Works of Martin Luther Part 45

We shall now speak of the fruit of this sacrament, which is love; that is, that we should treat our neighbor even as G.o.d has treated us. Now we have received from G.o.d naught but love and favor, for Christ has pledged and given us His righteousness and everything that He has, has poured out upon us all His treasures, which no man can measure and no angel can understand or fathom, for G.o.d is a glowing furnace of love, reaching even from the earth to the heavens.

[Sidenote: The Lack of Love]

Love, I say, is a fruit of this sacrament. But I do not yet perceive it among you here in Wittenberg, although there is much preaching of love and you ought to practice it above all other things. This is the princ.i.p.al thing, and alone is seemly in a Christian. But no one shows eagerness for this, and you want to do all sorts of unnecessary things, which are of no account. If you do not want to show yourselves Christians by your love, then leave the other things undone, too, for St. Paul says in I Corinthians, "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am as sounding bra.s.s or a tinkling cymbal." [1 Cor. 13:1] This is a terrible saying of Paul. And further: "And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries of G.o.d, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing." [1 Cor. 13:2, 3]

You have not got so far as that, although you have received great and rich gifts from G.o.d, especially a knowledge of the Scriptures. It is true, you have the pure Gospel and the true Word of G.o.d, but no one as yet has given his goods to the poor, no one has yet been burned, and even these things would profit nothing without love. You would take all of G.o.d's goods in the sacrament, and yet not pour them forth again in love. One will not lend the other a helping hand, no one thinks first of another, but every one looks out or himself and his own gain, seeks but his own and lets everything else go as it will,--if anybody is helped, well and good. No one looks after the poor or seeks how to help them. It is pitiful. You have heard many sermons about it and all my books are full of it and have the one purpose, to urge you to faith and love.

And if you will not love one another, G.o.d will send a great plague upon you; let this be a warning to you, for G.o.d will not reveal His Word and have it preached in vain. You are tempting G.o.d too far, my friends. If some one in times past had preached the Word to our forefathers, they would perchance have acted differently. Or if the Word were preached to-day to many poor children in the cloisters, they would receive it with much greater joy than you. You do not heed it at all, and give yourselves to other things, which are unnecessary and foolish.

I commend you to G.o.d.

THE EIGHTH SERMON

A SHORT SUMMARY[21] OF THE SERMON OF DR. M. LUTHER DELIVERED ON REMINISCERE SUNDAY ON PRIVATE CONFESSION

[Sidenote: Confession before the Congregation]

Now we have heard all the things which ought to be considered here, except confession. Of this we shall speak now. In the first place, There is a confession which is founded on the Scriptures; namely, when some one commits a sin publicly, or with other men's knowledge, and is accused before the congregation. If he abandons his sin, they intercede for him with G.o.d. But if he will not hear the congregation, he is excluded from the church and cast out, so that no one will have anything to do with him. And this confession is commanded by G.o.d in Matthew xviii, "If thy brother trespa.s.s against thee (so that thou and others are offended), go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone." [Matt. 18:15] Of this confession there is no longer even a trace to be found, and in this particular the Gospel is put aside in this place. He who could reestablish it would perform a good work.

Here is where you ought to have taken pains and reestablished this kind of confession, and let the other things go. For by this no one would have been offended, and it would have been accomplished without disturbance. It should be done in this way: When you see a usurer, adulterer, thief or drunkard, you should go to him in secret and admonish him to give up his sin. If he will not hear, you should take two others with you and admonish him once more, in a brotherly way, to give up his sin. But if he scorns that, you should tell the pastor before the whole congregation, have your witnesses with you, and accuse him before the pastor in the presence of the people, saying: "Dear pastor, this man has done this and that, and would not receive our brotherly admonition to give up his sin. Therefore I accuse him, together with my witnesses who were present." And then, if he will not give up and willingly acknowledge his guilt, the pastor should exclude him and put him under the ban before the whole a.s.sembly, for the sake of the congregation, until he comes to himself and is received back again. This would be Christian. But I cannot undertake to carry it out single-handed.

[Sidneote: Confession to G.o.d]

Secondly, A confession is necessary for us, when we go away in a corner by ourselves, and confess to G.o.d Himself and pour out before Him all our faults. And this confession is also commanded. From this comes the familiar word of Scripture: "_Facite judicium et just.i.tiam_." [Gen.

18:19] _Judicium acere est nos ipsos accusare et d.a.m.nare; just.i.tiam autem acere est idere misericordiae Dei_[22]. As it is written, "Blessed are they that keep judgment and do righteousness at all times." [Ps. 106:3] The judgment is nothing else than a man's knowing and judging and condemning himself, and this is true humility and self-abas.e.m.e.nt. The righteousness is nothing else than a man's knowing himself and praying to G.o.d or the mercy and help through which G.o.d raises him up again. This is what David means when he says: "I have sinned; I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord," [Ps. 32:5 f.]

and, "Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin; for this all Thy saints shall pray unto Thee."

[Sidenote: Confession to a Brother]

Thirdly, There is also a confession when one takes another aside, and tells him what troubles him, so that he may hear from him a word of comfort; and this confession is commanded by the pope. It is this urging and forcing which I condemned when I wrote concerning confession[23], and I refuse to go to confession just because the pope wishes it and has commanded it. For I wish him to keep his hands of the confession and not make of it a compulsion or command, which he has not the power to do. Yet I will let no man take private confession away from me, and I would not give it up for all the treasures in the world, since I know what comfort and strength it has given me. No one knows what it can do or him except one who has struggled much with the devil. Yea, the devil would have slain me long ago, if the confession had not sustained me. For there are many doubts which a man cannot resolve by himself, and so he takes a brother aside and tells him his trouble. What harm is there, if he humbles himself a little before his neighbor, puts himself to shame, looks or a word of comfort from him, and takes it to himself and believes it, as if he heard it from G.o.d himself, as we read in Matthew xviii: "If two of you shall agree as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them."

[Matt. 18:19]

[Sidenote: Many Absolutions]

And we must have many absolutions, so that we may strengthen our timid consciences and despairing hearts against the devil and against G.o.d.

Therefore no man shall forbid the confession nor keep or drive any one away from it. And if any one wrestles with his sins, is eager to be rid of them and looks or some a.s.surance from the Scriptures, let him go and confess to another in secret, and receive what is said to him there as if it came directly from G.o.d's own lips. Whoever has the strong and firm faith that his sins are forgiven, may ignore this confession and confess to G.o.d alone. But how many have such a strong faith? Therefore, as I have said, I will not let this private confession be taken from me. Yet I would force no one to it, but leave the matter to every one's free will.

[Sidenote: Five Comforts for the Conscience]

For our G.o.d is not so miserly that He has left us with only one comfort or strengthening for our conscience, or one absolution, but we have many absolutions in the Gospel, and are showered richly with them. For instance, we have this in the Gospel: "If ye forgive men their trespa.s.ses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you." [Matt.

6:14] Another comfort we have in the Lord's Prayer: "Forgive us our trespa.s.ses," [Matt. 6:12] etc. A third is our baptism, when I reason thus: See, my Lord, I am baptized in Thy name so that I may be a.s.sured of Thy grace and mercy. After that we have the private confession, when I go and receive a sure absolution as if G.o.d Himself spake it, so that I may be a.s.sured that my sins are forgiven. Finally I take to myself the blessed sacrament, when I eat His body and drink His blood as a sign that I am rid of my sins and G.o.d has freed me from all my frailties; and in order to make me sure of this, He gives me His body to eat and His blood to drink, so that I shall not and cannot despair: I cannot doubt I have a gracious G.o.d. Thus we see that confession must not be despised, but that it is a true comfort. And since we need many absolutions and comforts, because we must fight against the devil, death, h.e.l.l and sin, we must not allow any of our weapons to be taken away, but keep intact the whole armor and equipment which G.o.d has given us or use against our enemies. For you do not yet know what work it is to fight with the devil and to overcome him. I know it well; I have eaten salt with him once or twice[24]. I know him well, and he knows me well, too. I only you knew him, you would not in this manner drive out confession.

I commend you to G.o.d. Amen.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Cp. his experiences at the Wartburg. See Kostlin-Kawerau, I, 439 ff.

[2] Carlstadt, without authority, preached, administered the sacrament and brought about the upheaval in the _parish_ church--Luther's own.

He was archdeacon and preacher at the _castle_ church. See Muller, _Luther und Karlstadt_, 69 and pa.s.sim.

[3] In the _Open Letter to the Christian n.o.bility_ and the _Babylonian Captivity_. See pp. 125 f., 136 f., and 215 f. of this volume.

[4] Right to speak.

[5] Power to do.

[6] Melanchthon.

[7] See above, p. 61.

[8] Justus Jonas, provost at the castle church.

[9] Gabriel Zwilling, an Augustinian, who, next to Carlstadt, was the leader in forcing the reforms which Luther is here discussing. See Introduction, p. 388.

[10] Was Luther led by the name of Gabriel to add a last touch by the mention of the other archangel, in the thought of St. Paul, that even an angel from heaven cannot change the Gospel, Gal. 1:8. See note in _Weimar Ed._, Xc, 438. See also a similar outburst in a letter to Johann Lang in 1516, six years previous, where Gabriel Biel's name furnished the incitement. Enders, I, 54; Smith, I, 42.

[11] Namely, of the monasteries.

[12] A monastic order, founded 1084, noted or the strictness of its rule.

[13] The Iconoclastic controversy in the Eastern church, which called forth the Seventh Ec.u.menical Council at Nice in 787, whose decrees were favorable to images in the churches. The controversy, which raged for over a century, was finally settled in 843. Since the promulgation of this decree the First Sunday in Lent has been celebrated annually as the "Feast of Orthodoxy." See _Realencyk._, III, 222 ff.

[14] See above, p. 309.

[15] i. e., Castor and Pollux.

[16] Luther's great objection to the ma.s.s was its turning of the Sacrament into a sacrifice. This view of the ma.s.s was for him an utter perversion of the gospel, and, therefore, comes under the category of essentials. See Vol. I, pp. 309 ff., and above, pp. 211 ff.

[17] See above, p. 407, note 1.

[18] Cf. above, p. 282.

[19] In the canon law, C. 12, X, _de poenitentiis_.

[20] On the last four paragraphs, cf. above, pp. 15 f.

[21] On this t.i.tle, see Introduction, p. 389.

[22] "Let there be judgment and righteousness." To keep judgment is to accuse and condemn ourselves; but to do righteousness is to trust in the mercy of G.o.d.

[23] The treatise _Von der Beichte, ob die der Papst Macht habe zu gebieten_, written during the sojourn on the Wartburg. See _Weimar Ed._, VIII, 129; _Erl. Ed._, XXVII, 318.

[24] See above, p. 394.