Works of Martin Luther, with Introductions and Notes (Volume II)Luther, Martin
ReligionChristian
Works of Martin Luther, with Introductions and Notes (Volume II)
Luther, Martin
Lutheran Church -- Early works to 1800; Theology -- History -- 16th century -- Early works to 1800
When God sees this perverted state of affairs, He perverts it still
more, as is written in Psalm xviii[34], "With the perverse thou wilt
be perverted" [Ps. 18:26]; and He brings it to pass that they make
themselves and their brotherhoods a mockery and a disgrace, and He
casts them out from the common brotherhood of saints, which they
oppose and do not make common cause with, into their brotherhood of
gluttony, drunkenness and unchastity, so that they, who have neither
sought nor thought of anything more than their own, may find their
own; and then He blinds them that they do not recognize it as an
abomination and disgrace, but adorn their unseemliness with the names
of saints, as though they were doing right; beyond this He lets some
fall into so deep an abyss that they openly boast and say whoever is
in their brotherhood cannot be condemned, as though baptism and the
sacrament, instituted by God Himself, were of less worth and were less
certain than that which they have thought out with their darkened
minds. Therefore their God will dishonor and blind those who, with
their mad conduct and the swinish practices of their brotherhoods,
mock and blaspheme His easts, His name, and His saints, to the injury
of the common Christian brotherhood, which flowed from the wounds of
Christ.
4. Therefore, for the right understanding and use of the brotherhoods,
one must learn to distinguish rightly between brotherhoods. The first
is the divine, the heavenly, the noblest, which surpasses all others,
as gold surpasses copper or lead--the fellowship of all saints, of
which we spoke above[35]. In this we are all brothers and sisters, so
closely united that a closer relationship cannot be conceived, for
here we have one baptism, one Christ, one sacrament, one food, one
Gospel, one faith, one Spirit, one spiritual body, and each is a
member of the other; no other brotherhood is so close. For natural
brothers are, to be sure, brothers of one flesh and blood, of one
heritage and home, but they must separate and join themselves to
others' blood and heritage[36]. Organized brotherhoods have one roll,
one mass, one kind of good works, one festival day, one treasury, and,
as things are now, their common beer, common feast and common debauch,
but none of these binds men so closely together as to produce one
spirit, for that is done by Christ's brotherhood alone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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