The Nature of the World.
To live openly among the people is best; Christ so lived and walked, openly and publicly, here on earth, amongst the people, and told his disciples to do the like. `Tis in cells and corners that the wicked wretches, the monks and nuns, lead shameful lives. But openly, and among people, a man must live decently and honestly.
To comfort a sorrowful conscience is much better than to posses many kingdoms; yet the world regards it not; nay, condemns it, calling us rebels, disturbers of the peace, and blasphemers of God, turning and altering religion. They will be their own prophets, and prophesy to themselves; but this is to us a great grief of heart. The Jews said of Christ: If we suffer him to go on in this manner, the Romans will come and take from us land and people.
After they had slain Christ, did the Romans come or not? Yes, they came, and slew a hundred thousand of them, and destroyed their city. Even so the condemners and enemies of the Word will disturb the peace, and turn Germany upside down. We bring evil upon ourselves, for we willfully oppose the truth.
If Moses had continued to work his miracles in Egypt but two or three years, the people would have become accustomed thereto, and heedless, as we who are accustomed to the sun and moon, hold them in no esteem.
Abraham was held in no honor among the Canaanites, for all the wells he had dug the neighbors filled up, or took away by force, and said to him: "Wilt thou not suffer it? then pack thee hence and be gone, for thou art with us a stranger and a new comer." In like manner Isaac was despised. The faith possessed by the beloved patriarchs, I am not able sufficiently to admire. How firmly and constantly did they believe that God was gracious unto them, though they suffered such exceeding trouble and adversity.
If the great pains and labor I take sprang not from the love, and for the sake of him that died for me, the world could not give me money enough to write only one book, or to translate the Bible. I desire not to be rewarded and paid of the world for my books; the world is too poor to give me satisfaction; I have not asked the value of one penny of my master the Prince Elector of Saxony, since I have been here. The world is nothing but a reversed
Decalogue, or the ten commandments backwards, a mask and picture of the devil, all condemners of God, all blasphemers, all disobedient; harlotry, pride, theft, murder, etc., are not almost ripe for the slaughter.
The Nature of the World.
Dr. Luther's wife complaining to him of the indocilitry and untrustworthiness of servants, he said: A faithful and good servant is a real God-send, but, truly, `tis a rare bird in the land.
We find every one complaining of the idleness and profigacy of this class of people; we must govern them, Turkish fashion, so much work, so much victuals, as Pharaoh dealt with the Israelites in Egypt.
The philosophers, and learned among the heathen, had innumerable speculations as to God, the soul, and the life everlasting, all uncertain and doubtful, they being without God's
Word; while to us God has given his most sweet and saving Word, pure and incorrupt; yet we condemn it. It is naught, says the buyer. When we have a thing, how good soever, we are soon weary of it, and regard it not. The world remains the world, which neither loves nor endures righteousness, but it is ruled by a certain few, even as a little boy of twelve years old, rules, governs, and keeps a hundred great and strong oxen upon a pasture.
Whoso rules on his money prospers not. The richest monarchs have had ill fortune, have been destroyed and slain in the wars; while men with but small store of money have had great fortune and victory; as the emperor Maximilian overcame the Venetians, and continued warring ten years with them, though they were exceedingly rich and powerful.
Therefore we ought not to trust in money or wealth, or depend thereon. I hear that the prince elector, George, begins to be covetous, which is a sign of his death very shortly. When
I saw Dr. Gode begin to tell his puddings hanging in the chimney, I told him he would not live long, and so it fell out; and when I begin to trouble myself about brewing, malting, cooking, etc., then shall I soon die.
We should always be ready when God knocks, prepared to take our leave of this world like Christians. For even as the small beast kills the stag, leaping upon his head, and sitting between his horns, and eating out his brains, or catches him fast by the throat, and gnaws it asunder, even so the devil, when he possesses a human creature, is not soon or easily pulled from him, but leads him into despair, and hurts him both in soul and body; as St Peter says "He goeth about like a roaring lion."
Before Noah's flood the world was highly learned, by reason men lived a long time, and so attained great experience and wisdom; now, ere we begin rightly to come to the true
The Nature of the World. knowledge of a thing, we lie down and die. God will not have that we should attain a higher knowledge of things.
Mammon has two properties; it makes us secure, first, when it goes well with us, and then we live without fear of God at all; secondly, when it goes ill with us, then we tempt
God, fly from him, and seek after another God.
I saw a dog, at Lintz in Austria, that was taught to go with a hand-basket to the butchers shambles for meat; when other dogs came about him, and sought to take the meat out of the basket, he set it down, and fought lustily with them; but when he saw they were too strong for him, he himself would snatch out the first piece of meat, lest he should lose all.
Even so does now our emperor Charles; who, after having long protected spiritual benefices, seeing that every prince takes possession of monasteries, himself takes possession of bishoprics, as just now he has seized upon those of Utrecht and Liege.
A covetous farmer, well known at Erfurt, carried his corn to sell there in the market, but selling it at too dear a rate, no man would buy of him, or give him his price. He being thereby moved to anger, said: "I will not sell it cheaper, but rather carry it home again, and give it to the mice." When he had come home with it, an infinity of mice and rats flocked into his house, and devoured up all his corn. And, next day, going out to see his grounds, which were newly sown, he found that all the seed was eaten up, while no hurt at all was done to the grounds of his neighbors. This certainly was a just punishment from God, a merited token of his wrath.
Three rich farmers have lately, God be praised, hanged themselves: these wretches that rob the whole country, deserve such punishments; for the dearth at this time is a willful dearth. God has given enough, but the devil has possessed such wicked cormorants to withhold it. They are thieves and murderers of their poor neighbors. Christ will say unto them at the last day: "I was hungry, and ye have not fed me." Do not think, thou that sellest thy corn so dear, that thou shalt escape punishment, for thou art an occasion of the deaths and famishing of the poor; the devil will fetch thee away. They that fear God and trust in him, pray for their daily bread, and against such robbers as thou, that either thou mayest be put to shame, or be reformed.
The Nature of the World.
A man that depends on the riches and honors of this world, forgetting God and the welfare of his soul, is like a little child that holds a fair apple in the hand, of agreeable exterior, promising goodness, but within `tis rotten and full of worms.
Where great wealth is, there are also all manner of sins; for through wealth comes pride, through pride dissension, through dissension, wars, poverty; through poverty, great distress and misery. Therefore, they that are rich, must yield a strict and great account; for to whom much is given, of him much will be required.
Riches, understanding, beauty, are fair gifts of God, but we abuse them shamefully. Yet worldly wisdom and wit are evils, when the cause engaged in is evil, for no man will yield his own particular conceit; every one will be right. Much better is it that one be of a fair and comely complexion in the face, for the hard lesson, sickness, may come and take that away; but the self-conceited mind is not so soon brought to reason.
Wealth is the smallest thing on earth, the least gift that God has bestowed on mankind.
What is it in comparison with God's Word—what, in comparison with corporal gifts, as beauty, health, etc.?—nay, what is it to the gifts of the mind, as understanding, wisdom, etc.?
Yet are men so eager after it, that no labor, pains, or risk is regarded in the acquisition of riches. Wealth has in it neither material, format, efficient, nor final cause, nor anything else that is good; therefore our Lord God commonly gives riches to those from whom he withholds spiritual good.
St John says: "He that hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?"
And Christ: "He that desireth of thee, give to him"—that is, to him that needs and is in want; not to idle, lazy, wasteful fellows, who are commonly the greatest beggers, and who, though we give them much and often are nothing helped thereby. Yet when one is truly poor, to him I will give with all my heart, according to my ability. And no man should forget the Scripture: "He that hath two coats, let him part with one;" meaning all manner of apparel that one has need of, according to his state and calling, as well for credit as for necessary.
As also, by "the daily bread," is understood all maintenance necessary for the body.
The Nature of the World.
Lendest thou aught? so gettest thou it not again. Even if it be restored, it is not so soon as it ought to be restored, nor so well and good, and thou losest a friend thereby.
Before I translated the New Testament out of the Greek, all longed after it; when it was done, their longing lasted scarce four weeks. Then they desired the Books of Moses; when
I had translated these, they had enough thereof in a short time. After that, they would have the Psalms; of these they were soon weary, and desired other books. So will it be with the Book of Ecclesiasticus, which they now long for, and about which I have taken great pains.
All is acceptable until our giddy brains be satisfied; afterwards we let things lie, and seek after new.
Of Idolatry OF IDOLATRY CLXXI.
Idolatry is all manner of seeming holiness and worshipping, let these counterfeit spiritualities shine outwardly as glorious and fair as they may; in a word, all manner of devotion in those that we would serve God without Christ the Mediator, his Word and command.
In popedom it was held a work of the greatest sanctity for the monks to sit in their cells and meditate of God, and of his wonderful works; to be kindled with zeal, kneeling on their knees, praying, and having their imaginary contemplations of celestial objects, with such supposed devotion, that they wept for joy. In these their conceits, they banished all desires and thoughts of women, and what else is temporal and evanescent. They seemed to meditate only of God, and of his wonderful works. Yet all these seeming holy actions of devotion, which the wit and wisdom of man holds to be angelical sanctity, are nothing else but works of the flesh. All manner of religion, where people serve God without his Word and command, is simply idolatry, and the more holy and spiritual such a religion seems, the more hurtful and venomous it is; for it leads people away from the faith of Christ, and makes them rely and depend upon their own strength, works, and righteousness.
In like manner, all kinds of orders of monks, fasts, prayers, hairy shirts, the austerities of the Capuchins, who in popedome are held to be the most holy of all, are mere works of the flesh; for the monks hold they are holy, and shall be saved, not through Christ, whom they view as a severe and angry judge, but through the rules of their order.
No man can make the papists believe that the private mass is the greatest blaspheming of God, and the highest idolatry upon earth, an abomination the like to which has never been in Christendom since the time of the apostles; for they are blinded and hardened therein, so that their understanding and knowledge of God, and of all divine matters, is perverted and erroneous. They hold that to be the most upright and greatest service of God, which, in truth, is the greatest and most abominable idolatry. And again, they hold that for idolatry which, in truth, is the upright and most acceptable service of God, the acknowledging
Christ, and believing in him. But we that truly believe in Christ, and are of his mind, we, God be praised, know and judge all things; but are judged of no human creature.
Dr. Carlstad asked me: Should a man, out of good intention, erect a pious work without God's Word or command, does he herein serve a true or a strange God? Luther answered:
A man honors God and calls upon him, to the end he may expect comfort, help, and all good from him. Now, if this same honor and calling upon God be done according to God's
Word—that is, when a man expects from him all graces for the sake of his promises made unto us in Christ, then he honors the true, living, and everlasting God. But if a man take in