Collected Works of Martin Luther

by Martin Luther

  That People, out of mere Wilfulness, do set themselves against God’s Word.

  Had I known, said Luther, when I first began to write, what I now see and find, namely, that people had been such enemies to God’s Word, and so fiercely had set themselves against the same, truly I had held my peace; for I never should have been so courageous as to have fallen upon the Pope, and to have angered him, and almost the whole Christian world with him. I thought at first that people had sinned ignorantly, and out of human weakness, and not of set purpose and wittingly to endeavour to suppress God’s Word; but it pleased God to lead me on in the mouth of the cannon, like a bar-horse that hath his eyes blinded, and seeth not who runneth upon him. Even so was I, as it were, tugged by my hair to the office of preaching; but had I then known what now I know, ten horses should scarce have drawn me to it. Moses and Jeremiah also complained that they were deceived.

  Of the Archbishop of Mentz, one of the Spiritual Princes Electors, his Censure of the Bible.

  Anno 1530, at the Imperial Assembly at Augsburg, Albertus, Bishop of Mentz, by chance had got into his hands the Bible, and for the space of four hours he continued reading therein; at last, one of his Council on a sudden came into his bed-chamber unto him, who, seeing the Bible in the Bishop’s hand, was much amazed thereat, and said unto him, “what doth your Highness with that book?” The Archbishop thereupon answered him, and said, “I know not what this book is, but sure I am, all that is written therein is quite against us.”

  That the Bible is hated of the Worldly-wise and of the Sophists.

  Doctor Ussinger, an Austin Friar, with me in the Monastery at Erfurt, said once unto me, as he saw that I diligently read and affected the Bible, “Brother Martin, what is the Bible? Let us,” said he, “read the ancient Teachers and Fathers, for they have sucked the juice and truth out of the Bible. The Bible is the cause of all dissension and rebellion.”

  This, said Luther, is the censure of the world concerning God’s Word; therefore we must let them run on their course towards that place which is prepared for them.

  Of the Errors which the Sectaries do hold concerning the Word of God.

  Bullinger said once in my hearing, said Luther, that he was earnest against the sectaries, as contemners of God’s Word, and also against those who attributed too much to the literal Word; for, said he, such do sin against God and his almighty power, as the Jews did in naming the ark “God.” But, said he, whoso holdeth a mean between both, the same is taught what is the right use of the Word and Sacraments.

  Whereupon, said Luther, I answered him and said, “Bullinger, you err: you know neither yourself nor what you hold; I mark well your tricks and fallacies. Zuinglius and Œcolampadius likewise proceeded too far in this your ungodly meaning; but when Brentius withstood them, they then lessened their opinions, alleging they did not reject the literal Word, but only condemned certain gross abuses. By this your error,” said Luther to Bullinger, “you cut in sunder and separate the Word and the Spirit; you separate those that preach and teach the Word from God who worketh the same; you also separate thereby the Ministers that baptize from God who commandeth it; and you think that the Holy Ghost is given and worketh without the Word; which Word, you say, is an external sign and mark that findeth the Spirit, which already and before possesseth the heart. Insomuch, according to your falsities, that if the Word findeth not the Spirit, but an ungodly person, then it is not God’s Word; whereby you define and hold the Word, not according to God who speaketh it, but according as people do entertain and receive it. You will only grant that such is God’s Word which purifieth and bringeth peace and life; but seeing it worketh not in the ungodly, therefore it is not God’s Word. You teach that the outward Word is like an object or a picture, which signifieth and presenteth something; you measure the use thereof only according to the matter, like as a human creature speaketh for himself; you will not yield that God’s Word is an instrument through which the Holy Ghost worketh and accomplisheth his work, and prepareth a beginning to righteousness or justification. In these errors are you drowned, so that you neither see nor understand yourselves.

  “A man might vex himself to death against the devil, who, in the Papists, is such an enemy to God’s Word. The devil seeth and feeleth that the external Word and preaching in the Church doth him great prejudice, therefore he rageth and worketh these errors against the same; but I hope God ere long will look into it, and will strike down the devil with these seducers.

  “A true Christian,” said Luther, “must hold for certain, and must say, That Word which is delivered and preached to the wicked, to the dissemblers, and to the ungodly, is even as well God’s Word as that which is preached to the good and godly upright Christians. As also, the true Christian Church is among sinners, where good and bad are mingled together. And that Word, whether it produceth fruit or not, is nevertheless God’s strength, which saveth all that believe thereon. And again, it will also judge the ungodly, as St. John saith in chap. v., otherwise they might plead a good excuse before God, that they neither ought to be nor could be condemned; for then they might truly allege that they have not had God’s Word, and so consequently could not receive the same. But,” said Luther, “I say, teach and acknowledge that the Preacher’s words, his absolutions, and the sacraments, are not his words nor works, but they are God’s words, works, cleansing, absolving, binding, etc.; we are but only the instruments, fellow-workers, or God’s assistants, through whom God worketh and finisheth his work. We,” said Luther to Bullinger, “will not endure these your metaphysical and philosophical distinctions and differences, which merely are spun and hammered out of human and natural sense and reason. You say, It is a man that preacheth, that reproveth, that absolveth, comforteth, etc., and that the Holy Ghost worketh; you say, likewise, the Minister baptiseth, absolveth, and administereth the sacraments, but it is God that cleanseth the hearts, and forgiveth sins, etc. Oh, no,” said Luther, “but I conclude thus: God himself preacheth, threateneth, reproveth, affrighteth, comforteth, absolveth, administereth the sacraments, etc. As our Saviour Christ saith, ‘Whoso heareth you, heareth me; and what ye loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven,’ etc. Likewise, ‘It is not you that speak, but the spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.’”

  “I am sure and certain,” said Luther, “when I go up to the pulpit, or to the cathedral, to preach or read, that it is not my word which I speak, but my tongue is the pen of a ready writer, as the Psalmist saith. God speaketh in the Prophets and men of God, as St. Peter in his Epistle saith: ‘The holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.’ Therefore we must not separate nor part God and man according to our natural reason and understanding. In like manner, every hearer must conclude and say, I hear not St. Paul, St. Peter, or a man speak; but I hear God himself speak, baptize, absolve, excommunicate, and administer the holy sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, etc.”

  Bullinger, attentively hearkening to this discourse of that holy man, Luther, fell down flat on his face to the ground, and uttered these words following: “Oh, happy be the time that brought me hither to hear the divine discourse of this man of God” (Martin Luther), “a chosen vessel of the Lord to declare his truth! And now I abjure and utterly renounce these my former errors, finding them convinced and beaten down through God’s infallible Word which out of his divine mouth” (Martin Luther), “hath touched my heart, and won me to his glory.” After he had uttered these words lying on the ground, he arose and clasped his arms about Luther’s neck, both of them shedding joyful tears.

  Ah, God! said Luther at that time, what an unspeakable comfort a poor, weak, and sorrowful conscience might have and receive, if it could but believe that such words and comforts were the words and comforts of God himself, as in truth they are; therefore we conclude, short and round, that God through the Word worketh, which is an instrument whereby we are instructed to know him in heart, as by this present and happy example of the conversion of this our loving brother, Bullinger, we apparently se
e and find.

  But whereas, said Luther, the Word produceth not fruit everywhere alike, but worketh severally, the same is God’s judgment, and his secret will, which from us is hid; we ought not to desire to know it. For “the wind bloweth where it listeth,” as Christ saith; we must not grabble nor search after the same.

  If, said Luther, I were addicted to God’s Word at all times alike, and always had such love and desire thereunto as sometimes I have, then should I account myself the most blessed man on earth. But the loving Apostle St. Paul failed also thereof, as he complains with sighs of heart, saying, “I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind,” etc. Should the Word be false because it bringeth not always fruit? Truly this art of determining and knowing the Word hath been in great danger from the beginning of the world, and hath endured much: few people there are that can hit it, except God, through his Holy Spirit, teacheth it them in their hearts. The Sectaries understand not the strength of God’s Word. I do wonder, said Luther, that they do write and teach so much of God’s Word, seeing they so little regard the same.

  Ferdinand, Prince Elector of Saxony, used to say he had well discerned that nothing could be propounded by human reason and understanding, were it never so wise, cunning, or sharp, but that a man, even out of the selfsame proposition, might be able to confute and overthrow it; but God’s Word only stood fast and sure, like a mighty wall which neither can be battered nor beaten down.

  Which are the best Preachers and the best Hearers.

  I, said Luther, esteem those to be the best Preachers which teach the common people and youth most plainly and simply, without subtlety, screwed words, or enlargements. Christ taught the people by plain and simple parables. In like manner, those are the best Hearers that willingly do hear and believe God’s Word simply and plainly, and although they be weak in faith, yet so long as they doubt not of the doctrine they are to be holpen forward; for God can and will bear with weakness if it be but acknowledged, and that we creep again to the Cross and pray to God for grace, and amend ourselves.

  David saith, “I hate them that imagine evil things, but thy law do I love,” and will show therewith that we ought diligently to regard the strength of the Word of God, and not to contemn it, as the enthusiasts do, for God will deal with us by such means, and by the same will also work in us. Therefore the ancient Fathers say well touching this point, namely, that we ought not to look to the person baptizing or ministering the Sacrament, but we must look to God’s Word.

  Our Lord God electeth from hearts, to whom he revealeth his Word, and therewithal he giveth them mouths to speak it; preserveth and maintaineth it, not by sword, but through his Divine Power.

  That we ought to direct all our Actions and Lives according to God’s Word.

  God, said Luther, hath his measuring-lines, and his canons, which are called the Ten Commandments; they are written in our flesh and blood. The contents of them is: “What thou wouldest have done to thyself, the same thou oughtest also to do to another.” For God presseth upon that point, and saith, “Such measure as thou metest, the same shall be measured to thee again.” With this measuring-line, or measure, hath God marked the whole world. They that live and do thereafter, well it is with them, for God doth richly reward them in this life; and a Turk or a Heathen may as well be partaker of such rewards as a Christian.

  Where God’s Word is loved, there dwelleth God.

  Upon these words of Christ, “If a man loveth me, he will keep my Word, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him,” I say thus, said Luther: Heaven and earth, the castles and palaces of all Emperors, Kings, and Princes, are no way sufficient to make a dwelling-place for God; yet, in a silly human creature that keepeth his Word he will dwell. Isaiah calleth heaven his “seat,” and earth his “footstool,” but not his dwelling; therefore, when we long to seek after God, we shall be sure to find him with them that hear and keep his Word, as Christ saith, “He that keepeth my Word, I will come and dwell with him.”

  A man could not speak more simply and childishly than Christ spake, and yet he confounded therewith all the wisdom of the worldly-wise. To speak in such a manner, said Luther, is not in sublimi, sed humili genere: if I should teach a child, I would teach him in this sort: “He that loves me, will keep my Word.” Here we see that Christ saith not, Abstain from flesh, from marrying, from housekeeping, etc., as the Papists teach, for that were even to invite the devil and all his fellows to a feast.

  That true and upright Christians are ready to suffer Death and all manner of Torments for the Gospel’s sake, but Hypocrites do shun the Cross.

  Not long since, said Luther, I invited to my table, at Wittemberg, an Hungarian Divine, named Matthias de Vai, who told me that, as he came first to be a Preacher in Hungary, he chanced to fall out with a Papistical Priest. Now, he was complained of by that Priest to a Friar that was brother to the Vaivoda, or Governor of Buda, and they were both summoned to appear before him. The one much accusing the other, insomuch that the Friar could not reconcile nor take up the controversy between them, at last, and after long debate, the Friar said, “I know a way soon to discover the truth of this cause,” and commanded that two barrels of gunpowder should be set in the midst of the market-place at Buda, and said unto the parties, “He that will maintain his Doctrine to be right, and the true Word of God, let him sit upon one of these barrels, and I will give fire unto it, and he that remaineth living and unburned, his Doctrine is right.” Then Matthias de Vai leaped presently upon one of the barrels and sat himself down thereon; but the Papist Priest would not up to the other barrel, but slunk away. Then the Friar said, “Now I see and know that the Faith and Doctrine of Matthias de Vai is the right, and that our Papistical Religion is false.” And thereupon he punished and fined the Papist, with his assistants, for wronging De Vai, in four thousand Hungarian ducats, and compelled him for a certain time to maintain one hundred soldiers at his own charge; but he licensed Matthias de Vai openly to preach the Gospel. The Friar himself, recanting his religion, was converted and became a Protestant; whereupon Luther said, Never yet would any Papist burn for religion, but our people go with joy to the fire, as heretofore hath been well seen on the holy Martyrs.

  By what God preserveth his Word.

  God will keep his Word, said Luther, through the writing-pen upon earth; the Divines are the heads or quills of the pens, but the Lawyers are the stumps. If, now, the world will not keep the heads and quills — that is, if they will not hear the Divines — then they must keep the stumps — that is, they must hear the Lawyers, who will teach them manners.

  That in Causes of Religion we must not judge according to human Wisdom, but according to God’s Word.

  When the Pope and Emperor, said Luther, cited me to appear at Worms, Anno Domini 1521, at the Imperial Assembly, they pressed and earnestly advised me to refer the determining of my cause to his Imperial Majesty; but I answered the three spiritual Electors, Maintz, Tryer, and Cologne, and said, “I will rather surrender up to his Majesty his letters of safe-conduct which he hath given me than to put this cause to the determining of any human creature whatsoever.” Whereupon my master, the Prince Elector of Saxony, said also unto them, “Truly no man could offer more.” But as they still insisted and urged me touching that point, I said, I did not dare to presume, without great danger of running myself into God’s wrath, and of the loss of my soul’s health, to refer this Cause, which is none of mine, but God’s Cause, to the censure of earthly counsel; for the same, before all ages, hath been had in consultation, hath been determined, censured, concluded, and confirmed by the great Council in Heaven, to be and remain the infallible, most certain and true Word of the High Majesty of God; and therefore altogether needless, yea, most presumptuous now it were, either to receive or to deliver it to the determination and censure of human and natural sense, wit, and wisdom, which is subject to nothing more than to error, especially in and concerning God’s Word and divine matters. An
d I told them flat and plain, I would rather expose myself to endure all the torments that this world, flesh, and the devil were able to devise and prepare than to give my consent thereunto.

  That in former Times it was dangerous studying the Holy Scriptures.

  In times past, as also in part of our time, said Luther, it was dangerous studying, when divinity and all good arts were contemned; and when fine, expert, and prompt wits were plagued with sophistry. Aristotle, the Heathen, was held in such repute and honour, that whoso undervalued or contradicted him was held, at Cologne, for the greatest heretic; whereas they themselves understood not Aristotle. The Sophists did much more darken Aristotle than illustrate him; like as that Friar did, who wasted two whole hours in a sermon about Christ’s Passion, and concerning this question: Utrùm quantitas realiter distincta sit à substantia — whether the quantity in itself were divided from the substance? He showed this example, and said, “My head might well creep through, but the bigness of my head could not;” insomuch that, like an idiot, he divided the head from the bigness thereof. A silly grammarian might easily have solved the same, and said, The bigness of the head, that is, the big or great head.

  With such and the like fopperies were petty brains troubled, said Luther, and were instructed neither in good arts nor in divinity. Antipho, Chusa, Bovillus, and others were likewise miserably molested and plagued about bringing a thing which was round into four square, and to compare a straight line with a crooked. But we, God be praised, have now happy times; and it were to be wished that the youth made good use thereof, and spent their studying diligently in such arts as at this time are green, and flourish.

  That the Jews have better Teachers and Writers of the Holy Scriptures than the Gentiles.