Luther is even anxious not to have any signs. “I have besought the contrary of God,” i.e. that there should be no revelations or signs, so he writes in 1534, in the enlarged Commentary on Isaias, “in order that I may not be lifted up, or drawn away from the spoken Word, by the deceit of Satan.”[452]—“Now that the Gospel has been spread abroad and proclaimed to the whole world it is not necessary to work wonders as in the time of the Apostles. But should necessity arise and the Gospel be threatened and suffer violence, we should then have to set about it and work signs rather than leave the Gospel to be abused and oppressed. But I hope it will not be necessary, and that things will not come to such a pass as to compel me to speak with new tongues, for this is not really necessary.” Here he is thinking of believers generally, though at the close he refers more particularly to himself. Speaking of all, he continues prudently: “Let no one take it upon himself to work wonders without urgent necessity.” “For the disciples did not perform them on every occasion, but only in order to bear witness to the Word and to confirm it by miraculous signs.”[453] That he believed the power to work miracles might be obtained of God may be inferred from many of his declarations against the fanatics, where he challenges them to prove themselves the messengers of God by signs and wonders; for whosoever is desirous of teaching something new or uncommon, he had said, must be “called by God and able to confirm his calling by real miracles,” otherwise let him pack up and go his way.[454] But his own doctrines were an entirely new thing in the Church, and, in spite of every subterfuge, when thus inviting others to perform miracles, he cannot always have been unmindful of the fact. Hence it has been said that he claimed a certain latent ability to work miracles. It should, however, be noted that he always insists here that his teaching, unlike that of the fanatics and other sects, Catholics included, was not new, but was the original teaching of Christ, and that therefore it stood in no need of miracles. Still, his confident tone brings him within measurable distance of volunteering to work miracles in support of his cause. “Although I have wrought no such sign such as perhaps we might work, should necessity arise,” etc.[455] These words are quite in keeping with the above: “We should have to set about it,” etc.