Continuing his harangue against the “spirituals” and the heretics with
whom he classes them he goes on to say: “they buoy themselves up in
their idle self-complacency on account of their faith in Christ, but
in vain, as they will not believe in that which is Christ’s. The faith
of Christ by which we are justified is not merely faith in Christ,
or in the person of Christ, but in all that is Christ’s.” “Christ is
not divided” (1 Cor. i. 13). Faith is something indivisible, Christ
and whatever is Christ’s is one and the same.[661] Therefore we must
believe both in Christ and in the Church, and in “every word that
comes from the mouth of an ecclesiastical superior, or of a good,
pious man.” “But those who withdraw themselves from their superiors
will not listen to their words, but follow their own ideas,” he again
repeats: “how do these, I ask, believe in Christ? They believe in His
birth and His sufferings, but not in His whole word, consequently
they deny Him altogether. See how necessary is the very greatest
humility, as we who believe in Christ can never be sure whether we
believe in all that is His, and therefore must remain uncertain as
to whether we believe in Him Himself! Justification can only proceed
from such a fear and humility. But the proud “do not understand the
exalted subtilties of this faith; they think they are in possession
of the whole of faith, yet cannot hear the Lord’s voice, but rather
resist it as though it were false; why? because it is opposed to
their own ideas.”[662] After a dialectical digression of doubtful
character the hot-blooded exegetist continues: All the Prophets rise
up against such men, for they always commence their holy message with
the words: “Thus saith the Lord” and, “whosoever it be whom the Lord
chooses as His mouthpiece, the demand is for faith, resignation,
humble subjection of our own ideas; for it is only thus that we
are justified, and not otherwise.” With incredible tenacity he is
ever harping on the assertion that the “self-righteous” only deck
themselves out with works of the law, but find no grace with God. And
finally, as though he had not yet said a word against those rebels
against faith and the Word of God, he cries: “Let those open their
ears who believe indeed in Christ, but not in the word of Christ, who
do not listen to their superiors and who wish to be justified without
this obedience, i.e. without this faith in God and merely by their
works.” In another outburst he shows them—this time adopting a more
mystical tone—that Christ speaks “almost always when, where and as we
do not expect.”[663] “Who can discover all the wily attacks of Satan
by which he deceives us?” Some wish to be justified by a “slavish
fear,” in spite of their disinclination and “by their own strength
alone”;[664] those whom he deceives more artfully feel a desire for
what is good, “but in their self-complacency they affect superstitious
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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