yourself and wait to see what I will do with you.
(49) Although there is now an abominable abuse in the world with the giving out and selling of good works, since some presumptuous spirits want to help other people, especially those who live or die without God's own works. Just as if they had too many good works, St. Paul clearly says in 1 Cor. 3, 8: "Each one will receive wages according to his work", without doubt not according to another's work. They would suffer if they asked for other people or presented their works as an intercession to God. But now they cannot do otherwise than to go with it as a gift, it is a shameful undertaking. And, worst of all, they give away their works, which they themselves do not know how they count before God. For God does not look at works, but at the heart [1 Sam. 16, 7] and at faith [Jer. 5, 3.They have no regard at all for this, building only on outward works, deceiving themselves and everyone with them, even to the point of persuading people to put on monk's caps when they die; pretending that whoever dies in such holy garments has indulgence from all sins and will be blessed; intending to make people blessed not only with strange works, but also with strange garments. I do not think that the evil spirit will control them to such an extent that they will lead people to heaven with monastery food, housing and burial. Help God, what tangible darkness is this to me, that a monk's cap can make pious and blessed; what is the need of faith? Let us all become monks, or all die in caps. Cloth should be melted into monk's caps alone. Beware, beware
before the wolves in such sheep's clothing, they tear you apart and deceive you [Matth. 7, 15.]
50) Consider, 1) that God also works with you, and that your salvation is only through the works that God works in you alone, and on no one else; as you see the Virgin Mary doing here. But whether you let yourself be helped to this by the intercession of others is right and well done. We should all ask and do for one another; but no one should rely on the works of others without his own divine works; but with all diligence be and perceive God, not otherwise than as if he and God alone were in heaven and earth, and God had to do with no one but him; and thereafter also look to the works of others.
The other thing they teach here is that each one should want to be the first in praising God, and to bring forth His works done in him, and then to praise them in other works as well. Thus we read that Paul and Barnabas proclaimed to the apostles their works of God, and they in turn theirs [Acts 15:12]. In the same way, Luc. 24, 34. 35. they did about the appearance after the resurrection of Christ. There arises a common joy and praise to God, as each one praises the other's grace, and yet his own first, even if it is less than the other's; does not desire to be first or foremost in goods, but in the praise and love of God. For they are content with God and His mere goodness, however small the gift; so finely simple is their heart.
52. but the avaricious and selfish, when they see that they are not the highest and best in goods, look askance and grumble for praise, that they are equal or inferior to others; as those in the Gospel, Matth. 20, 11. 12. who grumbled against the householder; not that he wronged them, but that he compared them to others with the daily penny. So now many are found who do not praise God's goodness, because they do not see that they have as much as St. Peter or any other saint, or as much as this one and the one on earth; thinking that if they also had so much, they would also want to praise God.
1) Wittenberger: not.
praise and love; they pay little attention to the fact that they are showered with goods of God, which they do not recognize, such as body, life, reason, good, honor, friends, and service of the sun, with all creatures. Even if they had all the goods of Mary, they would not recognize and praise God in them. For, as Christ says Luc. 16, 10, "he who is faithful in the little and the few is faithful also in the great and the many; and he who is unfaithful in the little is unfaithful also in the 2) many." Therefore they are worthy that the many and great should not become to them, because the small and few are disdained. But if they praise God in the small, the great would also be superfluous to them. That is why they see above themselves and not below themselves. If they were to look among themselves, they would find many of them who are perhaps not half like them, and yet they would be satisfied with God and praise Him.
A bird sings and is happy in what it can do, and does not grumble that it cannot speak. A dog leaps merrily, and is content if he is not sensible. All animals let them be content, and serve God with love and praise, without the mischievous, selfish eye of man, which is unsatiable. And yet it is not fitting that it should become full of itself for the sake of its ingratitude and arrogance, that it should sit on top and be the best, that it should not honor God, but be honored by Him. So we read that at the time of the Costnitz Concilii two cardinals, riding in the field, saw a shepherd standing and weeping, and one cardinal, a kind man, did not want to ride by, but to comfort the man, and rode up to him, asking him what he: was? The shepherd wept very much, and would not say anything for a long time, so that the Cardinal was distressed; at last he lifted up, and pointing to a toad, said: "I weep that God has made me such a fine creature, not as shapeless as a worm, and I have never known it, nor given him thanks and praise. The Cardinal was struck by the words, and was terrified that he fell from his mouth 3) and had to be carried inside, and he cried out: O St. Augustine, how true you have said: The
2) In the old editions: in.
3) d. i. Maulthier. The Erlangen edition put "Gaul" for it, because it considered "Maul" to be a misprint.
The unlearned stand up and take heaven before us, and we with our art walk in flesh and blood. Now I consider that the shepherd was not rich, nor handsome, nor powerful; and yet he so deeply considered God's goods and gave thanks, 1) that he found more in him than he could have foreseen.
For he has looked upon the lowliness of his handmaid. 2)
(54) The first work of God in her she confesses is to look upon her, which is also the greatest, in which all the veins hang and from which all flow. For where God turns His face to someone to look at him, there is only grace and blessedness, and all gifts and works must follow. Thus we read in Genesis 4:5 that He looked at Abel and his sacrifice, but He did not look at Cain and his sacrifice. Hence the common prayers in the Psalter that God would turn His face toward us, not hide it, enlighten us, and the like [Ps. 25, 16. Ps. 27, 9. Ps. 31, 17.]. And how she herself considers this to be the greatest thing, she shows by saying: "Behold, for the sake of reputation, the child-child will call me blessed.
(55) Mark the words, she does not say that many good things will be said of her, that her virtue will be praised, that her virginity or her humility will be exalted, or that she will sing a song about her deeds; but only because she has looked upon God will she be said to be blessed. This is giving the glory of God so purely that it could not be purer. Therefore she points to the reputation, and says: Ecce enim ex hoc, "Behold, from now on they will say me blessed," etc., that is, from the time when God looked at my nothingness, I will be blessed. In this she is not praised, but God's grace over her; yes, she is despised, and despises herself, in that she says her nothingness is regarded by God. That is why she praises her blessedness before she tells of the works that God has done for her, and gives it all to the divine regard for her nothingness.
56. from which we may learn 3) which
1) d. i. Thanks for that said.
2) Only in the Jena are these words repeated here.
3) Erlanger: teach.
is the right honor, so that one should honor her and serve her. How should one say to her? Look at the words, and they will teach you to say: O blessed virgin and mother of God, how you have been nothing and lowly, despised, and yet God has so graciously and abundantly looked upon you and done great things in you; you have never been worthy of them, and above all your merits, far and high, is the rich, abundant grace of God in you. O blessed art thou from that hour even unto eternity, which hast found such a God! Do not think that she does not like to hear that she is called unworthy of such grace. For she has undoubtedly not lied, since she herself confesses her unworthiness and nothingness, which God has not considered at all from her merit, but out of pure grace.
She does not like to hear the useless talkers who preach and write much about their merit, so that they want to prove their own great art, and do not see how they dampen the Magnificat, punish the Mother of God with lies, and diminish the grace of God. For as much worthy merit as is attributed to her, as much as the divine grace is abridged, and the truth of the Magnificat is diminished. The angel greets her only by the grace of God and that the Lord is with her, so that she is blessed among all women [Luc. 1, 28]. Therefore all those who praise and honor her and leave all this on her are not far from making an idol out of her. Just as if it were her duty to be honored, and good things done to her; if she rejects them from her, and wants to praise God in her, and through her to bring everyone to good confidence in God's grace.
(58) Therefore, whoever wants to honor her rightly must not only form her before himself, but place her before God, and far below God, and make her bare there, and look at her nothingness (as she says); then marvel at the abundant graces of God, who so richly, graciously looks upon, embraces, and gives such a lowly, vile human being; so that from the face of it you will be moved to love and praise God in such graces, and so-
by which you will be tempted to give yourself to all that is good, to such a God who so graciously looks upon lowly, despised, vain people and does not spurn them, that your heart may be strengthened toward God in faith, love and hope. What do you think will happen to her, if you come to God through her and learn to trust and hope in God, even if you are despised and destroyed, whether in life or in death? She does not want you to come to her, but through her to God.
(59) Again, learn to fear 1) all the high things that men seek, seeing that God did not find, nor want to have, high esteem even in His Mother. But the masters, who paint and model the blessed Virgin for us in such a way that there is nothing despised, but only great, high things to be seen in her, what else do they do, but that 2) they hold us against the Mother of God alone, and not her against God, so that they make us stupid and despondent, and blind us to the comforting image of grace, as one does to the tablets during fasting. 3) For there remains no example of which we can be comforted; but she is exalted above all examples, if she should be and would gladly be the most excellent example of God's grace, to stir up all the world in the confidence, love and praise of divine grace, so that all hearts would gain such a delusion from her to God, who would speak with all confidence: O blessed Virgin and Mother of God, how God has shown us such great comfort in you, because he has so graciously looked upon your unworthiness and nothingness, so that we may be admonished from now on that he will not despise and graciously look upon us, poor, worthless people, in accordance with your example.
60) Do you think that David, St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Mary Magdalene, and their like, through the great grace unworthily given to them for the consolation of all men, are examples of divine confidence and faith, that not also the blessed mother, St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Mary Magdalene, and their like, can be strengthened?
1) Erlanger: teach.
2) "that" is missing in the Jena.
3) Panels - pictures. From this we can see that during Lent the images were covered.
4) In Latin: Huo eommoukmur juxta.
Would God gladly and justly be such an example to all the world? Now it may not be before the superfluous preachers of praise and useless chatterers, who do not show from this verse how in it the exuberant riches of God with its deep poverty, the divine honor with its nothingness, the divine worthiness with its contempt, the divine greatness with its littleness, the divine goodness with its unmerit, the divine grace with its unworthiness have come together, from which desire and love for God would grow, in all confidence; therefore also their and all the saints' lives and deeds are described. But now one finds quite a few who seek help and consolation from her as from a god, so that I worry that there is more idolatry in the world now than there ever was. That is enough for now.
(61) The Latin omnes generationes I have translated child-child, although from word to word it means "all generations. But this is so obscurely spoken that some here have almost tried to say how it is true that all generations call them blessed, when Jews, pagans and many wicked Christians blaspheme them, or ever despise to call them blessed. That is why they understand the word "generation" from the gathering of men, so that it means here more the succession of the members of natural birth, as one is born after the other, the father, the son, son-son, and so on, each member is called a generation; that the Virgin Mary means nothing else, her praise will also last from one generation to the other, so that there is no time in which she is not praised. And this she indicates when she says: "Behold, from now on, all generations", that is, now it begins, and lasts into all generations to child-child.
62. the little word also αηφ μσχαριοΰσι stretches
further, than to say blessed, and means "to make blessed" or "to make blessed. That it be done not only by saying or saying, or by bending the knee, by bowing the head, by putting on the hat, by making images, by building churches, which the wicked also do well, but by all forces and with thorough truth. This happens when the heart, as said above [§ 55, 56], through their nothingness and God's grace, takes joy and pleasure in them to God.
and says or remembers with all his heart: O blessed Virgin Mary! To such blessed ones is their right honor, as is heard.
V. 49 For he has done great things for me, who is mighty, and holy is his name.
Here she sings in one heap all the works that God has done for her, and keeps a good order. In the previous verse, she sang about the divine reputation and gracious will over her, which is also the greatest, as [§ 54] said, and chief of all graces; here she sings about works and gifts. For God gives many goods to some, and adorns them highly, like Lucifer in heaven, and casts his gifts among the heap; but he does not see them therefore. The goods are only temporal goods, but grace and prestige is the inheritance that remains forever, as St. Panlus says Rom. 6, 23: "Grace is eternal life." In goods he gives his own, in reputation and grace he gives himself; in goods one receives his hand, but in grace reputation one receives his heart, spirit, courage and will.
64) Therefore, the blessed 1) Juugfrau gives the greatest and first to the reputation, and does not say to the first: All child-child will blessed me, that he has done so great things to me, since this verse says about; but that he has looked on me void and my voidness, since the previous verse says about. Where there is a gracious will, there are also gifts; but not again is there a gracious will where the gifts are. Therefore this verse follows the previous one. Thus we read in Gen. 25, 5. 6. that Abraham gave gifts to the children of his concubines or concubines, but to Isaac, the right son of the right wife Sarah, he gave the whole inheritance. So God does not want His right children to take comfort in His goods and gifts, however great or great they may be, spiritually or physically, but in His grace and Himself, yet regardless of the gifts.
(65) Neither does she tell any goods in particular, but with one word she gathers them all together, saying, "He has done great things for me," that is, they are all great,
1) Wittenberger: selbige. Latin: diva.
that he has done to me. She teaches us that the greater the devotion in the spirit, the fewer the words. For she feels how much she cannot achieve with words, as she well thinks and would like to. That is why the same few words of the spirit are always so great and deep that no one can understand them, except those who ever feel the same spirit in part. To the spiritless, however, such words are very small, and completely without juice and flavor, who do their thing with many words and great clamor. So Christ also teaches in Matt. 6:7 that we should not speak much when we pray. For this is what the unbelievers do, thinking that they will be heard through many words. Just as now in all churches there is much ringing, whistling, singing, shouting and reading; but, I fear, very little praise to God, who wants to be praised in spirit and truth, as he says John 4:24. Solomon, Proverbs 27:14.He who praises his neighbor with great clamor and rises early is to be regarded as a blasphemer," for he makes the matter suspicious, so that everyone thinks he wants to adorn an evil thing, and by making it so hot only makes the matter worse. Again, he who blasphemes his neighbor with a loud voice, and looks early (that is, he is not lazy, does it with great, hurried diligence), is to be respected like a blasphemer; for it is thought that it is not true, and he does it out of hatred and an evil heart, thus making his cause worse, and his neighbor's better.
So, if one thinks to praise God even with many words, cries and sounds, he does so as if he were deaf or knew nothing, as if we wanted to wake him up and instruct him: such a delusion of God is 2) more to his shame and dishonor than to his praise. But he who considers his divine deeds with a deep heart, and looks upon them with wonder and thanksgiving, so that he bursts into a passion, sighs more than he speaks, and the words themselves flow, neither invented nor set, bursting forth, so that the spirit foams out with it, and the words have life, hand and feet, yes, that at the same time the whole body, and all life, and all limbs would gladly speak; that is, right from the spirit and in truth.
2) Jenaer: gelanget.
praise God: the words are like fire, light and life, as David Ps. 119, 140: "Lord, your excuses are all fiery. Item v. 171: "My lips shall foam with praise to thee"; at the same time, as hot water boils and foams, so that it can no longer contain itself from great heat in the pot; so are all the words of this blessed virgin in this song, which are few, yet deep and great. St. Paul calls these spiritu ferventes, which spiritually roar and foam, Rom. 12, 11, and teaches us to be so.
67. the great things are nothing else than that she has become God's mother; in which works so many and great goods are given to her that no one can comprehend them. For there follows all honor, all blessedness, and that in the whole human race she is one person above all, to whom no one is equal, that she has a child with the heavenly Father, and such a child; and she herself cannot give him a name for exuberant greatness, and must leave it at that, that she gushes and foams, that these are great things, which cannot be explained nor measured. Therefore, in one word all her glory is understood; if she is called the Mother of God, no one can say greater things about her or to her, even if he has as many tongues as there are leaves and grass, stars in the sky and sand in the sea. It also wants to be considered with the 1) heart, what there is, to be God's mother.
68 She also gives it freely to God's grace, not to her merit. For even though she has been without sin, 2) this grace is so surpassing that in no way has she been worthy of it. How should a creature be worthy to be God's mother? Although some scribes here talk a lot about her worthiness for such motherhood. But I believe her more than them. She says that her nothingness is respected, and that God has not rewarded her service with it, but: "He has done great things for me," He has done it Himself, without my service. For she never thought about it her whole life, much less prepared and prepared herself to become God's mother, the same message came to her.
1) "dem" is missing in the Erlanger.
2) This is still papistic.
even unawares; as Lucas writes [Cap. 1, 29. But a merit is not unready for its reward, but well considered and set before the reward.
But the fact that one sings in the Regina coeli laetare etc.: "Whom you have deserved to bear", and in the other place: "That you have been worthy to bear" etc., does not conclude. The same words are sung about the holy cross, which was a piece of wood and could not earn anything. So this is also to be understood, that if she was to be a mother of God, she had to be a woman, a virgin, of the family of Judah [Luc. 1, 26] and believe the angelic message, so that she would be fit for it, as the Scripture said of her. Just as the wood had no other merit and worthiness than that it was fit for the cross and ordained by God, so her worthiness for this motherhood was none other than that she was fit and ordained for it, so that it would be pure grace and not a reward, so that God's grace, praise and honor would not be cut off if too much were given to her. It is better to cut her off too much than to cut off God's grace. Yes, one cannot break off too much from her, since she was created from nothing, like all creatures; but one has easily broken off too much from God's grace; that is dangerous and does not serve her well. It may also be a measure that one does not push the name too far, that one calls her a queen of the heavens, although it is true, but she is not thereby an idol, that she may give or help, as some think, who call to her more than to God and have refuge. She gives nothing, but only God; as follows:
Who is powerful there.
With this, she takes away all power and strength from all creatures, and gives it to God alone. O this is a great boldness and great robbery of such a young, little girl, who with one word may make all mighty ones sick, all great ones powerless, all wise ones fools, all famous ones to shame, and only to the one God all power, action, wisdom and glory. For the little word, "he who is mighty," is thus much said: it is
3) "it" is missing in the Erlanger.
is no one who does anything; but, as St. Paul says in Eph. 1:11, "God alone works all things in all things," and the work of all creatures is God's work; as we also say in faith, "I believe in God the Father Almighty." Almighty is he, that in all, and through all, and above all worketh nothing, but his power alone. Thus also Samuel's mother, St. Hannah, sings in 1 Sam. 2:9: "No man is able to do anything of his own ability"; and St. Paul in 2 Cor. 3:5: "We are not so much able as to think of anything of ourselves, but what we are able to do is of God." This is quite a high article, and comprehends much in it, laying low all hope, presumption, iniquity, glory, false confidence, foremost, and exalting only God; yea, showing cause why God alone is to be exalted, namely, that He does all things. It is easy to say, but high to believe and to draw into life. For those who practice this in life are quite peaceful, calm, simple-minded people, who do not take on any thing and know well that it is not theirs, but God's.
71 Is now the holy God's mother's opinion in these words: There is nothing mine in all these things and great goods, but he who alone does all things, and works his power in all alone, he has done such great things to me. For the little word "mighty" here does not mean a quiet, resting power, as one says of a temporal king that he is mighty, even though he sits still and does nothing; but an active power and constant activity that goes on and works without ceasing. For God does not rest, works without ceasing, as Christ says, Jn. 5:17: "My Father works until here, and I also work." In the same way St. Paul says Eph. 3, 20: "He is able to do more than we ask"; that is, He always does more than we ask; that is His way, so does His power. That is why I said, Mary does not want to be an idol. She does nothing, God does all things. One should call upon her 1) so that God may give through her will, and
1) The invocation of the Blessed Virgin and the saints is still papist.
do what we ask; so all the other saints are also to be called upon, that the work may ever remain entirely God's alone.
Seventy-two Therefore she adds, "And holy is his name," that is, as I do not take the work, so I do not take the name and honor. For honor and name are due to him alone who does the work; it is unreasonable that another should do the work, and another have the name, and be honored by it. I am only the workshop in which he works, but I have done nothing for the work; therefore no one should praise me or give me the honor that I have become God's mother, but God and his work should be honored and praised in me; it is enough that one rejoices with me and blesses me that God has used me to do such his works in me.
73. Behold, how purely she carries all things in God, how completely she takes on no work, no honor, no glory, yet does just as before, since she had none, also no longer asks for honors, as before, does not boast, does not break out, does not exclaim, how she has become God's mother, does not ask for honor, walks and works in the house, as before, milks the cow, cooks, washes the dishes, sweeps, does as a housemaid or housemother should do in little despised works, as if she had nothing to do with such exuberant goods and graces. She is held among other wives and neighbors nothing higher than before; she has not coveted it either, has remained a poor citizen among the small crowd. Oh, what a simple, pure heart she is! What a strange person she is! How many great things are hidden under such a small figure! How many have attacked her, talked to her, eaten with her, and drunk with her, who might have despised her and considered her a common, poor, bad citizen, who otherwise would have been horrified by her if they had known such things about her.
74. Now this means "to be holy to his name". For "holy" means that which is set apart, dedicated to God, which no one should attack and defile, but hold in honor. So "name" means a good rumor, fame, praise and honor. Thus, everyone shall abstain from the name of God, shall not use it.
Do not touch it, do not appropriate it. Thus it is written in Exodus 30:31, 32 that a precious, holy ointment was made by Moses by God's command, and it was strictly enjoined that no man should anoint his body with it; that is, no one should ascribe God's name to it. For this is to profane God's name, if we boast or let ourselves be honored, or please ourselves, and boast of our works or goods, as the world does, and profane and desecrate God's name without ceasing; but as the works are God's alone, so shall his name alone remain. And all those who sanctify his name, who pour out honor and glory upon themselves, hold it in honor; therefore they are sanctified by it, as Ex 30:29. is written, as the precious ointment was so holy that it sanctified everything it touched; that is, God's name, because it is sanctified by us, and we take no work, no glory, no pleasure of our own in it, so it is rightly honored, so it touches us, and sanctifies us.
Therefore, we must be careful here, because we may not be without God's goods on earth, and thus without name and honor. If someone praises us and gives us names, we should take the example of God's mother here, and be ready to respond with this verse, and use the honor and praise properly, and say it publicly, or remember it in our hearts: O Lord God, the work is yours, which is praised and glorified; let the name also be yours: not I, Lord, but you have done this, who do all things mightily, and holy is your name. So do not deny praise and glory as if it were wrong, or despise it as if it were nothing; but do not accept it as an altogether noble and precious thing, and carry it home to Him whose it is in heaven. Behold, this is what this noble 1) verse teaches.
76 This is the answer to the question whether no one should honor another? Yes, St. Paul says that we should strive to come before one another with honor, Rom. 12, 10. But no one should accept honor as it is done to him, or let it remain on him, but sanctify it, and God should not be honored in any way.
1) "edele" is missing in the Jena.
Carry home, of which it is, with all good and work, from which comes the honor. For no one should lead a dishonest life. If he is to live honestly, there must be honor. But as the honest life is God's gift and work, so let the name be his alone, holy, and unencumbered with his own good pleasure. This is what we pray in the Lord's Prayer: "May your name be hallowed."
V. 50: And his mercy endureth from generation to generation unto them that fear him.
We must be accustomed to the Scriptures, which call "sex" the result of natural breeding or birth, as one man is born from another for and for, as said above [§ 61]. Therefore the German word "Geschlecht" is not sufficient, but knows no better. For we call the kinships and collection-blood friendships Geschlechte. 2) But here it should be called the natural succession from father to child, that each member of this succession is called a gender; that I respect it, it should not be badly thus translated: "And his mercy endures from child to child, to those who fear him. And is almost mean to speak this way in the Scriptures, originally from the words of God, which he says on Mount Sinai, under the first commandment, to Mosi and all the people, thus: I am your God, strong and diligent, who punish the sin of the fathers in the children to the third and fourth generations, to those who hate me; and am merciful in many thousand generations to those who love me, and keep my commandments." [Ex. 20:5, 6.]
Now that she has sung about her and her God's goods and praised God, she walks through all of God's works, which he works in general in all people, and also sings to him about them; teaches us to recognize the works, nature and will of God. Many highly rational people and philosophers have also circumvented that they would have liked to know what God is, have written much about Him, one otherwise, the other so; but are all blinded, have the right view
2) In Latin, this is translated thus: Progeniem vocamus coetum, nobis, tum sanguinis, tum conjugii nomine junctorum.
not see. And it is indeed the greatest thing in heaven and earth that one may know God rightly, if anyone can. The Mother of God teaches it here almost well, whoever wants to understand her; as she also teaches the same above, in and of herself. But how can one know him better than from his own works? Whoever recognizes his work rightly, may not lack his nature, will, heart and courage.
79) Therefore it is an art to know his works. And that we may grasp it, six divine works, in six kinds of men, she counts through these four verses one after the other, and divides the world into two parts, on each side three works, and three kinds of men, and one part is always against the other. Then she knows what God is doing on both sides, so she paints him so that he will not be painted too badly. And the same division is well and orderly conceived, and founded in more places of Scripture, namely, Jeremiah 9:23, 24, where he thus says: "Let no wise man glory in his wisdom; let no mighty man glory in his power; let no rich man glory in his riches; but let him glory in them who will glory in them, that he may know me, and know how I am a God, who doeth mercy, judgment, and righteousness in the earth; these things please me, saith God." This is a noble text, and agrees with this song of the Mother of God.
80 Here we also see that he divides everything the world has into three parts, into "wisdom, power and riches", and breaks it all up by saying: one should not flaunt it, for he will not be found there, nor does he have any pleasure in it; on the other hand, he sets other three parts, "mercy, judgment, justice": there I am (he says), yes, I do all these things; so near am I, and I do it not in heaven but on earth. There one finds me. So whoever recognizes me, he may well defy and flaunt such things. For if he be not wise, but poor in spirit, there is my mercy with him. If he is not mighty, but oppressed, there is my judgment, and shall save him. If he is
1) "to" is missing in the Jena.
2) Wittenberger: will.
not rich, but poor and meager, so much more of my righteousness is with him.
In the "wisdom" he understands everything that there are spiritual goods and high gifts, of which a man may have a pleasure, glory and conceit, as the following verse will give, as there are, understanding, reason, wit, art, piety, virtue, good life, recently, everything that is in the soul, which is called divine and spiritual, as high gifts it may be, which is not God himself. In the "power" he understands all authority, nobility, friend, dignity and honor, whether about temporal or spiritual. Goods and people (although in Scripture there is no spiritual authority nor power, but only servitude and subordination), with all right, freedom, advantage etc. that may be therein. In "riches" is included health, form, pleasure, strength, and everything that is outwardly good for the body. In contrast, the other three are the poor in spirit, the oppressed and the needy in body. Now let us see the six works and pieces one after the other.
The first work of God, mercy.
Of this this verse says: "His mercy endures from child to child, to them that fear Him." It starts from the highest and greatest, namely from the spiritual, inward goods, which make the most hopeful, proud, stiff-necked people on earth. There is no rich man, no powerful lord so puffed up and courageous, as such a clown, who feels and thinks that he is right, understands the matter well, is wiser than other people; especially where it comes to the meeting that he is to be soft or wrong; he is so insolent and without any fear of God that he may boast that he is not mistaken, that God is with him, and that the others are of the devil; he may invoke God's judgment; and if he has reason and power, he goes in with his head, persecutes, judges, blasphemes, strangles, chases away, and disturbs all who resist him, and then speaks: he has done it for God's service and honor; is so sure and certain of a great thanksgiving and merit before God that the angels are hardly so sure in heaven. O how a great
That is a bubble! Oh how much the scripture deals with such people, how horribly it dreads them. But they feel it less than the anvil of the blacksmith feels the blows of the hammer; and this piece is a great, broad thing. Of them Christ says John 16:2: "The time will come when those who kill you and drive you out will think they are doing God a great service." And Ps. 10, 5. 6. of the same multitude: "He overcometh all his adversities, and saith, There shall no evil befall me." As if he should say: I am right, I do well, God will give me great reward for it etc. Such a people was Moab, of which Isaiah Cap. 16, 6, and Jeremiah Cap. 48, 29. 30.: "We have heard of Moab, he is haughty beyond measure, his haughtiness, his blowing off, his presumption, his glory, and his wrath is greater than his might."
Thus we see that such people, with great arrogance, would gladly do more than they are able. Such a people were the Jews about Christ and the apostles; such people were the friends of St. Job, who spoke wisely against him, and praised and preached God very highly. Such people do not listen, do not let them be told; it is not possible for them to be wrong, or to give way; only through it, and the world should fall to ruins. Scripture cannot sufficiently punish such a lost bunch; now it calls it a serpent that plugs its ears so that it does not hear [Ps. 58, 5. 1, now an indomitable unicorn [Ps. 22, 22. 1, now a raging lion [Ps. 7, 3.], now a great immovable rock [Jer. 5, 3. 23, 29. 1, now a dragon [Ps. 74, 13.], and so on much more. But not baß are they painted off, for Job 40, 10. ff. and 41, 1. ff., there he calls the same heap "Behemoth." Behema means a beast; Behemoth a bunch of beasts, that is, a people that has a beastly mind and does not let God's spirit rule in it. God describes him as having eyes like the dawn, for their wisdom is without measure; their skin so hard that if one shoots or stabs at it, he makes a mockery of it, that is, if it is preached at them, they laugh at it, for their right shall not be punishable. Item, one scale sticks to the other, so that not one air is there.
between them, for they hold over each other so that no spirit of God can enter them. His heart (says God) is hardened like a blacksmith's anvil; it is the devil's body; therefore he also gives all these things to the devil in the same place.
84 Such a people in our times, above all others, is the pope with his bunch, and has been for a long time; they also do so, and more, than it has ever been. There is no hearing, no joint, 1) no saying, no counseling, no pleading, no urging; in short, no more, for we are right, let it remain so, in spite of someone else, even if it were the world.
But if someone wants to say, "How will this be done? Should one not keep the right? Should one leave the truth? Is it not commanded that one should die for the sake of right and truth? Did not the holy martyrs suffer for the sake of the Gospel? Did not Christ himself also want to be right? It ever happens that such people are right in public (and, as they proclaim, before God), act well and wisely. I answer: Here is the time and the need to open one's eyes, here is the right place, here is the time to be rightly instructed [because of] being right. It is true that for the sake of truth and justice one should suffer everything, and not deny it, be it what it may. It may also be that they are right about something; but this is what spoils it, that they do not carry out the law legally, do not act with fear in it, do not form God before their eyes, think that it is enough that it is right, should and will continue by their own power, and thus make the game out of it. So that they make their right wrong, when it would already be right in principle. But it is much more dangerous when they think it is right, and do not know for certain how it is done in the high things that God and his rights encounter. But [we] want to say first of all about the gross, human right, and set a gross, tangible example.
86. is it not true that money, goods, body, honor, wife, child and friend etc. are also
1) Joint - compliance. This meaning is missing in Dietz.
2) "the" is missing in the Jena.
good things, created and given by God Himself? If they are God's gifts and not yours, and he wanted to tempt you, whether you would let them go for his sake, and cling more to him alone than to such of his goods. He adds an enemy to you, who takes them from you in whole or in part, and damages you, or otherwise gets rid of them through death and destruction; do you think that you would have just cause to rage, to rage, to take them again with storm and violence, or to be impatient until you have them again, pretending that they are good things and God's creation, which he himself made; and all the Scriptures call such things good; therefore wouldst thou keep God's word, and protect and repeat such good things with life and limb, or ever not with will spare them, nor with patience let them go; would not that be a fine pretense?
If you want to do well here, you don't have to go through it with your head. How then? You should fear God, and thus say: Well, dear God, these are good things and your goods, as your own word and scripture say; but I do not know whether you will grant them to me. If I knew that I should not have them, I would not take them again with a hair; but if I knew that thou wouldst have them with me, more than with that, I would serve thy will in them, and take them again with body and soul; but because I know none of these, and see that at present thou wilt let me take them, I command the matter unto thee, and will wait to see what I shall do therein, and be ready to have them and to do without them.
(88) Behold, this is a right soul that fears God; there is mercy with it, as the Mother of God sings here. From this you can see for what reason Abraham, David and the people of Israel fought and killed many times ago. They went up out of God's will, stood in fear, and fought not for the sake of good, but that God might have it from them; as the histories give, and commonly indicate beforehand the command of God. Now see how here the truth is not denied. The truth says they are good things and God's creatures; yes, the same truth also says
and teaches that you should let go of such good things, and be ready all hours to do without them, if God wills it, and cling to God alone. The truth does not urge you to take back the goods, so that it says they are good; nor does it urge you to say they are not good, but to stand by them and confess that they are good and not evil.
(89) So must law and all the goods of reason or wisdom be done. Justice is a good thing and a gift of God; who doubts it? God's word itself says that justice is good, and if anyone ever confesses that his good or right cause is unjust or evil, he shall die before it, and let go of everything that is not God. For that would be denying God and His word, whoever says. Let right be good, and not evil. But would you cry out, rage and rage, and strangle all the world, so that such a right would be taken away from you, or be suppressed? as some do, who call to heaven, cause all misery, destroy land and people, fill the world with wars and bloodshed; what do you know, whether God will let you have such a gift and right? It is his, may it take you today or tomorrow, out of it and in it, through enemy and friend, and as he wills. He will try you, whether for his sake you will forego the right, be wronged and suffer, bear the shame for his sake, and cling to him alone.
90 If thou then art godly, and thinkest, Lord, it is thine, I will not have it, I. Know then that thou wilt grant it me; let whatsoever pass, be thou only my God: behold, then this verse goeth: "And his mercy is with them that fear him," who will do nothing without his will; behold, there is God's word kept in both pieces. First, that you confess that the law, your reason, your knowledge, your wisdom, and all your opinions are right and good, as God's word itself speaks of them. Second, that you gladly lack such good for God's sake, unjustly corrupt, and become a reproach to the world, as God's Word also teaches. There are two things: good or
1) Jenaer and Erlanger: and.
1420 Eri. 4ü, Lss-284. Luther's interpretation of the Magnificat. W. vn, nss-E. 1421
Confess right and win. It is enough for you to confess that you have good and right. If you cannot win, let God command it: you are commanded to confess that God has kept winning for him. If he wants you to win, he will do it himself, or he will present it to you without your thoughts, so that you will have to take it in hand and win in a way you never thought of or desired. If he does not want to do so, be content with his mercy. If the victory of the right is taken from thee, yet confession cannot be taken from thee. Behold, we must renounce, not the goods of God, but the evil, perverse attachment to them, that we might lack them and use them with serenity, that in all cases we may cling to God alone.
(91) O such a thing should all princes and authorities know, who are not content with confessing what is right, but also want to win and submit straightforwardly, without all fear of God, making the world full of blood and misery, thinking they are doing well and right, because they have or think they have a right thing. What is this but the proud, arrogant Moab [Isa. 16, 6], who makes himself worthy and respects himself, who should have the noble, beautiful good and gift of God (the right), if he is not worthy, if he sees himself right in the eyes of God, that the earth should carry him, and eat the bark of the bread, because of his sin? O blindness, O blindness! Who is worthy of a least creature of God? And we do not only want to have the highest creatures, the right, wisdom and honor of them, but also to keep and take them with rage, bloodshed and all misfortune; we go thereafter, pray, fast, hear mass, establish churches, with such a bloody, raging, furious mind that it would not be a miracle if the stones were broken before our face.
92 Here a question falls to the side: Should not a lord protect his country and people from injustice, but keep so quiet, let him take everything; what would come of it?
1) Walch and the Erlangeners: good and right." That both are to be taken substantively is proven by the beginning of § 89: "Recht und allerlei Güter der Vernunft" ("Right and all kinds of goods of reason"), which is called "Gabe und Recht" ("Gift and Right") later in the same paragraph.
in the world? I will now state my opinion in the shortest possible way. Worldly power is obliged to protect its subjects, as I have often said; for that is why it carries the sword, so that those who do not turn to such divine teachings are kept in fear, so that they leave others peace and quiet [Rom. 13:4]. Also in this she does not seek her own benefit, but the benefit of her neighbor and God's honor, and would gladly be silent, and leave her sword, if God had not decreed such to control the wicked. But that such protection is not done with much greater evil, and a spoon is picked up as 3) one tramples a bowl.
It is a bad protection to put a whole city in danger for the sake of one person, or to put the whole country over a village or a castle; unless God especially, as in ancient times, commanded to do so. A horseman takes a citizen's property, and you set out with an army to punish the injustice, valuing the whole country; who has done more harm here? the horseman or the lord? David saw through his fingers many times where he could not punish without harming others. So all authorities must do. Again, a countryman must suffer something for the sake of the community, and not desire that all the others come to greater harm for his sake; he does not want to be always the same. Christ did not want to wipe out the tares, lest the wheat also be wiped out [Matth. 13, 29. 30.]. If one were to argue about everything and overlook nothing, there would never be peace, and yet there would be ruin. Therefore, right or wrong is never 4) sufficient cause to punish or punish without distinction. It is sufficient cause to punish with mercy and without the destruction of another. A lord or authority must look out for what serves the whole bunch more than for a single piece. It will not become a rich householder, who will take the goose home, because one has plucked out its feather. But now is not the time to talk about wars.
2) "such" is missing in the Jena.
3) Wittenberger: that.
4) Jenaer: never.
In the same way, in divine matters, faith and the gospel are the highest goods, and no one must let them go. But the right, favor, honor, and attachment of the same 1) must also be put in the balance, and God must rule with it; not to win, but to be careful to confess, and to suffer gladly, whether he is reviled, persecuted, chased away, burned, or otherwise strangled as an unrighteous man, a seducer, a heretic, a maniac, or a sacrilegious etc. before all the world. For there is God's mercy with him. One cannot ever take away his 2) faith and truth, whether one takes away his life. Although there are few in this piece who rage and rage for gain and obedience, 3) as happens in temporal good and right. For there are also few of them who confess it rightly and for a reason. But such a person should suffer and complain for the sake of others who are hindered in their souls' blessedness because they have succumbed to the gospel; indeed, they should complain and labor much more here (but before God's eyes) for such harm to their souls as the Moabites do for their temporal goods and rights, as was said above [§ 52 ff]. For it is wretched where God's word does not prevail and prevail; not for the sake of the confessor, but for the sake of those who should have been kept thereby.
95 Therefore we see in the prophets, Christ and apostles such great sorrow and lamentation for the sake of God's word suppression, who yet were glad to suffer all injustice and harm. For here is another cause of gain, above all other goods. However, no one should do it by force himself, and keep or take such a right of the Gospel by storm and unreason, but humble himself before God, as perhaps he is not worthy that such a great good should be done by him, and return everything to his mercy with supplications and lamentations.
96. Behold, this is the first work of God, that He is merciful to all their conceit,
1) The sense is according to the Latin: That right, favor, honor fall to someone and belong to him etc.
2) Jenaer: none.
3) In Latin: sasviant; after that we put "wüthen" instead of: "wundern" in the German editions.
Right, wisdom and what are spiritual goods, gladly lack and willingly remain spiritually poor. These are the true God-fearers, who do not think themselves worthy of anything, no matter how small it is, who like to be naked and bare before God and the world; but what they have of them, only as given by pure grace to the undeserving, they use them with praise, thanksgiving and fear, as if they were foreign goods; they do not seek their will, pleasure, praise or honor, but only that which they are. And indicates how much more pleasure God has in doing such mercy, His noblest work, than the counter-work of strength, so that it says that there is such work of God without cessation from child to child in the fearful; since that work lasts into the third or fourth member, and in this following verse no goal nor time is set, as follows.
Destroy the other work of God, spiritual hope. 4)
V. 51: He has wielded violence with his arm, and scattered the hopeful in the mind of their heart.
97 Let no one be mistaken in the translation that I have just given: "he works mightily," and here: "he has wielded power." This is so that we may understand the words all the better, which should not be bound to any time, but freely indicate God's way and work, which he has always done, is always doing, and will always do; so that it would be the same if I spoke it in this way in German: God is such a Lord, whose works are such that he powerfully scatters the arrogant and is merciful to the fearful.
In Scripture, "God's arm" is called His own power, so that He works without the help of creatures. This happens silently and secretly, so that no one is aware of it until it is done; so that this power or arm cannot be understood and recognized except through faith alone, that Isaiah also complains that so few have faith in such an arm, and says: "He who believes without faith is not able to believe.
4) This caption is missing in the Wittenberg.
5) "the" is missing in the Jena.
and who are those to whom the arm of God is known?" This makes everything, as follows there, it goes secretly under an unequal reputation of such violence. Also Habakkuk Cap. 3, 4. speaks that horns are in God's hands, 1) indicating his great strength, and yet speaks that his strength is hidden there. How does this happen?
Thus, when God works through the means of creatures, one sees publicly where violence or weakness is; hence the saying: God helps the strongest. Thus, whichever prince wins the war, by him God has defeated the others. If a wolf eats someone or is otherwise damaged, it is through the creature. So God makes and breaks a creature through the others. He who lies there lies, he who stands there stands. But when he himself works through his arm, then it is different; there it is destroyed, before one thinks; again, built up, before one thinks, and no one sees it.
He does such work only between the two parts of the world, the pious and the wicked. He leaves the pious powerless and oppressed, so that everyone thinks that it is over with them, that it has come to an end; and just in this he is strongest, so hidden and secret that even those who suffer the pressure do not feel it, but believe it. God's strength is full, and the whole arm. For where man's strength goes out, God's strength comes in, if faith is there and waits for it. Now when the pressing is out, it breaks forth, what strength had been under the sickness. 3) Behold, Christ was powerless on the cross; and just there he did the greatest power, overcoming sin, death, the world, hell, the devil, and all evil. So all martyrs were strong and won. So all those who suffer and are oppressed still win. Therefore Joel Cap. 3, 15: "He that is without strength, let him say, I am full of strength"; but in faith and without feeling, until the end?
101. again, the other part lets god
1) Vulgate: eornua in ruauldus sju8.
2) Wittenberger: jm.
3) In the old editions: "krenck" i.e. weakness, lack of strength. In Latin: Inürmitss.
great and mighty, he draws out his power and lets it blow out only from his own power. For where man's power goes in, God's power goes out. When the bubble is full, and everyone thinks they are on top, 4) have won, and they themselves are now 5) also safe, and have brought it to the end, then God pokes a hole in the bubble, then it is over. The fools do not know that just as they rise and become strong, that they are voiced by God, and God's arm is not with them; therefore their thing lasts its time, after which it disappears, as a water bubble becomes, as if it had never been. Psalm 73:16 ff. tells of this, where he was very surprised how the wicked were so rich, secure and powerful in the world; at last he said: "I did not like to understand it until I saw into the secrecy of God, and perceived how it would go with them in the end; then I saw that they were only exalted for their own deceit, and just in that they were exalted. How soon they are disturbed, how quickly they are gone, as if they had never been; as a dream he that waketh up passeth away." And Psalm 37:35, 36: "I have seen an ungodly man, grown up and exalted, like a cedar tree on Mount Libani; I passed by but a little, and, behold, he was gone; I asked for him, and his was no more."
It is only because of our faith that we cannot also wait a little for the time to come, so that we might also see how mercy is with the fearful with all the strength of God, and how the arm of God is against the hopeful with all seriousness and force. We, the faithless, grope with our fist for mercy and for the arm of God, and if we do not feel it, we think it is lost with us and won with the enemies, as if God's mercy and grace were from us and His arm against us. This means that we do not know his own works, therefore we do not know him, neither his mercy nor his arm. For he must and will be known by faith, therefore
4) Jenaer: ob.
5) "nun" is missing in the Jena.
6) i.e. detached, expelled.
must be the senses and reason; their eye, that annoys us, therefore it should be cut out and thrown away.
Behold, these are two works of God against one another, from which we learn how God is so minded that He is far from the wise and prudent, and near to the unwise, and they must be wrong. This makes God lovely and praiseworthy, comforting soul and body and all powers.
Now see the words: "He destroys those who are hopeful in the mind of their heart. The destruction happens, as said [§ 101 ff.], just when they are most wise and full of their own wisdom, God's wisdom is certainly never there. But how could he disturb them so much as to make them free of his eternal wisdom and let them become full of their temporal, short, transient wisdom? For she says: "Those who are trustworthy in the mind of their heart", that is, those who are pleased with their opinion, conceit and understanding, which is not given by God but by their heart, as the only one who is the most right, the best and the wisest, they rise up against the fearful, curb their opinion and right, disgrace it and pursue it to the utmost, so that their own thing is only right and endures. And when they attain this, they boast and exalt themselves, as the Jews did against Christ, but did not see their thing destroyed and disgraced, and Christ exalted to all honor.
So we see that this verse speaks of spiritual goods, and how God's work is recognized in it on both sides, that we should gladly be spiritually poor and wrong, and let our opponents be right; they will not do it for long. The promise is too strong here, they may not escape God's arm; they must fall as high as they rise, if we believe that. But where there is no faith, God does not work such works, lets them go, and works publicly through the creatures, as was said above [§ 99]. But these are not the right works, so that he can be recognized. For the powers of the creatures are involved, and are not merely God's own works, which must be that no one works with him, but he alone. This is what happens when we become powerless and fall under
presses in our right or sense, and suffer God's power in us; these are noble works.
How masterfully she strikes the false gleamers, and looks not at their hands nor under their eyes, 1) but into the heart, saying: "The hopeful in the mind of their heart. So that it especially touches the enemies of divine truth, when the Jews were against Christ, and now also. The same scholars and saints are not hopeful in clothing or vesture, pray much, fast much, preach and study much, also say mass, wear the head humbly and not precious clothes, know nothing else themselves, but that there is no greater enemy of hope, of wrong, of glitter, than themselves, and no greater friend of truth and God, than they; how could they do harm to the truth, if they were not such holy, pious, learned people? Such their nature gives the appearance, and glistens, and moves the crowd. Oh, they mean it so heartily well, call upon the dear God, and have mercy on poor Jesus, that he does so wrong, and is hopeful, and not so pious as they are. Of them he says Matt. 11:19: "Divine wisdom is justified by her own children," that is, they are more just and wiser than I myself, who am divine wisdom: as I do, it is not right, and am mastered by them. These are the most poisonous, harmful people on earth; this is a hearty, profound, devilish hope, to which no counsel is; for they do not hear: what is said does not concern them; let it pass over the 2) poor sinner who needs such teaching; they must not. John calls them serpent breeders, Luc. 3, 7, Christ also [Matth. 23, 33].
(107) These are the righteous, who do not fear God, and only serve to scatter God with their hope, so that no one pursues justice and truth more than they do; yet, as stated, for the sake of God and justice. Therefore they must be the first on this side, among the three enemies of God. For the rich are the least of the enemies; much more do the righteous do wrong.
1) Jenaer: "or under eyes".
2) In the Wittenberg and in the Jena: the.
wadding. But such scholars are exceedingly, they provoke the others. The rich destroy the truth in themselves; the mighty drive it out from others; but the learned even extinguish it in themselves, and bring up other things, their heart's own conceit, that it may not arise again; as far then as the truth in themselves is better than the men in whom it dwells, so much are the learned worse than the mighty and the rich. O! God is especially hostile to them, how just.
The third work: Low the high.
V. 52: He has removed the mighty from their seats.
This work and the following ones are easily understood from the previous two. For just as he destroys the wise and prudent in their own mind and conceit, on which they rely and drive their arrogance against the divine fearful ones, who. He also destroys and deposes the mighty and great with their power and authority, upon whom they rely and exert their arrogance against the righteous and pious humble, who must suffer harm, torment, death and all kinds of evil from them. And as he comforteth them that are wronged and disgraced for their right, truth, and word, so he comforteth them also that are hurt and afflicted: and as much as he comforteth them, so much doth he affright them.
But all this must be known and waited for in faith. For he does not destroy the mighty as soon as they deserve it; he lets them go for a while, until their power reaches the highest and last. So God does not hold it, so it may not hold itself; so it perishes in itself, without all rumbling and breaking, and then the oppressed come up, also without all rumbling; for God's power is in them, which remains alone, when that is under.
110. but notice: she does not speak that he is
1) Thus the Erlanger, the Latin translation (in 86 1p8n), and the Jenaer in the margin as Correctur of the text. Wittenberg and Jena in the text: "with them".
2) Erlanger: for the sake of the Word of God.
breaks the chairs, but: "throws out the mighty ones". Neither does he say: he leaves the lowly here, but: "lifts them up". For while the world stands, authority, rule, power, and the chairs must remain. But that they use them evil and against God, to do injustice and violence to the pious, and that they have a pleasure in it, to raise themselves up, not with fear, to God's need for his praise, and for the protection of justice, he does not suffer long. Thus we see in all history and experience how he casts out one empire and brings down another; 3) raises up one principality and crushes another; increases one nation and destroys another; as he did to Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, who thought they would sit in their chair forever. So he does not destroy reason, wisdom and justice, for if the world is to exist, one must have reason, wisdom and justice; but arrogance and the arrogant, who serve themselves with it, are pleased with it, do not fear God, and persecute the pious and the divine right with it, and thus abuse the beautiful gifts of God against God.
Now it happens in the affairs of God that the clever and the trustworthy sneak commonly strike at the mighty and move them against the truth; as Ps. 2:2 says: "The kings of the earth have risen up, and the princes have come together against God and His anointed," etc. that justice and truth must always have the wise, the mighty, the rich, that is, the world with its greatest and highest power, against them at the same time. Therefore the Holy Spirit comforts them by the mouth of this mother, that they neither err nor be dismayed. Let them be wise, powerful, rich; it does not last long. For where the saints and scholars would stand with the mighty and lords, and with the rich, not against but with the right and the truth, where would injustice remain? Who would suffer evil? No, not so, the scholars, the saints, the mighty, the great, the rich and the best of the world must fight against God and right, and be the devil's own; as Hab. 1, 16. says: "His food is
3) Erlanger: nieder.
tender and chosen", that is, the evil spirit has a filthy mouth, likes to eat the very best, the cutest, the most chosen, like the bear eats honey.
Therefore the scholars, the holy gleamers, the great lords, the rich are the devil's lickspittle. Again, what the world rejects, the poor, the lowly, the simple, the lowly, the despised, God chooses, as St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 1, 28, and makes the least of the best part of the world suffer; so that it may be known how our salvation does not consist in men, but only in God's ability and works. As St. Paul also says [1 Cor. 3, 7]. Hence it is said with true truth, "The learned, the perverse. A prince, a wild beast in heaven. Here rich, there poor. For the learned do not let the arrogance of their heart; the mighty do not let their pressure; the rich do not let their lust. Thus it goes.
The fourth work, Exaltation of the Lowly.
And he has exalted the lowly.
(113) Lowly here is not to be called the humble, but all who are unsightly in the sight of the world, and utterly vile. For it is the very word that she says of herself above [v. 48], "He looked upon the lowliness of his handmaid"; but those who are so lowly and vile in heart, and seek not to be high, are certainly humble. Now the exaltation is not to be understood that he puts them in the chairs and in the place of those whom he has deposed. At the same time, when he is merciful to the fearful, he does not put them in the place of the highly learned, that is, of the worthy, but rather gives them that they, exalted in God and spiritually, may be judges over chairs and authority and all arts, here and there. For they know more than all the learned and the mighty. Now how this happens is said above, in the first work, there is no need to recover. It is all said for the comfort of the suffering and for the terror of tyrants, where we would have so much faith that we would consider it 1) true.
1) "for" is missing in the Erlanger. - Jenaer and Erlanger: eighth.
The fifth and sixth works:
V. 53. He has filled the hungry with goods, and the rich he has left empty.
(114) As it is said above [§ 42] that the lowly are not to be called those who are in a vile, despised form, but those who like to be in it or want to be in it, beforehand, when they are forced into it for the sake of God's word or of what is right, so also the hungry are not to be those who have little or no food, but those who themselves like to be in want, beforehand, when they are forced into it by others by force, for the sake of God or of 2) truth. What is lower, more vile, more meager, than the devil and the damned? item, who are martyred, starved, strangled for their iniquity, and all who are lowly and meager with unwillingness? and yet helps them nothing, indeed increases and magnifies their misery. The Mother of God does not speak of them, but of those who are one with God, and God with them, who believe and trust in Him.
Again, what hinders the holy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that they were rich? What hinders David his king's seat, Daniel his power in Babylon, and all who were or still are in high status or great wealth, if their heart does not give to it, nor seek its own in it? Solomon says Proverbs 16:2: "God weighs the spirits," that is, He does not judge according to outward appearance and form, whether they are rich, poor, high, or low, but according to the spirit, how it is within. Such form and distinction of person and station must remain on earth, in this life; but the heart shall not cleave, nor flee, nor cleave to the high and rich, nor flee the low and poor. Psalm 7:10, 12 says: "God searches the heart and the kidneys, therefore He is a right judge"; but people judge according to their face, therefore they often fail.
These works, like those above, are done secretly, so that no one feels them until the end. A rich man does not realize how empty and miserable he is, because when he dies or otherwise perishes, he sees how he is.
2) "der" is missing in the Wittenberg and in the Erlanger.
all his possessions were nothing, as Ps. 76, 6: "They have fallen asleep (that is, died), and there they found that all men of wealth have nothing in their hands." 1) Again, the hungry do not know how full they are until [it] comes to an end; so they find the word of Christ, Luc. 6, 21.: "Blessed are the hungry and thirsty, for they will be filled"; and here the comforting promise of the Mother of God: "He has filled the hungry with goods."
It is not possible for God to let someone die of hunger in the flesh who trusts in Him, 2) before all the angels come and feed him. Elijah was fed by the ravens, and by a handful of flour he was fed, with the widow of Sarepta, for a long time [1 Kings 17:6, 15]. He cannot leave those who trust in Him; therefore David says Ps. 37:25: "I have been young, and have grown old; I have never seen a righteous man forsaken, nor his children go after bread." But he that trusteth in God is righteous. Item Ps. 34:11: "The rich are left meager and hungry, but those who seek God have no infirmity in any good"; and Samuel's mother, St. Hannah, 1 Sam. 2:5: "Those who were full and full before have had to lie down that they might have bread, and the hungry have been satisfied."
(118) But sorrowful unbelief is always in the way, so that God may not work such works in us, and we may not experience or know them; we want to be satisfied and have enough of all things before hunger and need come, and provide ourselves with supplies for future hunger and need, so that we will never need God and His works. What kind of faith is it that trusts in God, because you feel and know how to help yourself? Unbelief makes us see God's word, the truth, the right, subject to the wrong, and keep silent, do not punish, do not talk about it, do not fight, let go of what is going on. Why? Worry that we will be attacked and made poor, so that we will go hungry.
1) In the Vulgate: virl äivitiururu.- "have" is missing in the Wittenberg.
2) Walch and the Erlangeners: him.
3) "the" is missing in the Wittenberger.
die, and be eternally degraded. That is to say, temporal good is esteemed higher than God and made an idol in his place, so that we are not worthy to hear nor understand this comforting promise of God, that he lifts up the lowly, lowers the high, fills the poor, lifts up the rich; and thus never come to the knowledge of his works, without which there is no salvation, and thus must be eternally damned, as Psalm 28:5 says. says: "They have no knowledge of the works of God, 4) nor do they understand the work of his hands, therefore you will break them and never build them. And this is also just, because they do not believe such his promises, they regard him as a frivolous, lying God, they must neither dare nor approach his words; they think nothing at all of his truth. It must ever be tried and dared on his word. For it saith not, He hath filled the full, He hath exalted the high; but: The hungry filled, the lowly exalted.
You must come in the midst of hunger and thirst, and know what hunger and thirst are, that there is neither supply nor help in you nor in men, but in God alone, that the work, as impossible to all others, is God's alone. Therefore, you must not think and speak of meditation alone, but come into it, get stuck in it, become helpless of anyone, so that God alone may work there; or ever desire such and not shy away from it, if it may not come to that with the deed.
For this reason we are Christians, and have the gospel, which the devil and men do not like, so that we may come to thirst and humiliation, and so that God may come to his works in us. 5) Think for yourself, if he should satisfy you before you hunger, or exalt you before you are humiliated, he would only have to stand like a juggler. Think thou thyself, if he should satisfy thee before thou art hungry, or exalt thee before thou art abased, 6) he would only have to pose, like a juggler, and could not do what he pretends, and his works would be nothing but a mockery: yet it is written, P. 111, 7: "His works are truth and earnestness." Should
4) Wittenberger: "can" instead of "customer". Latin: eoAnitio.
5) Wittenberger: zur.
6) Erlanger: wärist.
he would also immediately work in lifting up your thirst and lowliness, or help in small thirst and lowliness, the works would be too small of divine power and majesty, of which Ps. 111, 2. says: "God's works are great, and seek after all his desire."
(121) Let the opposite be seen. If he were to break the high and rich before they became high and rich, how would he do it? They must first become so high and rich that they themselves and everyone may think, yes, even in essence, that no one may break them, no one may hinder them, and they may become sure of their cause, and say, as Isaiah says of them and Babylon, Cap. 47:8,9: "Hear, thou tender one, which sittest so secure, and sayest in thine heart, Here am I, and no man doeth unto me; I am sure that I shall not be a widow, nor without children (that is, without strength and support). Well then, both of these shall come to you in one day" etc. Then God can work His work in them. Thus he made Pharaoh exalt himself above the children of Israel and oppress them, as in Ex. 9:16. God Himself says of him: "Therefore have I exalted thee, that I might show in thee My deeds, and that My praise might be proclaimed thereof as far as the earth is." And the Biblia is full of examples, which teaches nothing else but God's work and word, and rejects man's work and word.
Now behold a strong consolation, that is, that not a man, but God Himself, not only gives something to the hungry, but fills and satisfies them. In addition, it says: "with goods," that is, such abundance should be harmless, useful and blissful, so that it benefits body and soul with all its strength. But this also indicates that they are previously destitute of all goods and full of all lack. For, as was said above [§ 81], wealth should here include all kinds of temporal goods for the satisfaction of the body, from which the soul also becomes happy. So again, hunger here means lack not only of food, but of all 1) temporal goods, since man can lack all things without food, so that almost all goods are lacking for the sake of food.
1) Jenaer: also.
Without food no one can live, even if he wants to live without clothes, house, money, 2) goods and people. Therefore, the Scripture takes the temporal good by the most necessary benefit and use, and most unbearable lack; so that it also calls the stingy, and [those] eager for temporal good, servants of the belly [Rom. 16, 18.]1 and Paul [Phil. 3, 19.] calls the belly their God.
How could anyone more strongly and comfortingly provoke to willing hunger and poverty, than such excellent words of this Mother of God, that God wants to fill all the hungry with goods. Whoever is not tempted by the words and such honor and price of poverty, is certainly without faith and trust, like a heathen. Again, how could anyone promise riches more highly, and frighten the rich more grievously, than by leaving them empty? O how are they both such great, exuberant things, God's fulfillment and God's abandonment! How no creature can neither advise nor help. A man is terrified when he hears his father's renunciation or his lord's disgrace; and we, the high and the rich, are not terrified when we hear that God renounces us, yes, not only renounces us, but also threatens to break us down, to bring us low and to make us extinct. Again, it is a joy when the Father is kind, when the Lord is gracious, and when people rely so much on Him that He leaves body and goods behind: and here we have such a promise from God, such a strong comfort, and could 3) neither need, nor enjoy, nor give thanks, nor rejoice? O you 4) wretched unbelief, how hard as a rock, how stubborn you are, that you do not feel such great things. Let this be said enough about the six works of God.
V. 54. He took up Israel, cowardly servant, after remembering his mercy.
124) After the works of God in her and in all men, she returns to the beginning and the first, and concludes the Magnificat with the main work of all the works of God, which is the avoidance of God.
2) [Money" is missing in the Wittenberger.
3) Wittenbergers and Jenaers: "announce". Erlanger: "could". Latin: c^uirnus.
4) "you" is missing in the Jena.
She freely confesses that she is a handmaid and servant of all the world in that she confesses that the same work that was done in her was not done for her alone, but for the benefit of all Israel. However, she divides Israel into two parts and brings out only the part that serves God.
But no one serves God unless he lets him be his God, and lets his works work in him, of which it is said above [§ 70]. Although now, unfortunately, the little word "service" has been given such a foreign connotation and usage that whoever hears it thinks nothing of such works, but of the sound of bells, of the stone and wood of the churches, of the censer, of the flames of the lights, to the clamor in the church, to the gold, silks, precious stones of the choir caps and vestments, to the chalices and monstrances, to the organs and panels, to the procession and church aisle, and the greatest, to the mewling and paternoster counting. There is worship, alas, come; yet of this He knows so nothing, and we know nothing else but such; sing daily the Magnificat with high voice and glorious splendor, and yet keep silent its right tone and mind the longer the more. But the text stands strong: If we do not teach and suffer these works of God, there will be no worship, no Israel, no grace, no mercy, no God, even if we sing and sing to death in the churches and give all the world's goods. He has not commanded any of this, therefore he has no pleasure in it, without any doubt.
Now, such Israel, who serves God, benefits from the transformation of Christ, which is His own dear people, for whose sake He also transformed Himself, to redeem them from the power of the devil, sin, death, hell, and to bring them into righteousness, eternal life and blessedness. This is the receiving that she sings here, as Paul Titus 2, 14. says that Christ gave Himself for us, that He purified a hereditary people of His own; and St. Peter 1. Epist. 2, 9.: "You are the holy people) the people that God Himself purchased, a royal priesthood" etc. These are the riches of divine causelessness.
Mercy, which we have received by no merit, but by pure grace. Therefore she saith, "He hath 1) remembered his mercy." Does not say, he has thought of our. Merit and worthiness. We were needful, but quite unworthy. From this his praise and honor consists, and our boasting and presumption must be silent; he has nothing to look at that moves him, but that he was merciful; and the same name he should make known.
But why does it speak more that he "thought" than "considered" his mercy? Because he had promised them, as the following verse says. He raised them up lukewarm to give, so that it seemed as if he had forgotten them (as all his works seem as if he forgot ours). But when he came, it was known that he had not forgotten them, but had thought without ceasing to fulfill them. 2) He had not forgotten them, but had thought without ceasing to fulfill them.
But it is true that by the word "Israel" only the Jews are understood, and not we Gentiles. But because they did not want him, he chose some of them, so that the name Israel was enough, and made them spiritual Israel from now on. This was proven in Genesis 32:24 ff. when the holy patriarch Jacob wrestled with the angel and he paralyzed his hip to indicate that his children should not henceforth boast of fleshly birth, as the Jews do, and there he also transmitted the name that he should henceforth be called Israel, as a patriarch who would not only be the father of Jacob's physical children, but also of Israel's spiritual children.
The little word "Israel", which means a Lord of God, is right for this; it is a high and holy name, and comprehends in itself the great miracle that a man, through divine grace, becomes powerful like God, so that God does what man wants: as we see that through Christ Christianity is thus united with God, like a bride with her bridegroom, so that the bride has right and power over the bridegroom's body and all that he 4) has. Which all happens
1) "has" is missing in the Jena.
2) "their" is missing in the Erlanger.
3) "the" is missing in the Jena.
4) In the old editions: everything.
by faith; there man does what God wills, and in turn God does what man wills; so that Israel is a godly and godly man, who in God, with God, and through God is a Lord, to do and to be able to do all things. Behold, this is called Israel. For Saar means a lord, a prince; El means God; put it together and it becomes Israel in the Hebrew way. Such an Israel God wants to have; therefore, when Jacob had wrestled with the angel and won, he said to him, Gen. 32:28, "You shall be called Israel. For if thou be mighty with God, thou shalt be mighty also with men." 1) There is much to be said of this, for Israel is a peculiar, highly
V. 55. As he spoke to our fathers, Abraham and his seed, forever.
130. all merit and presumptuousness are abased, and the pure grace and mercy of God is exalted. For God did not accept Israel because of their merit, but because of His own promise; out of pure grace He promised Himself, and out of pure grace He fulfilled it. Therefore St. Paul says Gal. 3, 17. 18. that God promised Himself to Abraham four hundred years before He gave the law to Mosiah, so that no one would ever boast or say that he had earned and obtained such grace and promise through the law or the work of the law. The same promise also praises and exalts the Mother of God above all else, and gives such a work of commingling God purely to the divine, gracious, unmerited promise that He made to Abraham.
The promise of God to Abraham is written in Gen. 12, 3. and Cap. 22, 18. in particular, and is also referred to in many other places, and reads thus: "I have sworn by myself: in your seed shall all generations or peoples of the earth be given seed." These words of God exalt St. Paul, and all the prophets, how justly. For in these words Abraham was saved with all his descendants, and became blessed; and all of us in them must also become blessed. For
1) According to the Vulgate.
2) In the old editions: "the".
Christ in it 3) and promised salvation to all the world. And this is the bosom of Abraha [Luc. 16:22, 1], wherein abideth all them that were saved before the birth of Christ: and without these words no man was saved, though he had done all good works. Let us see this.
First of all, it follows from these words of God that all the world apart from Christ is in sin, condemnation and malediction, with all its doings and knowledge. For if he says: not some, but: all nations shall be given in Abraham's seed, then without the same seed of Abraham there will be no giving in all nations. Why should God promise blessing with such great earnestness and such an expensive oath, if there was already blessing and not just malediction? And from this saying the prophets have drawn and concluded much, as that all men are wicked, vain, lying, false, blind, and lately, without God; that in Scripture there is not great honor in being called a man. For the same name is no more valid in the sight of God than if one were called a liar and unfaithful in the sight of the world; so much so is he corrupted by Adam's fall that malediction 4) becomes innate to him, like his nature and being.
133 Secondly, it follows that this seed Abraha had not to be born naturally of man and woman. For the same birth is maledict, and gives vain maledict fruit; as now said. Now, if in this seed of Abraha all the race should be redeemed from this malediction, and thereby be given, as the words and oath of God read, then the seed had to be given beforehand, not to be touched nor stained with such malediction, but to be blessed, full of grace and truth. Again, if God, who cannot lie, spoke and swore that it should be Abraham's natural seed, that is, a natural, true child born of his flesh and blood, then the same seed must be a natural man, of Abraha's flesh and blood.
There is now one thing against another,
3) Wittenberger: us inside Christ.
4) In the German editions: "Gebenedeiung". Latin: Mulsäictio. Already Walch has here the note: "perhaps it should be called: Vermaledeiung."
naturally be flesh and blood of Abraham, and yet not be born naturally of man and woman. For therefore he needs the word "thy seed", and not the word "thy child", that it should ever be clear and certain that it should be his natural flesh and blood, as the seed is. A child may well not be a natural child, as one knows. Who wants to find a means to keep God's word and oath true, where such contradictory things clash? God Himself has done this, He can fulfill what He promises, even though no one understands it until it happens, therefore His word and work do not require reason, but a free, honest faith. See how he has united these two pieces. He makes Abraham the seed, a natural son, of his daughters one, 1) a pure virgin Mary, by the Holy Spirit, without man's work. Since the natural birth and conception did not take place with its malediction, it did not touch this seed; and yet the natural seed of Abraham is here, as true as in all the other children of Abraham.
Behold, this is the blessed seed of Abraha, wherein all the world is made free from its malediction. For whoever believes in this seed, calls on it, confesses it and remains attached to it, all corruption is forgiven him and all blessing is given to him, according to the words and oath of God: "In your seed shall all the nations of the earth be given," that is, everything that is to be given must and shall be given through this seed, and by no other way. Behold, this is the seed of Abraha, which is born of none of his sons, for whom the Jews have always seen and waited, but only of his only daughter Mary.
(136) This means zero here the tender mother of this seed, when she says: He has accepted Israel, according to his promise, done to Abraham, to him and all his seed; then she saw well that the promise was fulfilled in her. Therefore she saith, It is now fulfilled, and he hath accepted, 3) his seed.
1) In the original and the old editions: one.
2) In the original and in the editions: none.
3) i.e. he has already taken it upon himself. In Latin: surn jnm kuseexisse.
The word is enough, out of pure remembrance of his mercy. Here we see the reason of the gospel, why all teaching and preaching therein drive to the faith of Christ and into the bosom of Abraha. For there is no other counsel or help where this faith is not, that the blessed seed may be taken. And indeed, the entire Bible is based on this oath of God, for everything in the Bible is about Christ.
We see further that all the fathers in the Old Testament, with all the holy prophets, had the same faith and gospel that we have, as St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 10:1 ff. For in this. For in this oath of God, and the sheep of Abraha, they all remained with firm faith, and so kept it; without that they believed in the future and promised seed, we believe in the appeared and presented one. But all things are one truth of promise, therefore also one faith, one Spirit, one Christ, one Lord, now and ever, as St. Paul says, Heb. 13:8 [Eph. 4:5].
But the fact that the law was given to the Jews afterward was not equal to this promise, and was done so that they might, through the light of the law, recognize their maligned nature all the more, and desire this promised seed of giving all the more fervently and eagerly, in which they had an advantage over the Gentiles of all the world. But they reversed the advantage and made a disadvantage out of it, and intended to fulfill the law by themselves, and not to recognize their poor 4) malediction through it; thus they closed the door to themselves, that the seed had to pass by, and still remain, God grant, not long, amen.
And this was the controversy of all the prophets with them. For the prophets well understood the opinion of the law, that in it we should recognize our wicked nature and learn to call Christ; 5) therefore they rejected all the good works and life of the Jews, which did not go this way.
4) i.e. lamentable. Latin: asruMnosarn.
5) Wittenberger and Erlanger: teach.
So they were angry with them and killed them, as they reproached worship, good works and good living, as the glorifiers and merciful saints always do. There is much to be said about this.
(140) And that it saith, His seed for ever: which eternity is to be understood, that such grace endureth in the seed of Abraham (which are the Jews) from time immemorial, throughout all generations, even unto the last day. For though the great multitude be hardened, yet how few there be that turn to Christ, and believe in him. For this promise of God does not deny that the promise was made to Abraham and his seed [Gal. 3:16], not for one year, not for a thousand years, but in secula, that is, from one man's time to another, 1) without ceasing.
Therefore we should not act so unkindly toward the Jews, for there are still Christians among them in the future, and will be daily; for this they alone, and not we Gentiles, have such a promise, that there shall always be Christians in Abraham's seed, who recognize the blessed seed. Our thing stands on pure grace, without promises of God, who knows how and when. If we lived Christianly and brought them to Christ with kindness, that would be the right measure. Who would want to become a Christian 2) if he sees Christians dealing with people in such an un-Christian way? Not so, dear Christians, tell them the truth amicably; if they do not want to, let them go. How much worse are Christians who do not respect Christ, who do not hear his words, than pagans and Jews, and yet we let them go in peace, yes, fall under their feet, worship them almost as idols? Here we leave it this time, and ask God for the right understanding of this Magnificat, which not only shines and speaks, but burns and lives in body and soul. May Christ grant us this through the intercession and will of His dear Mother Mary, Amen.
At the end, I come back to E. F. G., Gracious Sir, and ask, E. F. G. would hold my presumption 3) to my credit. For
1) Latin: nliuci. In the German editions: andere.
2) In the old editions: Christians.
3) Erlanger: for good.
Although I am well aware that E. F. G.'s youth has superfluous, good instruction and admonition on a daily basis, I cannot refrain from my dutiful loyalty and faithfulness, as well as my conscience's concern and remembrance towards E. F. G.. For we all hope in future times that God will graciously and blessedly grant that [the] regiment in Saxony will be in E. F. G.'s hands. F. G.'s hand. Which is then a great, delicious work, if it turns out well; on the other hand, dangerous and miserable, if it turns out badly. We should hope and ask for the best in all things, but nevertheless fear and care for the worst.
E. F. G. should keep in mind that in all of Scripture God has never praised a pagan king or prince as far and long as the world has stood, but has always punished him more. This is a great, fearful image to all overlords. In addition, in the nation of Israel, which was his own nation, he never found a king praiseworthy and blameless. Above all, in the nation of Judah, which was the chief of the whole human race, which God exalted and loved above all, there were still few, and not more than six, kings praised.
And the most tender of all, the most noble prince David, who left no equal behind him, beside him, after him in the worldly government, even though he, full of the fear of God and wisdom, directed and led all his things by God's command alone, not according to his reason, still stumbled at times, so that even the Scriptures, since they could not reprove his government, and yet should tell of the people's calamity that fell upon them through David, did not blame David, but the people, and said: God had been angry with the people, and had caused David the holy man to be moved by the devil, that he should number the people; for which cause seventy thousand men died of the pestilence [2 Sam. 24, 1. ff].
God has decreed all this to frighten the authorities and to keep them in fear, to admonish them of their danger. For the great good, the great honor, the great power, the great favor, plus the flatterers, of whom no lord can be without, are immediately placed around a prince's heart, and storm it to the
1444 Erl. 45, 288-sso. Luther's interpretation of the Magnificat. W. VII, ISIS f. 1445
To the forgetfulness of God, to the carelessness of the people and the common good, to the pleasure, to the iniquity, to the presumption, to the idleness, and lately, to all injustice and vice, so that no castle nor city can be besieged and stormed so hard. Who then does not put himself behind such examples, and the fear of God makes him a good rubble, how may he remain? For if a lord and ruler does not love his people, and lets that be his only concern, how he himself may not have good days, but how his people may receive improvement through him, then it is already over with him, and leads his rulers only to his souls' ruin, and will not help him that he wants to endow great seasons, monasteries, altars, this or that. God will demand an account of his position and office from him, and will not turn to anything else.
Therefore, my Lord and Prince, I command E. F. G. to read the Magnificat, especially the fifth and sixth verse, in which it is placed in the middle; I ask and admonish E. F. G. not to be so afraid of any thing on earth, or even of hell, for the rest of her life, as of that which the Mother of God calls here: Mens cordis sui. This is the greatest, closest, most powerful, most harmful enemy of all men, first of all of the overlords, that is, reason, good opinion or conceit, from which all counsel and rule must flow. And E. F.G. may not be safe from him, if she does not keep the same suspect at all times and follows him in God's fear. I do not mean E. F. G.'s council alone, but all those who sit in the council; none shall be despised.
1) Rubble - what is poured out, a dam, fortification.
Nor can we trust in any of them. How then?
So that E. F. G. does not plunge the prayer into the monk's robes, or under the chalices, as is now the unfortunate custom, relying and trusting on other people's prayer, with the slackening of his own prayer, but E. F. G. should draw a free, joyful courage, and lay aside the stupidity, even in the heart or in secret places talk with God, and throw the keys freely before his feet, and penetrate him with his own order, like this: Behold, my God and Father, this is your work and order, that I was born and created in this state to rule, which no one can ever deny, and you yourself recognize [it] 2) also. I am worthy or unworthy, as you and everyone sees; therefore grant me, my Lord and Father, that I may preside over your people, 3) for your praise and their benefit. Let me not follow my reason, but be thou my reason etc.
On such an opinion, then, whatever goes, goes by God's command. How well such prayer and mind pleases God, he himself shows in Solomon [1 Kings 3, 1O], who also did such a prayer, which I have translated here, that E. F. G. may keep it as an example of this sermon at the end, and awaken a comforting confidence in God's grace: so that both exist, fear of God and mercy, as the fifth verse sings. Command me herewith to E. F. G., whom God has commanded to rule blessedly, Amen. 4)
2) "es" seht in the Wittenberg and in the Jena.
3) i.e., to preside over. Latin: praeesss.
4) Here follows in the old editions the translation of Solomon's prayer from the first book of Kings, Cap. 3, 5-14, which is found in Walch, old edition, vol. 5, 2506.