OF IDOLATRY
CLXXI.
Idolatry is all manner of seeming holiness and worshipping, let these
counterfeit spiritualities shine outwardly as glorious and fair as they may; in
a word, all manner of devotion in those that we would serve God without Christ
the Mediator, his Word and command. In popedom it was held a work of the
greatest sanctity for the monks to sit in their cells and meditate of God, and
of his wonderful works; to be kindled with zeal, kneeling on their knees,
praying, and having their imaginary contemplations of celestial objects, with
such supposed devotion, that they wept for joy. In these their conceits, they
banished all desires and thoughts of women, and what else is temporal and
evanescent. They seemed to meditate only of God, and of his wonderful works.
Yet all these seeming holy actions of devotion, which the wit and wisdom of man
holds to be angelical sanctity, are nothing else but works of the flesh. All
manner of religion, where people serve God without his Word and command, is
simply idolatry, and the more holy and spiritual such a religion seems, the
more hurtful and venomous it is; for it leads people away from the faith of
Christ, and makes them rely and depend upon their own strength, works, and
righteousness.
In like manner, all kinds of
orders of monks, fasts, prayers, hairy shirts, the austerities of the
Capuchins, who in popedome are held to be the most holy of all, are mere works
of the flesh; for the monks hold they are holy, and shall be saved, not through
Christ, whom they view as a severe and angry judge, but through the rules of
their order.
No man can make the papists believe that the
private mass is the greatest blaspheming of God, and the highest idolatry upon
earth, an abomination the like to which has never been in Christendom since the
time of the apostles; for they are blinded and hardened therein, so that their
understanding and knowledge of God, and of all divine matters, is perverted and
erroneous. They hold that to be the most upright and greatest service of God,
which, in truth, is the greatest and most abominable idolatry. And again, they
hold that for idolatry which, in truth, is the upright and most acceptable
service of God, the acknowledging Christ, and believing in him. But we that
truly believe in Christ, and are of his mind, we, God be praised, know and
judge all things; but are judged of no human creature.
CLXXII.
Dr. Carlstad asked me: Should a man, out of good
intention, erect a pious work without God's Word or command, does he herein
serve a true or a strange God? Luther answered: A man honors God and calls upon
him, to the end he may expect comfort, help, and all good from him. Now, if
this same honor and calling upon God be done according to God's Word - that is,
when a man expects from him all graces for the sake of his promises made unto
us in Christ, then he honors the true, living, and everlasting God. But if a
man take in hand a work or a service, out of his own devotion, as he thinks
good, thereby to appease God's anger, or to obtain forgiveness of sins,
everlasting life, and salvation, as is the manner of all hypocrites and seeming
holy workers, then, I say flatly, he honors and worships an idol in heart; and
it helps him nothing at all, that he thinks he does it to the honor of the true
God; for that which is not faith in sin.
CLXXIII.
Hypocrites and idolators are of the same quality
with singers, who will scarce sing when asked to do so, but, when not desired,
begin, and never leave off. Even so with the false workers of holiness; when
God orders them to obey his commands, which are to love one's neighbor, to help
him with advice, with lending, giving, admonishing, comforting, etc., no man
can bring them to this; but, on the contrary, they stick to that which they
themselves make choice of, pretending that this is the best way to honor and
serve God - a great delusion of theirs. They plague and torment their bodies
with fasting, praying, singing, reading, hard lying, etc.; they affect great
humility and holiness, and do all things with vast zeal, fervency, and
incessant devotion. But such as the service and work is, such will also, the
reward be, as Christ himself says: "In vain do they worship me, teaching for
doctrine the commandments of men."
CLXXIV.
The idolatry of Moloch had, I apprehend, a great
show, as though it were a worship more acceptable and pleasing to God than the
common service commanded by Moses; hence many people who, in outward show, were
of devout holiness, when they intended to perform an acceptable service and
honor to God, as they imagined, offered up and sacrificed their sons and
daughters, thinking, no doubt, that herein they were following the example of
Abraham, and doing an act very acceptable and pleasing to God.
Against this idolatry God's prophets preached
with burning zeal, calling it, not offerings to God, but to idols and devils,
as the 106th Psalm shows, and Jeremiah, chap. vii. and xxii. But they held the
prophets to be impostors and accursed heretics.
This worshipping of idols was very frequent in
popedom, in my time and still, though in another manner; the papists in popedom
being esteemed holy people that give one or more of their children to the
monasteries, to become either monks or nuns, that so they may serve God, s they
say, day and night. Hence the proverb: Bless the mother of the child that is
made a spiritual person! True, these sons and daughters in popedom are not
burned and offered to idols corporally, as were the Jewish children, yet, which
is far worse, they are thrust into the throat of the devil spiritually, who,
through his disciples, the pope and the shaven crew, lamentably murders their
souls with false doctrines.
The Holy Scripture often mentions Moloch, as does
Lyra; and the commentaries of the Jews say, it was an idol made of copper and
brass, like a man holding his hands before him, wherein they put fiery coals.
When the image was made very hot, a father approached, and offering to the
idol, took his child, and thrust it into the glittering hands of the idol,
whereby the child was consumed and burned to death. Meantime, they made a loud
noise with timbrels, and cymbals, and horns, to the end the parents should not
hear the pitiful crying of the child. The prophets write, that Ahab offered his
son in this manner.
CLXXV.
The calves of Jeroboam still remain in the world,
and will remain to the last day; not that any man now makes calves like
Jeroboam's, but upon whatsoever a man depends or trusts - God set aside - this
is the calves of Jeroboam, that is, other and strange gods, honored and
worshipped instead of the only, true, living, and eternal God, who only can and
will help and comfort in all need. In like manner also, all such as rely and
depend upon their art, wisdom, strength, sanctity, riches, honor, power, or
anything else, under what title or name soever, on which the world builds, make
and worship the calves of Jeraboam. For they trust in and depend on vanishing
creatures, which is worshipping of idols and idolatry. We easily fall into
idolatry, for we are inclined thereunto by nature, and coming to us by
inheritance, it seems pleasant.
CLXXVI.
St Paul shows in these words: "When ye knew not
God, ye did service," etc., that is, when as yet ye knew not God or what God's
will was towards you, ye served those who by nature were no gods; ye served the
dreams and thoughts of our hearts, wherewith, against God's Word, ye feigned to
yourselves a God that suffered himself to be conciliated with such works and
worshippings as your devotion and good intention made choice of. For all
idolatry in the world arises from this, that people by nature have had the
common knowledge, that there is a God, without which idolatry would remain
unpracticed. With this knowledge engrafted in mankind, they have, without God's
Word, fancied all manner of ungodly opinions of God, and held and esteemed
these for divine truths, imagining a God otherwise than, by nature, he is.
CLXXVII.
He that goes from the gospel to the law, thinking
to be saved by good works, falls as uneasily, as he who falls from the true
service of God to idolatry; for, without Christ, all is idolatry and fictitious
imaginings of God, whether of the Turkish Koran, of the pope,s decrees, or
Moses law; if a man think thereby to be justified and saved before God, he is
undone.
When a man will serve God, he must not look upon
that which he does; not upon the work, but how it ought to be done, and whether
God has commanded it or no; seeing, as Samuel says, that "God has more pleasure
in obedience, than in burnt sacrifices."
Whoso hearkens not to God's voice, is an
idolater, though he performs the highest and most heavy service of God. `Tis
the very nature of idolatry not to make choice of that which is esteemed easy
and light, but of that which is great and heavy, as we see in the friars and
monks, who have been constantly devising new worshippings of God; but,
forasmuch that God in his Word has not commanded these, they are idolatry, and
blasphemy. All these sins, they who are in the function of preaching ought
undauntedly and freely to reprove, not regarding men's high dignities and
powers. For the prophets, as we see in Hosea, reproved and threatened not only
the house of Israel in general, but also, in particular, the priests, ay, the
king himself, and the whole court. They cared not for the great danger that
might follow from the magistrate being so openly assailed, or that themselves
thereby should fall into displeasure or contempt, and their preaching be
esteemed rebellious. They were impelled by the far greater danger, lest by such
examples of the higher powers, the subjects also should be seduced into sin.
CLXXVIII.
The papists took the invocation of saints from
the heathen, who divided God into numberless images and idols, and ordained to
each its particular office and work.
These the papists, void of all shame and
Christianity, imitated, thereby denying God's almighty power; every man, out of
God's Word, spinning to himself a particular opinion, according to his own
fancy; as one of their priests, celebrating mass, when about to consecrate many
oblations at the altar at once, thought it would not be congruously spoken, or
according to grammar rules, to say, "This is my body," so said, "These are my
bodies;" and afterwards highly extolled his device, saying: "If I had not been
so good a grammarian, I had brought in a heresy, and consecrated but one
oblation."
Such like fellows does the world produce;
grammarians, logicians, rhetoricians, and philosophers, all falsifying the Holy
Writ, and sophisticating it with their arts, whereas God ordered and appointed
it. Divinity should be empress, and philosophy and other arts merely her
servants, not to govern and master her, as Servetus, Campanus, and other
seducers would do. God preserves his church, which by him is carried as a child
in the mother's womb, and defends her from such philosophical divinity.
The invocation of saints is a most abominable
blindness and heresy; yet the papists will not give it up. The pope's greatest
profit arises from the dead; for the calling on dead saints brings him infinite
sums of money and riches, far more than he gets from the living. But thus goes
the world; superstition, unbelief, false doctrine, idolatry, obtain more credit
and profit than the upright, true, and pure religion.
CLXXIX.
God and God's worship are relatives; the one
cannot be without the other; for God must always be the God of some people or
nation, and is always in predicamento relationis. God will have some to
call upon him and honor him; for, to have a God and to honor him, go together.
Therefore, whoso brings in a divine worship of his own selection, without God's
command, is an adulterer, like a married woman who consents to another man,
seeking another and not the upright true God, and it avails him nothing that he
thinks he does God service herein.
CLXXX.
In all creatures are a declaration and a
signification of the Holy Trinity. First the substance signifies the almighty
power of God the Father. Secondly, the form and shape declare the wisdom of God
the Son; and, thirdly, the power and strength is a sign of the Holy Ghost. So
that God is present in all creatures.
CLXXXI.
In the gospel of St John, chap. iii., is plainly
and directly shown the difference of the persons, in the highest and greatest
work that God accomplished for us poor human creatures, in justifying and
saving us; for there it is plainly written of the Father, that he loved the
world, and gave to the world his only begotten Son. These are two several
persons - Father, and Son. The Father loves the world; and gives unto it his
Son. The Son suffers himself to be given to the world, and "to be lifted up on
the cross, as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, that whosoever
believed in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." To this work
comes afterwards the third person, the Holy Ghost, who kindles faith in the
heart through the Word, and so regenerates us, and makes us the children of
God.
This article, though it be taught most clearly in
the New Testament, yet has been always assaulted and opposed in the highest
measure, so that the holy evangelist, St John, for the confirmation of this
article, was constrained to write his gospel. Then came presently that heretic,
Cerinthus, teaching out of Moses, that there was but one God, and concluding
thence that Christ could not be God, or God man.
But let me stick to God's Word in the Holy
Scripture, namely, that Christ is true God with God the Father, and that the
Holy Ghost is true God, and yet there are not three Gods, nor three substances
as three men, three angels, three sons, three windows, etc. No: God is not
separated or divided in such manner in his substance, but there is only and
alone one divine essence, and no more.
Therefore, although there be three persons, God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, yet notwithstanding, we must
not divide nor separate the substance, for there is but only one God in one
only undivided substance, as St Paul clearly speaks of Christ, Coloss.i., that
he is the express image of the invisible God, the first born of all creatures;
for through him all things are created that are in heaven and on earth,
visible, etc., and all is through and in him created, and he is before all, and
all things consist in him.
Now what the third person is, the holy
evangelist, St John, teaches, chap. xv., where he says: "But when the Comforter
is come, which I will send unto you from the Father, the Spirit of truth which
proceeds from the Father, he shall testify of me." Here Christ speaks not only
of the office and work of the Holy Ghost, but also of his substance and faith;
he goes out or proceeds from the Father, that is, his going out, or his
proceeding, is without all beginning, and everlasting. Therefore the holy
prophet Joel gives him the name, and calls him, "the Spirit of the Lord."
Now, although this article seem strange or
foolish, what matters it? `tis not the question whether it be so or no, but
whether it be grounded on God's Word or no. If it be God's Word, as most surely
it is, then let us make no doubt thereof; He will not lie; therefore, let us
keep close to God's Word, and not dispute how Father, Son, and Holy Ghost can
be one God; for we, as poor wretches, cannot know how it is that we laugh; or
how with our eyes, we can see a high mountain ten miles off; or how it is, that
when we sleep, in body we are dead, and yet live. This small knowledge we
cannot attain unto; no, though we took to our help the advice and art of all
the wise in the world, we are not able to know the least things which concern
ourselves; and yet we would climb up with our human wit and wisdom, and presume
to comprehend what God is in his incomprehensible majesty.
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