Exhortation to All in Authority, Part 1

We have shown you in the preface, faithful reader, why we published these writings of ours, namely, on account of the abominable deceptions and the many dangers of this time. For there are so many schisms, communities, churches and sects to be found, all called by the name of the Lord: such as the Romans or papists, the Lutherans, the Zuinglians, the erring sects, and the Christians who are reviled as Anabaptists; just as in former times among the Jews there were the Chasidim, Zadikin, Essenes, Sadducees, Pharisees, and so on, which sacred and secular history mention. Each boasts that it is the Church of Christ and has the word of the Lord, although the greater part of them not only live out of keeping with the Spirit, word and example of Christ, but very spitefully revile and slander it and are hostile to it. And it is just as it was in the beginning: the pious everywhere have to suffer much from the impious, as Abel had to suffer from Cain, Isaac from Ishmael, Jacob from Esau, and so on, although they were created by the same God, have by nature one common origin, all boast of one Christ, and in the day of judgment will find the same judge. Antichrist rules through hypocrisy and lies, with power and sword; but Christ reigns patiently with his word and spirit. He uses no other sword or saber. O man! man! Look at the savage creatures that lack reason, and learn wisdom. Roaring lions, frightful bears and all-devouring wolves agree among themselves, each with its own kind. But you, poor, helpless worms, who are created in God’s own image and are called rational beings, are born without tusks, claws and horns, born with a weak, feeble nature, senseless, speechless and powerless, yes, able neither to walk nor to stand, and you have to depend entirely on your mother’s help; and this teaches you that you are to be peaceable and not quarrelsome. Yet when you reach understanding and manhood, you are so very unruly, tyrannical, revengeful, bloodthirsty and merciless that it cannot be fully conceived, told or described. Your open works bear witness to this, even though you boast that you are Christians. O no! my faithful reader, no! Christ teaches, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you,” John 14, verse 27. Paul says, “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you are called in one body; and be thankful,” Colossians 3, verse 15. Again, “The Son of man has not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them,” Luke 9, verse 56.

Since there are so many of you who treat the children of God so inhumanly, as we see, we have gathered in summary our acts, principles, faith and doctrine from the word of God and have published them. We have done this so that every slanderous evil speaker and bloody persecutor may learn from them what our undertaking really is, what we seek and do, on what ground the city of God must be built, and which of all the congregations or churches mentioned above is the right and true church of Christ. Just as there was but one Adam and one Eve, one Noah and one ark, one Isaac and one Rebecca, so there is but one church of Christ, which is the body, the city, the temple, the house and bride of Christ, having but one gospel, one faith, one baptism, one Supper and one service, walking in the same way and leading a pious, blameless life, as the Scriptures teach.

All who do not have the pure, uncorrupted word of God, the true, living faith, with the Lord’s holy baptism and Supper, in power and Spirit, and who walk the broad road of the flesh, are not the community and church of Christ. Here neither name nor boasting is of any use. We must be in Christ, and Christ in us; we must be moved by his Spirit and remain in every respect in his holy word; otherwise we have no God.

The children of Israel were not saved, although they were of the seed of Abraham, because they did not walk in the way of Abraham. Much less shall we be saved, though we are called by the name of Christ, if we do not seek his promise with all our souls, and do not sincerely hear and follow him and obey his holy will.

It is well known to all the pious that we and our forefathers for many centuries were under the heavy burden and in the service of Egypt, deceived by the false prophets; we never heard the book of the law; the holy city and temple lay waste; and we were under the tyranny and dominion of Babylon, as you have heard above. The merciful Father had compassion on the pressing misery and tribulation of his people, and raised up for us the true Moses, Zerubbabel, Christ Jesus, through his word and Spirit. Now, then, it is fitting for you, O you highly renowned lords and princes, since you and we boast of the same Christ, gospel, redemption and kingdom, that you no longer obstruct with your mandates and powers the journey of the people of God to the eternal promised land. Rather, you should favor them and prosper their journey by your gracious permission, so that with the venerable and pious Josiah you may hear and read, with a broken, meek heart, in the true fear of God, the lost book of the law of Christ, which has been lost for a long time. Rend your hearts and not your garments. For you have not only been led away from the true path, but are so bewitched by the man of sin that you persecute the innocent, pious hearts who in no way harm you or anyone on earth.

That you would, with king Cyrus, release the poor captive children from the land of Chaldea, who cry and weep by the rivers of Babylon, so that they may again possess the spiritual land of Canaan, build up the spiritual Jerusalem, the altar and the temple in their ancient city, establish the spiritual priesthood, and practice the spiritual offering and divine service according to the instructions of the word of God; and so that they may no longer hear and observe the Babylonian laws, namely, the teachings of men and their commandments, but the law of Israel, God’s word and righteousness. Some of you, though alas few! have been taught so far through the grace and word of God that I trust you know that neither customs nor councils, neither learning nor sword nor mandate, can bend or break the word of the Most High, the word of truth, the word of the heavenly witness, the gospel of the kingdom. For no other foundation can be laid to all eternity than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus, First Corinthians 3, verse 11.

Therefore wisdom cries, “Turn at my reproof; behold, I will pour out my Spirit to you, I will make known my words to you,” Proverbs 1, verse 23.

Love righteousness, you rulers of the land. “Be wise now, therefore, O kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth; serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling,” Psalm 2, verse 10; for the king who honors wisdom shall rule forever.

Therefore, with a meek heart and in the fear of God, examine these faithful instructions of ours, and judge them by the Spirit and word of Christ, as far as you are able. Compare them with the doctrine and lives of the apostles, with the piety, love, customs, actions, misery, cross and sufferings of the early church, and I hope, by the grace of God, that you may plainly understand that our doctrine is the infallible doctrine and ground of the Scriptures. Read this Our Foundation together with the other books appended to it, namely: the book concerning faith and its power; concerning regeneration or the new creature; of the cross, sufferings and persecution of the saints; of excommunication, the ban or exclusion; and other tracts published from time to time. You will then find, by the grace of God, that this doctrine is the pure gospel which the Lord taught with his own mouth, which his holy apostles preached through the whole world, and to which they testified with life and death by the power of the Spirit. Ours is no new doctrine, as the preachers without truth pretend and persuade you, but it is the old doctrine which was preached and practiced in the church for more than fifteen hundred years, by which the church was, is and shall be borne until the end.

O you highly renowned lords and princes, turn to the truth of God, and receive reproof and wisdom; for through wisdom kings reign and princes decree justice. Observe how far your spirit, faith and lives differ from the Lord’s Spirit, word and life.

Do you think, dear sirs, that you are born merely to live in splendor and magnificence and to lead a vain, sensual life? That you may freely continue in your licentious and ruinous lusts and still be Christians? O no, “If any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his,” Romans 8, verse 9.

Solomon says, “As a roaring lion and a raging bear, so is a wicked ruler over the poor people. The prince who lacks understanding is also a great oppressor,” Proverbs 28, verse 15. The poet also knew this well when he said, Quicquid delirant reges, plectantur Achivi, that is, The mischief that kings do, the common people have to pay or atone for. But a wise king scatters the ungodly.

Therefore, beloved sirs, see well to it. This is what you are called to: in the true fear of God, with all fair and just discretion, you are to chastise and punish the open evildoers, such as thieves, murderers, sodomites, adulterers, debauchers, manslayers, the violent, fornicators, sorcerers, robbers, and so on. You are to give each his portion, execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver the plundered out of the hand of the oppressor. You are to restrain by proper means (understand: without tyranny and bloodshed) the open deceivers who so miserably lead poor, helpless souls by hundreds of thousands into destruction, whether they are priests, monks, preachers, baptized or unbaptized, so that they will no longer detract from the almighty majesty of God, our only and eternal Savior, Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit, together with the word of grace, nor bring in those ridiculous abuses and idolatry under the appearance of truth, as has been done until now. And by this means, in all love and earnestness, you are to enlarge, assist and protect the kingdom of God, without violence, blood or sword, by your gracious permission, wise counsel and pious, blameless life.

See, beloved lords, this is your calling and the duty that rests on you. Do not domineer so maliciously over the children of God and his word, as, alas, many of you plainly do, and as is the custom.

Such rulers were Moses, Joshua, David, Hezekiah, Josaphat, Josiah, Zerubbabel, and so on. They faithfully carried out the duties laid on them, conformed to the word of God, protected their subjects with anxious care, obeyed the commands of the Lord, and did away with the false prophets and the priests of Baal, with their altars, groves and idolatry. They faithfully kept their people and country to the observance of the ordinances of the Lord, his laws and divine service as commanded by Moses. They feared God, and had the book of the law, to which they conformed and by which they judged the people; and they always remembered the Lord their God, who set them over his people as potentates and rulers.

They feared God with all their hearts, praised his name, and humbled themselves with all their strength, as David did when he was girded with a linen ephod and danced before the ark of the Lord, so that he was even despised by his wife Michal. But he said, I will play before the Lord, who chose me, and I will be yet more vile than this in my own sight.

O you highly renowned, noble lords, believe Christ’s word, fear the wrath of God, love righteousness, do justice to widows and orphans, judge rightly between man and man, fear no man’s highness, despise no man’s lowliness, hate all greed, chastise with discretion, let the word of God be taught in liberty, hinder no one from walking in the ways of truth; yield to the scepter of him who called you to this high charge, and your throne shall be established forever.

Now as the scepter of Christ is an upright scepter, and teaches, judges and corrects everyone without respect of persons, I, a poor and unlearned man, must lay aside my timidity and grow bold in love, by which I desire to save your poor souls. With Samuel I must reprove Saul, with Abdia reprimand Jeroboam, with Elias rebuke Ahab, with Isaiah reprove Hezekiah, with Nathan and Gad rebuke David for their misdeeds and transgressions, and so proclaim my Lord’s Spirit, word and will. Who knows but that there may be someone who will regard the faithfulness and love of his poor minister, hear his well-meaning voice and Christian exhortation, and depart from an ungodly and evil way? In this way some of the kings mentioned above heard with fear the reproving word from the mouths of the prophets, reformed, and meekly received the word.

And even if my faithful service and love should be rewarded with death, as I have reason to suspect may happen, because haughty and proud flesh is unwilling to be reproved and always follows its evil nature, nothing worse can happen to me than happened to the pious Isaiah from Manasseh; to Zechariah from Joaz; to Urijah from Jehoiakim; to Abimelech and other priests from Saul; to John from Herod; to Christ from Pilate and the Scribes; and as happened to all the apostles and pious witnesses of the whole world.

I do not hold my life to be better or dearer than the beloved men of God held theirs. I can only be deprived of perishable and mortal flesh, which must die one day and return to dust, even if I should live to be as old as Methuselah. Not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my heavenly Father. If I lose my life for the sake of Christ and his testimony, and on account of my sincere love for my neighbor, I know for certain that I will save it in life eternal. Therefore I cannot conceal the truth, but must testify to it and reveal it without hypocrisy, in the true fear of God, to my beloved lords.

Beloved, noble lords, learn rightly to know yourselves: where you come from, what you are, and what you will be. All of you, one as well as another, be he emperor or king, are of the same seed as we poor and disregarded people are. You came into this sorrowful world as we did, and you are no more than vapor, frail flesh, a withering flower, dust and ashes, as we all are. Today you are kings and triumph in great and high honor; tomorrow you are laid low and must be food for serpents and worms.

O sirs, my beloved sirs, humble yourselves. Righteous is he who will examine your case, and mighty is he who will pass judgment on you. His name is the Ruling Lord. He is the Almighty, the holy, the terrible, the highly adorable and omnipotent God, who created heaven and earth, and who holds in the hands of his strength all majesty, power and dominion. Learn to know him; learn to fear him. Wake up, look out; the time is not far off when you will hear, “Give an account of your stewardship; for you may be steward no longer,” Luke 16, verse 2.

Therefore do not listen to those who seek fat prebends and a lazy life. They deceive you; they teach you according to the lust of your hearts; they flatter you for the sake of unlawful gain; they preach to you wanton deception according to their own opinion, and not out of the mouth of the Lord. They fatten their bodies and have fine times from the fatness of your poor souls (beloved sirs, understand rightly what I mean), although they boast much of the gospel. Listen to those who are not like the reed shaken by the wind; those who, with John and Elias, are not so much frightened by the wilderness of misery; who suffer daily for the truth’s sake; who love gold and wood alike; who count all things alike, both praise and reproach, riches and poverty, life and death; who seek only the honor of Christ and the salvation of their beloved brothers; and who preach nothing but the pure, unmixed word of God and seal it with spirit, power and work, as Christ commanded, and as his holy apostles proclaimed and taught it through the whole world.

I repeat it: do not listen to, do not follow, and do not believe the multitude of the learned who let themselves be called doctors, lords and masters, for they are sensual and bloodthirsty. But seek and follow the faithful in Christ, who are called the curse and filth of the earth; among these you will find Christ’s Spirit, truth, power, works and life. You will also find, through the grace of God, how far you and your spirit, faith, baptism, Supper, conduct, church and actions are outside of Christ’s Spirit, doctrine, commands, prohibitions, ordinances and practice.

Tell me, O you kings and rulers of the land, where is your faith and love, with their pious nature? Where is the fear of your God? Your lamp and light? Your humble heart, dead to sin? And your blameless, godly life, which is of God? Is it not all world and carnality that you seek and follow? We generally find in your houses and courts nothing but extravagance, pomp and showy clothing, hardness and presumption of heart, insatiable greed, hatred, envy, backbiting, betrayal, whoredom, debauchery, gambling, gaming, eating, drinking, dancing, swearing, stabbing, housebreaking, and so on. This is your knightly custom and court conduct all your lives long, and you never once reflect on the misery, tribulation, humility, love and righteousness in which the Lord of lords and King of kings lived before you, what he taught the children of men, and what pattern or example he left them. The affliction and misery of the wretched do not reach your ears; we find the sweat of the poor on your houses and the innocent blood on your hands. You take gifts and presents to pervert judgment, and you take counsel together against the Lord and his anointed. The prophets of Jezebel and the priests of Baal, sensualists and flatterers, are much respected among you; they sit on soft cushions and live well. But those who, with Micah, preach adversity and truth to you must expect imprisonment, bonds and death, and are thought to deserve every disgrace. Yes, it has come so far (may God make it better) that where four or five, ten or twenty have met in the name of the Lord to speak of the word of the Lord and to do his work, in whose midst Christ is, who fear the Lord with all their heart and lead a blameless life before all the world, if they are arrested and a complaint is brought against them, they must then be devoured by fire, or destroyed by the sword, or sink into the depths of the waters.

But those who have met in the name of Baal, a meeting of all kinds of mischief, who far exceed Sodom and Gomorrah in wickedness, where all kinds of inhuman things are carried on between man and man and between woman and woman, as in Spain, in Italy and in the cloisters, in public brothels, theaters, fencing schools and the accursed drunken taverns, where many live in open disgrace and act so shamefully against God’s word: such people live unmolested and at peace.

I do not mention the public assemblies of every kind of idolatry, where the most high, blessed and precious name of God is so miserably blasphemed, the blood of Christ despised, the Holy Spirit grieved, the truth disgraced, lies commended and poor souls deceived. The blind, ignorant people are directed not only to the holy water, bread, wine and the mass, but also to the dumb idols of wood and stone, as, alas! may be witnessed so widely.

O my beloved lords, what are you doing? Where is the sword of righteousness which was given to you, and of which you boast? You have to admit that you leave it in the scabbard, and in its place you have drawn the sword of unrighteousness. Yes, beloved sirs, things are so (God better it) that the prophets rightly write and call out, “Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves; everyone loves gifts, and follows after rewards; they do not judge the fatherless, nor does the cause of the widow come to them. Therefore says the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, Ah! I will ease myself of my adversaries, and avenge myself of my enemies,” Isaiah 1, verses 23 and 24.

“Behold, the princes of Israel, every one is wise in you to their power to shed blood. In you they have set light by father and mother; in the midst of you they have dealt by oppression with the stranger; in you they have vexed the fatherless and the widow.” They are like devouring wolves, shedding blood and destroying souls for the sake of their greed. “Behold, therefore,” says the Lord, “I have struck my hand at your dishonest gain which you have made, and at your blood which has been in the midst of you,” Ezekiel 22, verses 6, 7 and 13.

“Woe to those who devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds! When the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand. And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away; so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, against this family I devise an evil, from which you shall not remove your necks, nor shall you go haughtily; for this time is evil,” Micah 2, verses 1 to 3.

“Hear, O heads of Jacob, and you princes of the house of Israel: Is it not for you to know judgment, you who hate the good and love the evil? Who pluck off their skin from them, and their flesh from their bones; who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron. Then they shall cry to the Lord, but he will not hear them; he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings,” Micah 3, verses 1 to 4.

“Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city! She did not obey the voice; she did not receive correction; she did not trust in the Lord; she did not draw near to her God. Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they do not gnaw the bones till the morning. Her prophets are light and treacherous persons; her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law. The just Lord is in the midst of her; he will not do iniquity; every morning he brings his judgment to light, he does not fail; but the unjust knows no shame. I have cut off the nations; their towers are desolate; I made their streets waste, so that none passes by,” Zephaniah 3, verses 1 to 6.

There are but few of you, and I fear there is scarcely one, who seeks the Lord with all his heart, and fears, loves and serves him. Therefore the fury of God will also be poured out on you like water, and the sword of his wrath will come upon you, as may be seen daily in many places; God better it.

The wise man says, “Power is given you by the Lord, and sovereignty from the Highest, who shall try your works and search out your counsels. Because, being ministers of his kingdom, you have not judged rightly, nor kept the law, nor walked after the counsel of God, horribly and speedily shall he come upon you; for a sharp judgment shall be to those who are in high places. For mercy will soon pardon the lowliest, but mighty men shall be mightily tormented. For he who is Lord over all shall fear no man’s person, nor shall he stand in awe of any man’s greatness; for he has made the small and great, and cares for all alike. But a severe trial shall come upon the mighty,” Wisdom of Solomon 6, verses 3 to 8.

Therefore, beloved lords, take heed that you carry out your responsible and dangerous office rightly, according to the will of God; for, alas! I fear that many of you have so far paid but little attention to this matter, and this is why antichrist rises up with his wickedness and Christ is rejected with his righteousness. Take to heart what is written, “Keep far from a false matter; and do not slay the innocent and righteous; for I will not justify the wicked,” says the Lord, Exodus 23, verse 7.

Here I well know that we shall have to hear of Munster, dominions, polygamy, the sword, theft, murder and like abominations and disgrace, which, you always assert, come from baptism. Under this pretext you condemn everything the mouth of the Lord commanded and the holy apostles taught and practiced; and for this purpose you cite some seditious sects and factions, so that the outcry of the learned and your bloodshed may be sanctioned.

No, my beloved sirs, this will not acquit you in the day of the righteousness of God. I tell you the truth in Christ: notice that the rightly baptized disciples of Christ, who are baptized inwardly with Spirit and fire and outwardly with water, who are baptized according to the word of God, know of no weapons other than patience, hope, quietness and God’s word. Paul says, “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ,” Second Corinthians 10, verses 4 and 5. Our weapons are not weapons with which cities and countries are laid waste, walls and gates broken down, and human blood shed in torrents like water; but they are weapons with which the spiritual kingdom of the devil is destroyed, the ungodly passions are annihilated, and the flinty hearts are broken that have never been sprinkled with the heavenly dew of the holy word. We have and know no other weapons besides these, the Lord knows, even if we should be torn into a thousand pieces, and as many false witnesses were to rise against us as there are blades of grass in the fields and grains of sand on the seashore.

Again, Christ is our fortress, patience our defense, the word of God our sword, and our victory a sincere, firm, unfeigned faith in Jesus Christ. We leave spears and swords to those who, alas, regard human blood and pigs’ blood alike. Let him who is wise judge what I mean.