Part 43 (1/2)

Let ht and heat No king has power enough to bend or guide the light of the sun; it reht in the place where it shi+nes But the heat uided, and yet is ever about the sun Thus the faith must always re; but love rasp it or follow us

There are some who can run, others must walk, still others can hardly creep Therefore we must not look upon our own, but upon our brother's powers, so that he who is weak in faith, and atte, may not be destroyed of the devil Therefore, dear brethren, obey me I have never been a destroyer, and I was also the very first whom God called to this work Neither can I run away, butas it pleases God I was the first, too, to whom God revealed it, to preach His Word to you; moreover, I am sure that you have the pure Word of God

[Sidenote: Abolishi+ng the Mass]

Let us, therefore, take up this matter with fear and humility, cast ourselves at one another's feet, join hands with each other, and help one another I will do my part, which is no more than my duty, for I love you even as I love ainst pope or bishop, but against the devil [Eph 6:12], and do you iht rising, and to keep it fro into his eyes he would make a flank attack--and he will succeed, if we are not on our guard I know him well[1], and I hope, too, that with the help of God I am his master But if we yield him but an inch, we must soon look to it hoe may be rid of him

Therefore all those have erred who have consented and helped to abolish the , but not acco to the Scriptures

I agree, but what becoard to proper order and with offence to your neighbor If, beforehand, you had called upon God in earnest prayer, and had obtained the aid of the authorities, one could be certain that it had come from God I, too, would have taken steps toward the sa to do; and if the ain For I cannot defend your action, as I have just said To the papists and the blockheads I could defend it, for I could say: How do you knohether it was done with good or bad intention, since the work in itself was really a good work? But I can find nothing to reply to the devil For if on their deathbeds the devil rean this affair of texts like these, ”Every plant, which My father hath not planted, shall be rooted up,” [Matt

15:13] or ”I have not sent them, yet they ran,” [Jer 23:21] hoill they be able to withstand?[2] He will cast them into hell But I have a weapon to brandish in the devil's face, so that the orld will become too sularly called by the Council to preach in this place And I would that you should have the same assurance as I You could so easily have consulted me about the matter

[Sidenote: ”Must” and ”Free”]

I was not so far away that you could not reach me with a letter, especially since I did not interfere with you in any way Did you want to begin so, and then leave me to shoulder the responsibility?

That is more than I can undertake, and I will not do it Here one can see that you have not the Spirit, in spite of your deep knowledge of the Scriptures Take note of these two things, ”must” and ”free” The ”must” is that which necessity requires, and which ; as, for instance, the faith, which I shall never permit any one to take away from me, but which I must always keep in my heart and freely confess before every one But ”free” is that in which I have choice, and may use or not, yet in such wise that it profit my brother and not me Now do not make a ”must” out of what is ”free,” as you have done, so that you may not be called to account for those ere led astray by your exercise of liberty without love For if you entice any one to eat meat on Friday, and he is troubled about it on his deathbed, and thinks, Woe is me, for I have eaten meat and I am lost! God will call you to account for that soul I would like to begin s, in which but feould follow un this thing, when it comes to the point, cannot maintain themselves, and will be the first to retreat

Hoould it be, if I brought the people to the point of attack, and though I had been the foremost to exhort others, I would then flee, and not face death with courage? How the poor people would be deceived!

Let us, therefore, feed others also with thein the faith For there are ladly accept this one thing, but they do not yet fully understand it--all such we drive away Therefore, let us show love to our neighbors, or our ill not endure We must have patience with them for a time, and not cast out hiulate our doing and our not doing according to the demands of love, provided no injury is done to our faith If we do not earnestly pray to God, and act circu looks to un to cause the papists will all upon us

Therefore I could no longer res to you

This is enough about the es

THE SECOND SERMON

MONDAY AFTER INVOCAVIT

[Sidenote: Necessity and Choice]

Dear Friends: You heard yesterday the characteristics of a Christian man, how his whole life is faith and love Faith is directed toward God, love toward hbor, and consists in such love and service for him as we have received fros: the one, which is the most needful, and which must be done in one way and no other; the other, which is a matter of choice and not of necessity, whichhell In both, love hbor in the saht road, straying neither to the let nor to the right

In the things which are ” in Christ, love nevertheless never uses force or undue constraint Thus the , and God is displeased with it, because it is performed as a sacrifice and work of merit

Therefore it must be abolished Here there is no room for question, just as little as if you should ask whether you should pray to God

Here we are entirely agreed: the private s[3] And I heartily wish it would be abolished everywhere and only the evangelical mass for all the people be retained Yet Christian love should not employ harshness here nor force the ue and pen, that to hold ed away from it by force The matter should be let to God; His word should do the work alone, without our work Why? Because it is not in my power to fashi+on the hearts of men as the potter et no farther than to men's ears; their hearts I cannot reach And since I cannot pour faith into their hearts, I cannot, nor should I, force any one to have faith That is God's work alone, who causes faith to live in the heart Therefore we should give free course to the Word, and not add our works to it We have the _jus verbi_[4], but not the _executio_[5]; we should preach the Word, but the consequences ood pleasure

[Sidenote: Compulsion and Persuasion]

Now if I should rush in and abolish the mass by force, there are many ould be compelled to consent to it and yet not know their own , I do not knohere I stand, I was co and co results in a mere mockery, an external show, a fool's play, man-made ordinances, shaood, I care nothing at all for the work

We must first win the hearts of the people And that is done when I teach only the Word of God, preach the Gospel and say: ”Dear lords or pastors, desist fro when you do it; I cannot refrain fro you this” But I would not eneral law; he ould follow me could do so, and he who refused would remain without In the latter case the Word would sink into the heart and perfore his error, and all away from the mass; to-morrow another would do the same, and thus God would accoe into one all power and authority For if you have won the heart, you have won the whole ht and come to an end And if the hearts and minds of all men are united in the purpose--abolish the mass; but if all are not heart and soul for its abolishment--leave it in God's hands, I beseech you, otherwise the result will not be good Not, indeed, that I would again set up the mass; I let it live in God's name Faith must not be chained and imprisoned, nor bound by an ordinance to any work

This is the principle by which you overned For I am sure you will not be able to carry out your plans, and if you should carry thes that I have written and preached, and I will not support you, and therefore I ask you plainly: What harm can the , toward God, and the mass cannot hurt you

[Sidenote: Paul's Method]

Love, therefore, demands that you have compassion on the weak, as all the apostles had Once, when Paul cahty city, he found in the temple many altars, and he went from one to the other and looked at them all [Acts 17:16 ff], but did not touch any one of them even with his foot But he stood in the midst of the ed the people to forsake them; yet he did not destroy one of them by force When the word took hold of their hearts, they forsook their idols of their own accord, and in consequence idolatry fell of itself Now, if I had seen that they heldit Had they heeded my admonition, they would have been won; if not, I would nevertheless not have torn them from it by the hair or employed any force, but simply allowed the Word to act, while I prayed for thes; the Word , and not we poor sinners