OF GODS WORKS



-----------------------







LXIII.







All the works of God are unsearchable and unspeakable, no human sense can

find them out; faith only takes hold of them without human power or aid. No

mortal creature can comprehend God in his majesty, and therefore did he come

before us in the simplest manner, and was made man, ay, sin, death, and

weakness.

In all things, in the least creatures, and their members, God's

almighty power and wonderful works clearly shine. For what man, how

powerful, wise, and holy soever, can make out of one fig, a fig-tree, or

another fig? or, out of one cherry-stone, a cherry, or a cherry-tree? or

what man can know how God creates and preserves all things, and makes them

grow.

Neither can we conceive how the eye sees, or how intelligible words are

spoken plainly, when only the tongue moves and stirs in the mouth; all which

are natural things, daily seen and acted. How then should we be able to

comprehend or understand the secret counsels of God's majesty, or search

them out with our human sense, reason, or understanding. Should we then

admire our own wisdom? I, for my part, admit myself a fool, and yield myself

captive.





LXIV.





In the beginning, God made Adam out of a piece of clay, and Eve out of

Adam's rib: he blessed them and said: "Be fruitful and increase" - words

that will stand and remain powerful to the world's end. Though many people

die daily, yet others are ever being born, as David says in his Psalm: "Thou

sufferest men to die and go away like a shadow, and sayest, Come again ye

children of men." These and other things which he daily creates, the ungodly

blind world see not, nor acknowledge for God's wonders, but think all is

done by chance or haphazard, whereas, the godly, wheresoever they cast their

eyes, beholding heaven and earth, the air and water, see and acknowledge all

for God's wonders; and, full of astonishment and delight, laud the Creator,

knowing that God is well pleased therewith.





LXV.





For the blind children of the world the articles of faith are too high.

That three persons are one only God; that the true Son of God was made man;

that in Christ are two natures, divine and human, etc., all this offends

them, as fiction and fable. For just as unlikely as it is to say, a man and

a stone are one person, so it is unlikely to human sense and reason that God

was made man, or that divine and human natures, united in Christ, are one

person. St Paul showed his understanding of this matter, though he took not

hold of all, in Colossians: "In Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the

Godhead bodily." Also: "In him lies hid all treasure of wisdom and

knowledge."





LXVI.





If a man ask, Why God permits that men be hardened, and fall into

everlasting perdition? let him ask again: Why God did not spare his only

Son, but gave him for us all, to die the ignominious death of the cross, a

more certain sign of his love towards us poor people, than of his wrath

against us. Such questions cannot be better solved and answered than by

converse questions. True, the malicious devil deceived and seduced Adam; but

we ought to consider that, soon after the fall, Adam received the promise of

the woman's seed that should crush the serpent's head, and should bless the

people on earth. Therefore, we must acknowledge that the goodness and mercy

of the Father, who sent his Son to be our Saviour, is immeasurably great

towards the wicked ungovernable world. Let, therefore, his good will be

acceptable unto thee, oh, man, and speculate not with thy devilish queries,

thy whys and thy wherefores, touching God's words and works. For God, who is

creator of all creatures, and orders all things according to his

unsearchable will and wisdom, is not pleased with such questioning.

Why God sometimes, out of his divine counsels, wonderfully wise,

unsearchable to human reason and understanding, has mercy on this man, and

hardens that, it beseems not us to inquire. We should know, undoubtingly,

that he does nothing without certain cause and counsel. Truly, if God were

to give an account to every one of his works and actions, he were but a

poor, simple God.

Our Saviour said to Peter, "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou

shalt know hereafter." Hereafter, then, we shall know how graciously our

loving God and Father has been affected unto us. In the meantime, though

misfortune, misery, and trouble be upon us, we must have this sure

confidence in him, that he will not suffer us to be destroyed either in body

or soul, but will so deal with us, that all things, be they good or evil,

shall redound to our advantage.





LXVII.





When one asked, where God was before heaven was created? St Augustine

answered: He was in himself. When another asked me the same question, I

said: He was building hell for such idle, presumptuous, fluttering and

inquisitive spirits as you. After he had created all things, he was

everywhere, and yet he was nowhere, for I cannot take hold of him without

the Word. But he will be found there where he has engaged to be. The Jews

found him at Jerusalem by the throne of grace, (Exod.xxv.) We find him in

the Word and faith, in baptism and the sacraments; but in his majesty, he is

nowhere to be found.

It was a special grace when God bound himself to a certain place where

he would be found, namely, in that place where the tabernacle was, towards

which they prayed; as first, in Shilo and Sichem, afterwards at Gibeon, and

lastly at Jerusalem, in the temple.

The Greeks and heathens in after times imitated this, and build temples

for their idols in certain places, as at Ephesus for Diana, at Delphos for

Apollo, etc. For, where God build a church there the devil would also build

a chapel. They imitated the Jews also in this, namely, that as the Most

Holiest was dark, and had no light, even so and after the same manner, did

they make their shrines dark where the devil made answer. Thus is the devil

ever God's ape.





LXVIII.





God is upright,faithful, and true, as he has shown, not only in his

promises, through Christ, of forgiveness of sins, and deliverance from

everlasting death, but also, in that he has laid before us, in the

Scriptures, many gracious and comforting examples of great and holy saints

who of God were highly enlightened and favored, and who, notwithstanding,

fell into great and heavy sins.

Adam, by his disobedience, hereditarily conveyed sin and death upon all

his posterity. Aaron brought a great sin upon Israel, insomuch that God

would have destroyed her. David also fell very heavily. Job and Jeremiah

cursed the day in which they were born. Jonas was sorely vexed because

Nineveh was not destroyed. Peter denied, Paul persecuted Christ.

These, and such like innumerable examples, does Holy Writ relate to us;

not that we should live securely, and sin, relying upon the mercy of God,

but that, when we feel his anger, "which will surely follow upon the sins,"

we should not despair, but remember these comfortable examples, and thence

conclude, that, as God was merciful unto them, so likewise he will be

gracious unto us, out of his mere goodness and mercy shown in Christ, and

will not impute our sins unto us.

We may also see by such examples of great holy men falling so

grievously, what a wicked, crafty, and envious spirit the devil is, a very

prince and good of the world.

These high, divine people, who committed such heavy sins, fell, through

God's counsel and permission, to the end they should not be proud or boast

themselves of their gifts and qualities, but should rather fear. For, when

David had slain Uriah, had taken from him his wife, and thereby given cause

to God's enemies to blaspheme, he could not boast he had governed well, or

shown goodness; but he said: "I have sinned against the Lord," and with

tears prayed for mercy. Job also acknowledgingly says: "I have spoken

foolishly, and therefore do I accuse myself, and repent."





LXIX.





When God contemplates some great work, he begins it by the hand of some

poor, weak, human creature, to whom he afterwards gives aid, so that the

enemies who seek to obstruct it, are overcome. As when he delivered the

children of Israel out of the long, wearisome, and heavy captivity in Egypt,

and led them into the land of promise, he called Moses, to whom he

afterwards gave his brother Aaron as an assistant. And though Pharaoh at

first set himself hard against them, and plagued the people worse than

before, yet he was forced in the end to let Israel go. And when he hunted

after them with all his host, the Lord drowned Pharaoh with all his power in

the Red Sea, and so delivered his people.

Again, in the time of Eli the priest, when matters stood very evil in

Israel, the Philistines pressing hard upon them, and taking away the Ark of

God into their land, and when Eli, in great sorrow of heart, fell backwards

from his chair and broke his neck, and it seemed as if Israel were utterly

undone, God raised up Samuel the prophet, and through him restored Israel,

and the Philistines were overthrown.

Afterwards, when Saul was sore pressed by the Philistines, so that for

anguish of heart he despaired and thrust himself through, three of his sons

and many people dying with him, every man thought that now there was an end

of Israel. But shortly after, when David was chosen king over all Israel,

then came the golden time. For David, the chosen of God, not only saved

Israel out of the enemies hands, but also forced to obedience all kings and

people that set themselves against him, and helped the kingdom up again in

such manner, that in his and Solomon's time it was in full flourish, power,

and glory.

Even so, when Judah was carried captive to Babylon, then God selected

the prophets Ezekiel, Haggai, and Zachariah, who comforted men in their

distress and captivity; making not only promise of their return into the

land of Judah, but also that Christ should come in his due time.

Hence we may see that God never forsakes his people, nor even the

wicked; though, by reason of their sins, he suffer them a long time to be

severely punished and plagued. As also, in this our time, he has graciously

delivered us from the long, wearisome, heavy, and horrible captivity of the

wicked pope. God of his mercy grant we may thankfully acknowledge this.





LXX.





God could be rich readily enough, if he were more provident, and denied

us the use of his creatures; let him, for ever so short a while, keep back

the sun, so that it shine not, or lock up air, water, or fire, ah! how

willingly would we give all our wealth to have the use of these creatures

again.

But seeing God so liberally heaps his gifts upon us, we claim them as

of right; let him deny them if he dare. The unspeakable multitude of his

benefits obscures the faith of believers, and much more so, that of the

ungodly.





LXXI.





When God wills to punish a people or a kingdom, he takes away from it

the good and godly teachers and preachers, and bereaves it of wise, godly,

and honest rulers and counsellors, and of brave, upright and experienced

soldiers, and of other good men. Then are the common people secure and

merry; they go on in all willfulness, they care no longer for the truth and

for the divine doctrine; nay, they despise it, and fall into blindness; they

have no fear or honesty; they give way to all manner of shameful sins,

whence arises a wild, dissolute, and devilish kind of living, as that we

now, alas! see and are too well cognizant of, and which cannot long endure.

I fear the axe is laid to the root of the tree, soon to cut it down. God of

his infinite mercy take us graciously away, that we may not be present at

such calamities.





LXXII.





God gives us sun and moon and stars, fire and water, air and earth, all

creatures, body and soul, all manner of maintenance, fruits, grain, corn,

wine, whatever is good for the preservation and comfort of this temporal

life; moreover he gives unto us his all-saving Word, yea, himself.

Yet what gets he thereby? Truly, nothing, but that he is wickedly

blasphemed, and that his only Son is condemned and crucified, his servants

plagued, banished, persecuted, and slain. Such a godly child is the world;

woe be to it.





LXXIII.





God very wonderfully entrusts his highest office to preachers that are

themselves poor sinners who, while teaching it, very weakly follow it. Thus

goes it ever with God's power in our weakness; for when he is weakest in us,

then is he strongest.





LXXIV.





How should God deal with us? Good days we cannot bear, evil we cannot

endure. Gives he riches unto us? then are we proud, so that no man can live

by us in peace; nay, we will be carried upon heads and shoulders, and will

be adored as gods. Gives he poverty unto us? then are we dismayed,

impatient, and murmur against him. Therefore, nothing were better for us,

than forthwith to be covered over with the shovel.





LXXV.





"Since God," said some one, "Knew that man would not continue in the

state of innocence, why did he create him at all?" Dr. Luther laughed, and

replied: The Lord, all-powerful and magnificent, saw that he should need in

his house, sewers and cesspools; be assured he knows quite well what he is

about. Let us keep clear of these abstract questions, and consider the will

of God such as it has been revealed unto us.





LXXVI.





Dr. Henning asked: "Is reason to hold no authority at all with

Christians, since it is to be set aside in matters of faith?" The Doctor

replied: Before faith and the knowledge of God, reason is mere darkness; but

in the hands of those who believe, `tis an excellent instrument. All

facilities and gifts are pernicious, exercised by the impious; but most

salutary when possessed by godly persons.





LXXVII.





God deals strangely with his saints, contrary to all human wisdom and

understanding, to the end, that those who fear God and are good Christians,

may learn to depend on invisible things, and through mortification may be

made alive again; for God's Word is a light that shines in a dark place, as

all examples of faith show. Esau was accursed, yet it went well with him; he

was lord in the land, and priest in the church; but Jacob had to fly, and

dwell in poverty, in another country.

God deals with godly Christians much as with the ungodly, yea, and

sometimes far worse. He deals with them even as a house-father with a son

and a servant; he whips and beats the son much more and oftener than the

servant, yet, nevertheless, he gathers for the son a treasure to inherit,

while a stubborn and a disobedient servant he beats not with the rod, but

thrusts out of doors, and gives him nothing of the inheritance.





LXXVIII.





God is a good and gracious Lord; he will be held for God only and

alone, according to the first commandment: "Thou shalt have none other Gods

but me." He desires nothing of us, no taxes, subsidies, money, or goods; he

only requires that he may be our God and Father, and therefore he bestows

upon us, richly, with an overflowing cup, all manner of spiritual and

temporal gifts; but we look not so much as once towards him, nor will have

him to be our God.





LXXIX.





God is not an angry God; if he were so, we were all utterly lost and

undone. God does not willingly strike mankind, except, as a just God, he be

constrained thereunto; but, having no pleasure in unrighteousness and

ungodliness, he must therefore suffer the punishment to go on. As I

sometimes look through the fingers, when the tutor whips my son John, so it

is with God; when we are unthankful and disobedient to his Word, and

commandments, he suffers us, through the devil, to be soundly lashed with

pestilence, famine, and such like whips; not that he is our enemy, and to

destroy us, but that through such scourgings, he may call us to repentance

and amendment, and so allure us to seek him, run to him, and call upon him

for help. Of this we have a fine example in the book of Judges, where the

angel, in God's person, speaks thus: "I have stricken you so often, and ye

are nothing the better for it;" and the people of Israel said: "Save thou us

but now; we have sinned and done amiss: punish thou us, O Lord and do with

us what thou wilt, only save us now," etc. Whereupon he struck not all the

people to death. In like manner did David, when he had sinned (in causing

the people to be numbered, for which God punished the people with

pestilence, so that 70,000 died), humble himself, saying: "Beloved, Lord, I

have sinned, I have done this misdeed, and have deserved this punishment:

What have these sheep done? Let thy hand be upon me, and upon my father's

house," etc. Then the Lord "repented him of the evil, and said to the angel

that destroyed the people, It is enough, stay thy hand."

He that can humble himself earnestly before God in Christ, has already

won; otherwise, the Lord God would lose his deity, whose own work it is,

that he have mercy on the poor and sorrowful, and spare them that humble

themselves before him. Were it not so, no human creature would come unto

him, or call upon him; no man would be heard, no man saved, nor thank him:

"For in hell no man praiseth thee," says the Psalm. The devil can affright,

murder, and steal; but God revives and comforts.

This little word, God, is, in the Scripture, a word with manifold

significations, and is oftentimes understood of a thing after the nature of

its operation and essence: as the devil is called a god; namely, a god of

sin, of death, of despair, and damnation.

We must make due difference between this god and the upright and true

God, who is a God of life, comfort, salvation, justification, and all

goodness; for there are many words that bear no certain meanings, and

equivocation is always the mother of error.





LXXX.





The wicked and ungodly enjoy the most part of God's creatures; the

tyrants have the greatest power, lands, and people; the usurers the money;

the farmers eggs, butter, corn, barley, oats, apples, pears, etc.; while

godly Christians must suffer, be persecuted, sit in dungeons, where they can

see neither sun nor moon, be thrust out into poverty, be banished, plagued,

etc. But things will be better one day; they cannot always remain as now;

let us have patience, and steadfastly remain by the pure doctrine, and not

fall away from it, notwithstanding all this misery.





LXXXI.





Our Lord God and the devil have two modes of policy which agree not

together, but are quite opposite the one to the other. God at the first

affrights, and afterwards lifts up and comforts again; so that the flesh and

the old man should be killed, and the spirit, or new man, live. Whereas the

devil makes, at first, people secure and bold, that they, void of all fear,

may commit sin and wickedness, and not only remain in sin, but take delight

and pleasure therein, and think they have done all well; but at last, when

Mr. Stretch-leg comes, then he affrights and scares them without measure, so

that they either die of great grief, or else, in the end, are left without

all comfort, and despair of God's grace and mercy.





LXXXII.





God only, and not wealth, maintains the world; riches merely make

people proud and lazy. At Venice, where the richest people are, a horrible

dearth fell among them in our time, so that they were driven to call upon

the Turks for help, who sent twenty-four galleys laden with corn; - all of

which, well nigh in port, sunk before their eyes. Great wealth and money

cannot still hunger, but rather occasion more dearth; for where rich people

are, there things are always dear. Moreover, money makes no man right merry,

but much rather pensive and full of sorrow; for riches, says Christ, are

thorns that prick people. Yet is the world so mad that it sets therein all

its joys and felicity.





LXXXIII.





There is no greater anger than when God is silent, and talks not with

us, but suffers us to go on in our sinful works, and to do all things

according to our own passions and pleasure; as it has been with the Jews for

the last fifteen hundred years.

Ah, God, punish, we pray thee, with pestilence and famine, and with

what evil and sickness may be else on earth; but be not silent, Lord,

towards us. God said to the Jews: "I have stretched forth my hand, and have

cried, come hither and hear," etc. "But ye said, We will not hear."

Even so likewise do we now; we are weary of God's Word; we will not

have upright, good, and godly preachers and teachers that threaten us, and

bring God's Word pure and unfalsified before us, and condemn false doctrine,

and truly warn us. No, such cannot we endure; we will not hear them, nay, we

persecute and banish them; Therefore will God also punish us. Thus it goes

with wicked and lost children, that will not hearken to their parents, nor

be obedient unto them; they will afterwards be rejected of them again.





LXXXIV.





Nothing displeases Almighty God more than when we defend and clock our

sins, and will not acknowledge that we have done wrong as did Saul; for the

sins that be not acknowledged, are against the first table of the Ten

Commandments. Saul sinned against the first table, David against the second.

Those are sinners against the second table, that look on the sermon of

Repentance, suffer themselves to be threatened and reproved, acknowledge

their sins, and better themselves. Those that sin against the first table,

as idolaters, unbelievers, condemners, and blasphemers of God, falsifiers of

God's Word, etc., attribute to themselves wisdom and power; they will be

wise and mighty, both which qualities God reserves to himself as peculiarly

his own.





LXXXV.





`Tis inexpressible how ungodly and wicked the world is. We may easily

perceive it from this, that God has not only suffered punishments to

increase, but also has appointed so many executioners and hangmen to punish

his subjects; as evil spirits, tyrants, disobedient children, knaves, and

wicked women, wild beasts, vermin, sickness, etc.; yet all this can make us

neither bend nor bow.

Better it were that God should be angry with us, than that we be angry

with God, for he can soon be at an union with us again, because he is

merciful; but when we are angry with him, then the case is not to be helped.





LXXXVI.





God could be exceedingly rich in temporal wealth, if he so pleased, but

he will not. If he would but come to the pope, the emperor, a king, a

prince, a bishop, a rich merchant, a citizen, a farmer, and say: Unless you

give me a hundred thousand crowns, you shall die on the spot; every one

would say: I will give it, with all my heart, if I may but live. But now we

are such unthankful slovens, that we give him not so much as a Deo gratias,

though we receive of him, to rich overflowing, such great benefits, merely

out of his goodness and mercy. Is not this a shame? Yet, notwithstanding

such unthankfulness, our Lord God and merciful Father suffers not himself to

be scared away, but continually shows us all manner of goodness. If in his

gifts and benefits he were more sparing and close-handed, we should learn to

be thankful. If he caused every human creature to be born with but one leg

or foot, and seven years afterwards gave him the other; or in the fourteenth

year gave one hand, and afterwards, in the twentieth year, the other, then

we should better acknowledge God's gifts and benefits, and value them at a

higher rate, and be thankful. He has given unto us a whole sea-full of his

Word, all manner of languages, and liberal arts. We buy at this time,

cheaply, all manner of good books. He gives us learned people, that teach

well and regularly, so that a youth, if he be not altogether a dunce, may

learn more in one year now, than formerly in many years. Arts are now so

cheap, that almost they go about begging for bread; woe be to us that we are

so lazy, improvident, negligent, and unthankful.





LXXXVII.





We are nothing worth with all our gifts and qualities, how great soever

they be, unless God continually hold his hand over us: if he forsake us,

then are our wisdom, art, sense, and understanding futile. If he do not

constantly aid us, then our highest knowledge and experience in divinity, or

what else we attain unto, will nothing serve; for when the hour of

temptation and trial comes, we shall be dispatched in a moment, the devil,

thought his craft and subtility, tearing away from us even those texts in

Holy Scripture wherewith we should comfort ourselves, and setting before our

eyes, instead, only sentences of fearful threatening.

Wherefore, let no man proudly boast and brag of his own righteousness,

wisdom, or other gifts and qualities, but humble himself and pray with the

holy apostles, and say: "Ah, Lord! strengthen and increase the faith in us!





LXXXVIII.





The greater God's gifts and works, the less are they regarded. The

highest and most precious treasure we receive of God is, that we can speak,

hear, see, etc.; but how few acknowledge these as God's special gifts, much

less give God thanks for them. The world highly esteems riches, honor,

power, and other things of less value, which soon vanish away, but a blind

man, if in his right wits, would willingly exchange all these for sight. The

reason why the corporal gifts of God are so much undervalued is, that they

are so common, that God bestows them also upon brute beasts, which as well

as we, and better, hear and see. Nay, when Christ made the blind to see,

drove out devils, raised the dead, etc., he was upbraided by the ungodly

hypocrites, who gave themselves out for God's people, and was told that he

was a Samaritan, and had a devil. Ah! the world is the devil's, whether it

goes or stands still; how, then, can men acknowledge God's gifts and

benefits? It is with us as with young children, who regard not so much their

daily bread, as an apple, a pear, or other toys. Look at the cattle going

into the fields to pasture, and behold in them our preachers, our

milk-bearers, butter-bearers, cheese and wool bearers, which daily preach

unto us faith in God, and that we should trust in him, as in our loving

Father, who cares for us, and will maintain and nourish us.





LXXXIX.





No man can estimate the great charge God is at only in maintaining

birds and such creatures, comparatively nothing worth. I am persuaded that

it costs him, yearly, more to maintain only the sparrows, than the revenue

of the French king amounts to. What then, shall we say of all the rest of

his creatures?





XC.





God delights in our temptations, and yet hates them; he delights in

them when they drive us to prayer; he hates them when they drive us to

despair. The Psalm says: "An humble and contrite heart is an acceptable

sacrifice to God," etc. Therefore, when it goes well with you, sing and

praise God with a hymn: goes it evil, that is, does temptation come, then

pray: "For the Lord has pleasure in those that fear him;" and that which

follows is better: "and in them that hope in his goodness," for God helps

the lowly and humble, seeing he says: "Thinkest thou my hand is shortened

that I cannot help?" He that feels himself weak in faith, let him always

have a desire to be strong therein, for that is a nourishment which God

relishes in us.





XCI.





God, in this world, has scarce the tenth part of the people; the

smallest number only will be saved. The world is exceeding ungodly and

wicked; who would believe our people should be so unthankful toward the

gospel?





XCII.





`Tis wonderful how God has put such excellent physic in mere muck; we

know by experience that swine's dung stints the blood; horse's serves for

the pleurisy; man's heals wounds and black blotches; asses' is used for the

bloody flux, and cow's with preserved roses, for epilepsy, or for

convulsions of children.





XCIII.





God seems as though he had dealt inconsiderately in commanding the

world to be governed by the Word of Truth, especially since he has clothed

and hooded it with a poor, weak, and condemned Word of the Cross. For, the

world will not have the truth, but lies: neither willingly do they aught

that is upright and good, unless compelled thereto by main force. The world

has a loathing of the cross, and will rather follow the pleasures of the

devil, and have pleasant days, than carry the cross of our blessed Saviour

Christ Jesus. He that best governs the world, as most worthy of it, is

Satan, by his lieutenant the pope; he can please the world well, and knows

how to make it give ear unto him; for his kingdom has a mighty show and

repute, which is acceptable to the world, and befits it. Like unto like.





XCIV.





Pythagoras, the heathen philosopher, said, that the motion of the stars

creates a very sweet harmony and celestial concord; but that people, through

continual custom, have become cloyed therewith. Even so it is with us, we

have surpassing fair creatures to our use, but by reason they are too

common, we regard them not.





XCV.





Scarcely a small proportion of the earth bears corn, and yet we are all

maintained and nourished. I verily believe that there grow not as many

sheaves of corn as there people in the world, and yet we are all fed; yea,

and there remains a good surplus of corn at the year's end. This is a

wonderful thing, which should make us see and perceive God's blessing.





XCVI.





The apparent cause why God passed so sharp a sentence upon Adam, was,

that he had eaten of the forbidden tree, and was disobedient unto God,

wherefore, for his sake, the earth was cursed, and mankind made subject to

all manner of miseries, fears, wants, sicknesses, plagues, and death. The

reason of the worldly-wise, regarding only the biting of the apple, holds

that for so slight and trivial a thing it was too cruel and hard a

proceeding upon poor Adam, and takes snuff in the nose, and says, or at

least thinks: O, is it then so heinous a matter and sin for one to eat an

apple? As people say of many sins that God expressly in his Word has

forbidden, such as drunkenness, etc.: What harm for one to be merry, and

take a cup with good fellows? - concluding, according to their blindness,

that God is too sharp and exacting.

Again, these worldlings are offended that Christ, as they think,

rejects, good, honest, and holy people; that he will not know them, is harsh

to them, sends them away from him, and calls them malefactors, though some

in his name have prophesied, cast out devils, done miracles, etc., while, on

the other hand, he receives public sinners, as strumpets, knaves, publicans,

murderers, whom, if they hear his Word, and believe in him, he forgives, be

their sins ever so great and many, yea, makes them righteous and holy, God's

children, and heirs of everlasting life and salvation, out of mere grace and

mercy, without any deserts, good works, and worthiness of theirs. This they

conceive to be altogether unjust.

Who can be here an arbitrator, the two things being as contrary to each

other as fire and water. Herein man's wisdom, his sense, reason,

understanding, is made a fool. The Scripture says: "Except ye be converted,

and become like little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of

God." They who would investigate these things with human wit and wisdom,

give themselves much futile labor and disquiet; they will never learn how

God is inclined towards them. In those, also, who so vainly trouble

themselves, whether they be predestinated or fore-chosen, there goes up a

fire in the heart, which they cannot quench; so that their consciences are

never at peace, but in the end they must despair. He, therefore, that will

shun this enduring evil must hold fast the Word, where he will find that our

gracious God has laid a sure and strong foundation, on which we may with

certainty take footing - namely, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom only we

must enter into the kingdom of heaven; for he, and no other, "is the way,

the truth, and the life."

We can understand the heavy temptations of that everlasting

predestination, which terrifies many people, nowhere better than from the

wounds of our Saviour, Christ Jesus, of whom the Father commanded, saying:

"Him shall ye hear." But the wise of the world, the mighty, the

high-learned, and the great, by no means heed these things, so that God

remains unknown to them, notwithstanding they have much learning, and

dispute and talk much of God; for it is a short conclusion. Without Christ,

God will not be found, known, or comprehended.

If now thou wilt know, why so few are saved, and so infinitely many

damned, this is the cause: the world will not hear Christ; they care nothing

for him, yea, condemn that which the Father testifies of him: "This is my

well-beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

Whereas all people that seek and labor to come to God, through any

other means than only through Christ (as Jews, Turks, Papists, false saints,

heretics, etc.), walk in horrible darkness and error; and it helps them

nothing that they lead an honest, sober kind of life, affect great devotion,

suffer much, love and honor God, as they boast, etc. For seeing they will

not hear Christ, or believe in him (without whom no man knows God, no man

obtains forgiveness of sins, no man comes to the Father), they remain always

in doubt and unbelief, know not how they stand with God, and so at last must

die, and be lost in their sins. For, "He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth

not the Father," (1 John ii.), "He that believeth not the Son, shall not see

life, but the wrath of God remains upon him," (John iii.)





XCVII.





It is often asked: Why desperate wretches have such good days, and live

a long time in jollity and pleasure, to their heart's desire, with health of

body, fine children, etc., while God allows the godly to remain in calamity,

danger, anguish and want all their lives; yea, and some to die also in

misery, as St John the Baptist did, who was the greatest saint on earth, to

say nothing of our only Saviour Jesus Christ.

The prophets have all written much hereof, and shown how the godly

should overcome such doubts, and comfort themselves against them. Jeremiah

says, "Why goeth it so well with the ungodly, and wherefore are all they

happy that deal very treacherously?" But further on, "Thou sufferest them to

go at liberty like sheep that are to be slain, and thou preparest them for

the day of slaughter." Read also Psalms xxxvii., xlix., lxxiii.

God is not therefore angry with his children, though he scourge and

punish them; but he is angry with the ungodly that do not acknowledge Christ

to be the Son of God, and the Saviour of the world, but blaspheme and

condemn the Word; such are to expect no grace and help of him. And, indeed,

he does not himself scourge and beat his small and poor flock that depend on

Christ; but suffers them to be chastened and beaten, when they become ever

secure and unthankful unto him for his unspeakable graces and benefits shown

unto them in Christ, and are disobedient to his Word; then permits he that

the devil bruise our heels, and send pestilence and other plagues unto us;

and that tyrants persecute us, and this for our good, that thereby we may be

moved, and in a manner forced to turn ourselves unto him, to call upon him,

to seek help and comfort from him, through Christ.





XCVIII.





"God is a God of the living, and not of the dead." This text shows the

resurrection; for if there were no hope of the resurrection, or of another

and better world, after this short and miserable life, wherefore should God

offer himself to be our God, and say he will give us all that is necessary

and healthful for us, and, in the end, deliver us out of all trouble, both

temporal and spiritual? To what purpose should we hear his Word, and believe

in him? What were we the better when we cry and sigh to him in our anguish

and need, that we wait with patience upon his comfort and salvation, upon

his grace and benefits, shown in Christ? Why praise and thank him for them?

Why be daily in danger, and suffer ourselves to be persecuted and slain for

the sake of Christ's Word?

Forasmuch as the everlasting, merciful God, through his Word and

Sacraments, talks, and deals with us, all other creatures excluded, not of

temporal things which pertain to this vanishing life, and which in the

beginning he provided richly for us, but as to where we shall go when we

depart hence, and gives unto us his Son for a Saviour, delivering us from

sin and death, and purchasing for us everlasting righteousness, life, and

salvation, therefore it is most certain, that we do not die away like the

beasts that have no understanding; but so many of us as sleep in Christ,

shall through him be raised again to life everlasting at the last day, and

the ungodly to everlasting destruction. (John, v., Dan. xii.)





XCIX.





The most acceptable service we can do and show unto God, and which

alone he desires of us, is, that he be praised of us; but he is not praised,

unless he be first loved; he is not loved, unless he be first bountiful and

does well; he does well when he is gracious; gracious he is when he forgives

sins. Now who are those that love him? They are that small flock of the

faithful, who acknowledge such graces, and know that through Christ they

have forgiveness of their sins. But the children of this world do not

trouble themselves herewith; they serve their idol, that wicked and cursed

Mammon: in the end he will reward them.





C.





Our loving Lord God wills that we eat, drink, and be merry, making use

of his creatures, for therefore he created them. He will not that we

complain, as if he had not given sufficient, or that he could not maintain

our poor carcasses; he asks only that we acknowledge him for our God, and

thank him for his gifts.





CI.





He that has not God, let him have else what he will, is more miserable

than Lazarus, who lay at the rich man's gate, and was starved to death. It

will go with such, as it went with the glutton, that they must everlastingly

hunger and want, and shall not have in their power so much as one drop of

water.





CII.





Of Abraham came Isaac and Ishmael; of the patriarchs and holy fathers,

came the Jews that crucified Christ; of the apostles came Jusas the traitor;

of the city Alexandria (where a fair, illustrious, and famous school was,

and whence proceeded many upright and godly learned men) came Arius and

Origen; of the Roman church, that yielded many holy martyrs, came the

blasphemous Antichrist, the pope of Rome; of the holy men in Arabia, came

Mohammed; of Constantinople, where many excellent emperors were, comes the

Turk; of married women come adulteresses; of virgins, strumpets; of

brethren, sons, and friends, come the cruelest enemies; of angels come

devils; of kings come tyrants; of the gospel and godly truth come horrible

lies; of the true church come heretics; of Luther come fanatics, rebels, and

enthusiasts. What wonder is it then that evil is among us, comes from us,

and goes out of us; they must, indeed, be very evil things that cannot stay

by such goodness; and they must also be very good, that can endure such evil

things.





CIII.





Though by reason of original sin many wild beasts hurt mankind, as

lions, wolves, bears, snakes, adders, etc., yet the merciful God has in such

manner mitigated our well-deserved punishments, that there are many more

beasts that serve us for our good and profit, than of those which do us

hurt: many more sheep than wolves, oxen than lions, cows than bears, deer

than foxes, lobsters than scorpions, ducks, geese, and hens, than ravens and

kites, etc.: in all creatures more good than evil, more benefits than hurts

and hindrances.





CIV.



God will have his servants to be repenting sinners, standing in fear of

his anger, of the devil, death and hell, and believing in Christ. David

says, "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and helpeth

them that be of an humble spirit." And Isaiah "Where shall my Spirit rest,

and where shall I dwell? By them that are of humble spirit, and that stand

in fear of my Word." So with the poor sinner on the cross. So with St Peter,

when he had denied Christ; with Mary Magdalene; with Paul the persecutor,

etc. All these were sorrowful for their sins, and such shall have

forgiveness of their sins, and be God's servants.

The great prelates, the puffed up saints, the rich usurers, the ox

drovers that seek unconscionable gain, etc., these are not God's servants,

neither were it good they should be; for then no poor people could have

access to God for them; neither were it for God's honor that such should be

his servants, for they would ascribe the honor and praise to themselves.

In the Old Testament, all the first-born were consecrated to God, both

of mankind and of beasts. The first-born son had an advantage over his

brethren; he was their Lord, as the chief in offerings and riches, that is,

in spiritual and temporal government; for he had a right to the priesthood

and dominion, etc. But there are many examples in Holy Scriptures, where God

rejected the first-born, and chose the younger brethren, as Cain, Ishmael,

Esau, Reuben, etc., who were first-born; from them God took their right, and

gave it to their younger brethren, as to Abel, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David,

etc. And for this cause: That they were haughty, proud, and presuming on

their first-birth, and despised their brethren, that were more goodly and

godly than they; this God could not endure, and therefore they were bereaved

of their honors, so that they could not boast themselves of their prior

birth, although they were highly esteemed in the world, and were possessed

of lands and people.





CV.





The Scriptures show two manner of sacrifices acceptable to God. The

first is called a sacrifice of thanks or praise, and is when we teach and

preach God's Word purely, when we hear and receive it with faith, when we

acknowledge it, and do everything that tends to the spreading of it abroad,

and thank God from our hearts for the unspeakable benefits which through it

are laid before us, and bestowed upon us in Christ, when we praise and

glorify him, etc. "Offer unto God thanksgiving." "He that offereth thanks

praiseth me." "Thank the Lord, for he is gracious, because his mercy

endureth for ever." "Praise the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me

praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his

benefits." - Psalms.

Secondly, when a sorrowful and troubled heart in all manner of

temptations has his refuge in God, calls upon him in a true and upright

faith, seeks help of him, and waits patiently upon him. Hereof the Psalms,

"In my trouble I called upon the Lord, and he heard me at large." "The Lord

is nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart, and will save such as be of

an humble spirit." "The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit; a broken and

contrite heart, O God, shalt thou not despise." And again: "Call upon me in

the time of need, so will I deliver thee, and thou shalt praise me."





CVI.



If Adam had remained in his innocence, and had not transgressed God's

command, yet had begotten children, he should not have lived and remained

continually in that state in Paradise, but would have been taken into the

everlasting glory of heaven, not through death, but through being translated

into another life.





CVII.



God scorns and mocks the devil, in setting under his very nose a poor,

weak, human creature, mere dust and ashes, yet endowed with the first-fruits

of the Spirit, against whom the devil can do nothing, though he is so proud,

subtile, and powerful a spirit. We read in histories that a powerful king of

Persia, besieging the city of Edessa, the bishop, seeing that all human aid

was ineffectual, and that the city could not of itself hold out, ascending

to the ramparts and prayed to God, making, at the same time, the sign of the

cross, whereupon there was a wonderful host sent from God of great flies and

gnats, which filled the horses eyes, and dispersed the whole army. Even so

God takes pleasure to triumph and overcome, not through power, but by

weakness.





CVIII.



False teachers and sectaries are punishments for evil times, God's

greatest anger and displeasure; while godly teachers are glorious witnesses,

God's graces and mercies. Hence St Paul names apostles, evangelists,

prophets, shepherds, teachers, etc., gifts and presents of our Saviour

Christ, sitting at the right hand of the Father. And the prophet Micah

compares teachers of the gospel to a fruitful rain.





CIX.





Melancthon asked Luther if this word, hardened, "hardeneth whom he

will," were to be understood directly as it sounded, or in a figurative

sense? Luther answered: We must understand it specially and not operatively:

for God works no evil. Through his almighty power he works all in all; and

as he finds a man, so he works in him, as he did in Pharaoh, who was evil by

nature, which was not God's, but his own fault; he continually went on in

his wickedness, doing evil; he was hardened, because God with his spirit and

grace hindered not his ungodly proceedings, but suffered him to go on, and

to have his way. Why God did not hinder or restrain him, we ought not to

inquire.





CX.





God styles himself, in all the Holy Scriptures, a God of life, of

peace, of comfort, and joy, for the sake of Christ. I hate myself, that I

cannot believe it so constantly and surely as I should; but no human

creature can rightly know how mercifully God is inclined toward those that

steadfastly believe in Christ.





CXI.





The second Psalm is one of the best Psalms. I love that Psalm with my

heart. It strikes and flashes valiantly amongst kings, princes, counsellors,

judges, etc. If what this Psalm says be true, then are the allegations and

aims of the papists stark lies and folly. If I were as our Lord God, and had

committed the government to my son, as he to his Son, and these vile people

were as disobedient as they now be, I would knock the world in pieces.





CXII.





If a man serve not God only, then surely he serves the devil; because

no man can serve God, unless he have his Word and command. Therefore, if his

Word and command be not in thy heart, thou servest not God, but thine own

will; for that is upright serving of God, when a man does that which in his

Word God has commanded to be done, every one in his vocation, not that which

he thinks good of his own judgment.





CXIII.





It troubles the hearts of people not a little, that God seems as though

he were mutable or fickle-minded; for he gave to Adam the promises and

ceremonies, which afterwards he altered with the rainbow and the ark of

Noah. He gave to Abraham the circumcision, to Moses he gave miraculous

signs, to his people, the law. But to Christ, and through Christ, he gave

the Gospel; which amounts to the abolition of all the former. Hence the

Turks take advantage of these proceedings of God, saying: The laws of the

Christians may be established, and endure for a time, but at last they will

be altered.





CXIV.





I was once sharply reprimanded by a popish priest, because, with such

passion and vehemence, I reproved the people. I answered him: Our Lord God

must first send a sharp, pouring shower, with thunder and lightning, and

afterwards cause it mildly to rain, as then it wets finely through. I can

easily cut a willow or a hazel wand with my trencher knife, but for a hard

oak, a man must use the axe; and little enough, to fell and cleave it.





CXV.





Plato, the heathen, said of God: God is nothing and yet everything; him

followed Eck and the sophists, who understood nothing thereof, as their

words show. But we must understand and spake of it in this manner: God is

incomprehendible and invisible; that, therefore, which may be seen and

comprehended, is not God. And thus, in another manner, God is visible and

invisible: visible in his Word and works; and where his Word and works are

not, there a man should not desire to have him; or he will, instead of God,

take hold of the devil. Let us not flutter too high, but remain by the

manger and the swaddling clothes of Christ, "in whom dwelleth all the

fullness of the Godhead bodily." There a man cannot fail of God, but finds

him most certainly. Human comfort and divine comfort are of different

natures: human comfort consists in external, visible help, which a man may

see, hold, and feel; divine comfort only in words and promises, where there

is neither seeing, hearing, nor feeling.





CXVI.





When we see no way or means, by advice or aid, through which we may be

helped in our miseries, we at once conclude, according to our human reason:

now our condition is desperate; but when we believe trustingly in God, our

deliverance begins. The physician says: Where philosophy ends, physic

begins; so we say: Where human help is at an end, God's help begins, or

faith in God's Word. Trials and temptations appear before deliverance, after

deliverance comes joy. To be suppressed and troubled, is to arise, to grow

and to increase.





CXVII.





The devil, too, has his amusement and pleasure, which consists in

suppressing God's work, and tormenting those that love God's Word, and hold

fast thereby; so the true Christians, being God's kingdom, must be tormented

and oppressed.

A true Christian must have evil days, and suffer much; our Adam's flesh

and blood must have good and easy days, and suffer nothing. How may these

agree together? Our flesh is given over to death and hell: if our flesh is

to be delivered from death, hell and the devil, it must keep and hold to

God's commandments - i.e., must believe in Christ Jesus, that he is the Son

of God and our Redeemer, and must cleave fast to his Word, believing that he

will not suffer us to be plagued everlastingly, but will deliver and remove

us out of this life into life eternal; giving us at the same time, patience

under the cross, and to bear with the weakness of another, who is also under

the cross, and holds with Christ.

Therefore, he that will boast himself to be Christ's disciple, a true

Christian, and saved, must not expect good days; but all his faith, hope,

and love must be directed to God, and to his neighbor, that so his whole

life be nothing else than the cross, persecution, adversity, and

tribulation.





CXVIII.





What is it we poor wretched people aim at? We who cannot, as yet,

comprehend with our faith the merest sparks of God's promises, the bare

glimmering of his commandments and works, - both of which, notwithstanding

he himself has confirmed with words and miracles, - weak, impure, corrupt as

we are, - presumptuously seek to understand the incomprehensible light of

God's wonders.

We must know that he dwells in a light to which human creatures cannot

come, and yet we go on, and essay to reach it. We know it. We know that his

judgments are incomprehensive, and his ways past finding out, (Rom. xi.,)

yet we undertake to find them out. We look, with blind eyes like a mole, on

the majesty of God, and after that light which is shown neither in words nor

miracles, but is only signified; out of curiosity and willfulness we would

behold the highest and greatest light of the celestial sun ere we see the

morning star. Let the morning star, as St Peter says, go first up in our

hearts, and we shall then see the sun in his noon-tide splendor.

True, we must teach, as we may, of God's incomprehensible and

unsearchable will; but to aim at its perfect comprehension is dangerous

work, wherein we stumble, fall, and break our necks. I bridle myself with

these words of our Saviour Christ to St peter: "Follow thou me: what is it

to thee?" etc., for Peter busied himself also about God's works; namely, how

he would do with another, how he would do with John? And as he answered

Philip, that said, "Show us the Father" - "What," said Christ; "believest

thou not that the Father is in me, and I in the Father? He that seeth me,

seeth the Father also," etc. For Philip would also willingly have seen the

majesty and fellowship of the Father. Solomon, the wise king, says: "What is

too high for thee, thereafter inquire thou not." And even did we know all

the secret judgments of God, what good and profit would it bring unto us,

more than God's promises and commandments?

Let us abstain from such cogitations, seeing we know for certain that

they are incomprehensible. Let us not permit ourselves to be so plagued by

the devil with that which is impossible. A man might as well busy himself

how the kingdom of the earth shall endure upon the waters, and go not down

beneath them. Above all things, let us exercise the faith of God's promises,

and the works of his commandments; when we have done this, we may well

consider whether it is expedient to trouble oneself about impossible things,

though it is a very difficult thing to expel such thoughts, so fiercely

drives the devil. A man must as vehemently strive against such cogitations

as against unbelief, despair, heresies, and such like temptations. For most

of us are deceived herewith, not believing they proceed from the devil, who

yet himself fell through those very cogitations, assuming to be equal with

the Most Highest, and to know all that God knows, and scorning to know what

he ought to know, and what was needful for him.





CXIX.





High mysteries in the Scriptures being hard to be understood, confound

unlearned and light spirits so as to produce many errors and heresies, to

their own and others condemnation. `Twis therefore Moses described the

creation so briefly, whereas he spends a whole chapter in narrating the

purchase of the field and cave over against Hebron, that Abraham bought of

Ephron the Hittite, for a sepulchre to bury Sara in. He describes, likewise,

through many chapters, divers sorts of sacrifices, and other customs and

ceremonies, for he well knew that such like produce no heresies. Many things

were written and described ere Moses was born. Doubtless, Adam briefly noted

the history of the creation, of his fall, of the promised seed, etc. The

other patriarchs afterwards, no doubt, each set down what was done in his

time, especially Noah. Afterwards Moses, as I conceive, took and brought all

into a right method and order, diminishing therefrom, and adding thereunto,

such things as God commanded: as, especially, touching the seed that should

crush the serpent's head, the history of the creation, etc.; all which,

doubtless, he had out of the sermons of the patriarchs, that always one

inherited from another. For I verily believe, that the sermon of the woman's

seed promised to Adam and Eve, after which they had so hearty a longing and

yearning, was preached more powerfully before the deluge, than now in these

dangerous times the sermons of Christ are preached with us.





CXX.





I would give a world to have the acts and legends of the patriarchs who

lived before the deluge; for therein a man might see how they lived,

preached, and what they suffered. But it pleased our Lord God to overwhelm

all their acts and legends in the deluge, because he knew that those which

should come after, would not regard, much less understand them; therefore

God would keep and preserve them until they met again together in the life

to come. But then, I am sure, the loving patriarchs who lived after the

deluge, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc.; the prophets, the apostles, their

posterity, and other holy people, whom in this life the devil would not

leave untempted, will yield unto the patriarchs, that lived before the

deluge, and give to them pre-eminence in divine and spiritual honor, saying:

Ye loving and most venerable patriarchs! I preached but a few years,

spreading God's Word abroad, and therefore suffered the cross; but what is

that in comparison with the great, tedious, intolerable labor