Selections from the Table Talk of Martin LutherLuther, Martin
ReligionChristian
Selections from the Table Talk of Martin Luther
Luther, Martin
Table-talk
Plato, the Heathen, disputed of God, that God is nothing, and yet he is
all things; him followed Dr. Eck, and the Sophists, who understood
nothing thereof, as their words do show, which no man could understand.
But, said Luther, we must understand and speak of it in this manner: God
is incomprehensible and invisible, therefore what may be seen and
comprehended, that is not God. And thus a man may speak also in another
manner and wise: As God is either visible or invisible; visible he is in
his Word and Works, but where his Word and Works are not, there a man
should not desire to have him, for he will be found nowhere else than
where he hath revealed himself. But these and such-like will find and
take hold of him with their speculations, so that instead of God they
take hold of the devil, and find him, for he will be also a god. But I
do truly admonish and warn every one that they abstain from such
speculations, and not to flutter too high, but remain by the manger, and
by the swaddling-clothes wherein Christ doth lie (in the Holy
Scriptures), “in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,” as
St. Paul saith (Col. ii.). There a man cannot fail of God, but finds and
hits upon him most certainly. I would willingly that this rule might be
observed after my death, namely: Human comfort and Divine comfort are of
two sorts: human comfort consisteth in external visible help, which a man
may see, hold, and feel; but Divine comfort consisteth only in words and
promises, where there is neither seeing, hearing, nor feeling.
_That Children are God’s special Blessings and Creatures_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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