Exhortation to All in Authority: Appeal to the Learned

With this I will leave all the lords and princes, with all the magistracy and rulers, and those sent by them, in the hands of the Lord, and turn to you, O you learned, you who think that you have the keys of heaven and are the eyes and the light of the people. I will speak with you as with those whose salvation I seek with all my heart, because I see with open eyes that both you and your disciples run willingly into the eternal destruction of your souls, and nevertheless boast that you are the sent teachers, and your churches the churches of Christ. And I would cordially and brotherly admonish you, one and all, Romans, Lutherans and Zuinglians, concerning the following articles.

First, that you would notice that your ministry and services are not of God and his word, but are from the bottomless pit. For it is evident that you blaspheme and persecute the word, ordinances and commands of Christ, and teach and enforce the word, ordinances and commands of antichrist; that you profane the temple of God, build and honor temples of stone, and break the living images in which the Spirit of God dwells; that you make and dress images of gold, silver and wood; that you hate a pious, blameless life, and by your dissolute examples encourage and defend a disorderly, passionate life of the flesh. Tell me, my beloved, where is there a single letter in the Scriptures concerning all your doings and worship, such as masses, infant baptism, auricular confession, and so on? Is not, in truth, the greater part of what you do and transact all deception, hypocrisy, blasphemy, abomination and idolatry? From where do you derive your offices and services, and from whom are they? I would advise you, in true love, to reflect upon them according to the Scriptures and in the true fear of God.

Second, consider what you are really seeking through this office and service of yours. You and I once stood in the same calling, office and service. I frankly confess that in all my studies from my youth, in preaching and singing, I sought only a vain, lazy, good living, the praise and favor of men, yes, solely the gratification of my carnal desires, until the gracious and great Lord bestowed on me the gift of his gracious Spirit and opened the understanding of my heart, so that I acknowledged with the preacher Solomon that all my seeking, life and doings were vanity, and that their end was certain death and hell.

But that you continue to seek in the same way is too plain to be denied. For if there were no prebends and cloisters, few preachers, priests and monks would be found. This I certainly know. So long as these exist, the world shall never be in want of deceivers and hypocrites. [Note 1]

Tell me, beloved, what else is your whole seeking and doing than world, carnality, gluttony and a voluptuous life? Who can search out and fully describe your earthly mind and sensual life? Some of you make an ostentatious display in ermine, in silk and velvet; others live in full revelry; others are avaricious and hoard; some violate virgins and maids; others defile their neighbor’s bed; others’ chastity is like the chastity of Sodom. All your doctrine is deceiving, your sacraments are enchanting, your piety is chiefly ungodliness, and your divine service is an open abomination and idolatry. Some of you fear neither God nor the devil; you blaspheme the name of God, you falsify his holy word, you persecute his children and servants, and, relying upon his grace, you do all manner of evil. If you can only lead a life free from care and enjoy fine times, then all is well done. Tell me, beloved, is it not so? Worthy men, is it not so? This is your chief seeking and striving, among great and small; this you must acknowledge and confess, for the fruit is manifest to all the world and can no longer be concealed.

O men, men, beware! If anyone could enter into life on this broad way which you teach and in which you walk, and keep his soul in God, we might truly lament and say that the prophets, apostles and all the witnesses of God, and also Christ Jesus himself, did not act wisely and have not dealt rightly with us, in that they passed their lives with so much anguish, suffering, tribulation and pain in this sorrowful vale of tears, and directed us, miserable, weak children, into such a way.

O no, my beloved, no; truth will eternally be truth. If you are not converted to a better and Christian mind; if you do not die to your deception and also to your vain, carnal life, repent, and become in your dispositions like innocent little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. “For to be carnally minded,” says Paul, “is death.”

Teach, call, hope and boast in any way you choose: if you desire to be saved, you must walk in the ways of the Lord, hear his word and be obedient to it. For nothing avails in heaven or upon earth by which you can be saved, neither baptism nor the Lord’s Supper, neither eloquence nor learning, neither councils nor long-standing usages, neither emperors nor edicts, neither Christ with his grace, merits, blood and death, if we are not born of God (understand it rightly, those who have ears to hear and minds to understand), believe his word sincerely, walk in the light and do right, as John says, “This, then, is the message which we have heard of him and declare to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not do the truth; but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin,” First John 1, verses 5 to 7.

O transgressors, transgressors, examine your hearts, give heed to my words and learn wisdom, you who live in voluptuousness and sit at ease, who say in your hearts, It is we, and besides us there is no other; what we command shall be heard, and what we speak must stand upon earth; we cannot go astray in the Scriptures, and in counsel we cannot err, and we can teach nothing unlawful. Ah, alas! Your boasted wisdom leads you astray, and the pride of your hearts makes you stumble. Turn back; your path is slippery, and your way leads to the abyss of hell.

Beloved men, learn to know what God’s own and eternal Son, Christ Jesus, sought upon earth, what he taught, and what example he left you. His seeking was his Father’s praise and the salvation of our poor souls; his doctrine was his Father’s word, and his going before us a sure way to the kingdom of God. “Who, being in the form of God,” says Paul, “thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant,” Philippians 2, verses 6 and 7. He came poor and miserable into this sorrowful world; there was no room in the inn when he was born; he had nowhere to lay his head; nor in his death did he have anything with which to quench his thirst, although it is he through whom the almighty, all-bountiful Father grants to all his creatures dwelling, clothing, food and drink, as Paul says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might be rich,” Second Corinthians 8, verse 9.

If you have any fear of God, and would not willfully lead your own souls and the souls of your poor people to death, then compare your seeking with the seeking of Christ, your doctrine with the doctrine of Christ, your spirit with the Spirit of Christ, and your life with the life of Christ. Then you may truly find whether you are in or out of Christ, who is your God, what Lord you serve, and of whose spirit and kingdom you are.

Third, observe what fruits and usefulness your office and services bring forth. For what is your doctrine but a useless, feeble sowing in the wind, which has neither spirit nor power? Your sacraments are an encouragement to the impenitent, and your lives examples of wickedness. Where are the avaricious whom you have improved, the drunkards you have made temperate, the polluted you have made pure, the haughty whom you have humbled? How will you teach others when you are yourselves untaught, and beget for Christ an acceptable church when you are yourselves the servants of antichrist and the children of Belial? You and your disciples, therefore, high and low, men and women, must ever confess that you are all dead bodies and do not have the Spirit of God. For among you we do not find contrite hearts, true knowledge of Christ, true love, an earnest desire for the kingdom of God, dying to earthly things, true humility, righteousness, friendliness, mercy, chastity, obedience, wisdom, truth and peace; but everywhere we find hateful, envious, obdurate, malicious hearts, aversion to and contempt of the divine word, lust and love of this world, haughtiness, pride, pomp, lies, knavery, disgrace, adultery, whoredom, robbery, burning, slaying, cursing, swearing, and all manner of malice.

See, you withered trees and careless shepherds, these are the fruits you bring forth and the sheep you pasture; these are the churches and disciples you comfort with the blood of the Lord, to whom you preach grace and peace, and to whom you dispense baptism and the Lord’s Supper. If I do not write the truth, reprove me.

O beloved sirs, so entirely have you lost every Christian virtue and understanding, and besides, the light and the Scriptures. You hold captive in ungodliness, under the power of hell, the poor, ignorant people, whole kingdoms, cities and countries, yes, the whole wide world, and that, O God, for such small hire, namely, for a handful of barley and a piece of bread, as the prophet says. O that my words might be a lie and not the truth! Sunshine is clear, but still clearer is the truth which I write.

And it is not enough for you, O you men, that you so miserably deceive the poor wretched souls; besides this, you also rebuke, defame, slander and betray all those who seek and fear God with all their hearts, who rebuke all unrighteousness with doctrine and life, and who so willingly walk in Christ. You deprive them of their possessions and lives so that you may be greatly honored among the people, that your doings may not be spoken evil of, that you may not be hindered in your unlawful gain, and that you may enjoy an easy and voluptuous life to the end of your days.

O how rightly you are depicted by the wisdom of God, which says, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves (mark this), nor allow those who are entering to go in,” Matthew 23, verse 13.

What I think, I write, and I do not dissemble. I fear, worthy sirs, that many of you are so ungodly, and so set upon unlawful gain, an idle life and the praise of men, that you would rather see all the God-fearing put to the stake than lose a guilder of your rents, or hear a harsh word from the magistracy, for the sake of the truth.

O you with wanton looks, when will you be ashamed? You diamonds, when will you be softened? And you Moors, when will you become white? I think never more; for how can you do anything good, since you have learned evil and have been used to it from your infancy?

Alas, my soul must grieve and painfully mourn for your sakes, that you have erred so lamentably, and besides this, that you cover all your disgrace under the word and name of Christ. And you do not observe, O you men, that you, together with all the false prophets, are promised in the Scriptures and threatened by the Spirit of the Lord everywhere with nothing but punishment, wrath, damnation and blackness of darkness, the flaming lake and eternal gnashing of teeth, weeping, wailing, fire, woe and death.

The hour is near at hand when we shall hear, “Give an account,” and so on. Alas, if, when that day is at hand, it were our due to walk a thousand years on burning coals and in red-hot armor (flames), then we might even rejoice and be of good cheer; but now it is hidden from your eyes through your haughtiness, avarice and momentary luxury.

Perhaps I would be struck on the cheek by some of you, and, with Micaiah, be made to hear from Zedekiah, “Which way did the Spirit of the Lord go from me to speak to you?” Second Chronicles 18, verse 23. O my beloved, fear God and understand the truth. You direct the poor dissolute souls to the subtlety and philosophy of the learned, to the many councils, to customs and usages of long standing, to imperial edicts, to the doctrines and commandments of men, which are nothing but quicksands that cannot save the house from the tempest. But I do not do so; with Moses, the prophets, apostles, angels, and the Father himself, I direct you to Christ Jesus, to whom all the emperors, kings, councils, usages and the learned will have to yield; for his word is truth, and his commands are eternal life. To him every knee shall bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth; all who reject him reject the Father who sent him, Philippians 2, verse 10.

This I teach you: I direct you to his Spirit, word, life, command, prohibition, ordinances and usages, as to a sure and immovable foundation laid in Zion, to a plain and safe way prepared by God, who, according to his sure promises, will lead all the truly penitent and Christian believers into eternal life.

Beloved men, observe: there were four hundred false prophets in the days of Ahab, king of Israel, who with one voice prophesied prosperity and good fortune, that he should go up, for God would give the king’s enemies into his hands; while there was but one Micaiah, who spoke the real truth and foretold adversity in the name of the Lord, Second Chronicles 18, verses 6 and 7.

And there were also four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and four hundred prophets of the groves, all of whom ate at Jezebel’s table; there was only one Elijah, a man of God and a prophet of the Lord, who was zealous for the law of his God and defended his praise, First Kings, chapter 18.

Joash, with all the princes, priests and common people, were of one mind in their groves and their false worship, which they had chosen after the death of Jehoiada the high priest; and there was but one Zechariah, who reproved the ungodly abominations and threatened them with the wrath and punishment of his God, Second Chronicles, chapter 24.

Those renowned and worthy men of God, though they were few, reproved with pure, divine ardor, in the power of the Spirit, and faithfully admonished by the law of God with their great and glorious talents, all the disobedient and idolatrous kings, princes, priests and common people, without respect of persons; and on that account they suffered disgrace, misery, tribulation, bonds and death, as we may abundantly read and see in the Scriptures and in history. Even so I also, with my small talents, for like views and reasons, here openly testify to the truth, because I see that you all hypocritically flatter lords and princes and caress the world, and because there is, alas, nobody who opposes this ungodliness with the word of the Lord or reproves the wickedness of the world. On this account I must hear and bear much, as did those mentioned above, although I mean it so well and have such true grounds.

O worthy men, deliberate! Reflect on the matter. Consider the end; think on the consequence. You console yourselves with the inventions of men, but we put our trust in the word and truth of God. You seek the world, we seek heaven; you set your affections upon the present, we upon the future; you depend upon the emperor and temporal powers, we depend on Christ and his promises, until we all shall appear before him who will come in the clouds of heaven to repay all flesh. Then you will see what you sought, what office you conducted, what fruits you brought forth, for what hire you served, whose word you preached, whose counsel you rejected, and whom, O men, you have so enviously pierced.

With this I will commend you to the Lord, you learned and preachers, and I entreat you for God’s sake (for the good of all your souls) to accept with gratitude and love this my faithful warning, written to you with a sincere and Christian intention. Read it with an understanding heart; reflect upon it, and examine it with fear and trembling. I certainly know that you will find nothing in it but kindness, love, zeal, and a sure foundation of the only and invincible truth.

And though some of you may think that I reprove too severely, you ought to know that I have not done so without the instruction, counsel and doctrine of the holy prophets, Christ and the apostles. I have given no name without the word of God. Let him who is innocent thank God and rejoice; he who is guilty is not reproved by me, but by the Spirit and word of God.

O you whom I desire as friends, fear God and his judgment; reform your earthly, carnal life; abandon all the deceptions, blindness, seductions and abominations in which you have been involved until now; seek the right truth with all your powers; pray to God for wisdom; warn everyone; deal and act blamelessly. Then you will not be of that number of shepherds called by such dreadful names in the Scriptures, and you will not be partakers of that displeasure, punishment and wrath, but you will inherit grace, mercy and life, as the prophet says, “But if the wicked will turn from his sins that he has committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he has committed, they shall not be mentioned to him,” Ezekiel 18, verses 21 and 22. May the gracious and merciful Lord grant you all his grace, knowledge, Spirit, wisdom, light and truth, that you may sincerely awaken, repent and be eternally saved. Amen.

Give ear, you people, you who trust in lies and boast that you are Christians. Tear your bands apart, and let yourselves be led no longer by these drivers spoken of above, like asses bound and under a heavy burden of sin, for they deceive you. They preach to you according to their own opinion and not out of the mouth of the Lord; they comfort you in your wicked ways; they call and cry only mercy and peace, though it is displeasure and judgment, as the prophet says. The priests and prophets teach a false worship and comfort my people in their calamity, so that they think lightly of it, saying, “Peace, peace, when there is no peace.” They are the blind leaders who lead you and themselves into the pit, and the blind watchmen who do not watch over the city of God; thieves and murderers who slay your poor souls with the sword of their false doctrine and steal from you the word and kingdom of the Lord; greedy shepherds who seek your wool, milk and flesh, and not your souls. In short, they are those who wholly lay waste the kingdom of Christ and spread the kingdom of antichrist in high honor through the whole world, and who always comfort and defend you, poor children, in your dissolute abominations and your obdurate, blind life, so that, alas, there is no one who is sincerely converted to the Lord, laments his sins and says, What am I doing?

O worthy children and brothers, my heart within me quakes and fears when I reflect that such a numberless multitude of men are born in vain and to no purpose, who will have to endure the wrath and judgment of the Lord eternally if they do not repent, and shall never find grace.

Beloved children, take heed, for this is what Christ Jesus teaches you: Truly I tell you, “Unless you are converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven,” Matthew 18, verse 3. O dear Lord, this is spoken by God’s eternal truth, which cannot lie; and how ungodly you ignorant people live, and how far you are from the innocence of children, your fruits testify. For you despise God and his word; you hate all righteousness and truth. Many of you live like the irrational creatures; others quarrel, curse, swear, are covetous, practice usury, lie, cheat, injure and defraud one another. Faithfulness and piety are seldom found among you; faithlessness and knavery, alas, everywhere. Eating to excess, gambling, gaming, drinking and carousing are your pastimes; to pollute women and defile virgins is called courting and loving; to take advantage of and defraud one another is called understanding and wisdom. You are valiant at beer and mighty at wine; unrighteousness and destruction are in all your ways. You oppress the poor and weak, and you revile the afflicted, the God-fearing and the pious. You think and practice nothing but evil; you are without understanding, says the prophet, like a frantic heifer. Pomp and splendor you call the fashion and custom of the country. One lies in wait for another’s honor, property and life, and seeks his destruction, as the prophet says. Your faith is hypocrisy, your worship idolatry, your whole life is world and flesh, as may be seen; and then you say, He who walks in simplicity walks rightly, as if ignorance, blindness, and despising the truth and godliness were a pious, humble and plain life. Dear children, be ashamed of your offensive wantonness and accursed folly.

Do you suppose that Christ is a liar and his word a fable? O no! His sentence stands immovable and shall never be altered: if you live in pride, avarice, voluptuousness, unchastity and carnal lusts, do not believe Christ and his word, continue to be earthly-minded, and are not born of God, you must die eternally, or else the Spirit of God is not true but false.

Tell me, beloved, why do you extol the apostles and prophets while you revile their doctrine as heresy and their lives as madness? Why do you allow yourselves to be called Christians while you hate and oppose Christ’s word and example?

Do you say, We are without understanding, untaught, and do not know the Scriptures? Then I reply again: the word is plain and needs no comment, namely, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself,” Matthew 22, verses 37 and 39. Again, You shall give bread to the hungry and take in the needy, Isaiah 58, verse 7.

If you live according to the flesh, you shall die; for to be carnally minded is death. The avaricious, drunkards and the proud shall not inherit the kingdom of God; for he will judge adulterers and fornicators, Romans, chapter 8; First Corinthians, chapter 6, and many like passages. All who do not understand such passages, we must confess and acknowledge, are more like irrational creatures than men, more like blocks than Christians.

O my children, my beloved children, do not deceive your own souls. Seek wisdom and understanding even as you seek your daily food, that you may find great riches; for the kingdom of heaven suffers violence. Strive, says Christ, to enter in at the narrow gate; ask and you shall receive; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you. The almighty, great God is not satisfied with a bare name, but he desires a true, sincere faith, unfeigned, ardent love, a new, converted heart, true humility, mercy, chastity, patience, righteousness and peace. He desires the whole man, heart, profession and actions. He who delights in the word of the Lord speaks the truth from the heart, crucifies his flesh, and will give his goods and blood for the word of the Lord, if it is required.

See, dear children, this is the way in which we will all have to walk if we desire to be saved; therefore awaken and learn wisdom. Hear the inviting voice of God, open to him and meet him, so that he does not complain of you as he once did, through his prophets, of obdurate and stiff-necked Judea and Jerusalem. “I have nourished,” he says, “and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people do not consider. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, they have gone away backward,” Isaiah 1, verse 4.

Jeremiah says, “Everyone turned to his course, as the horse rushes into the battle; yes, the stork in the heaven knows her appointed times, and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people do not know the judgment of the Lord,” Jeremiah 8, verses 6 and 7. [Note 2]

Remember, dear children, how greatly Jesus Christ took to heart the obstinacy and blindness of the Jews, when he said, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not!” He wept and said, “If you had known, even you, at least in this your day, the things which belong to your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes,” Luke 19, verse 42.

“Therefore lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls,” James 1, verse 21. Seek God with a full heart, repent sincerely, cleanse yourselves inwardly before the Lord; let go of the world, the flesh, false doctrine and everything contrary to the honor, will and word of God. Hear, believe and follow Jesus Christ, the only and true shepherd of your souls, who sought you in such great love and purchased you at such a precious price; then you may in truth boast that you are the people of God and the church of Christ. To him, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, be praise and the eternal kingdom. Amen. [Note 3]