Martin Luther was born at Eiselbyn in Germany on November the 10th 1483.
He was the greatest of all the Reformers.
No soul amongst the galaxy of the Reformation fathers was loftier, brighter, braver, and yet
more tender than the courageous and godly German.
In this recording we let the great man speak for himself.
The extract from his writings and sermons are presented by Dr. Ian R.
K.
Paisley, member of Parliament.
Our presentation begins with Luther's view of the gospel.
As we shall discover, it was soundly based on the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let Luther speak now of his theology, beginning as it did at Bethlehem.
Christian religion beginneth not at the highest, as other religions do, but at the lowest.
It will have us to climb up by Jacob's ladder, whereupon God himself leaneth, whose feet touch
the very earth, hard by the head of Jacob.
Run straight to the manger, and embrace this infant, the virgin's little babe in thine arms,
and behold him as he was born, nursed, grew up, was conversant among men, teaching, dying, rising
again, ascending up above all the heavens, and having power over all things.
This sight and contemplation will keep thee in the right way, that thou mayest follow whether Christ
hath gone.
Martin Luther on Christian religion beginning at Jerusalem.
But Luther's view of things encompassed a wider panorama, being founded as it was on the teachings
of the Word of God.
His whole theology, faith, and practice were based upon it.
He had a clear conception of the Bible.
To Luther, the Bible was not just another great book, it was the book of books, the Word of God.
The Word of God is a fiery shield for this reason, that it is more enduring and purer than gold fried
in the fire.
Which gold loses nothing in the fire, but it stands the fire, endures, and overcomes all trial.
So he who believes in the Word of God overcomes all, and continues eternally secure against all
misfortune.
This shield shrinks not from the gates of hell, but the gates of hell tremble before it.
Luther ever exhorted the people of his day to keep to the teachings of the Bible.
The Bible was not just a shield of defense, it was a guidebook, a chart for the journey through life,
and entitled to be read by all, for it was also a clear book.
It is an abominable slander against the Holy Scriptures, and against all Christendom, to say
that the Holy Scriptures are dark.
There was never written on earth a clearer book than the Holy Scriptures.
Compared with all other books, it is as the sun to all other light.
Let none tempt you away from the Scriptures, for if you step out of these, you are lost.
Your enemies lead you whither they will, but if you keep to them, you have overcome, and will heed
their raging no more than the rock heeds the waves and billows of the sea.
Nothing is clearer than the sun.
If a cloud glides before it, behind it is nothing but the clear sun.
So if there is a dark saying in the Scriptures, doubt not that behind it most surely is shining
the same truth which in other places is clear.
And let him who cannot pierce the dark keep to what is clear.
While still on the theme of the Holy Scriptures, let us hear Luther speak again on their simplicity
and their depth.
In this book thou findest the swaddling clothes and the manger wherein the Christ is laid.
Thinner the angels direct at the shepherds.
These swaddling clothes may indeed be poor and little, but precious is the treasure Christ laid
therein.
Before a man can truly understand the first little word in Genesis, in the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth.
He dies.
If he lived a thousand years, he would not learn these words.
He lived through and through.
Having a theology so soundly Bible based, made Luther a man of great faith, for faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Such faith inspires hope, even when it seems there is no hope.
Let Luther speak now on those twin truths, faith and hope.
Faith is a teacher and a judge, fighting against errors and heresies, judging spirits and
doctrines.
But hope is, as it were, the general or captain of the field, fighting against temptation, the cross,
impatience, heaviness of spirit, desperation and blasphemy, and it waiteth for good things, even in
the midst of all evils.
Faith and hope are in many ways distinguished.
Faith is in the understanding of man, hope in the will.
These two can no more be severed than the two cherubim above the mercy seat.
According to their offices, faith dictates, distinguishes, teaches, and is knowledge and
science.
But hope exhorts, awakens, listens, waits, and patiently endures.
Faith looks to the word or promise, that is the truth.
But hope looks to that which the word has promised, to the gifts.
Faith exists at the beginning of life, before all tribulations and adversities.
But hope follows afterwards, and grows out of tribulation.
Martin Luther certainly loved and had a high regard for the whole Bible.
However, he had a special regard for particular books as well, as we now discover.
Here he is, speaking with affection about one of those beloved books, the Psalms.
If all the greatest excellencies and most choice experience of all the true saints should be
gathered from the whole church, since it has existed, and should be condensed into the focus of
one book, such a book would be what the book of Psalms is.
For in the book of Psalms, we have not the life of the saints only, but we have the experience of
Christ himself, the head of all the saints.
So that you may truly call the book of Psalms a little Bible.
Be assured that the Holy Spirit himself has written and handed down to us this book of Psalms,
in the same way as a father would give a book to his children.
He himself has drawn up this manual for his disciples.
Having collected together, as it were, the lives, groans and experience of many thousands, whose
hearts he alone sees and knows.
All other histories and lives of the saints, which describe their acts and works only, when compared
with the book of Psalms, sent forth to us nothing more than dumb saints, and everything that is
recorded of them is dull and lifeless.
But in the book of Psalms, all things live, all things breathe, and living characters are set
before us in the most lively color.
This special regard extended to certain writers as well.
Here he speaks on St. Luke and St. Peter.
The world prizes worthless things and passes by with a sleepy indifference the great majestic
words of Christ about the victory over death, sin and hell, and about eternal life.
It takes them not to heart.
The evangelist St. Luke has written most fully the history of the sufferings of Christ.
But St. John goes to the main point, describes the audience and the tribunal, how the matter was
handled before the judgment seat, how Christ was heard and questioned, and why he was put to death.
Like every other great man in church history, Martin Luther made much of the Lord Jesus.
He was especially taken with the words of Christ and of how the Savior used them to bring to note
the attacks which the scribes and Pharisees made against him.
This is admirably illustrated in this next extract.
The words of the Lord Christ are the most powerful.
They have hands and feet and overcome all attacks, all subtleties and devices of the wise.
Thus we see in the gospel how Christ, with quite simple common words, brought to shame the wisdom
of the Pharisees so that they could find no escape from them.
The Lord says, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's.
For he neither bids nor forbids to pay the tribute, but answers them with their own
arguments.
As if he had said, if indeed you have suffered Caesar to make such inroads that you have and use
his coinage, then give him what you owe him.
However, his appreciation of Christ did not end there.
It extended to every aspect of his life and ministry.
For example, here is what he had to say about the priestly work of the Savior.
From a man who was raised in the system of Roman priestcraft, it is truly remarkable.
I have sworn and will not repent.
Thou art a priest forever.
That is the most beautiful and glorious verse in the whole Psalter.
For herein God holds forth this Christ alone as our Bishop and High Priest, who himself and no
other, without ceasing, maketh intercession for his own with the Father.
Not Caiaphas nor Annas nor Peter nor Paul nor the Pope.
He, he alone shall be the priest.
This I affirm with an oath.
Thou art a priest forever.
In that saying, every syllable is greater than the whole tower of Babel.
To this priest let us cling and cleave, for he is faithful.
He has given himself for us to God and holds us dearer than his own life.
When we stand firm to Christ, there is no other God in heaven or on earth but one who makes just
and blessed.
On the other hand, if we lose him from our heart and eyes, there is no other health, comfort or
rest.
Rupert also had a clear biblical view of the doctrine of sin.
The defilements and pollutions of sin, so openly practiced in the streets of his native land, did
much to raise his ire against the system which encouraged such wickedness.
He knew himself to have been a great sinner, but he also knew great deliverance through Christ, the
conqueror of sin.
Sin is a mighty and cruel tyrant, ruling and reigning over the whole world, bringing all men
into bondage.
This tyrant flyeth upon Christ and will need swallow him up as he doth all other.
But he seeth not that Christ is a person of invincible and everlasting righteousness.
In this combat, what is done?
Righteousness is everlasting, immortal, invincible.
In like manner, death, which is an invincible queen and empress of the whole world, killing
kings, princes, and generally all men, doth mightily encounter with life, thinking utterly to
overcome it.
And that which it undertaketh, it bringeth to pass indeed.
But because life was immortal, therefore when it was overcome, yet did it truly overcome, and get
the victory, vanquishing and killing death.
Death, therefore, through Christ is vanquished and abolished throughout the whole world, so that now
it is but a paint of death, which losing its sting can no more hurt those that believe in Christ, who
has become the death of death.
No wonder Luther could write, What though the accused are raw, all evils I have done, I know
them all, and thousands more, Jehovah findeth none.
In this next extract, he continues the theme of forgiveness as he expounds the connection between
the law and the gospel.
The law discovers the disease, the gospel gives the remedy.
The law is what we must do, the gospel what God will give.
The gospel is like a fresh, soft, cool breeze in the great heat of summer, comfort and anguish of
conscience.
Not in winter, when there is already cold enough, that is in time of peace, when people are secure.
But in the great heat of summer, that is in those who truly feel terror and anguish of conscience,
and God's anger against them.
This heat is caused by the sun, so must this terror of conscience be caused by the preaching of
the law.
Then must the heavenly breeze again quicken and refresh the conscience.
But when the powers are thus again quickened by the sweet wind of the gospel, we must not lie idly
basking, we must show our faith by good works.
Like as a parched earth coveted the rain, the law maketh parched and troubled souls to thirst after
Christ.
The law is a light which enlightens us, not to see God's grace nor righteousness, through which we
attain to eternal life, but to see sin or infirmities, death, God's anger and judgment.
The gospel is a far different light.
It lights up the troubled heart, makes it live again, comforts and helps.
For it shows how God forgives unworthy, condemned sinners for Christ's sake, when they believe that
they are redeemed by His death, and that through His victory are given to them all blessings,
grace, forgiveness of sins, righteousness and eternal life.
The writings of Martin Luther indicate that he was no mere tub-thumping, pope-bashing former papist.
They are full of biblical truth, practical wisdom and good sound common sense.
Here's another fine example.
This time he speaks on the subject of music.
There is no doubt that many seeds of excellent virtues are in those souls who love music.
And I fully deem, and am not ashamed to assert, that after theology there is no art which can be
compared to music.
For she alone, after theology, causes that which otherwise theology alone can cause, namely a glad
and quiet heart.
Therefore the devil, author of sadness and bad cares, and of crowds of disquiets, flees at the
voice of music as he flees at the word of theology.
The devil is a sorrowful spirit, and makes people sorrowful.
Therefore he cannot endure cheerfulness.
That is why he flees as far as he can from music, remains not where there is singing, especially of
him.
Thus David softened Saul's temptation by his heart.
Musical notes make the text living.
They drive away the spirit of depression.
Music is the best refreshment of a troubled man.
For by his heart is again brought to peace, invigorated and refreshed.
Music is a discipline, and a mistress of order and good manners.
She makes the people milder and gentler, more moral and more reasonable.
Music is a beautiful glorious gift of God.
And next, to theology.
I would not lose the little music I have in me for something great.
The young should always be exercised in this art, for it makes capable men.
The devil, that lost spirit, cannot endure sacred songs of joy, or passions and impatiences, or
complainings and or crying, or alas, or despair.
The devil is a sorrowful man, and our woe is me.
Please him well on our songs and Sam's becks, and grieve him sorely.
Singing is the best art and exercise.
It has nothing to do with the world.
It is nothing before the tribunals, or in matters of strife.
Singers are not careful, but joyful, and with singing, drive cares away.
The wit and wisdom of Martin Luther on the subject of music.
Here's that same wise insight into spiritual matters, but to good use again, in this piece on
the two kingdoms.
The kingdom of the world, or the devil's kingdom, is the kingdom of iniquity, ignorance, error, sin,
death, blasphemy, desperation, and sin.
The devil's kingdom is the kingdom of sin, and eternal damnation.
On the other side, the kingdom of Christ is the kingdom of equity, light, grace, remission of
sins, peace, consolations, saving health, and eternal life.
The devil gives heaven before sin, and after we have sinned, drives us to dismay of conscience,
and to despair.
Christ does the contrary.
He gives heaven after sin, and peace to the troubled conscience.
Last night when I awoke, the devil came and wanted to dispute with me, and cast up at me that I was a
sinner.
Then I said, say something you devil, that I know well already.
I have committed real actual sins, but the sins that God forgives for his dear son's sake are real
sins.
The devil often casts up against me what great offenses have come from my doctrine.
Sometimes he makes me heavy and sad with such thoughts.
And when I answer that much good has also sprung then, by a master's stroke he can turn that
against me.
Thank God the devil has never been able altogether to vanquish me.
He has burned himself out on the Lord Christ.
At the beginning we said that while none was so bold and courageous as Martin Luther, yet none was
so tender, so compassionate.
Here's a fine example of that human tenderness in this apology for the fact that men sometimes fall
but that they can rise again.
And in his exhortation to be gentle to all such.
I know.
I know it must be that offenses come.
Neither is it a miracle for man to fall.
A miracle is for man to rise again and stand.
Peter fell that he might know himself to be a man.
Today also the cedars of Lebanon fall, whose tops touch the heavens.
Nay, which surpasses all wonders, an angel fell in heaven and Adam in paradise.
What wonder then that the angel fell in heaven if a reed is shaken with the wind and the smoking
flax is quenched.
The Lord Jesus teach thee and work with thee and finish the good work.
Anger is hell, gentleness is heaven.
Therefore the gentler thou art, the nearer thou art to heaven.
Finally, on this side of the tape, here's Luther speaking on the requirements of a preacher.
It seems he spoke from a first-hand experience of that noble art.
Once more, let Luther speak.
A good preacher should have these virtues and qualities.
First, he should be able to teach plainly and in order.
Secondly, he should have a good hand.
Thirdly, he should have a good power of speech.
Fourthly, a good voice.
Fifthly, a good memory.
Sixthly, he should know when to stop.
Seventhly, he should be sure what he means to say and should study diligently.
Eighthly, he should be ready to stake body and life, goods and glory on its truth.
Ninthly, he must suffer himself to be vexed and criticized by everybody.
The word and teaching of man have decreed and prescribed that the judging of doctrine be left
altogether to bishops, theologians, and councils.
Whatever these have decided, all the world is bound to regard as law and as articles of faith.
This is abundantly proved by their daily harping on the Pope's canon law.
One hears scarcely anything else from them but the boast that they have the power and the right to
judge what is Christian and what is heretical.
The plain Christian must await their decision and abide by it.
Thus he opens up with the position of the church.
Now listen as he proceeds to demolish it with clear scriptural argument.
Luther maintained that all men have the right and power to judge doctrine.
This claim of theirs with which they have intimidated the whole world and which is their
chief stronghold and defense, though how shamelessly and how senselessly it rages against
the law and word of God.
For Christ decrees the very opposite.
He takes from the bishops, theologians, and councils both the right and the power to judge
doctrine and confers them upon all men and upon all Christians in particular.
He does this when he says in John 10, My sheep hear my voice, and my sheep do not follow a
stranger, but flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers.
As many as have come are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
Here you see plainly who has the right to judge teaching.
Bishops, Pope, theologians, and anyone else have the power to teach, but the sheep are to judge
whether what they teach is the voice of Christ or the voice of strangers.
To this the bishops and clergy, whom Luther referred to as windbags, replied, We must listen
to the theologians and the bishops.
We must consider how things were done in ancient days and follow the old customs.
But Luther would have none of this.
He retorted, What?
God's word yield to your ancient usage, your custom, your bishops?
Never.
We therefore let bishops and councils decide and decree what they please.
But when we have God's word on our side, it shall be for us and not for them to say whether it be
right or wrong, and they shall yield to us and obey our word.
Having thus dispensed with the usurped authority of the bishops, he then proceeded to expose them
as false shepherds, who were in no wise to be trusted with the care of immortal souls.
Here you see plainly enough, I fancy, how much trust is to be placed in those persons who deal
with souls by means of the word of men.
Who does not see that all bishops, foundations, monastic houses, and all other institutions and
universities, with all that are therein, rage against this clear word of Christ by shamelessly
taking from the sheep the judgment of doctrine and appropriating it to themselves by their own
imprudent decree?
Hence they are certainly to be regarded as murderers, thieves, wolves, and apostate
Christians, who are here openly convicted not only by denying the word of God, but of setting up and
carrying out decrees in opposition to this word.
Strong, plain words against the deceits and delusions of the Roman church.
And Luther went on to point out that Paul had predicted such things in 2 Thessalonians chapter
2.
Again and again we find Luther taking us back to the word of God.
His whole life and ministry appear to have been steeped in scripture.
Here is yet another example in which he points out that the right use of books is essential, and that
all earthly books are to be subservient to God's book.
I only ask in all kindness that the man who wishes at this time to have my books will by no means let
them be a hindrance to his own study of the scriptures.
In this I follow the example of St. Augustine, who is one of the first and almost the only one of
them to subject himself to the holy scriptures alone, uninfluenced by the books of all the
fathers and the saints.
This brought him into a hard fray with St. Jerome, who cast up to him the writings of his
predecessors, but he did not care for that.
If this example of St. Augustine had been followed, the Pope would not have become
Antichrist.
The countless vermin, the swarming parasitical mass of books would not have come into the church.
And the Bible would have kept its place in the pulpit.
Luther can rightly be described as a great contender for the faith.
He contended against error.
He contended for truth.
He himself claimed to contend for only two things.
Listen to him speak.
I contend for but two things.
First, I will not suffer any man to establish new articles of faith, and to abuse all other
Christians in the world, and slander and brand them as heretics, apostates and unbelievers,
simply because they are not under the Pope.
It is enough that we let the Pope be Pope, and it is not needful that for his sake God and His
saints on earth should be blasphemed.
Secondly, all that the Pope decrees and does, I will receive on this condition that I first tested
by the Holy Scriptures.
He must remain under Christ and submit to be judged by the Holy Scriptures.
But these Roman names come along, place Him above Christ, and make Him a judge over the Scriptures.
They say He cannot err, and whatever is dreamed at Rome, everything which they dare to come out with,
they would prescribe for us as articles of faith.
And as if that were not enough, they would introduce a new kind of faith, so that we are to
believe what we can see with our bodily eyes.
For as faith by its very nature is of the things which no one sees or feels, as St. Paul says in
Hebrews chapter 11, the Roman authority and fellowship is a bodily thing, and can be seen by
anyone.
If the Pope come to that, which may God forbid, I would say right out that he is the real
Antichrist, of whom all the Scriptures speak.
From that last excerpt, it is seen that Luther did not fear to meet the Pope head on and call him the
Antichrist.
He used that term for the Roman Pontiff on more than one occasion.
Here he is elaborating on the subject.
Above all, we would drive out of German lands the papal legates with their faculties, which they
sell us for large sums of money, though that is sheer knavery.
For example, in return for money, they legalize unjust gains, dissolve oaths, vows and agreements,
break and teach men to break the faith and fealty which they have pledged to one another, and they
say the Pope has the authority to do this.
It is the evil spirit who bids them say this.
Thus they sell a doctrine of devils and take money for teaching us sin and leading us to hell.
If there were no other evil wiles to prove the Pope the true Antichrist, yet this one thing were
enough to prove it.
Hearest thou this, O Pope, not most holy, but most sinful, O that God from heaven would soon destroy
thy throne and sink it in the abyss of hell.
Who hath given thee authority to exalt thyself above thy God, to break and to loose his
commandments, and to teach Christians especially the German nation, praised in all history for its
nobility, its constancy and fidelity to be inconstant, perjurers, traitors, profligates,
faithless?
God hath commanded to keep oath and faith even with an enemy, and thou undertakest to loose this
his commandments, and ordainest in thine heretical Antichristian decretals above hast his power.
Thus through thy throat and through thy pen the wicked Satan doth lie as he hath never lied
before.
Thou dost force and rest the Scriptures to thy fancy.
O Christ my Lord, look down on me.
Let the day of thy judgment break, and destroy the devil's nest at Rome.
Here sitteth the man of whom St. Paul hath said, that he shall exalt himself above thee.
Sit in thy church, and set himself up as God, the man of sin and the son of perdition.
What else is the papal power than only the teaching and increasing of sin and evil, the
leading of souls to damnation under thy name and guise.
Continuing on the subject of the Pope as the Antichrist, Luther next shows us how scripturally
accurate the accusation is.
The Pope is Antichrist because he is a counter Christ, a false Christ.
Again, let Luther speak.
Such extravagant over presumptuous and more than wicked doings of the Pope have been devised by the
devil in order that under their cover he may in time bring in Antichrist and raise the Pope above
God, as many are already doing and have done.
It is not proper for the Pope to exalt himself above the temporal authorities, save only in
spiritual offices such as preaching and absolving.
In other things he is to be subject, as Paul and Peter teach in Romans chapter 13 and 1 Peter
chapter 3.
He is not vicar of Christ in heaven, but of Christ as he walked on earth.
For Christ in heaven, in the form of a ruler, needs no vicar, but he sits, sees, does, and knows
all things, and has all power.
But he needs a vicar in the form of a servant, in which he walked on earth, toiling, preaching,
suffering, and dying.
Now they turn it around, take from Christ the heavenly form of ruler, and give it to the Pope,
leaving the form of a servant to perish utterly.
He might almost be the counter Christ, whom the scriptures call antichrist, but all his nature,
work, and doings are against Christ, for the destruction of Christ's nature and work.
It was the Pope also who was responsible for the practice of withholding the cup in communion, and
thus forbidding the common people to obey the command of the Saviour to eat and drink in
remembrance of me.
Next they took entirely from us the one element, the wine.
Although that does not matter much, for the word is more important than the sign.
Still, I should like to know who gave them the power to do such a thing.
In the same way, they might take from us the other element, and at last abolish everything that
Christ has instituted.
I fear it is a figure and type that augurs nothing good in these perilous, perverted latter days.
It is said that the Pope has the power to do it.
I say that is all fiction.
He does not have a hair's breadth of power to change what Christ has meant.
Whatever of these things he changes, that he does as a tyrant and antichrist.
Although, as we have said, his battle was with the whole system of Rome, his main thrust was against
the position and authority of the Pope.
The Pope, as the head of the Church, was responsible for the continuation of his wicked
practices.
He, in fact, perpetuated and encouraged them.
Therefore, he was patently guilty of its most heinous crimes.
No wonder Luther branded him the lying Pope.
This arbitrary will and lying reservation of the Pope creates in Rome a state of things which is
unspeakable.
There is buying, selling, bartering, treating, trafficking, lying, deceiving, robbing, stealing,
luxury, harlotry, knavery, and every sort of contempt of God, and even the rule of antichrist
could not be more scandalous.
Venice, Antwerp, Cairo are nothing compared to this fair which is held at Rome and the business
that is done there, except that in those places they still observe right and reason.
At Rome, everything goes as the devil wills, and out of this ocean flows into the whole world.
Is it a wonder that such people fear a reformation and a free council, and prefer to set all kings
and princes at enmity, rather than that they may unite and bring about such a council?
Who could bear to have such knavery exposed if it were his own?
Luther's personal knowledge of the Roman Church equipped him well to expose and denounce it.
He missed no opportunity of doing so, as is demonstrated in this next extract on the sea of
Rome.
But thy sea, which is called the Roman Curia, and of which neither thou nor any man can deny, that
it is more corrupt than any Babylon or Sodom ever was.
And which is, as far as I can see, characterized by a totally depraved, hopeless, and notorious
wickedness.
That sea I have truly despised, and I have been incensed to think that in thy name, and under the
guise of the Roman Church, the people of Christ are mocked.
And so I have resisted, and will resist that sea, as long as the spirit of faith shall live in me.
Not that I shall strive after the impossible, or hope that by my own efforts anything will be
accomplished in that most disordered Babylon, where the rage of so many is turned against me.
But I acknowledge myself a debtor to my brethren, whom it is my duty to warn that fewer of them may
be destroyed by the plagues of Rome, or at least that their destruction may be less cruel.
For as I well knowest, these many years there has flowed forth from Rome, like a flood covering the
world, nothing but a laying waste of men's bodies and souls and possessions, and the worst possible
examples of the worst possible things.
For all this is clearer than the day to all men.
And the Roman Church, once the most holy of all, has become the most licentious den of thieves, the
most shameless of all brothels, the kingdom of sin, death and hell, so that even Antichrist
himself, should he come, could think of nothing to add to its wickedness.
But it wasn't only in Rome itself that the Pope's villainy was manifested.
It reached as far as Luther's homeland and affected his fellow countrymen.
This roused the righteous anger of the great reformer.
Once more he spoke.
I am surprised that Germany, which is by one half or more in possession of the Church, still has so
much as one penny left by reason of the unspeakable, innumerable, insufferable Roman
thieves.
Thieves and robbers.
It is said that Antichrist shall find the treasures of the earth.
I, through the Romanists, have found them to such an extent as to make our very life a burden.
If the German princes and the nobility will not interfere very shortly, and with the size of
courage, Germany will yet become a wilderness and be compelled to devour itself.
That would furnish the greatest pleasure for the Romanists.
Squeeze the gold from the German fools in any way you can.
That is a proverb concerning us at Rome.
The Pope does not prevent this scandalous villainy.
They all wink at it.
Yea, they think far more highly of these supreme arch-villains than they do of the Holy Gospel of
God.
The Roman Catholic clergy did not escape the wrath of Luther either.
They were also guilty, he thought, of causing the people to sin in such a way as they would not have
done had they not been under the wicked influence of what Luther called the people asses.
All Christians can err and sin, but God has taught them all to pray in the Lord's prayer for
forgiveness of sins, and has known well how to forgive the sins that they have had to commit
unwillingly, unknowingly, and under compulsion of Antichrist, saying nothing about it to the priests
and monks.
But it can easily be proved that in all the world there has always been a great secret murmuring and
complaining against the clergy, as men who were not treating the Church aright and the people
asses have valuably withstood such murmuring with fire and sword down to the present day.
This murmuring proves how gladly the Christians have seen these abominations and how right they
have been.
Now dear asses, come along and say this is the teaching of the Church, these stinking lies which
you villains and traitors have imposed by force upon the Church, and over which you arch murderers
have slain many Christians.
Every letter of every papal law shows that nothing is ever taught with the counsel or will of the
Church.
This tyranny the Church has had to endure, it has been robbed of the sacrament and by no fault of
its own it has been held in captivity.
And that the asses would palm off their intolerable tyranny of theirs on us as a willing
part of the Church and an example and so adorn themselves.
From all that we have heard, it is no wonder that Luther was called the hammer of the papacy.
As expected however, his defiant attitude and outspoken criticisms landed him in deep trouble
with the Church.
Eventually he was summoned to appear at the notorious Diet or Congress at Worms in 1521.
The outcome was not surprising, he never really stood a chance.
Faced with the books he had written, the statements he had made and the demand to retract,
there was nothing he could do.
Of course he would not, he could not retract.
Just before the hierarchy of the Church with whom he had fought such an arduous battle condemned him
as an heretic, he gave his immortal answer in the words which still thrill us after more than four
centuries, here I stand, I can do no other, but let Luther speak for himself just once more.
Since your most serene majesty and your high mightinesses require from me a clear, simple and
precise answer, I will give you one, and it is this.
I cannot submit my faith either to the Pope or to the Council, because it is clear as a day that
they have frequently erred and contradicted each other.
Unless, therefore, I am convinced by the testimony of Scripture or by the clearest reasoning, unless
I am persuaded by means of the passage of the Prophets, I have quoted, and unless they thus
render my conscience bound by the word of God, I cannot and I will not retract, for it is unseemly
for a Christian to speak against his conscience.
Here I stand, I can do no other, but let Luther speak for himself.
No other.
May God help me.
Amen.
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And remember that John Calvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or
what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I
commanded them not, neither came into my heart, from his commentary on Jeremiah 7.31, writes, God
here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since he condemns by this one phrase, I
have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised.
There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by
God.
For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to
his commands, they pervert true religion.
And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which
they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground.
It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by
performing their own superstitions.
There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears.
Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying his word,
they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error.
The prophet's words then are very important.
When he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he
had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.