The True Christian Faith: Faith of the Woman of Canaan, Part 2

By this, prove yourselves again. If you love God, you will keep his commandments, and you will do to your neighbor as you would have him do to you. But if you despise his word and do not follow his ordinances in doctrine, baptism, the Holy Supper and separation; if you do not walk according to his holy, godly commands, but also lie about, cheat and betray your neighbor; if you take your neighbor’s life, disgrace his wife, daughters or servants, and deal treacherously with him; if you mislead poor, blind souls from the true way and obedience of the Lord, whether through persecution or false doctrine, and so rob them of the eternal kingdom and lead them to hell — then it is more than clear that you hate the command of the Lord and do not have his faith.

Again, the word of the Lord teaches, “Enter in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in by it; because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads to life; and few there are that find it,” Matthew 7, verse 13. In another place it is written, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.” He that loves father and mother, husband or wife, son or daughter, more than me, is not worthy of me.

Here prove yourselves again. Have you such a spirit, such frankness and faith, that in time of need you are ready to forsake father, mother and your all for the sake of God’s word and his testimony; to take upon yourself the cross of Christ; to deny yourself in all things; to enter with Christ upon the way of suffering, and so to enter with the poor little flock at the narrow, strait gate? Then may the Lord strengthen you. But if you live for yourselves, reject the cross of Christ, and love father, mother, wife, children, property or life more than Christ; if you walk on the broad way with the multitude and enter the wide gate, then the mouth of the Lord testifies that you are unbelievers and that your end is damnation.

Again, the word of the Lord says, “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts,” Galatians 5, verse 24. For those who live after the flesh, such as adulterers, whoremongers, the incontinent, the avaricious, drunkards, gamblers, thieves, the hateful, the haughty, slanderers, the bloodthirsty and idolaters, shall die.

Prove yourselves again. If your lusts do not reign in you, if you do not walk in any of these and similar carnal ways that have been mentioned, but can smother them and trample them underfoot through faith, then thank God, fight piously, watch and pray. But if you gratify your lusts and walk in the impure ways of your flesh, then reform yourselves; for then it is evident that you are not penitent, believing Christians, but impenitent, carnal heathen.

Again, the word of the Lord teaches, “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, With what shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you,” Matthew 6, verse 31.

Here prove yourselves again. If you believe that the strong and mighty God, who nourished Israel forty years with bread from heaven and with water from the rock, kept their clothes from wearing out, and fed Elias by a raven, will not forsake you in your distress but will provide for you by his grace, this is true evidence that you have the word of the Lord. But if through your cares you are led or driven to neglect the kingdom of God and his righteousness, to seek temporal things more than eternal ones, and to be as anxious as if God cared more for the flowers and the birds than for you and your children, then do not boast that you believe the promise and word of the Lord.

Again, the word of the Lord teaches, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believes on him is not condemned; but he that does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God,” John 3, verses 16 to 18.

Here prove yourselves the seventh time. If you sincerely believe these words of Christ with your whole heart — that the Almighty, eternal Father so loved you and the whole human family that he sent his incomprehensible, almighty, eternal Word, Wisdom, Truth and Son, by whom he created the heavens, the earth, the sea and all that fills them, and his eternal glory, into this vale of misery; that he let him become a poor, grieved, miserable man; that for the sake of all our sins he let him suffer hunger and thirst, and permitted him to be slandered, arrested, crowned with thorns, scourged, crucified and killed — then it cannot fail that your old carnal mind must become a regenerated, spiritual mind; your thoughts must become chaste and pure, your words discreet and well seasoned, and your whole life pious and blameless.

At once you should awake, walk in the right way, keep apart from all abomination and idolatry, forsake false prophets, preachers and priests, and seek the true teachers, sacraments and divine service. For a true, sincere Christian faith cannot be idle; it changes, renews, purifies, sanctifies and justifies more and more. It makes joyful and glad, for by faith it knows that hell, the devil, sin and death are conquered through Christ, and that grace, mercy, redemption from sin and eternal life are obtained through him. In full confidence the one who has true Christian faith approaches the Father in the name of Christ, receives the Holy Spirit, becomes a partaker of the divine nature, and is renewed after the image of him who created him; he lives by the virtue of Christ which is in him; all his ways are righteousness, godliness, honesty, chastity, truth, wisdom, goodness, kindness, light, love and joy.

He sanctifies his body and heart as a dwelling and temple of Christ and the Holy Spirit; he hates all that is against God and his word; he honors, praises and thanks God with a sincere heart; and nothing can terrify him, neither judgment, wrath, hell, the devil, sin nor eternal death. For he knows that Christ is his Intercessor, Mediator and Propitiator. He acknowledges with holy Paul that “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit,” Romans 8, verse 1. The Spirit of the Lord assures him that he is a child of God and a joint heir with Christ; he therefore dedicates himself wholly to his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who called him through grace, drew him by his Spirit, enlightened him by his word and purchased him with his blood.

See, this is the nature of living faith, which has such urgent, compelling power, spirit, fear, energy and life, which avails with God and has the promise in the Scriptures. Happy is he who has such a faith and keeps it to the end for his salvation! I say it again: prove yourselves, whether you are in the faith; in Christ or outside Christ; penitent or impenitent. For in the mirror held up here you may view the whole face of your conscience and life, if only you believe that the word of the Lord is true and right. Notice here how the true Christian faith, through grace, is the only living fountain from which flows not only the penitent new life, but also obedience to the evangelical ceremonies, such as baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which must come and follow — not as from those compelled by the law, for the rod of the oppressor is broken, but voluntarily, through the free will and submissive spirit of love, which is of a Christian nature and is ready for every good work and for obedience to the holy divine word.

For all the truly regenerated and spiritual conform in all things to the word and ordinances of the Lord — not because they think to merit the atonement of their sins and eternal life; by no means. In this matter they rely on nothing but the true promise of the merciful Father, graciously given to all believers through the blood and merits of Christ, which blood is and ever will be the only eternal means of our reconciliation — not works, baptism or the Lord’s Supper, as was said above.

For if our reconciliation depended on works and ceremonies, then it would not be grace, and the merits and fruits of the blood of Christ would be void. O no! It is grace, and it will be grace to all eternity; all that the merciful Father is doing or has done for us grievous sinners through his beloved Son and Holy Spirit is grace. That is why they hear the voice of the Lord and believe his word, and therefore they should willingly observe and perform (although in weakness) the representation of both signs, under water and under bread and wine, set forth in obedience. For a truly believing Christian is so minded that he will do nothing other than what the word of the Lord enjoins and teaches; for he knows that all presumption and disobedience are like the sin of witchcraft, and the end of it is death.

Yes, good reader, the true Christian belief, as the Scriptures require it, is so lively, active and powerful in all who have rightly received it through the grace of the Lord, that they do not fear to forsake father, mother, wife, children, money and possessions for the word and testimony of the Lord; to suffer all manner of scorn, disgrace, weariness, hardship and prison; and finally to have their poor, weak bodies, which so fear suffering, burned at the stake, as may often be seen in the pious children and witnesses of Christ Jesus, especially here in our Netherlands.

Alas, how many did I know before, and know the greater part of them now, both men and women, menservants and maidservants (would to God they were increased to many hundreds of thousands!), who seek Christ and his word from the depths of their souls and lead, in all meekness, a pious, blameless life before God and man: sincere and holy in doctrine, full of the fear and love of God, ready to help one another, merciful, compassionate, meek, sober, chaste, neither unruly nor seditious, but quiet and peaceable, obedient to the magistracy in all things not contrary to God — and who nevertheless have not slept in their beds for a number of years, and do not even now. For they are so hated by the world that they have been persecuted, betrayed, seized, exiled and slain like highwaymen, thieves and murderers, and that without mercy, for no other reason than that, out of the true fear of God, they dare not take part in the abominable, carnal life and the accursed, disgraceful idolatry of this blind world. Nor dare they hear or acknowledge the unchaste, drunken, lecherous priests and deceiving, blind preachers as the true apostles and teachers of God; they dare not receive the bread from their hands together with the avaricious, the envious, the proud, drunkards, whores and rogues, nor carry their children to the antichristian washing and baptism; but they seek such preachers and teachers, and such a baptism, Supper, church and life, as are in accordance with the Scriptures and can stand according to the word of the Lord.

See, before God I write the truth: they are indeed such a people, if I know them rightly, hypocrites excepted, who in the flesh weep more than they laugh, mourn more than they rejoice, and would rather give than receive; who are ready to sacrifice not only possessions and their all, but also body and life, for the praise of the Lord and for the necessary service of their neighbor, according to the command of the Scripture, as far as it lies in them. No matter how much the poor children are harassed, they are still so strengthened in God that they can be neither moved nor frightened off. They possess their souls in patience, waiting for the joy that is promised. Christ truly said, “You will be hated by all men for my name’s sake,” Matthew 24, verse 9.

Since, then, it is evident from all this that the true evangelical faith is of such a nature as has been said, and is the only means and tree which, through the grace of God, bears and spreads every kind of good fruit, it is therefore considered in Scripture the most precious and greatest work, and all things are ascribed to faith: miracles, and the power to become the children of God and to be justified, to be blessed and saved, purified and sanctified, and to have eternal life, as we related when treating of the malefactor’s faith.

Not, dear reader, that we believe faith merits this on account of its own worth; by no means. But because it has pleased God through his word to give his promise to true faith, the promise must also follow faith by virtue of that word. For the Scriptures plainly teach that all things, visible and invisible, must hear, yield to, serve and follow the powerful word of God, as when he said, Let there be heaven and earth, and heaven and earth sprang into being at these words. For God’s word, says Esdras, is his perfect work. God also says to Israel, If you will hearken diligently to the voice of the Lord your God, all these blessings shall come upon you; but if you will not hearken, the curse shall be upon you; and it also happened as Israel was told. “For God,” says Balaam, “is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent.” For these reasons the promise must follow true faith; otherwise it could not be denied that God, who is a God of truth, would be untrue and faithless. O no! All that he wills must be done; what he promises must be fulfilled, and not otherwise than he has promised, for he alone is true and we are all liars, Romans, chapter 3. Paul says, “If we do not believe, yet he abides faithful; he cannot deny himself.”

Since faith, then, so firmly acknowledges that God cannot break his promise but must keep it, because he is the truth and cannot lie, he makes his children free, joyful and glad in spirit, though they are shut up in prisons and bonds and have to suffer by water and fire, in chains and at the stake. For they are assured in the spirit, through faith, that God will not withdraw his promise but will fulfill it in due time; for they believe on Christ, in whom the promises are sealed, and through him they also acknowledge his grace, word and will, even though in former times they lived so ungodly and walked according to the flesh.

With faithful Abraham they hope where there is nothing to hope for, and wait for things invisible as though they saw them; and with full confidence they hold to the assurance, truth, faithfulness and power of the heavenly promise, which is made to us by the infallible, true mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, without any previous work or merit, through the gracious choice and will of his merciful Father in his true word. And this regenerating, justifying, converting, penitent, active and confident faith, which comes from the Father of lights by the hearing of his holy word, is the only faith that avails with God and has the assurance of the promise of grace in the word through the Holy Spirit; besides this the Holy Scriptures know of no other faith.

Before now I have read in some books they have written that there is but one good work which saves us, namely faith, and but one sin which will damn us, namely unbelief. This I will leave as it is and not find fault with it; for where there is a sincere, true faith, there are also all manner of sincere, good fruits. On the other hand, where there is unbelief, there are also all manner of evil fruits; therefore salvation is rightly ascribed to faith, and damnation to unbelief.

Faithful reader, pay attention. We plainly see that the whole world — Papists, Lutherans, Zuinglians, Davidists, libertines and so on — walks the broad road of sin and leads a carnal, vain life, and does not abide by the pure, saving, perfect doctrine, sacraments and blameless, pure example of Christ; therefore they are themselves witnesses that they reject the cornerstone, Jesus Christ, and do not believe his word and truth, though a few of them write much about faith and speak of the Scriptures. Tell me, beloved, did you ever read in the Scriptures, or did you ever hear, that a truly believing, regenerated Christian, after repentance and conversion, remained proud, avaricious, unchaste, greedy, hateful, tyrannical and idolatrous, and went on living after the base desires of the flesh? You must say no! If you speak of Peter and David, you must observe how short or how long a time their fall lasted, and what penance they did. Turn to the east or west, south or north, and you will find ungodly, vain, pompous, foolish actions and conduct in all who boast of faith, so that we shall have to say with Christ and John: they are, with few exceptions, of the devil and not of God. For the devil was proud and haughty from the beginning, and so are they; he was a liar, and so are they; he was a falsifier of the word of the Lord, and so are they; he disputed against God, and so do they; in short, he is a vengeful murderer, an abominable, bloodthirsty tyrant, and so are many of them. How they treat those who sincerely seek Christ and believe, fear, follow, serve and call on him has been fully related more than once.

Indeed, alas, they are so wrathful and enraged against them that they will scarcely call them by their right names, but call them Anabaptists, fanatics, rioters, factionists, hedge preachers, deceivers, heretics, new monks, knaves and miscreants — although they seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness with all their hearts, as God knows, who tries the reins and hearts of men, and wish no evil to anyone on earth.

All this they do through the ignorant slander of the envious, inhuman, lying outcry and writing of their learned priests and preachers, who, ever since the blasphemous beast of antichrist ascended to his kingdom and glory, have always been the true cause of the tyrannical shedding of innocent blood, in the past and in the present. For they are the ones who stir up the magistracy to murder, and the thoughtless, reckless people to slander and blaspheme; and I fear that they will go on being the cause of it until the end.

Nevertheless, the chosen are to awake, repent and obey the voice of the Lord; for idolatrous, bloodthirsty, confused Babel shall sink and be laid waste, and fair Jerusalem, the city of peace, shall increase and, through the power of Almighty God, must be built up in glory. Over this all rejoice who are called to the marriage of the Lamb and whose names are written with God in the book of life. Here is the understanding, wisdom, faith and patience of the saints; let him who has understanding observe that the word of the Lord is true. Blessed are those who are ready to meet the coming of the Lamb.

See, such a faithless, impenitent, tyrannical, idolatrous, rebellious, disobedient, blind, carnal people they are who imagine that they are the believing church and the lawful bride of Christ. These poor children do not notice that everything under heaven is spoiled, just as the prophet complains that “there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land; by swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood touches blood,” Hosea 4, verses 1 and 2. The world, says John, lies in wickedness. If we come to the lords and princes, there we find such pride, arrogance, pomp and wantonness, such banqueting and excessive eating and drinking; with some such adultery and whoredom, and such unreasonable, blind idolatry; and with many such unmerciful, raging tyranny, that they are in truth more like proud Nebuchadnezzar, drunken Belshazzar and Nabal, and bloodthirsty, vain Antioch, Nero and Maximinus, than Christian, believing lords and kind princes. If we come to the judges and rulers, each in his station, with some we find only violence and injustice, with some nothing but avarice and astonishing practices; they steal honestly and rob honorably; they pass sentence for gain and gifts; they honor the great and despise the poor; they do not do justice to the poor widow, the orphan and the oppressed stranger; they exercise their office and power with harshness and not as brothers; they serve princes and not God, as the prophet Micah laments: what the prince desires, the judge does, so that he will reward him in return. Alas, where shall we find one who loves God with all his heart, hates avarice, seeks the truth, and will defend the God-fearing and do him justice? [Note 1]

If we come to the priests or monks, there we find such insatiable avarice that they offer and sell prayers, psalms, matins, vespers, masses, sermons, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, absolution and all their church services, together with their own souls. They take rents and gold from the dead; they will go six or ten miles from one place to another for a guilder; where they find the most milk, wool and meat, there they prefer to be among the sheep. They like to be flattered and honored by the world; they let themselves be called doctors, lords, masters, abbots, provosts, priors, fathers, guardians, commanders and presidents; they like to wear long garments, seek to be greeted in the marketplace, and take the first seats at the table and in the church, as Christ said of the scribes and Pharisees, Mark 12, verse 39. Besides this, the greater part of them live in such whoredom and sodomy that the angels are astonished and blush. They defile one woman after another, and one virgin after another as well; they defraud and corrupt the whole world, both temporally and spiritually; they have all their joy in a temporal, carnal life; they study day and night how they may pamper their proud, idle, lazy flesh; they eat and drink, saying, as it is written, “Come, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant,” Isaiah 56, verse 12. They betray the faithful, pious hearts who seek Christ and eternal life with all their powers; they warn everyone against the truth and its followers, and cry, Hear us, we are your teachers and pastors, we will pledge our souls for you in the judgment of God; and so they encourage the wicked, lest they be converted from their wickedness. They promise liberty to others, and are themselves servants of corruption. I do not know how they could make it worse; nevertheless these shameless, abominable men, who under the law of Moses would have been stoned, and who according to the Scriptures must be eternally cursed and condemned unless they repent, are, alas, called the pastors and teachers of this poor, ignorant people. See, this is how the world is corrupted.

If we come to the preachers who boast of the word, we find that some are open liars, others drunken sots, some usurers, some wanton and frivolous, some defamers and slanderers, others persecutors and betrayers of the innocent. How some of them live, how they came by their wives, and what kind of wives they have, I will leave to the Lord and to themselves. They teach secretly that there are two sons in Christ, the Son of God and the son of Mary, and that he who died for our sins was not the Son of God. They also teach and practice a baptism which is not commanded in the Scriptures, and a supper in which they consider the bread the body and the wine the blood of Christ. They have and hold no other ban than the gallows and the wheel; they lead an unconcerned, easy life; they live on mere flattery, deceit and the plunder of antichrist, and preach just as much as the worldly, carnal magistracy wants to hear; they promise peace to the poor impenitent, although there is no peace.

If we come to the common people, we find such an unseemly, carnal, blind, uncircumcised horde that we are astonished; they know neither God nor his word. If nature teaches anything reasonable, that is all their piety; but of the Spirit, word, ordinances, will and life they know very little indeed. In short, it has come so far in the world that we may lament and say with the holy prophet, “Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in its broad places, if you can find a man, if there is any that executes judgment, that seeks the truth,” Jeremiah 5, verse 1.

Not one stone has remained upon another; all is laid waste that Christ and his faithful messengers taught us of faith, love, baptism, the Supper, reconciliation, sin, repentance, regeneration, separation, teachers, deacons and true divine service. Nevertheless they are called the church of Christ by their blind priests and preachers, as if Christ and the Father were to be satisfied with names, bread, wine and water. O no! The chosen of God are the church of Christ, his saints and beloved, who have washed their clothes in the blood of the Lamb, who are born of God and moved by the Spirit of Christ; who are in Christ and he in them; who hear and believe his word, follow him in his commandments in their weakness, walk in his footsteps with all patience and humility, hate the evil and love the good, earnestly desiring to lay hold of Christ as they are laid hold of by him. For all who are in Christ are new creatures, flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone, and members of his body. How you and the rest of mankind measure up to this I leave you and all reasonable readers to reflect upon in the fear of God, both according to your understanding and according to the Scriptures.

Since, then, all things are laid waste through the righteous wrath and judgment of God, because (as Paul says) they took pleasure in unrighteousness and lies, by means of the false prophets and ravening wolves, so that nothing saving has remained according to the true sense and ground of Christ and his holy apostles; and since we find nothing in the whole world, among all the great sects, but vain boasting, mere names, false doctrine, false sacraments, vain unbelief and an impenitent, carnal life, and this under the name and appearance of Christ and his holy church — therefore I am constrained by true Christian love to make known the power and ground of the holy Scriptures, according to the small gift God has given me, and through this to show which is the true Christian faith that has the promise: namely, the faith which changes a man from evil into good, to a divine nature, both inwardly and outwardly, and makes him, as has been said, holy, righteous, obedient, new, pious, peaceable and joyful. I do this so that all good, pious hearts who desire to walk in the right way, but are hindered from it by their blind priests and preachers, may read or hear this my faithful exposition and instruction and be instructed in the truth by it; that the indifferent and drowsy may be awakened; that all hypocrites may be ashamed and reform; and that all who sincerely love God may be further instructed and taught in the faith, if by any means they acknowledge this as the sure foundation of God, as it is and will be forever. Lord, grant that many may read and understand it, and so receive and obey it, that they may sincerely repent and be saved. Amen.

And since I do it from a sincere heart, and labor with no other aim — of which the great God, the Searcher of the hearts and reins of men, is my witness — than to teach repentance to the ignorant, rude world which does not know Christ, and to lead them to Christ and his doctrine, sacraments and example, so that many might be saved; and since we plainly see that there are many profligates who have reformed their sinful, carnal lives and begun an upright, penitent, pious life in the fear of the Lord — then it is gross ingratitude, indeed hardened, ungodly tyranny, to hate me and my faithful co-workers so enviously and to repay us so shamefully, when we show them such great faithfulness and love in our many sufferings and trials.

But this is how they treated all the prophets and faithful servants of God from the beginning, who preached the word and will of the Lord to them with great faithfulness, rebuked their sins, and sought their salvation until death with all their powers, with many tears, watchings, prayers, labors, cares and sorrows. Therefore it is not strange, and no wonder, that they will treat us so; for Christ says, “For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you,” Matthew 5, verse 12.

I hereby entreat and ask all my readers and hearers in general, of whatever name, office, station and condition, through the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you be pleased neither to slander nor to reject my labor as long as you have not read it impartially, heard it rightly and understood it. Therefore separate the doctrine, sacraments and life of Christ from the doctrine, sacraments and life of the priests and preachers; separate faith and unbelief, spirit and flesh, righteousness and unrighteousness. Seek the truth; strive zealously for your salvation; believe that God is true, that he will reward the good and punish the evil, and that his word is and will forever remain truth. Fear his judgment and love his kindnesses; then you shall know, by the grace of the Lord, that what has been set out above is the true Christian faith, which avails before God and has the promise in the Scriptures, as we have so abundantly testified and shown you by the word of God, with such strong and incontrovertible reasons, Scriptures and examples, without deceit or fraud, as it were before, in Christ Jesus.

May the almighty, eternal, merciful God and Father, through his beloved Son Jesus Christ, lead you all together into his holy, divine knowledge and evangelical truth, and make your faith so fruitful and active that with sincere, new hearts you may patiently submit to his cross in every trial and affliction, walk in unfeigned love, and be peaceable and joyful in spirit as the blameless, pious children of God before the Lord and his church all the days of your lives, and finally obtain the promise of grace, the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Amen.

Beloved reader, here you have my foundation and doctrine of faith, with its properties, power, working and fruits. I therefore entreat you all, if you value Christ and your own salvation: restrain your perverse minds; do not be enraged and embittered if you find anything contrary to the usages of our forefathers, to long-standing customs, or to philosophical writings and the outcry of the learned. But first test it rightly and examine it well by Christ and by the word, spirit, life and example of his holy apostles, to see whether it is not the true content, meaning, doctrine and sense of the whole Scriptures. If it is, you will have to give up the unscriptural usage and the deceptive outcry of the learned and hold only to the word of the Lord, if you would be saved. Therefore let your heart be impartial and your judgment sincere in seeking the truth; for the almighty God and Lord, before whom every knee shall bow and every tongue confess, will not and cannot give way to any of the learned, or to long-standing usages or customs; for he is Lord and we are his servants. We must follow him; he does not follow us. Reader, take it to heart.

Likewise, if you find that we preach our doctrine rightly, regard no man’s rank, fear no man’s tyranny and do not give way to the learned, but in true, sincere love faithfully teach, admonish and rebuke all who do wrong, without respect of persons, with the Holy Spirit, word, example and ordinance of the Lord, in all things that are not right — then I entreat you again that you would be pleased not to attribute this to spiritual pride, but to well-meant frankness and Christian simplicity. I desire that you all walk rightly, so that you may be saved, and on this account I have to endure no little tribulation. I do not refuse to become a fool before all the world, so that I may make many wise in Christ and, with the Holy Spirit and the powerful word of the Lord, lead them to wisdom and to the saints. And I know well that Christ and his apostles, and the prophets, were guilty of the same foolishness and were of the same mind as I am in this matter.

If I rebuke, they rebuke more; if I threaten with the wrath of the Lord, they do so much more. Were they carnal and proud on that account? Far from it! Yes, my reader, if the dark smoke of men-pleasing preachers — the accursed, false doctrine of the dreadful, abominable locusts out of the abyss — had not risen up, but sincere rebuke, the true, pure doctrine, the scriptural use of the holy sacraments and the separating of the impenitent without respect of persons had continued in the world, the pleasant sun would never have lost its brightness, nor would the church have fallen into such a grievous and deadly condition. Therefore with Paul I count it a small thing to be judged by men in this matter. For I know that I mean well, do right and rebuke only with the truth, so that they may be converted.

May the true heavenly Light, Jesus Christ, be blessed eternally, and may he enlighten all dark, benighted hearts with the clear and bright ray of his Holy Spirit and eternal truth, so that they may see, in unfeigned, pure faith, the eternal brightness of Christ, to the praise and honor of his great name and to the salvation of many souls. Amen.