The Epistles of St. Peter and St. Jude Preached and ExplainedLuther, Martin
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The Epistles of St. Peter and St. Jude Preached and Explained
Luther, Martin
Bible. Jude; Bible. Jude -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.; Bible. Peter; Bible. Peter -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
V. 3-4. _But be ye an example for the flock; so shall ye, when the
Chief Shepherd shall appear, receive the enduring crown._ That is,
see to it that you go before them at their head, and exhibit such a
conduct that your life may be an example to the people, and they may
follow after you. But our bishops say to the people, "Go there and do
so and so;" and they sit on cushions and play the gentleman, imposing
burdens on us which they will not bear themselves, while they will
not preach a word, and call others to account if they have not done
it for them. But if it should be required of them, they would soon be
weary of their dignity.
Therefore St. Peter does not appoint any temporal reward for bishops.
As though he would say, "Your office is so great that it never can be
rewarded here, but ye shall receive an eternal crown, which shall
follow it, if ye truly feed the sheep of Christ." This is the
admonition which St. Peter gives to those who are to care for souls,
from whence you may confidently infer and clearly prove, that the
Pope, along with his bishops, is Antichrist, or an enemy of Christ,
since he does nothing of that which St. Peter here requires, and
neither teaches nor practices it himself, but even acts the
counterpart, and will not only not feed the sheep or let them be fed,
but is himself a wolf and tears them, and yet makes it his boast that
he is the vicar of the Lord Christ. He certainly is that, for since
Christ is not there, he, like the devil, sits and rules in Christ's
place.
Whence it is necessary carefully to remember these plain texts and
others like them, and to hold them up against the Pope's government,
so that when any one asks or questions you, you may be able to answer
and say, "Christ said and practised so and so; the Pope teaches and
practices directly the opposite. Since they are opposed to one
another one of them must be false; but certainly Christ is not.
Whence I conclude that the Pope is a liar and the real Antichrist."
In this way must you be prepared with Scripture, so that you can not
only challenge the Pope as Antichrist, but know how to prove it
clearly, so that you could die secure of it, and withstand the devil
even in death.--It follows, further:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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