Martin Luther's Writings: February 2004

February 22, 2004

Luther's Preface to the Sermon on the Mount

I am very happy to see the publication of these sermons of mine on the three chapters of St. Matthew which St. Augustine calls "the Lord's Sermon on the Mount." May God grant His grace so that they may help to preserve and keep the true, sure, and Christian understanding of this teaching of Christ, because these are such common sayings and texts that are used so often throughout Christendom. I do not doubt that here I have presented their true, pure, and Christian meaning to my friends and to anyone else that is interested. It is beyond understanding how through his apostles the wicked devil has managed so cleverly to twist and pervert especially the fifth chapter, making it teach the exact opposite of what it means. Christ here deliberately wanted to oppose all false teaching and to open up the true meaning of God's commandments, as He emphasizes when He says (Matt. 5:17): "I have not come to abolish the Law." He takes it up piece by piece and tries to make it completely dear. Still the infernal Satan has not found a single text in the Scriptures that he has more shamefully distorted and into which he has imported more error and false teaching than this very one, which Christ Himself ordered and appointed in order to head off false doctrine. This is really the devil's masterpiece!

First, this fifth chapter has fallen into the hands of the vulgar pigs and asses, the jurists and sophists, the right hand of that jackass of a pope and of his mamelukes. Out of this beautiful rose they have sucked and broadcast poison, covering up Christ with it and elevating and maintaining Antichrist. According to them, Christ does not intend everything He teaches in the fifth chapter to be regarded by His Christians as a command for them to observe; but He gave much of it merely as advice to those who want to become perfect, to be kept by anyone who pleases. This in spite of Christ's angry threat that no one will enter heaven who abolishes even one of the least of these commandments (Matt. 5:19); and He explicitly calls them "commandments." On this basis they have thought up the twelve "evangelical counsels," twelve bits of good advice in the Gospel, which may be kept by anyone who pleases if he wants to attain a perfection higher and more perfect than that of other Christians. Thus they have not only made perfection as well as Christian salvation dependent upon works apart from faith, but they have even made these works optional. I call that forbidding true and fine good works—which is just what these vulgar asses and blasphemers accuse us of doing.
They cannot deny this, and no amount of covering or glossing over will help them as long as this fifth chapter of Matthew stands. Their books and glosses are in public view, as is the impenitent life, past and present, which they lead on the basis of this teaching of theirs. In their circles these twelve "evangelical counsels" are commonly taught: Do not requite wrongdoing! Do not avenge yourself! Offer the other cheek! Do not resist evil! Give your cloak along with your coat! Go the second mile! Give to everyone that asks! Lend to him who borrows! Pray for your persecutors! Love your enemies! Do good to those who hate! Do the other things that Christ teaches here! "All this," so they spew out, "is not commanded." And the jackasses in Paris frankly admit their reasons when they say: "Christian teaching would have much too hard a time of it if it were loaded down with things like this." In this way the jurists and sophists have been ruling and teaching the church till now, so that Christ with His teaching and interpretation has had to be their jester and juggler. Still they do no penance for this, but they eagerly defend it. They are trying to re-establish their cursed, shabby canons and to reinstate the crown on the head of their jackass of a pope. May God grant that I live to provide spangles and jewels for such a crown. Then, God willing, this jackass would be crowned right!

Dear brother, let this preaching of mine be of service to you, in the first place, against our squires, the jurists and sophists. I am referring especially to the canonists, whom they themselves call "asses"; and that is what they are. Thus you maypreserve in its purity the teaching of Christ in this chapter of Matthew, instead of their asinine cunning and devilish dung. In the second place there are the new jurists and sophists, the schismatic spirits and Anabaptists. From their crazy heads they are making new trouble out of this fifth chapter. The others go too far to the left when they keep nothing at all of this teaching of Christ, but condemn and obliterate it. In the same way these men lean too far to the right when they teach miserable stuff like this: that it is wrong to own private property, to swear, to hold office as a ruler or judge, to protect or defend oneself, to stay with wife and children. Thus the devil blows and brews on both sides so that they do not recognize any difference between the secular and the divine realm, much less what should be the distinctive doctrine and action in each realm. Thank God, we can boast that in these sermons we have clearly and diligently shown and emphasized this. Whoever errs or will err from now on, we are excused from all responsibility for him; for we have faithfully set forth our views for everyone's benefit. Let their blood be on their own head! We shall await our reward for this— ingratitude, hate, and all sorts of hostility. And we shall say, "Thank God!"

From these horrible examples of both the papistic and the schismatic jurists we learn and know what the devil has in mind, especially his intention to distort this fifth chapter of St. Matthew, and thereby to exterminate pure Christian teaching. So let every preacher or minister be urged and warned to keep faithful and diligent watch over the little flock entrusted to him, and to help preserve the right interpretation. So long as the devil lives and the world stands, he will not stop attacking this chapter. His aim is in this way to suppress good works altogether, as happened under the papacy; or to institute false good works and fictitious holiness, as he has now begun to do through the new monks or schismatic spirits. Even if both the papistic and the schismatic jurists and monks were to perish, he would still find or raise up others; for he has to have such a following. From the beginning of the world, his kingdom has been ruled by monks. Though they may not have been called "monk," yet their teaching and life have been monkish, that is, different and special and better than what God has commanded. For example, among the people of Israel there were the Baalites, the áÌÀîÈøÄéí, and the like; among the heathen there were the castrated priests and the vestal virgins. Therefore we can never be smug inhis presence. From this fifth chapter have come the pope's monks, who on the basis of this chapter have laid claim to a more perfect station in life than other Christians, and have maintained this claim until they are full of greed, pride, and finally every kind of devil. May Christ, our dear Lord and Master, who has opened up the true meaning for us, increase and strengthen it for us, and may He help us to live and act according to it. To Him be praise and thanks, with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever. Amen.

February 18, 2004

Table Talk - Justfication, Luther's Last Observation

No. 5570a: It Is Faith that Justifies, Not WorksSpring, 1543

"That works don't merit life, grace, and salvation is clear from this, that works are not spiritual birth but are fruits of this birth. We are not made sons, heirs, righteous, saints, Christians by means of works, but we do good works once we have been made, born, created such. So it's necessary to have life, salvation, and grace before works, just as a tree doesn't deserve to become a tree on account of its fruit but a tree is by nature fitted to bear fruit. Because we're born, created, generated righteous by the Word of grace, we're not fashioned, prepared, or put together as such by means of the law or works. Works merit something else than life, grace, or salvation—namely, praise, glory, favor, and certain extraordinary things—just as a tree deserves to be loved, cultivated, praised, and honored by others on account of its fruit. Urge the birth and substance of the Christian and you will at the same time extinguish the merits of works insofar as grace and salvation from sin, death, and the devil are concerned. "Infants who have no works are saved by faith alone, and therefore faith alone justifies. If the power of God can do this in one person it can do it in all, because it's not the power of the infant but the power of faith. Nor is it the weakness of the infant that does it, otherwise that weakness would in itself be a merit or be equivalent to one. We'd like to defy our Lord God with our works. We'd like to become righteous through them. But he won'tallow it. My conscience tells me that I'm not justified by works, but nobody believes it. `Thou art justified in thy sentence; against thee only have I sinned and done that which is evil in try sight' [Ps. 51:4]. What is meant by `forgive us our debts' [Matt. 6:12]? Idon't want to be good. What would be easier than for a man to say, `I am a sinful man' [Luke 5:8]? But thou art a righteous God. That would be bad enough, but we are our own tormentors. The Spirit says, `Righteous art thou' [Ps. 119:137]. The flesh can't say this: `Thou art justified in thy sentence' [Ps. 51:4]."

No. 5677: Luther's Last Observation Left in a Note February 16, 1546

"Nobody can understand Vergil in his Bucolics and Georgics unless he has first been a shepherd or a farmer for five years. "Nobody understands Cicero in his letters unless he has been engaged in public affairs of some consequence for twenty years. "Let nobody suppose that he has tasted the Holy Scriptures sufficiently unless he has ruled over the churches with the prophets for a hundred years. Therefore there is something wonderful, first, about John the Baptist; second, about Christ; third, about the apostles. `Lay not your hand on this divine Aeneid, but bow before it, adore its every trace.' "We are beggars. That is true." These were the last thoughts of Dr. Martin Luther on the day before he died.

February 14, 2004

Estate of Marriage (Part Two)

4. God makes distinctions between the different kinds of love, and shows that the love of a man and woman is (or should be) the greatest and purest of all loves. For he says, "A man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife" [Gen. 2:24], and the wife doesthe same, as we see happening around us every day. Now there are three kinds of love: false love, natural love, and married love. False love is that which seeks its own, as a man loves money, possessions, honor, and women taken outside of marriage and against God'scommand. Natural love is that between father and child, brother and sister, friend and relative, and similar relationships. But over and above all these is married love, that is, a bride's love, which glowslike a fire and desires nothing but the husband. She says, "It is youI want, not what is yours: I want neither our silver nor your gold; I want neither. I want only you. I want you in your entirety, or not at all." All other kinds of love seek something other than the loved one: this kind wants only to have the beloved's own self completely. If Adam had not fallen, the love of bride and groom would have been the loveliest thing. Now this love is not pure either, for admittedly a married partner desires to have the other, yet each seeks to satisfy his desire with the other, and it is his desire which corrupts this kind of love. Therefore, the married state is now no longer pure and free from sin. The temptation of the flesh has become so strong and consuming that marriage may be likened to a hospital for incurables which prevents inmates from falling into graver sin.

Before Adam fell it was a simple matter to remain virgin and chaste, but now it is hardly possible, and without special grace from God, quite impossible. For this very reason neither Christ nor the apostles sought to make chastity a matter of obligation. It is true that Christ counseled chastity and he left it up to each one to test himself, so that if he could not be continent he was free to marry, but if by the grace of God he could be continent, then chastity is better.

Thus the doctors have found three good and useful thingsabout the married estate, by means of which the sin of lust, which flows beneath the surface, is counteracted and ceases to be a cause of damnation.

First, [the doctors say] that it is a sacrament. A sacrament is a sacred sign of something spiritual, holy, heavenly, and eternal, just as the water of baptism, when the priest pours it over the child, means that the holy, divine, eternal grace is poured into the soul and body of that child at the same time, and cleanses him from his original sin. This also means that the kingdom of God, which is an inestimable benefit, in fact immeasurably greater than the water
which conveys this meaning, is within him. In the same way the estate of marriage is a sacrament. It is an outward and spiritual sign of the greatest, holiest, worthiest, and noblest thing that has ever existed or ever will exist: the union of the divine and human natures in Christ. The holy apostle Paul says that as man and wife united in the estate of matrimony are two in one flesh, so God and man are united in the one person Christ, and so Christ and Christendom are
one body. It is indeed a wonderful sacrament, as Paul says [Eph. 5:32], that the estate of marriage truly signifies such a great reality. Is it not a wonderful thing that God is man and that he gives himself to man and will be his, just as the husband gives himself to his wife and is hers? But if God is ours, then everything
is ours.

Consider this matter with the respect it deserves. Because the union of man and woman signifies such a great mystery, the estate of marriage has to have this special significance. This means that the wicked lust of the flesh, which nobody is without, is a conjugal obligation and is not reprehensible when expressed within marriage, but in all other cases outside the bond of marriage, it is mortal
sin. In a parallel way the holy manhood of God covers the shame of the wicked lust of the flesh. Therefore, a married man should have regard for such a sacrament, honor it as sacred, and behave properly in marital obligations, so that those things which originate in the lust of the flesh do not occur [among us] as they do in the world of brute beasts.

Second, [the doctors say] that marriage is a covenant of fidelity. The whole basis and essence of marriage is that each gives himself or herself to the other, and they promise to remain faithful to each other and not give themselves to any other. By binding themselves to each other, and surrendering themselves to each other, the way is barred to the body of anyone else, and they content themselves in the marriage bed with their one companion. In this way God sees to it that the flesh is subdued so as not to rage wherever and however it pleases, and, within this plighted troth, permits even more occasion than is necessary for the begetting of children. But, of course, a man has to control himself and not make a filthy sow's sty of his marriage.

At this point I want to say what kind of words should be used when two people are betrothed to each other. The matter has been dealt with at such length, in such depth, and in such concise fashion that I myself am much too inadequate to understand it all, but I am afraid that there are many who are as married people, whom before now we thought unmarried. But because the estate of
marriage consists essentially in consent having been freely and previously given one to another, and also because God is wonderfully merciful in all his judgments, I will leave it all to his care. The generally accepted formula is "I am thine, thou art mine," and though some intended it most strictly, it is not enough when they say, "I will take thee" or "I am willing to take thee" or when they use some other form of words. Nevertheless I would still prefer to consider the words in the sense in which they have been understood up to the present.Similarly, when someone has made a clandestine betrothal, and subsequently takes another, either clandestinely or publicly, I am still not sure whether what we write about it or the judgment we make on it is altogether right. My advice is that parents persuade their children not to be ashamed to ask their parents to find a marriage partner for them. Parents should make it clear from the start that they want to advise their children so that they in their turn may remain chaste and persevere in expectation of marriage. In return, children should not become engaged without the knowledge of their parents. You are not ashamed, are you, to ask your parents for a coat or a house? Why be foolish then, and not ask for what is far greater, a partner in marriage? Samson did it. He entered a city and saw a young maiden who pleased him. Thereupon he immediately goes back home and says to his father and mother, "I have seen a young maiden whom I love. Dear parents, get me this girl for a wife" [Judg. 14:1–2].

Third, [the doctors say] that marriage produces offspring, for that is the end and chief purpose of marriage. It is not enough, however, merely for children to be born, and so what they say about marriage excusing sin does not apply in this case. Heathen, too, bear offspring. But unfortunately it seldom happens that we bring up children to serve God, to praise and honor him, and want nothing else of them. People seek only heirs in their children, or pleasure in them; the serving of God finds what place it can. You also see people rush into marriage and become mothers and fathers before they know what the commandments are or can pray.

But this at least all married people should know. They can do no better work and do nothing more valuable either for God, for Christendom, for all the world, for themselves, and for their children than to bring up their children well. In comparison with this one work, that married people should bring up their children properly, there is nothing at all in pilgrimages to Rome, Jerusalem, or Compostella, nothing at all in building churches, endowing masses, or whatever good works could be named. For bringing up their children properly is their shortest road to heaven. In fact, heaven itself could not be made nearer or achieved more easily than by doing this work. It is also their appointed work. Where parents are not conscientious about this, it is as if everything were the
wrong way around, like fire that will not bum or water that is not wet.By the same token, hell is no more easily earned than with respect to one's own children. You could do no more disastrous work than to spoil the children, let them curse and swear, let them learn profane words and vulgar songs, and just let them do as they please. What is more, some parents use enticements to be more alluring to meet the dictates of the world of fashion, so that they may please only the world, get ahead, and become rich, all the time giving more attention to the care of the body than to the due care of the soul. There is no greater tragedy in Christendom than spoiling children. If we want to help Christendom, we most certainly have to start with the children, as happened in earlier times.

This third point seems to me to be the most important of all, as well as being the most useful. For without a shadow of doubt it is not only a matter of marital obligation, but can completely eclipse all other sins. False natural love blinds parents so that they have more regard for the bodies of their children than they have for their souls. It was because of this that the sage said, "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him" [Prov. 13:24]. Again, "Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him" [Prov. 22:15]. Or again, "If you beat him with the rod you will save his life from hell" [Prov. 23:14]. Therefore, it is of the greatest importance for every married man to pay closer, more thorough, and continuous attention to the health of his child's soul than to the body which he as begotten, and to regard his child as nothing else but an eternal treasure God has commanded him to protect, and so prevent the world, the flesh, and the devil from stealing the child away and bringing him to destruction. For at his death and on the day of judgment he will be asked about his child and will have to give a most solemn account. For what do you think is the cause of the horrible wailing and howling of those who will cry, "O blessed are the wombs which have not bore children, and the breasts which have never suckled" [Luke 23:29]? There is not the slightest doubt that it is because they have failed to restore heir children to God, from whom they received them to take care of them.

O what a truly noble, important, and blessed condition the estate of marriage is if it is properly regarded! O what a truly pitiable, horrible, and dangerous condition it is if it is not properly regarded! And to him who bears these things in mind the desire of the flesh may well pass away, and perhaps he could just as well take on chastity as the married state. The young people take a poor view of
this and follow only their desires, but God will consider it important and wait on him who is in the right.

Finally, if you really want to atone for all your sins, if you want to obtain the fullest remission of them on earth as well as in heaven, if you want to see many generations of your children, then look but at this third point with all the seriousness you can muster and bring up your children properly. If you cannot do so, seek out other people who can and ask them to do it. Spare yourself neither money nor expense, neither trouble nor effort, for your children are the churches, the altar, the testament, the vigils and masses for the dead for which you make provision in your will. It is they who will lighten you in your hour of death, and to your journey's end.

February 11, 2004

Estate of Marriage (Part One)

Preface
A sermon on the estate of marriage has already been published in my name, but I would much rather it had not. I know perfectly well that I have preached on the subject, but it has never been put into writing yet, as I am about to do at this moment. For this reason I determined to revise this same sermon, and improve it as much as possible. I ask every good soul to disregard the first sermon published and discard it. Further, if anybody wants to start writing my sermons for me, let him restrain himself, and let me have a say in the publication of my words as well. There is a vast difference between using the spoken word to make something clear and having to use the written word.

A Sermon on the Estate of Marriage Revised and Corrected by Dr. Martin Luther Augustinian at Wittenberg

1. God created Adam and brought all the animals before him. Adam did not find a proper companion among them suitable for marriage, so God then said, "It is not good that Adam should be alone. I will create a helpmeet for him to be with him always." And he sent a deep sleep upon Adam, and took a rib from him, and dosed his side up again. And out of this very rib taken from Adam, God created a woman and brought her to him. Then Adam said, "This is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called a woman, because she was taken from her man. This is why a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh" [Gen. 2:18–24]. All of this is from God's word. These words teach us where man and woman come from, how they were given to one another, for what purpose a wife was created, and what kind of love there should be in the estate of marriage.

2. If God himself does not give the wife or the husband, anything can happen. For the truth indicated here is that Adam found no marriageable partner for himself, but as soon as God had created Eve and brought her to him, he felt a real married love toward her, and recognized that she was his wife. Those who want to enter into the estate of marriage should learn from this that they should earnestly pray to God for a spouse. For the sage says that parents provide goods and houses for their children, but a wife is given by God alone [Prov. 19:14], everyone according to his need, just as Eve was given to Adam by God alone. And true though it is that because of excessive lust of the flesh lighthearted youth pays scant attention to these matters, marriage is nevertheless a weighty matter in the sight of God. For it was not by accident that Almighty God instituted the estate of matrimony only for man and above all animals, and gave such forethought and consideration to marriage. To the other animals God says quite simply, "Be fruitful and multiply" [Gen. 1:22]. It is not
written that he brings the female to the male. Therefore, there is no such thing as marriage among animals. But in the case of Adam, God creates for him a unique, special kind of wife out of his own flesh. He brings her to him, he gives her to him, and Adam agrees to accept her. Therefore, that is what marriage is.

3. A woman is created to be a companionable helpmeet to the man in everything, particularly to bear children. And that still holds good, except that since the fall marriage has been adulterated with wicked lust. And now [i.e., after the fall] the desire of the man for the woman, and vice versa, is sought after not only for companionship and children, for which purposes alone marriage was instituted, but also for the pursuance of wicked lust, which is almost as strong a motive.

Preface to the Sermon on the Mount

Luther's Preface to the Sermon on the Mount

I am very happy to see the publication of these sermons of mine on
the three chapters of St. Matthew which St. Augustine calls "the
Lord's Sermon on the Mount." May God grant His grace so that they
may help to preserve and keep the true, sure, and Christian
understanding of this teaching of Christ, because these are such
common sayings and texts that are used so often throughout
Christendom. I do not doubt that here I have presented their true,
pure, and Christian meaning to my friends and to anyone else that is
interested. It is beyond understanding how through his apostles the
wicked devil has managed so cleverly to twist and pervert especially
the fifth chapter, making it teach the exact opposite of what it
means. Christ here deliberately wanted to oppose all false teaching
and to open up the true meaning of God's commandments, as He
emphasizes when He says (Matt. 5:17): "I have not come to abolish the Law." He takes it up piece by piece and tries to make it completely dear. Still the infernal Satan has not found a single text
in the Scriptures that he has more shamefully distorted and into
which he has imported more error and false teaching than this very
one, which Christ Himself ordered and appointed in order to head off
false doctrine. This is really the devil's masterpiece!

First, this fifth chapter has fallen into the hands of the vulgar
pigs and asses, the jurists and sophists, the right hand of that
jackass of a pope and of his mamelukes. Out of this beautiful rose
they have sucked and broadcast poison, covering up Christ with it and
elevating and maintaining Antichrist. According to them, Christ does
not intend everything He teaches in the fifth chapter to be regarded
by His Christians as a command for them to observe; but He gave much
of it merely as advice to those who want to become perfect, to be
kept by anyone who pleases. This in spite of Christ's angry threat that no one will enter heaven who abolishes even one of the
least of these commandments (Matt. 5:19); and He explicitly calls
them "commandments." On this basis they have thought up the
twelve "evangelical counsels," twelve bits of good advice in the Gospel, which may be kept by anyone who pleases if he wants to
attain a perfection higher and more perfect than that of other
Christians. Thus they have not only made perfection as well as
Christian salvation dependent upon works apart from faith, but they
have even made these works optional. I call that forbidding true and
fine good works—which is just what these vulgar asses and blasphemers accuse us of doing.

They cannot deny this, and no amount of covering or glossing over
will help them as long as this fifth chapter of Matthew stands. Their
books and glosses are in public view, as is the impenitent life, past
and present, which they lead on the basis of this teaching of theirs.
In their circles these twelve "evangelical counsels" are commonly taught: Do not requite wrongdoing! Do not avenge yourself!
Offer the other cheek! Do not resist evil! Give your cloak along with
your coat! Go the second mile! Give to everyone that asks! Lend to
him who borrows! Pray for your persecutors! Love your enemies! Do
good to those who hate! Do the other things that Christ teaches here! "All this," so they spew out, "is not commanded." And the jackasses in Paris frankly admit their reasons when they
say: "Christian teaching would have much too hard a time of it if it
were loaded down with things like this." In this way the jurists and sophists have been ruling and teaching the church till now, so that
Christ with His teaching and interpretation has had to be their
jester and juggler. Still they do no penance for this, but they
eagerly defend it. They are trying to re-establish their cursed,
shabby canons and to reinstate the crown on the head of their jackass
of a pope. May God grant that I live to provide spangles and jewels
for such a crown. Then, God willing, this jackass would be crowned
right!

Dear brother, let this preaching of mine be of service to you, in the
first place, against our squires, the jurists and sophists. I am
referring especially to the canonists, whom they themselves
call "asses"; and that is what they are. Thus you may
preserve in its purity the teaching of Christ in this chapter of
Matthew, instead of their asinine cunning and devilish dung. In the
second place there are the new jurists and sophists, the schismatic
spirits and Anabaptists. From their crazy heads they are making new
trouble out of this fifth chapter. The others go too far to the left
when they keep nothing at all of this teaching of Christ, but condemn
and obliterate it. In the same way these men lean too far to the
right when they teach miserable stuff like this: that it is wrong to
own private property, to swear, to hold office as a ruler or judge,
to protect or defend oneself, to stay with wife and children. Thus
the devil blows and brews on both sides so that they do not recognize
any difference between the secular and the divine realm, much less
what should be the distinctive doctrine and action in each realm.
Thank God, we can boast that in these sermons we have clearly and
diligently shown and emphasized this. Whoever errs or will err from
now on, we are excused from all responsibility for him; for we have
faithfully set forth our views for everyone's benefit. Let their
blood be on their own head! We shall await our reward for this— ingratitude, hate, and all sorts of hostility. And we shall
say, "Thank God!"

From these horrible examples of both the papistic and the schismatic
jurists we learn and know what the devil has in mind, especially his
intention to distort this fifth chapter of St. Matthew, and thereby
to exterminate pure Christian teaching. So let every preacher or
minister be urged and warned to keep faithful and diligent watch over
the little flock entrusted to him, and to help preserve the right
interpretation. So long as the devil lives and the world stands, he
will not stop attacking this chapter. His aim is in this way to
suppress good works altogether, as happened under the papacy; or to
institute false good works and fictitious holiness, as he has now
begun to do through the new monks or schismatic spirits. Even if both
the papistic and the schismatic jurists and monks were to perish, he
would still find or raise up others; for he has to have such a
following. From the beginning of the world, his kingdom has been
ruled by monks. Though they may not have been called "monk," yet their teaching and life have been monkish, that is, different and
special and better than what God has commanded. For example, among
the people of Israel there were the Baalites, the áÌÀîÈøÄéí, and the like; among the heathen there were the castrated priests and the
vestal virgins. Therefore we can never be smug inhis presence. From
this fifth chapter have come the pope's monks, who on the basis of this chapter have laid claim to a more perfect station in life
than other Christians, and have maintained this claim until they are
full of greed, pride, and finally every kind of devil. May Christ,
our dear Lord and Master, who has opened up the true meaning for us,
increase and strengthen it for us, and may He help us to live and act
according to it. To Him be praise and thanks, with the Father and the
Holy Spirit forever. Amen.