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+Project Gutenberg Etext Concerning Christian Liberty, by Luther
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+Concerning Christian Liberty
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+by Martin Luther
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+October, 1999  [Etext #1911]
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+
+
+Concerning Christian Liberty
+
+by Martin Luther
+
+
+
+
+CONCERNING CHRISTIAN LIBERTY
+
+LETTER OF MARTIN LUTHER TO POPE LEO X
+
+Among those monstrous evils of this age with which I have now for 
+three years been waging war, I am sometimes compelled to look to 
+you and to call you to mind, most blessed father Leo. In truth, 
+since you alone are everywhere considered as being the cause of 
+my engaging in war, I cannot at any time fail to remember you; 
+and although I have been compelled by the causeless raging of 
+your impious flatterers against me to appeal from your seat to a 
+future council--fearless of the futile decrees of your 
+predecessors Pius and Julius, who in their foolish tyranny 
+prohibited such an action--yet I have never been so alienated in 
+feeling from your Blessedness as not to have sought with all my 
+might, in diligent prayer and crying to God, all the best gifts 
+for you and for your see. But those who have hitherto endeavoured 
+to terrify me with the majesty of your name and authority, I have 
+begun quite to despise and triumph over. One thing I see 
+remaining which I cannot despise, and this has been the reason of 
+my writing anew to your Blessedness: namely, that I find that 
+blame is cast on me, and that it is imputed to me as a great 
+offence, that in my rashness I am judged to have spared not even 
+your person.
+
+Now, to confess the truth openly, I am conscious that, whenever I 
+have had to mention your person, I have said nothing of you but 
+what was honourable and good. If I had done otherwise, I could by 
+no means have approved my own conduct, but should have supported 
+with all my power the judgment of those men concerning me, nor 
+would anything have pleased me better, than to recant such 
+rashness and impiety. I have called you Daniel in Babylon; and 
+every reader thoroughly knows with what distinguished zeal I 
+defended your conspicuous innocence against Silvester, who tried 
+to stain it. Indeed, the published opinion of so many great men 
+and the repute of your blameless life are too widely famed and 
+too much reverenced throughout the world to be assailable by any 
+man, of however great name, or by any arts. I am not so foolish 
+as to attack one whom everybody praises; nay, it has been and 
+always will be my desire not to attack even those whom public 
+repute disgraces. I am not delighted at the faults of any man, 
+since I am very conscious myself of the great beam in my own eye, 
+nor can I be the first to cast a stone at the adulteress.
+
+I have indeed inveighed sharply against impious doctrines, and I 
+have not been slack to censure my adversaries on account, not of 
+their bad morals, but of their impiety. And for this I am so far 
+from being sorry that I have brought my mind to despise the 
+judgments of men and to persevere in this vehement zeal, 
+according to the example of Christ, who, in His zeal, calls His 
+adversaries a generation of vipers, blind, hypocrites, and 
+children of the devil. Paul, too, charges the sorcerer with being 
+a child of the devil, full of all subtlety and all malice; and 
+defames certain persons as evil workers, dogs, and deceivers. In 
+the opinion of those delicate-eared persons, nothing could be 
+more bitter or intemperate than Paul's language. What can be more 
+bitter than the words of the prophets? The ears of our generation 
+have been made so delicate by the senseless multitude of 
+flatterers that, as soon as we perceive that anything of ours is 
+not approved of, we cry out that we are being bitterly assailed; 
+and when we can repel the truth by no other pretence, we escape 
+by attributing bitterness, impatience, intemperance, to our 
+adversaries. What would be the use of salt if it were not 
+pungent, or of the edge of the sword if it did not slay? Accursed 
+is the man who does the work of the Lord deceitfully.
+
+Wherefore, most excellent Leo, I beseech you to accept my 
+vindication, made in this letter, and to persuade yourself that I 
+have never thought any evil concerning your person; further, that 
+I am one who desires that eternal blessing may fall to your lot, 
+and that I have no dispute with any man concerning morals, but 
+only concerning the word of truth. In all other things I will 
+yield to any one, but I neither can nor will forsake and deny the 
+word. He who thinks otherwise of me, or has taken in my words in 
+another sense, does not think rightly, and has not taken in the 
+truth.
+
+Your see, however, which is called the Court of Rome, and which 
+neither you nor any man can deny to be more corrupt than any 
+Babylon or Sodom, and quite, as I believe, of a lost, desperate, 
+and hopeless impiety, this I have verily abominated, and have 
+felt indignant that the people of Christ should be cheated under 
+your name and the pretext of the Church of Rome; and so I have 
+resisted, and will resist, as long as the spirit of faith shall 
+live in me. Not that I am striving after impossibilities, or 
+hoping that by my labours alone, against the furious opposition 
+of so many flatterers, any good can be done in that most 
+disordered Babylon; but that I feel myself a debtor to my 
+brethren, and am bound to take thought for them, that fewer of 
+them may be ruined, or that their ruin may be less complete, by 
+the plagues of Rome. For many years now, nothing else has 
+overflowed from Rome into the world--as you are not 
+ignorant--than the laying waste of goods, of bodies, and of 
+souls, and the worst examples of all the worst things. These 
+things are clearer than the light to all men; and the Church of 
+Rome, formerly the most holy of all Churches, has become the most 
+lawless den of thieves, the most shameless of all brothels, the 
+very kingdom of sin, death, and hell; so that not even 
+antichrist, if he were to come, could devise any addition to its 
+wickedness.
+
+Meanwhile you, Leo, are sitting like a lamb in the midst of 
+wolves, like Daniel in the midst of lions, and, with Ezekiel, you 
+dwell among scorpions. What opposition can you alone make to 
+these monstrous evils? Take to yourself three or four of the most 
+learned and best of the cardinals. What are these among so many? 
+You would all perish by poison before you could undertake to 
+decide on a remedy. It is all over with the Court of Rome; the 
+wrath of God has come upon her to the uttermost. She hates 
+councils; she dreads to be reformed; she cannot restrain the 
+madness of her impiety; she fills up the sentence passed on her 
+mother, of whom it is said, "We would have healed Babylon, but 
+she is not healed; let us forsake her." It had been your duty and 
+that of your cardinals to apply a remedy to these evils, but this 
+gout laughs at the physician's hand, and the chariot does not 
+obey the reins. Under the influence of these feelings, I have 
+always grieved that you, most excellent Leo, who were worthy of a 
+better age, have been made pontiff in this. For the Roman Court 
+is not worthy of you and those like you, but of Satan himself, 
+who in truth is more the ruler in that Babylon than you are.
+
+Oh, would that, having laid aside that glory which your most 
+abandoned enemies declare to be yours, you were living rather in 
+the office of a private priest or on your paternal inheritance! 
+In that glory none are worthy to glory, except the race of 
+Iscariot, the children of perdition. For what happens in your 
+court, Leo, except that, the more wicked and execrable any man 
+is, the more prosperously he can use your name and authority for 
+the ruin of the property and souls of men, for the multiplication 
+of crimes, for the oppression of faith and truth and of the whole 
+Church of God? Oh, Leo! in reality most unfortunate, and sitting 
+on a most perilous throne, I tell you the truth, because I wish 
+you well; for if Bernard felt compassion for his Anastasius at a 
+time when the Roman see, though even then most corrupt, was as 
+yet ruling with better hope than now, why should not we lament, 
+to whom so much further corruption and ruin has been added in 
+three hundred years?
+
+Is it not true that there is nothing under the vast heavens more 
+corrupt, more pestilential, more hateful, than the Court of Rome? 
+She incomparably surpasses the impiety of the Turks, so that in 
+very truth she, who was formerly the gate of heaven, is now a 
+sort of open mouth of hell, and such a mouth as, under the urgent 
+wrath of God, cannot be blocked up; one course alone being left 
+to us wretched men: to call back and save some few, if we can, 
+from that Roman gulf.
+
+Behold, Leo, my father, with what purpose and on what principle 
+it is that I have stormed against that seat of pestilence. I am 
+so far from having felt any rage against your person that I even 
+hoped to gain favour with you and to aid you in your welfare by 
+striking actively and vigorously at that your prison, nay, your 
+hell. For whatever the efforts of all minds can contrive against 
+the confusion of that impious Court will be advantageous to you 
+and to your welfare, and to many others with you. Those who do 
+harm to her are doing your office; those who in every way abhor 
+her are glorifying Christ; in short, those are Christians who are 
+not Romans.
+
+But, to say yet more, even this never entered my heart: to 
+inveigh against the Court of Rome or to dispute at all about her. 
+For, seeing all remedies for her health to be desperate, I looked 
+on her with contempt, and, giving her a bill of divorcement, said 
+to her, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he that 
+is filthy, let him be filthy still," giving myself up to the 
+peaceful and quiet study of sacred literature, that by this I 
+might be of use to the brethren living about me.
+
+While I was making some advance in these studies, Satan opened 
+his eyes and goaded on his servant John Eccius, that notorious 
+adversary of Christ, by the unchecked lust for fame, to drag me 
+unexpectedly into the arena, trying to catch me in one little 
+word concerning the primacy of the Church of Rome, which had 
+fallen from me in passing. That boastful Thraso, foaming and 
+gnashing his teeth, proclaimed that he would dare all things for 
+the glory of God and for the honour of the holy apostolic seat; 
+and, being puffed up respecting your power, which he was about to 
+misuse, he looked forward with all certainty to victory; seeking 
+to promote, not so much the primacy of Peter, as his own 
+pre-eminence among the theologians of this age; for he thought it 
+would contribute in no slight degree to this, if he were to lead 
+Luther in triumph. The result having proved unfortunate for the 
+sophist, an incredible rage torments him; for he feels that 
+whatever discredit to Rome has arisen through me has been caused 
+by the fault of himself alone.
+
+Suffer me, I pray you, most excellent Leo, both to plead my own 
+cause, and to accuse your true enemies. I believe it is known to 
+you in what way Cardinal Cajetan, your imprudent and unfortunate, 
+nay unfaithful, legate, acted towards me. When, on account of my 
+reverence for your name, I had placed myself and all that was 
+mine in his hands, he did not so act as to establish peace, which 
+he could easily have established by one little word, since I at 
+that time promised to be silent and to make an end of my case, if 
+he would command my adversaries to do the same. But that man of 
+pride, not content with this agreement, began to justify my 
+adversaries, to give them free licence, and to order me to 
+recant, a thing which was certainly not in his commission. Thus 
+indeed, when the case was in the best position, it came through 
+his vexatious tyranny into a much worse one. Therefore whatever 
+has followed upon this is the fault not of Luther, but entirely 
+of Cajetan, since he did not suffer me to be silent and remain 
+quiet, which at that time I was entreating for with all my might. 
+What more was it my duty to do?
+
+Next came Charles Miltitz, also a nuncio from your Blessedness. 
+He, though he went up and down with much and varied exertion, and 
+omitted nothing which could tend to restore the position of the 
+cause thrown into confusion by the rashness and pride of Cajetan, 
+had difficulty, even with the help of that very illustrious 
+prince the Elector Frederick, in at last bringing about more than 
+one familiar conference with me. In these I again yielded to your 
+great name, and was prepared to keep silence, and to accept as my 
+judge either the Archbishop of Treves, or the Bishop of Naumburg; 
+and thus it was done and concluded. While this was being done 
+with good hope of success, lo! that other and greater enemy of 
+yours, Eccius, rushed in with his Leipsic disputation, which he 
+had undertaken against Carlstadt, and, having taken up a new 
+question concerning the primacy of the Pope, turned his arms 
+unexpectedly against me, and completely overthrew the plan for 
+peace. Meanwhile Charles Miltitz was waiting, disputations were 
+held, judges were being chosen, but no decision was arrived at. 
+And no wonder! for by the falsehoods, pretences, and arts of 
+Eccius the whole business was brought into such thorough 
+disorder, confusion, and festering soreness, that, whichever way 
+the sentence might lean, a greater conflagration was sure to 
+arise; for he was seeking, not after truth, but after his own 
+credit. In this case too I omitted nothing which it was right 
+that I should do.
+
+I confess that on this occasion no small part of the corruptions 
+of Rome came to light; but, if there was any offence in this, it 
+was the fault of Eccius, who, in taking on him a burden beyond 
+his strength, and in furiously aiming at credit for himself, 
+unveiled to the whole world the disgrace of Rome.
+
+Here is that enemy of yours, Leo, or rather of your Court; by his 
+example alone we may learn that an enemy is not more baneful than 
+a flatterer. For what did he bring about by his flattery, except 
+evils which no king could have brought about? At this day the 
+name of the Court of Rome stinks in the nostrils of the world, 
+the papal authority is growing weak, and its notorious ignorance 
+is evil spoken of. We should hear none of these things, if Eccius 
+had not disturbed the plans of Miltitz and myself for peace. He 
+feels this clearly enough himself in the indignation he shows, 
+too late and in vain, against the publication of my books. He 
+ought to have reflected on this at the time when he was all mad 
+for renown, and was seeking in your cause nothing but his own 
+objects, and that with the greatest peril to you. The foolish man 
+hoped that, from fear of your name, I should yield and keep 
+silence; for I do not think he presumed on his talents and 
+learning. Now, when he sees that I am very confident and speak 
+aloud, he repents too late of his rashness, and sees--if indeed 
+he does see it--that there is One in heaven who resists the 
+proud, and humbles the presumptuous.
+
+Since then we were bringing about by this disputation nothing but 
+the greater confusion of the cause of Rome, Charles Miltitz for 
+the third time addressed the Fathers of the Order, assembled in 
+chapter, and sought their advice for the settlement of the case, 
+as being now in a most troubled and perilous state. Since, by the 
+favour of God, there was no hope of proceeding against me by 
+force, some of the more noted of their number were sent to me, 
+and begged me at least to show respect to your person and to 
+vindicate in a humble letter both your innocence and my own. They 
+said that the affair was not as yet in a position of extreme 
+hopelessness, if Leo X., in his inborn kindliness, would put his 
+hand to it. On this I, who have always offered and wished for 
+peace, in order that I might devote myself to calmer and more 
+useful pursuits, and who for this very purpose have acted with so 
+much spirit and vehemence, in order to put down by the strength 
+and impetuosity of my words, as well as of my feelings, men whom 
+I saw to be very far from equal to myself--I, I say, not only 
+gladly yielded, but even accepted it with joy and gratitude, as 
+the greatest kindness and benefit, if you should think it right 
+to satisfy my hopes.
+
+Thus I come, most blessed Father, and in all abasement beseech 
+you to put to your hand, if it is possible, and impose a curb to 
+those flatterers who are enemies of peace, while they pretend 
+peace. But there is no reason, most blessed Father, why any one 
+should assume that I am to utter a recantation, unless he prefers 
+to involve the case in still greater confusion. Moreover, I 
+cannot bear with laws for the interpretation of the word of God, 
+since the word of God, which teaches liberty in all other things, 
+ought not to be bound. Saving these two things, there is nothing 
+which I am not able, and most heartily willing, to do or to 
+suffer. I hate contention; I will challenge no one; in return I 
+wish not to be challenged; but, being challenged, I will not be 
+dumb in the cause of Christ my Master. For your Blessedness will 
+be able by one short and easy word to call these controversies 
+before you and suppress them, and to impose silence and peace on 
+both sides--a word which I have ever longed to hear.
+
+Therefore, Leo, my Father, beware of listening to those sirens 
+who make you out to be not simply a man, but partly a god, so 
+that you can command and require whatever you will. It will not 
+happen so, nor will you prevail. You are the servant of servants, 
+and more than any other man, in a most pitiable and perilous 
+position. Let not those men deceive you who pretend that you are 
+lord of the world; who will not allow any one to be a Christian 
+without your authority; who babble of your having power over 
+heaven, hell, and purgatory. These men are your enemies and are 
+seeking your soul to destroy it, as Isaiah says, "My people, they 
+that call thee blessed are themselves deceiving thee." They are 
+in error who raise you above councils and the universal Church; 
+they are in error who attribute to you alone the right of 
+interpreting Scripture. All these men are seeking to set up their 
+own impieties in the Church under your name, and alas! Satan has 
+gained much through them in the time of your predecessors.
+
+In brief, trust not in any who exalt you, but in those who 
+humiliate you. For this is the judgment of God: "He hath cast 
+down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble." 
+See how unlike Christ was to His successors, though all will have 
+it that they are His vicars. I fear that in truth very many of 
+them have been in too serious a sense His vicars, for a vicar 
+represents a prince who is absent. Now if a pontiff rules while 
+Christ is absent and does not dwell in his heart, what else is he 
+but a vicar of Christ? And then what is that Church but a 
+multitude without Christ? What indeed is such a vicar but 
+antichrist and an idol? How much more rightly did the Apostles 
+speak, who call themselves servants of a present Christ, not the 
+vicars of an absent one!
+
+Perhaps I am shamelessly bold in seeming to teach so great a 
+head, by whom all men ought to be taught, and from whom, as those 
+plagues of yours boast, the thrones of judges receive their 
+sentence; but I imitate St. Bernard in his book concerning 
+Considerations addressed to Eugenius, a book which ought to be 
+known by heart by every pontiff. I do this, not from any desire 
+to teach, but as a duty, from that simple and faithful solicitude 
+which teaches us to be anxious for all that is safe for our 
+neighbours, and does not allow considerations of worthiness or 
+unworthiness to be entertained, being intent only on the dangers 
+or advantage of others. For since I know that your Blessedness is 
+driven and tossed by the waves at Rome, so that the depths of the 
+sea press on you with infinite perils, and that you are labouring 
+under such a condition of misery that you need even the least 
+help from any the least brother, I do not seem to myself to be 
+acting unsuitably if I forget your majesty till I shall have 
+fulfilled the office of charity. I will not flatter in so serious 
+and perilous a matter; and if in this you do not see that I am 
+your friend and most thoroughly your subject, there is One to see 
+and judge.
+
+In fine, that I may not approach you empty-handed, blessed 
+Father, I bring with me this little treatise, published under 
+your name, as a good omen of the establishment of peace and of 
+good hope. By this you may perceive in what pursuits I should 
+prefer and be able to occupy myself to more profit, if I were 
+allowed, or had been hitherto allowed, by your impious 
+flatterers. It is a small matter, if you look to its exterior, 
+but, unless I mistake, it is a summary of the Christian life put 
+together in small compass, if you apprehend its meaning. I, in my 
+poverty, have no other present to make you, nor do you need 
+anything else than to be enriched by a spiritual gift. I commend 
+myself to your Paternity and Blessedness, whom may the Lord Jesus 
+preserve for ever. Amen.
+
+Wittenberg, 6th September, 1520.
+
+
+CONCERNING CHRISTIAN LIBERTY
+
+Christian faith has appeared to many an easy thing; nay, not a 
+few even reckon it among the social virtues, as it were; and this 
+they do because they have not made proof of it experimentally, 
+and have never tasted of what efficacy it is. For it is not 
+possible for any man to write well about it, or to understand 
+well what is rightly written, who has not at some time tasted of 
+its spirit, under the pressure of tribulation; while he who has 
+tasted of it, even to a very small extent, can never write, 
+speak, think, or hear about it sufficiently. For it is a living 
+fountain, springing up into eternal life, as Christ calls it in 
+John iv.
+
+Now, though I cannot boast of my abundance, and though I know how 
+poorly I am furnished, yet I hope that, after having been vexed 
+by various temptations, I have attained some little drop of 
+faith, and that I can speak of this matter, if not with more 
+elegance, certainly with more solidity, than those literal and 
+too subtle disputants who have hitherto discoursed upon it 
+without understanding their own words. That I may open then an 
+easier way for the ignorant--for these alone I am trying to 
+serve--I first lay down these two propositions, concerning 
+spiritual liberty and servitude:--
+
+A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to 
+none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and 
+subject to every one.
+
+Although these statements appear contradictory, yet, when they 
+are found to agree together, they will make excellently for my 
+purpose. They are both the statements of Paul himself, who says, 
+"Though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant 
+unto all" (1 Cor. ix. 19), and "Owe no man anything, but to love 
+one another" (Rom. xiii. 8). Now love is by its own nature 
+dutiful and obedient to the beloved object. Thus even Christ, 
+though Lord of all things, was yet made of a woman; made under 
+the law; at once free and a servant; at once in the form of God 
+and in the form of a servant.
+
+Let us examine the subject on a deeper and less simple principle. 
+Man is composed of a twofold nature, a spiritual and a bodily. As 
+regards the spiritual nature, which they name the soul, he is 
+called the spiritual, inward, new man; as regards the bodily 
+nature, which they name the flesh, he is called the fleshly, 
+outward, old man. The Apostle speaks of this: "Though our outward 
+man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day" (2 Cor. iv. 
+16). The result of this diversity is that in the Scriptures 
+opposing statements are made concerning the same man, the fact 
+being that in the same man these two men are opposed to one 
+another; the flesh lusting against the spirit, and the spirit 
+against the flesh (Gal. v. 17).
+
+We first approach the subject of the inward man, that we may see 
+by what means a man becomes justified, free, and a true 
+Christian; that is, a spiritual, new, and inward man. It is 
+certain that absolutely none among outward things, under whatever 
+name they may be reckoned, has any influence in producing 
+Christian righteousness or liberty, nor, on the other hand, 
+unrighteousness or slavery. This can be shown by an easy 
+argument.
+
+What can it profit the soul that the body should be in good 
+condition, free, and full of life; that it should eat, drink, and 
+act according to its pleasure; when even the most impious slaves 
+of every kind of vice are prosperous in these matters? Again, 
+what harm can ill-health, bondage, hunger, thirst, or any other 
+outward evil, do to the soul, when even the most pious of men and 
+the freest in the purity of their conscience, are harassed by 
+these things? Neither of these states of things has to do with 
+the liberty or the slavery of the soul.
+
+And so it will profit nothing that the body should be adorned 
+with sacred vestments, or dwell in holy places, or be occupied in 
+sacred offices, or pray, fast, and abstain from certain meats, or 
+do whatever works can be done through the body and in the body. 
+Something widely different will be necessary for the 
+justification and liberty of the soul, since the things I have 
+spoken of can be done by any impious person, and only hypocrites 
+are produced by devotion to these things. On the other hand, it 
+will not at all injure the soul that the body should be clothed 
+in profane raiment, should dwell in profane places, should eat 
+and drink in the ordinary fashion, should not pray aloud, and 
+should leave undone all the things above mentioned, which may be 
+done by hypocrites.
+
+And, to cast everything aside, even speculation, meditations, and 
+whatever things can be performed by the exertions of the soul 
+itself, are of no profit. One thing, and one alone, is necessary 
+for life, justification, and Christian liberty; and that is the 
+most holy word of God, the Gospel of Christ, as He says, "I am 
+the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in Me shall not 
+die eternally" (John xi. 25), and also, "If the Son shall make 
+you free, ye shall be free indeed" (John viii. 36), and, "Man 
+shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth 
+out of the mouth of God" (Matt. iv. 4).
+
+Let us therefore hold it for certain and firmly established that 
+the soul can do without everything except the word of God, 
+without which none at all of its wants are provided for. But, 
+having the word, it is rich and wants for nothing, since that is 
+the word of life, of truth, of light, of peace, of justification, 
+of salvation, of joy, of liberty, of wisdom, of virtue, of grace, 
+of glory, and of every good thing. It is on this account that the 
+prophet in a whole Psalm (Psalm cxix.), and in many other places, 
+sighs for and calls upon the word of God with so many groanings 
+and words.
+
+Again, there is no more cruel stroke of the wrath of God than 
+when He sends a famine of hearing His words (Amos viii. 11), just 
+as there is no greater favour from Him than the sending forth of 
+His word, as it is said, "He sent His word and healed them, and 
+delivered them from their destructions" (Psalm cvii. 20). Christ 
+was sent for no other office than that of the word; and the order 
+of Apostles, that of bishops, and that of the whole body of the 
+clergy, have been called and instituted for no object but the 
+ministry of the word.
+
+But you will ask, What is this word, and by what means is it to 
+be used, since there are so many words of God? I answer, The 
+Apostle Paul (Rom. i.) explains what it is, namely the Gospel of 
+God, concerning His Son, incarnate, suffering, risen, and 
+glorified, through the Spirit, the Sanctifier. To preach Christ 
+is to feed the soul, to justify it, to set it free, and to save 
+it, if it believes the preaching. For faith alone and the 
+efficacious use of the word of God, bring salvation. "If thou 
+shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in 
+thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be 
+saved" (Rom. x. 9); and again, "Christ is the end of the law for 
+righteousness to every one that believeth" (Rom. x. 4), and "The 
+just shall live by faith" (Rom. i. 17). For the word of God 
+cannot be received and honoured by any works, but by faith alone. 
+Hence it is clear that as the soul needs the word alone for life 
+and justification, so it is justified by faith alone, and not by 
+any works. For if it could be justified by any other means, it 
+would have no need of the word, nor consequently of faith.
+
+But this faith cannot consist at all with works; that is, if you 
+imagine that you can be justified by those works, whatever they 
+are, along with it. For this would be to halt between two 
+opinions, to worship Baal, and to kiss the hand to him, which is 
+a very great iniquity, as Job says. Therefore, when you begin to 
+believe, you learn at the same time that all that is in you is 
+utterly guilty, sinful, and damnable, according to that saying, 
+"All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. iii. 
+23), and also: "There is none righteous, no, not one; they are 
+all gone out of the way; they are together become unprofitable: 
+there is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Rom. iii. 10—12). 
+When you have learnt this, you will know that Christ is necessary 
+for you, since He has suffered and risen again for you, that, 
+believing on Him, you might by this faith become another man, all 
+your sins being remitted, and you being justified by the merits 
+of another, namely of Christ alone.
+
+Since then this faith can reign only in the inward man, as it is 
+said, "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness" (Rom. x. 
+10); and since it alone justifies, it is evident that by no 
+outward work or labour can the inward man be at all justified, 
+made free, and saved; and that no works whatever have any 
+relation to him. And so, on the other hand, it is solely by 
+impiety and incredulity of heart that he becomes guilty and a 
+slave of sin, deserving condemnation, not by any outward sin or 
+work. Therefore the first care of every Christian ought to be to 
+lay aside all reliance on works, and strengthen his faith alone 
+more and more, and by it grow in the knowledge, not of works, but 
+of Christ Jesus, who has suffered and risen again for him, as 
+Peter teaches (1 Peter v.) when he makes no other work to be a 
+Christian one. Thus Christ, when the Jews asked Him what they 
+should do that they might work the works of God, rejected the 
+multitude of works, with which He saw that they were puffed up, 
+and commanded them one thing only, saying, "This is the work of 
+God: that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent, for Him hath God 
+the Father sealed" (John vi. 27, 29).
+
+Hence a right faith in Christ is an incomparable treasure, 
+carrying with it universal salvation and preserving from all 
+evil, as it is said, "He that believeth and is baptised shall be 
+saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned" (Mark xvi. 16). 
+Isaiah, looking to this treasure, predicted, "The consumption 
+decreed shall overflow with righteousness. For the Lord God of 
+hosts shall make a consumption, even determined (verbum 
+abbreviatum et consummans), in the midst of the land" (Isa. x. 
+22, 23). As if he said, "Faith, which is the brief and complete 
+fulfilling of the law, will fill those who believe with such 
+righteousness that they will need nothing else for 
+justification." Thus, too, Paul says, "For with the heart man 
+believeth unto righteousness" (Rom. x. 10).
+
+But you ask how it can be the fact that faith alone justifies, 
+and affords without works so great a treasure of good things, 
+when so many works, ceremonies, and laws are prescribed to us in 
+the Scriptures? I answer, Before all things bear in mind what I 
+have said: that faith alone without works justifies, sets free, 
+and saves, as I shall show more clearly below.
+
+Meanwhile it is to be noted that the whole Scripture of God is 
+divided into two parts: precepts and promises. The precepts 
+certainly teach us what is good, but what they teach is not 
+forthwith done. For they show us what we ought to do, but do not 
+give us the power to do it. They were ordained, however, for the 
+purpose of showing man to himself, that through them he may learn 
+his own impotence for good and may despair of his own strength. 
+For this reason they are called the Old Testament, and are so.
+
+For example, "Thou shalt not covet," is a precept by which we are 
+all convicted of sin, since no man can help coveting, whatever 
+efforts to the contrary he may make. In order therefore that he 
+may fulfil the precept, and not covet, he is constrained to 
+despair of himself and to seek elsewhere and through another the 
+help which he cannot find in himself; as it is said, "O Israel, 
+thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is thine help" (Hosea 
+xiii. 9). Now what is done by this one precept is done by all; 
+for all are equally impossible of fulfilment by us.
+
+Now when a man has through the precepts been taught his own 
+impotence, and become anxious by what means he may satisfy the 
+law--for the law must be satisfied, so that no jot or tittle of 
+it may pass away, otherwise he must be hopelessly 
+condemned--then, being truly humbled and brought to nothing in 
+his own eyes, he finds in himself no resource for justification 
+and salvation.
+
+Then comes in that other part of Scripture, the promises of God, 
+which declare the glory of God, and say, "If you wish to fulfil 
+the law, and, as the law requires, not to covet, lo! believe in 
+Christ, in whom are promised to you grace, justification, peace, 
+and liberty." All these things you shall have, if you believe, 
+and shall be without them if you do not believe. For what is 
+impossible for you by all the works of the law, which are many 
+and yet useless, you shall fulfil in an easy and summary way 
+through faith, because God the Father has made everything to 
+depend on faith, so that whosoever has it has all things, and he 
+who has it not has nothing. "For God hath concluded them all in 
+unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all" (Rom. xi. 32). Thus 
+the promises of God give that which the precepts exact, and 
+fulfil what the law commands; so that all is of God alone, both 
+the precepts and their fulfilment. He alone commands; He alone 
+also fulfils. Hence the promises of God belong to the New 
+Testament; nay, are the New Testament.
+
+Now, since these promises of God are words of holiness, truth, 
+righteousness, liberty, and peace, and are full of universal 
+goodness, the soul, which cleaves to them with a firm faith, is 
+so united to them, nay, thoroughly absorbed by them, that it not 
+only partakes in, but is penetrated and saturated by, all their 
+virtues. For if the touch of Christ was healing, how much more 
+does that most tender spiritual touch, nay, absorption of the 
+word, communicate to the soul all that belongs to the word! In 
+this way therefore the soul, through faith alone, without works, 
+is from the word of God justified, sanctified, endued with truth, 
+peace, and liberty, and filled full with every good thing, and is 
+truly made the child of God, as it is said, "To them gave He 
+power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His 
+name" (John i. 12).
+
+>From all this it is easy to understand why faith has such great 
+power, and why no good works, nor even all good works put 
+together, can compare with it, since no work can cleave to the 
+word of God or be in the soul. Faith alone and the word reign in 
+it; and such as is the word, such is the soul made by it, just as 
+iron exposed to fire glows like fire, on account of its union 
+with the fire. It is clear then that to a Christian man his faith 
+suffices for everything, and that he has no need of works for 
+justification. But if he has no need of works, neither has he 
+need of the law; and if he has no need of the law, he is 
+certainly free from the law, and the saying is true, "The law is 
+not made for a righteous man" (1 Tim. i. 9). This is that 
+Christian liberty, our faith, the effect of which is, not that we 
+should be careless or lead a bad life, but that no one should 
+need the law or works for justification and salvation.
+
+Let us consider this as the first virtue of faith; and let us 
+look also to the second. This also is an office of faith: that it 
+honours with the utmost veneration and the highest reputation Him 
+in whom it believes, inasmuch as it holds Him to be truthful and 
+worthy of belief. For there is no honour like that reputation of 
+truth and righteousness with which we honour Him in whom we 
+believe. What higher credit can we attribute to any one than 
+truth and righteousness, and absolute goodness? On the other 
+hand, it is the greatest insult to brand any one with the 
+reputation of falsehood and unrighteousness, or to suspect him of 
+these, as we do when we disbelieve him.
+
+Thus the soul, in firmly believing the promises of God, holds Him 
+to be true and righteous; and it can attribute to God no higher 
+glory than the credit of being so. The highest worship of God is 
+to ascribe to Him truth, righteousness, and whatever qualities we 
+must ascribe to one in whom we believe. In doing this the soul 
+shows itself prepared to do His whole will; in doing this it 
+hallows His name, and gives itself up to be dealt with as it may 
+please God. For it cleaves to His promises, and never doubts that 
+He is true, just, and wise, and will do, dispose, and provide for 
+all things in the best way. Is not such a soul, in this its 
+faith, most obedient to God in all things? What commandment does 
+there remain which has not been amply fulfilled by such an 
+obedience? What fulfilment can be more full than universal 
+obedience? Now this is not accomplished by works, but by faith 
+alone.
+
+On the other hand, what greater rebellion, impiety, or insult to 
+God can there be, than not to believe His promises? What else is 
+this, than either to make God a liar, or to doubt His truth--that 
+is, to attribute truth to ourselves, but to God falsehood and 
+levity? In doing this, is not a man denying God and setting 
+himself up as an idol in his own heart? What then can works, done 
+in such a state of impiety, profit us, were they even angelic or 
+apostolic works? Rightly hath God shut up all, not in wrath nor 
+in lust, but in unbelief, in order that those who pretend that 
+they are fulfilling the law by works of purity and benevolence 
+(which are social and human virtues) may not presume that they 
+will therefore be saved, but, being included in the sin of 
+unbelief, may either seek mercy, or be justly condemned.
+
+But when God sees that truth is ascribed to Him, and that in the 
+faith of our hearts He is honoured with all the honour of which 
+He is worthy, then in return He honours us on account of that 
+faith, attributing to us truth and righteousness. For faith does 
+truth and righteousness in rendering to God what is His; and 
+therefore in return God gives glory to our righteousness. It is 
+true and righteous that God is true and righteous; and to confess 
+this and ascribe these attributes to Him, this it is to be true 
+and righteous. Thus He says, "Them that honour Me I will honour, 
+and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed" (1 Sam. ii. 
+30). And so Paul says that Abraham's faith was imputed to him for 
+righteousness, because by it he gave glory to God; and that to us 
+also, for the same reason, it shall be imputed for righteousness, 
+if we believe (Rom. iv.).
+
+The third incomparable grace of faith is this: that it unites the 
+soul to Christ, as the wife to the husband, by which mystery, as 
+the Apostle teaches, Christ and the soul are made one flesh. Now 
+if they are one flesh, and if a true marriage--nay, by far the 
+most perfect of all marriages--is accomplished between them (for 
+human marriages are but feeble types of this one great marriage), 
+then it follows that all they have becomes theirs in common, as 
+well good things as evil things; so that whatsoever Christ 
+possesses, that the believing soul may take to itself and boast 
+of as its own, and whatever belongs to the soul, that Christ 
+claims as His.
+
+If we compare these possessions, we shall see how inestimable is 
+the gain. Christ is full of grace, life, and salvation; the soul 
+is full of sin, death, and condemnation. Let faith step in, and 
+then sin, death, and hell will belong to Christ, and grace, life, 
+and salvation to the soul. For, if He is a Husband, He must needs 
+take to Himself that which is His wife's, and at the same time, 
+impart to His wife that which is His. For, in giving her His own 
+body and Himself, how can He but give her all that is His? And, 
+in taking to Himself the body of His wife, how can He but take to 
+Himself all that is hers?
+
+In this is displayed the delightful sight, not only of communion, 
+but of a prosperous warfare, of victory, salvation, and 
+redemption. For, since Christ is God and man, and is such a 
+Person as neither has sinned, nor dies, nor is condemned, nay, 
+cannot sin, die, or be condemned, and since His righteousness, 
+life, and salvation are invincible, eternal, and almighty,--when 
+I say, such a Person, by the wedding-ring of faith, takes a share 
+in the sins, death, and hell of His wife, nay, makes them His 
+own, and deals with them no otherwise than as if they were His, 
+and as if He Himself had sinned; and when He suffers, dies, and 
+descends to hell, that He may overcome all things, and since sin, 
+death, and hell cannot swallow Him up, they must needs be 
+swallowed up by Him in stupendous conflict. For His righteousness 
+rises above the sins of all men; His life is more powerful than 
+all death; His salvation is more unconquerable than all hell.
+
+Thus the believing soul, by the pledge of its faith in Christ, 
+becomes free from all sin, fearless of death, safe from hell, and 
+endowed with the eternal righteousness, life, and salvation of 
+its Husband Christ. Thus He presents to Himself a glorious bride, 
+without spot or wrinkle, cleansing her with the washing of water 
+by the word; that is, by faith in the word of life, 
+righteousness, and salvation. Thus He betrothes her unto Himself 
+"in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in judgment, and in 
+lovingkindness, and in mercies" (Hosea ii. 19, 20).
+
+Who then can value highly enough these royal nuptials? Who can 
+comprehend the riches of the glory of this grace? Christ, that 
+rich and pious Husband, takes as a wife a needy and impious 
+harlot, redeeming her from all her evils and supplying her with 
+all His good things. It is impossible now that her sins should 
+destroy her, since they have been laid upon Christ and swallowed 
+up in Him, and since she has in her Husband Christ a 
+righteousness which she may claim as her own, and which she can 
+set up with confidence against all her sins, against death and 
+hell, saying, "If I have sinned, my Christ, in whom I believe, 
+has not sinned; all mine is His, and all His is mine," as it is 
+written, "My beloved is mine, and I am His" (Cant. ii. 16). This 
+is what Paul says: "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory 
+through our Lord Jesus Christ," victory over sin and death, as he 
+says, "The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the 
+law" (1 Cor. xv. 56, 57).
+
+>From all this you will again understand why so much importance is 
+attributed to faith, so that it alone can fulfil the law and 
+justify without any works. For you see that the First 
+Commandment, which says, "Thou shalt worship one God only," is 
+fulfilled by faith alone. If you were nothing but good works from 
+the soles of your feet to the crown of your head, you would not 
+be worshipping God, nor fulfilling the First Commandment, since 
+it is impossible to worship God without ascribing to Him the 
+glory of truth and of universal goodness, as it ought in truth to 
+be ascribed. Now this is not done by works, but only by faith of 
+heart. It is not by working, but by believing, that we glorify 
+God, and confess Him to be true. On this ground faith alone is 
+the righteousness of a Christian man, and the fulfilling of all 
+the commandments. For to him who fulfils the first the task of 
+fulfilling all the rest is easy.
+
+Works, since they are irrational things, cannot glorify God, 
+although they may be done to the glory of God, if faith be 
+present. But at present we are inquiring, not into the quality of 
+the works done, but into him who does them, who glorifies God, 
+and brings forth good works. This is faith of heart, the head and 
+the substance of all our righteousness. Hence that is a blind and 
+perilous doctrine which teaches that the commandments are 
+fulfilled by works. The commandments must have been fulfilled 
+previous to any good works, and good works follow their 
+fulfillment, as we shall see.
+
+But, that we may have a wider view of that grace which our inner 
+man has in Christ, we must know that in the Old Testament God 
+sanctified to Himself every first-born male. The birthright was 
+of great value, giving a superiority over the rest by the double 
+honour of priesthood and kingship. For the first-born brother was 
+priest and lord of all the rest.
+
+Under this figure was foreshown Christ, the true and only 
+First-born of God the Father and of the Virgin Mary, and a true 
+King and Priest, not in a fleshly and earthly sense. For His 
+kingdom is not of this world; it is in heavenly and spiritual 
+things that He reigns and acts as Priest; and these are 
+righteousness, truth, wisdom, peace, salvation, etc. Not but that 
+all things, even those of earth and hell, are subject to Him--for 
+otherwise how could He defend and save us from them?--but it is 
+not in these, nor by these, that His kingdom stands.
+
+So, too, His priesthood does not consist in the outward display 
+of vestments and gestures, as did the human priesthood of Aaron 
+and our ecclesiastical priesthood at this day, but in spiritual 
+things, wherein, in His invisible office, He intercedes for us 
+with God in heaven, and there offers Himself, and performs all 
+the duties of a priest, as Paul describes Him to the Hebrews 
+under the figure of Melchizedek. Nor does He only pray and 
+intercede for us; He also teaches us inwardly in the spirit with 
+the living teachings of His Spirit. Now these are the two special 
+offices of a priest, as is figured to us in the case of fleshly 
+priests by visible prayers and sermons.
+
+As Christ by His birthright has obtained these two dignities, so 
+He imparts and communicates them to every believer in Him, under 
+that law of matrimony of which we have spoken above, by which all 
+that is the husband's is also the wife's. Hence all we who 
+believe on Christ are kings and priests in Christ, as it is said, 
+"Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a 
+peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of Him who 
+hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light" (1 
+Peter ii. 9).
+
+These two things stand thus. First, as regards kingship, every 
+Christian is by faith so exalted above all things that, in 
+spiritual power, he is completely lord of all things, so that 
+nothing whatever can do him any hurt; yea, all things are subject 
+to him, and are compelled to be subservient to his salvation. 
+Thus Paul says, "All things work together for good to them who 
+are the called" (Rom. viii. 28), and also, "Whether life, or 
+death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours; and 
+ye are Christ's" (1 Cor. iii. 22, 23).
+
+Not that in the sense of corporeal power any one among Christians 
+has been appointed to possess and rule all things, according to 
+the mad and senseless idea of certain ecclesiastics. That is the 
+office of kings, princes, and men upon earth. In the experience 
+of life we see that we are subjected to all things, and suffer 
+many things, even death. Yea, the more of a Christian any man is, 
+to so many the more evils, sufferings, and deaths is he subject, 
+as we see in the first place in Christ the First-born, and in all 
+His holy brethren.
+
+This is a spiritual power, which rules in the midst of enemies, 
+and is powerful in the midst of distresses. And this is nothing 
+else than that strength is made perfect in my weakness, and that 
+I can turn all things to the profit of my salvation; so that even 
+the cross and death are compelled to serve me and to work 
+together for my salvation. This is a lofty and eminent dignity, a 
+true and almighty dominion, a spiritual empire, in which there is 
+nothing so good, nothing so bad, as not to work together for my 
+good, if only I believe. And yet there is nothing of which I have 
+need--for faith alone suffices for my salvation--unless that in 
+it faith may exercise the power and empire of its liberty. This 
+is the inestimable power and liberty of Christians.
+
+Nor are we only kings and the freest of all men, but also priests 
+for ever, a dignity far higher than kingship, because by that 
+priesthood we are worthy to appear before God, to pray for 
+others, and to teach one another mutually the things which are of 
+God. For these are the duties of priests, and they cannot 
+possibly be permitted to any unbeliever. Christ has obtained for 
+us this favour, if we believe in Him: that just as we are His 
+brethren and co-heirs and fellow-kings with Him, so we should be 
+also fellow-priests with Him, and venture with confidence, 
+through the spirit of faith, to come into the presence of God, 
+and cry, "Abba, Father!" and to pray for one another, and to do 
+all things which we see done and figured in the visible and 
+corporeal office of priesthood. But to an unbelieving person 
+nothing renders service or work for good. He himself is in 
+servitude to all things, and all things turn out for evil to him, 
+because he uses all things in an impious way for his own 
+advantage, and not for the glory of God. And thus he is not a 
+priest, but a profane person, whose prayers are turned into sin, 
+nor does he ever appear in the presence of God, because God does 
+not hear sinners.
+
+Who then can comprehend the loftiness of that Christian dignity 
+which, by its royal power, rules over all things, even over 
+death, life, and sin, and, by its priestly glory, is all-powerful 
+with God, since God does what He Himself seeks and wishes, as it 
+is written, "He will fulfil the desire of them that fear Him; He 
+also will hear their cry, and will save them"? (Psalm cxlv. 19). 
+This glory certainly cannot be attained by any works, but by 
+faith only.
+
+>From these considerations any one may clearly see how a Christian 
+man is free from all things; so that he needs no works in order 
+to be justified and saved, but receives these gifts in abundance 
+from faith alone. Nay, were he so foolish as to pretend to be 
+justified, set free, saved, and made a Christian, by means of any 
+good work, he would immediately lose faith, with all its 
+benefits. Such folly is prettily represented in the fable where a 
+dog, running along in the water and carrying in his mouth a real 
+piece of meat, is deceived by the reflection of the meat in the 
+water, and, in trying with open mouth to seize it, loses the meat 
+and its image at the same time.
+
+Here you will ask, "If all who are in the Church are priests, by 
+what character are those whom we now call priests to be 
+distinguished from the laity?" I reply, By the use of these 
+words, "priest," "clergy," " spiritual person," "ecclesiastic," 
+an injustice has been done, since they have been transferred from 
+the remaining body of Christians to those few who are now, by 
+hurtful custom, called ecclesiastics. For Holy Scripture makes no 
+distinction between them, except that those who are now 
+boastfully called popes, bishops, and lords, it calls ministers, 
+servants, and stewards, who are to serve the rest in the ministry 
+of the word, for teaching the faith of Christ and the liberty of 
+believers. For though it is true that we are all equally priests, 
+yet we cannot, nor, if we could, ought we all to, minister and 
+teach publicly. Thus Paul says, "Let a man so account of us as of 
+the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God" (1 
+Cor. iv. 1).
+
+This bad system has now issued in such a pompous display of power 
+and such a terrible tyranny that no earthly government can be 
+compared to it, as if the laity were something else than 
+Christians. Through this perversion of things it has happened 
+that the knowledge of Christian grace, of faith, of liberty, and 
+altogether of Christ, has utterly perished, and has been 
+succeeded by an intolerable bondage to human works and laws; and, 
+according to the Lamentations of Jeremiah, we have become the 
+slaves of the vilest men on earth, who abuse our misery to all 
+the disgraceful and ignominious purposes of their own will.
+
+Returning to the subject which we had begun, I think it is made 
+clear by these considerations that it is not sufficient, nor a 
+Christian course, to preach the works, life, and words of Christ 
+in a historic manner, as facts which it suffices to know as an 
+example how to frame our life, as do those who are now held the 
+best preachers, and much less so to keep silence altogether on 
+these things and to teach in their stead the laws of men and the 
+decrees of the Fathers. There are now not a few persons who 
+preach and read about Christ with the object of moving the human 
+affections to sympathise with Christ, to indignation against the 
+Jews, and other childish and womanish absurdities of that kind.
+
+Now preaching ought to have the object of promoting faith in Him, 
+so that He may not only be Christ, but a Christ for you and for 
+me, and that what is said of Him, and what He is called, may work 
+in us. And this faith is produced and is maintained by preaching 
+why Christ came, what He has brought us and given to us, and to 
+what profit and advantage He is to be received. This is done when 
+the Christian liberty which we have from Christ Himself is 
+rightly taught, and we are shown in what manner all we Christians 
+are kings and priests, and how we are lords of all things, and 
+may be confident that whatever we do in the presence of God is 
+pleasing and acceptable to Him.
+
+Whose heart would not rejoice in its inmost core at hearing these 
+things? Whose heart, on receiving so great a consolation, would 
+not become sweet with the love of Christ, a love to which it can 
+never attain by any laws or works? Who can injure such a heart, 
+or make it afraid? If the consciousness of sin or the horror of 
+death rush in upon it, it is prepared to hope in the Lord, and is 
+fearless of such evils, and undisturbed, until it shall look down 
+upon its enemies. For it believes that the righteousness of 
+Christ is its own, and that its sin is no longer its own, but 
+that of Christ; but, on account of its faith in Christ, all its 
+sin must needs be swallowed up from before the face of the 
+righteousness of Christ, as I have said above. It learns, too, 
+with the Apostle, to scoff at death and sin, and to say, "O 
+death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The 
+sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But 
+thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord 
+Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. xv. 55-57). For death is swallowed up in 
+victory, not only the victory of Christ, but ours also, since by 
+faith it becomes ours, and in it we too conquer.
+
+Let it suffice to say this concerning the inner man and its 
+liberty, and concerning that righteousness of faith which needs 
+neither laws nor good works; nay, they are even hurtful to it, if 
+any one pretends to be justified by them.
+
+And now let us turn to the other part: to the outward man. Here 
+we shall give an answer to all those who, taking offence at the 
+word of faith and at what I have asserted, say, "If faith does 
+everything, and by itself suffices for justification, why then 
+are good works commanded? Are we then to take our ease and do no 
+works, content with faith?" Not so, impious men, I reply; not so. 
+That would indeed really be the case, if we were thoroughly and 
+completely inner and spiritual persons; but that will not happen 
+until the last day, when the dead shall be raised. As long as we 
+live in the flesh, we are but beginning and making advances in 
+that which shall be completed in a future life. On this account 
+the Apostle calls that which we have in this life the firstfruits 
+of the Spirit (Rom. viii. 23). In future we shall have the 
+tenths, and the fullness of the Spirit. To this part belongs the 
+fact I have stated before: that the Christian is the servant of 
+all and subject to all. For in that part in which he is free he 
+does no works, but in that in which he is a servant he does all 
+works. Let us see on what principle this is so.
+
+Although, as I have said, inwardly, and according to the spirit, 
+a man is amply enough justified by faith, having all that he 
+requires to have, except that this very faith and abundance ought 
+to increase from day to day, even till the future life, still he 
+remains in this mortal life upon earth, in which it is necessary 
+that he should rule his own body and have intercourse with men. 
+Here then works begin; here he must not take his ease; here he 
+must give heed to exercise his body by fastings, watchings, 
+labour, and other regular discipline, so that it may be subdued 
+to the spirit, and obey and conform itself to the inner man and 
+faith, and not rebel against them nor hinder them, as is its 
+nature to do if it is not kept under. For the inner man, being 
+conformed to God and created after the image of God through 
+faith, rejoices and delights itself in Christ, in whom such 
+blessings have been conferred on it, and hence has only this task 
+before it: to serve God with joy and for nought in free love.
+
+But in doing this he comes into collision with that contrary will 
+in his own flesh, which is striving to serve the world and to 
+seek its own gratification. This the spirit of faith cannot and 
+will not bear, but applies itself with cheerfulness and zeal to 
+keep it down and restrain it, as Paul says, "I delight in the law 
+of God after the inward man; but I see another law in my members, 
+warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity 
+to the law of sin" (Rom. vii. 22, 23), and again, "I keep under 
+my body, and bring it unto subjection, lest that by any means, 
+when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway" (1 
+Cor. ix. 27), and "They that are Christ's have crucified the 
+flesh, with the affections and lusts" (Gal. v. 24).
+
+These works, however, must not be done with any notion that by 
+them a man can be justified before God—for faith, which alone is 
+righteousness before God, will not bear with this false 
+notion--but solely with this purpose: that the body may be 
+brought into subjection, and be purified from its evil lusts, so 
+that our eyes may be turned only to purging away those lusts. For 
+when the soul has been cleansed by faith and made to love God, it 
+would have all things to be cleansed in like manner, and 
+especially its own body, so that all things might unite with it 
+in the love and praise of God. Thus it comes that, from the 
+requirements of his own body, a man cannot take his ease, but is 
+compelled on its account to do many good works, that he may bring 
+it into subjection. Yet these works are not the means of his 
+justification before God; he does them out of disinterested love 
+to the service of God; looking to no other end than to do what is 
+well-pleasing to Him whom he desires to obey most dutifully in 
+all things.
+
+On this principle every man may easily instruct himself in what 
+measure, and with what distinctions, he ought to chasten his own 
+body. He will fast, watch, and labour, just as much as he sees to 
+suffice for keeping down the wantonness and concupiscence of the 
+body. But those who pretend to be justified by works are looking, 
+not to the mortification of their lusts, but only to the works 
+themselves; thinking that, if they can accomplish as many works 
+and as great ones as possible, all is well with them, and they 
+are justified. Sometimes they even injure their brain, and 
+extinguish nature, or at least make it useless. This is enormous 
+folly, and ignorance of Christian life and faith, when a man 
+seeks, without faith, to be justified and saved by works.
+
+To make what we have said more easily understood, let us set it 
+forth under a figure. The works of a Christian man, who is 
+justified and saved by his faith out of the pure and unbought 
+mercy of God, ought to be regarded in the same light as would 
+have been those of Adam and Eve in paradise and of all their 
+posterity if they had not sinned. Of them it is said, "The Lord 
+God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it 
+and to keep it" (Gen. ii. 15). Now Adam had been created by God 
+just and righteous, so that he could not have needed to be 
+justified and made righteous by keeping the garden and working in 
+it; but, that he might not be unemployed, God gave him the 
+business of keeping and cultivating paradise. These would have 
+indeed been works of perfect freedom, being done for no object 
+but that of pleasing God, and not in order to obtain 
+justification, which he already had to the full, and which would 
+have been innate in us all.
+
+So it is with the works of a believer. Being by his faith 
+replaced afresh in paradise and created anew, he does not need 
+works for his justification, but that he may not be idle, but may 
+exercise his own body and preserve it. His works are to be done 
+freely, with the sole object of pleasing God. Only we are not yet 
+fully created anew in perfect faith and love; these require to be 
+increased, not, however, through works, but through themselves.
+
+A bishop, when he consecrates a church, confirms children, or 
+performs any other duty of his office, is not consecrated as 
+bishop by these works; nay, unless he had been previously 
+consecrated as bishop, not one of those works would have any 
+validity; they would be foolish, childish, and ridiculous. Thus a 
+Christian, being consecrated by his faith, does good works; but 
+he is not by these works made a more sacred person, or more a 
+Christian. That is the effect of faith alone; nay, unless he were 
+previously a believer and a Christian, none of his works would 
+have any value at all; they would really be impious and damnable 
+sins.
+
+True, then, are these two sayings: "Good works do not make a good 
+man, but a good man does good works"; "Bad works do not make a 
+bad man, but a bad man does bad works." Thus it is always 
+necessary that the substance or person should be good before any 
+good works can be done, and that good works should follow and 
+proceed from a good person. As Christ says, "A good tree cannot 
+bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth 
+good fruit" (Matt. vii. 18). Now it is clear that the fruit does 
+not bear the tree, nor does the tree grow on the fruit; but, on 
+the contrary, the trees bear the fruit, and the fruit grows on 
+the trees.
+
+As then trees must exist before their fruit, and as the fruit 
+does not make the tree either good or bad, but on the contrary, a 
+tree of either kind produces fruit of the same kind, so must 
+first the person of the man be good or bad before he can do 
+either a good or a bad work; and his works do not make him bad or 
+good, but he himself makes his works either bad or good.
+
+We may see the same thing in all handicrafts. A bad or good house 
+does not make a bad or good builder, but a good or bad builder 
+makes a good or bad house. And in general no work makes the 
+workman such as it is itself; but the workman makes the work such 
+as he is himself. Such is the case, too, with the works of men. 
+Such as the man himself is, whether in faith or in unbelief, such 
+is his work: good if it be done in faith; bad if in unbelief. But 
+the converse is not true that, such as the work is, such the man 
+becomes in faith or in unbelief. For as works do not make a 
+believing man, so neither do they make a justified man; but 
+faith, as it makes a man a believer and justified, so also it 
+makes his works good.
+
+Since then works justify no man, but a man must be justified 
+before he can do any good work, it is most evident that it is 
+faith alone which, by the mere mercy of God through Christ, and 
+by means of His word, can worthily and sufficiently justify and 
+save the person; and that a Christian man needs no work, no law, 
+for his salvation; for by faith he is free from all law, and in 
+perfect freedom does gratuitously all that he does, seeking 
+nothing either of profit or of salvation--since by the grace of 
+God he is already saved and rich in all things through his 
+faith--but solely that which is well-pleasing to God.
+
+So, too, no good work can profit an unbeliever to justification 
+and salvation; and, on the other hand, no evil work makes him an 
+evil and condemned person, but that unbelief, which makes the 
+person and the tree bad, makes his works evil and condemned. 
+Wherefore, when any man is made good or bad, this does not arise 
+from his works, but from his faith or unbelief, as the wise man 
+says, "The beginning of sin is to fall away from God"; that is, 
+not to believe. Paul says, "He that cometh to God must believe" 
+(Heb. xi. 6); and Christ says the same thing: "Either make the 
+tree good and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and 
+his fruit corrupt" (Matt. xii. 33),--as much as to say, He who 
+wishes to have good fruit will begin with the tree, and plant a 
+good one; even so he who wishes to do good works must begin, not 
+by working, but by believing, since it is this which makes the 
+person good. For nothing makes the person good but faith, nor bad 
+but unbelief.
+
+It is certainly true that, in the sight of men, a man becomes 
+good or evil by his works; but here "becoming" means that it is 
+thus shown and recognised who is good or evil, as Christ says, 
+"By their fruits ye shall know them" (Matt. vii. 20). But all 
+this stops at appearances and externals; and in this matter very 
+many deceive themselves, when they presume to write and teach 
+that we are to be justified by good works, and meanwhile make no 
+mention even of faith, walking in their own ways, ever deceived 
+and deceiving, going from bad to worse, blind leaders of the 
+blind, wearying themselves with many works, and yet never 
+attaining to true righteousness, of whom Paul says, "Having a 
+form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, ever learning 
+and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth" (2 Tim. 
+iii. 5, 7).
+
+He then who does not wish to go astray, with these blind ones, 
+must look further than to the works of the law or the doctrine of 
+works; nay, must turn away his sight from works, and look to the 
+person, and to the manner in which it may be justified. Now it is 
+justified and saved, not by works or laws, but by the word of 
+God--that is, by the promise of His grace--so that the glory may 
+be to the Divine majesty, which has saved us who believe, not by 
+works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His 
+mercy, by the word of His grace.
+
+>From all this it is easy to perceive on what principle good works 
+are to be cast aside or embraced, and by what rule all teachings 
+put forth concerning works are to be understood. For if works are 
+brought forward as grounds of justification, and are done under 
+the false persuasion that we can pretend to be justified by them, 
+they lay on us the yoke of necessity, and extinguish liberty 
+along with faith, and by this very addition to their use they 
+become no longer good, but really worthy of condemnation. For 
+such works are not free, but blaspheme the grace of God, to which 
+alone it belongs to justify and save through faith. Works cannot 
+accomplish this, and yet, with impious presumption, through our 
+folly, they take it on themselves to do so; and thus break in 
+with violence upon the office and glory of grace.
+
+We do not then reject good works; nay, we embrace them and teach 
+them in the highest degree. It is not on their own account that 
+we condemn them, but on account of this impious addition to them 
+and the perverse notion of seeking justification by them. These 
+things cause them to be only good in outward show, but in reality 
+not good, since by them men are deceived and deceive others, like 
+ravening wolves in sheep's clothing.
+
+Now this leviathan, this perverted notion about works, is 
+invincible when sincere faith is wanting. For those sanctified 
+doers of works cannot but hold it till faith, which destroys it, 
+comes and reigns in the heart. Nature cannot expel it by her own 
+power; nay, cannot even see it for what it is, but considers it 
+as a most holy will. And when custom steps in besides, and 
+strengthens this pravity of nature, as has happened by means of 
+impious teachers, then the evil is incurable, and leads astray 
+multitudes to irreparable ruin. Therefore, though it is good to 
+preach and write about penitence, confession, and satisfaction, 
+yet if we stop there, and do not go on to teach faith, such 
+teaching is without doubt deceitful and devilish. For Christ, 
+speaking by His servant John, not only said, "Repent ye," but 
+added, "for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. iii. 2).
+
+For not one word of God only, but both, should be preached; new 
+and old things should be brought out of the treasury, as well the 
+voice of the law as the word of grace. The voice of the law 
+should be brought forward, that men may be terrified and brought 
+to a knowledge of their sins, and thence be converted to 
+penitence and to a better manner of life. But we must not stop 
+here; that would be to wound only and not to bind up, to strike 
+and not to heal, to kill and not to make alive, to bring down to 
+hell and not to bring back, to humble and not to exalt. Therefore 
+the word of grace and of the promised remission of sin must also 
+be preached, in order to teach and set up faith, since without 
+that word contrition, penitence, and all other duties, are 
+performed and taught in vain.
+
+There still remain, it is true, preachers of repentance and 
+grace, but they do not explain the law and the promises of God to 
+such an end, and in such a spirit, that men may learn whence 
+repentance and grace are to come. For repentance comes from the 
+law of God, but faith or grace from the promises of God, as it is 
+said, "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" 
+(Rom. x. 17), whence it comes that a man, when humbled and 
+brought to the knowledge of himself by the threatenings and 
+terrors of the law, is consoled and raised up by faith in the 
+Divine promise. Thus "weeping may endure for a night, but joy 
+cometh in the morning" (Psalm xxx. 5). Thus much we say 
+concerning works in general, and also concerning those which the 
+Christian practises with regard to his own body.
+
+Lastly, we will speak also of those works which he performs 
+towards his neighbour. For man does not live for himself alone in 
+this mortal body, in order to work on its account, but also for 
+all men on earth; nay, he lives only for others, and not for 
+himself. For it is to this end that he brings his own body into 
+subjection, that he may be able to serve others more sincerely 
+and more freely, as Paul says, "None of us liveth to himself, and 
+no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the 
+Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord" (Rom. xiv. 7, 8). 
+Thus it is impossible that he should take his ease in this life, 
+and not work for the good of his neighbours, since he must needs 
+speak, act, and converse among men, just as Christ was made in 
+the likeness of men and found in fashion as a man, and had His 
+conversation among men.
+
+Yet a Christian has need of none of these things for 
+justification and salvation, but in all his works he ought to 
+entertain this view and look only to this object--that he may 
+serve and be useful to others in all that he does; having nothing 
+before his eyes but the necessities and the advantage of his 
+neighbour. Thus the Apostle commands us to work with our own 
+hands, that we may have to give to those that need. He might have 
+said, that we may support ourselves; but he tells us to give to 
+those that need. It is the part of a Christian to take care of 
+his own body for the very purpose that, by its soundness and 
+well-being, he may be enabled to labour, and to acquire and 
+preserve property, for the aid of those who are in want, that 
+thus the stronger member may serve the weaker member, and we may 
+be children of God, thoughtful and busy one for another, bearing 
+one another's burdens, and so fulfilling the law of Christ.
+
+Here is the truly Christian life, here is faith really working by 
+love, when a man applies himself with joy and love to the works 
+of that freest servitude in which he serves others voluntarily 
+and for nought, himself abundantly satisfied in the fulness and 
+riches of his own faith.
+
+Thus, when Paul had taught the Philippians how they had been made 
+rich by that faith in Christ in which they had obtained all 
+things, he teaches them further in these words: "If there be 
+therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if 
+any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfil 
+ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of 
+one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or 
+vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better 
+than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every 
+man also on the things of others" (Phil. ii. 1-4).
+
+In this we see clearly that the Apostle lays down this rule for a 
+Christian life: that all our works should be directed to the 
+advantage of others, since every Christian has such abundance 
+through his faith that all his other works and his whole life 
+remain over and above wherewith to serve and benefit his 
+neighbour of spontaneous goodwill.
+
+To this end he brings forward Christ as an example, saying, "Let 
+this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being 
+in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, 
+but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of 
+a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found 
+in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto 
+death" (Phil. ii. 5-8). This most wholesome saying of the Apostle 
+has been darkened to us by men who, totally misunderstanding the 
+expressions "form of God," "form of a servant," "fashion," 
+"likeness of men," have transferred them to the natures of 
+Godhead and manhood. Paul's meaning is this: Christ, when He was 
+full of the form of God and abounded in all good things, so that 
+He had no need of works or sufferings to be just and saved--for 
+all these things He had from the very beginning--yet was not 
+puffed up with these things, and did not raise Himself above us 
+and arrogate to Himself power over us, though He might lawfully 
+have done so, but, on the contrary, so acted in labouring, 
+working, suffering, and dying, as to be like the rest of men, and 
+no otherwise than a man in fashion and in conduct, as if He were 
+in want of all things and had nothing of the form of God; and yet 
+all this He did for our sakes, that He might serve us, and that 
+all the works He should do under that form of a servant might 
+become ours.
+
+Thus a Christian, like Christ his Head, being full and in 
+abundance through his faith, ought to be content with this form 
+of God, obtained by faith; except that, as I have said, he ought 
+to increase this faith till it be perfected. For this faith is 
+his life, justification, and salvation, preserving his person 
+itself and making it pleasing to God, and bestowing on him all 
+that Christ has, as I have said above, and as Paul affirms: "The 
+life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son 
+of God" (Gal. ii. 20). Though he is thus free from all works, yet 
+he ought to empty himself of this liberty, take on him the form 
+of a servant, be made in the likeness of men, be found in fashion 
+as a man, serve, help, and in every way act towards his neighbour 
+as he sees that God through Christ has acted and is acting 
+towards him. All this he should do freely, and with regard to 
+nothing but the good pleasure of God, and he should reason 
+thus:--
+
+Lo! my God, without merit on my part, of His pure and free mercy, 
+has given to me, an unworthy, condemned, and contemptible 
+creature all the riches of justification and salvation in Christ, 
+so that I no longer am in want of anything, except of faith to 
+believe that this is so. For such a Father, then, who has 
+overwhelmed me with these inestimable riches of His, why should I 
+not freely, cheerfully, and with my whole heart, and from 
+voluntary zeal, do all that I know will be pleasing to Him and 
+acceptable in His sight? I will therefore give myself as a sort 
+of Christ, to my neighbour, as Christ has given Himself to me; 
+and will do nothing in this life except what I see will be 
+needful, advantageous, and wholesome for my neighbour, since by 
+faith I abound in all good things in Christ.
+
+Thus from faith flow forth love and joy in the Lord, and from 
+love a cheerful, willing, free spirit, disposed to serve our 
+neighbour voluntarily, without taking any account of gratitude or 
+ingratitude, praise or blame, gain or loss. Its object is not to 
+lay men under obligations, nor does it distinguish between 
+friends and enemies, or look to gratitude or ingratitude, but 
+most freely and willingly spends itself and its goods, whether it 
+loses them through ingratitude, or gains goodwill. For thus did 
+its Father, distributing all things to all men abundantly and 
+freely, making His sun to rise upon the just and the unjust. 
+Thus, too, the child does and endures nothing except from the 
+free joy with which it delights through Christ in God, the Giver 
+of such great gifts.
+
+You see, then, that, if we recognize those great and precious 
+gifts, as Peter says, which have been given to us, love is 
+quickly diffused in our hearts through the Spirit, and by love we 
+are made free, joyful, all-powerful, active workers, victors over 
+all our tribulations, servants to our neighbour, and nevertheless 
+lords of all things. But, for those who do not recognise the good 
+things given to them through Christ, Christ has been born in 
+vain; such persons walk by works, and will never attain the taste 
+and feeling of these great things. Therefore just as our 
+neighbour is in want, and has need of our abundance, so we too in 
+the sight of God were in want, and had need of His mercy. And as 
+our heavenly Father has freely helped us in Christ, so ought we 
+freely to help our neighbour by our body and works, and each 
+should become to other a sort of Christ, so that we may be 
+mutually Christs, and that the same Christ may be in all of us; 
+that is, that we may be truly Christians.
+
+Who then can comprehend the riches and glory of the Christian 
+life? It can do all things, has all things, and is in want of 
+nothing; is lord over sin, death, and hell, and at the same time 
+is the obedient and useful servant of all. But alas! it is at 
+this day unknown throughout the world; it is neither preached nor 
+sought after, so that we are quite ignorant about our own name, 
+why we are and are called Christians. We are certainly called so 
+from Christ, who is not absent, but dwells among us--provided, 
+that is, that we believe in Him and are reciprocally and mutually 
+one the Christ of the other, doing to our neighbour as Christ 
+does to us. But now, in the doctrine of men, we are taught only 
+to seek after merits, rewards, and things which are already ours, 
+and we have made of Christ a taskmaster far more severe than 
+Moses.
+
+The Blessed Virgin beyond all others, affords us an example of 
+the same faith, in that she was purified according to the law of 
+Moses, and like all other women, though she was bound by no such 
+law and had no need of purification. Still she submitted to the 
+law voluntarily and of free love, making herself like the rest of 
+women, that she might not offend or throw contempt on them. She 
+was not justified by doing this; but, being already justified, 
+she did it freely and gratuitously. Thus ought our works too to 
+be done, and not in order to be justified by them; for, being 
+first justified by faith, we ought to do all our works freely and 
+cheerfully for the sake of others.
+
+St. Paul circumcised his disciple Timothy, not because he needed 
+circumcision for his justification, but that he might not offend 
+or contemn those Jews, weak in the faith, who had not yet been 
+able to comprehend the liberty of faith. On the other hand, when 
+they contemned liberty and urged that circumcision was necessary 
+for justification, he resisted them, and would not allow Titus to 
+be circumcised. For, as he would not offend or contemn any one's 
+weakness in faith, but yielded for the time to their will, so, 
+again, he would not have the liberty of faith offended or 
+contemned by hardened self-justifiers, but walked in a middle 
+path, sparing the weak for the time, and always resisting the 
+hardened, that he might convert all to the liberty of faith. On 
+the same principle we ought to act, receiving those that are weak 
+in the faith, but boldly resisting these hardened teachers of 
+works, of whom we shall hereafter speak at more length.
+
+Christ also, when His disciples were asked for the tribute money, 
+asked of Peter whether the children of a king were not free from 
+taxes. Peter agreed to this; yet Jesus commanded him to go to the 
+sea, saying, "Lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and 
+cast a hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when 
+thou hast opened his mouth thou shalt find a piece of money; that 
+take, and give unto them for Me and thee" (Matt. xvii. 27).
+
+This example is very much to our purpose; for here Christ calls 
+Himself and His disciples free men and children of a King, in 
+want of nothing; and yet He voluntarily submits and pays the tax. 
+Just as far, then, as this work was necessary or useful to Christ 
+for justification or salvation, so far do all His other works or 
+those of His disciples avail for justification. They are really 
+free and subsequent to justification, and only done to serve 
+others and set them an example.
+
+Such are the works which Paul inculcated, that Christians should 
+be subject to principalities and powers and ready to every good 
+work (Titus iii. 1), not that they may be justified by these 
+things--for they are already justified by faith--but that in 
+liberty of spirit they may thus be the servants of others and 
+subject to powers, obeying their will out of gratuitous love.
+
+Such, too, ought to have been the works of all colleges, 
+monasteries, and priests; every one doing the works of his own 
+profession and state of life, not in order to be justified by 
+them, but in order to bring his own body into subjection, as an 
+example to others, who themselves also need to keep under their 
+bodies, and also in order to accommodate himself to the will of 
+others, out of free love. But we must always guard most carefully 
+against any vain confidence or presumption of being justified, 
+gaining merit, or being saved by these works, this being the part 
+of faith alone, as I have so often said.
+
+Any man possessing this knowledge may easily keep clear of danger 
+among those innumerable commands and precepts of the Pope, of 
+bishops, of monasteries, of churches, of princes, and of 
+magistrates, which some foolish pastors urge on us as being 
+necessary for justification and salvation, calling them precepts 
+of the Church, when they are not so at all. For the Christian 
+freeman will speak thus: I will fast, I will pray, I will do this 
+or that which is commanded me by men, not as having any need of 
+these things for justification or salvation, but that I may thus 
+comply with the will of the Pope, of the bishop, of such a 
+community or such a magistrate, or of my neighbour as an example 
+to him; for this cause I will do and suffer all things, just as 
+Christ did and suffered much more for me, though He needed not at 
+all to do so on His own account, and made Himself for my sake 
+under the law, when He was not under the law. And although 
+tyrants may do me violence or wrong in requiring obedience to 
+these things, yet it will not hurt me to do them, so long as they 
+are not done against God.
+
+>From all this every man will be able to attain a sure judgment 
+and faithful discrimination between all works and laws, and to 
+know who are blind and foolish pastors, and who are true and good 
+ones. For whatsoever work is not directed to the sole end either 
+of keeping under the body, or of doing service to our 
+neighbour--provided he require nothing contrary to the will of 
+God--is no good or Christian work. Hence I greatly fear that at 
+this day few or no colleges, monasteries, altars, or 
+ecclesiastical functions are Christian ones; and the same may be 
+said of fasts and special prayers to certain saints. I fear that 
+in all these nothing is being sought but what is already ours; 
+while we fancy that by these things our sins are purged away and 
+salvation is attained, and thus utterly do away with Christian 
+liberty. This comes from ignorance of Christian faith and 
+liberty.
+
+This ignorance and this crushing of liberty are diligently 
+promoted by the teaching of very many blind pastors, who stir up 
+and urge the people to a zeal for these things, praising them and 
+puffing them up with their indulgences, but never teaching faith. 
+Now I would advise you, if you have any wish to pray, to fast, or 
+to make foundations in churches, as they call it, to take care 
+not to do so with the object of gaining any advantage, either 
+temporal or eternal. You will thus wrong your faith, which alone 
+bestows all things on you, and the increase of which, either by 
+working or by suffering, is alone to be cared for. What you give, 
+give freely and without price, that others may prosper and have 
+increase from you and your goodness. Thus you will be a truly 
+good man and a Christian. For what to you are your goods and your 
+works, which are done over and above for the subjection of the 
+body, since you have abundance for yourself through your faith, 
+in which God has given you all things?
+
+We give this rule: the good things which we have from God ought 
+to flow from one to another and become common to all, so that 
+every one of us may, as it were, put on his neighbour, and so 
+behave towards him as if he were himself in his place. They 
+flowed and do flow from Christ to us; He put us on, and acted for 
+us as if He Himself were what we are. From us they flow to those 
+who have need of them; so that my faith and righteousness ought 
+to be laid down before God as a covering and intercession for the 
+sins of my neighbour, which I am to take on myself, and so labour 
+and endure servitude in them, as if they were my own; for thus 
+has Christ done for us. This is true love and the genuine truth 
+of Christian life. But only there is it true and genuine where 
+there is true and genuine faith. Hence the Apostle attributes to 
+charity this quality: that she seeketh not her own.
+
+We conclude therefore that a Christian man does not live in 
+himself, but in Christ and in his neighbour, or else is no 
+Christian: in Christ by faith; in his neighbour by love. By faith 
+he is carried upwards above himself to God, and by love he sinks 
+back below himself to his neighbour, still always-abiding in God 
+and His love, as Christ says, "Verily I say unto you, Hereafter 
+ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and 
+descending upon the Son of man" (John i. 51).
+
+Thus much concerning liberty, which, as you see, is a true and 
+spiritual liberty, making our hearts free from all sins, laws, 
+and commandments, as Paul says, "The law is not made for a 
+righteous man" (1 Tim. i. 9), and one which surpasses all other 
+external liberties, as far as heaven is above earth. May Christ 
+make us to understand and preserve this liberty. Amen.
+
+Finally, for the sake of those to whom nothing can be stated so 
+well but that they misunderstand and distort it, we must add a 
+word, in case they can understand even that. There are very many 
+persons who, when they hear of this liberty of faith, straightway 
+turn it into an occasion of licence. They think that everything 
+is now lawful for them, and do not choose to show themselves free 
+men and Christians in any other way than by their contempt and 
+reprehension of ceremonies, of traditions, of human laws; as if 
+they were Christians merely because they refuse to fast on stated 
+days, or eat flesh when others fast, or omit the customary 
+prayers; scoffing at the precepts of men, but utterly passing 
+over all the rest that belongs to the Christian religion. On the 
+other hand, they are most pertinaciously resisted by those who 
+strive after salvation solely by their observance of and 
+reverence for ceremonies, as if they would be saved merely 
+because they fast on stated days, or abstain from flesh, or make 
+formal prayers; talking loudly of the precepts of the Church and 
+of the Fathers, and not caring a straw about those things which 
+belong to our genuine faith. Both these parties are plainly 
+culpable, in that, while they neglect matters which are of weight 
+and necessary for salvation, they contend noisily about such as 
+are without weight and not necessary.
+
+How much more rightly does the Apostle Paul teach us to walk in 
+the middle path, condemning either extreme and saying, "Let not 
+him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him 
+which eateth not judge him that eateth" (Rom. xiv. 3)! You see 
+here how the Apostle blames those who, not from religious 
+feeling, but in mere contempt, neglect and rail at ceremonial 
+observances, and teaches them not to despise, since this 
+"knowledge puffeth up." Again, he teaches the pertinacious 
+upholders of these things not to judge their opponents. For 
+neither party observes towards the other that charity which 
+edifieth. In this matter we must listen to Scripture, which 
+teaches us to turn aside neither to the right hand nor to the 
+left, but to follow those right precepts of the Lord which 
+rejoice the heart. For just as a man is not righteous merely 
+because he serves and is devoted to works and ceremonial rites, 
+so neither will he be accounted righteous merely because he 
+neglects and despises them.
+
+It is not from works that we are set free by the faith of Christ, 
+but from the belief in works, that is from foolishly presuming to 
+seek justification through works. Faith redeems our consciences, 
+makes them upright, and preserves them, since by it we recognise 
+the truth that justification does not depend on our works, 
+although good works neither can nor ought to be absent, just as 
+we cannot exist without food and drink and all the functions of 
+this mortal body. Still it is not on them that our justification 
+is based, but on faith; and yet they ought not on that account to 
+be despised or neglected. Thus in this world we are compelled by 
+the needs of this bodily life; but we are not hereby justified. 
+"My kingdom is not hence, nor of this world," says Christ; but He 
+does not say, "My kingdom is not here, nor in this world." Paul, 
+too, says, "Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the 
+flesh" (2 Cor. x. 3), and "The life which I now live in the flesh 
+I live by the faith of the Son of God" (Gal. ii. 20). Thus our 
+doings, life, and being, in works and ceremonies, are done from 
+the necessities of this life, and with the motive of governing 
+our bodies; but yet we are not justified by these things, but by 
+the faith of the Son of God.
+
+The Christian must therefore walk in the middle path, and set 
+these two classes of men before his eyes. He may meet with 
+hardened and obstinate ceremonialists, who, like deaf adders, 
+refuse to listen to the truth of liberty, and cry up, enjoin, and 
+urge on us their ceremonies, as if they could justify us without 
+faith. Such were the Jews of old, who would not understand, that 
+they might act well. These men we must resist, do just the 
+contrary to what they do, and be bold to give them offence, lest 
+by this impious notion of theirs they should deceive many along 
+with themselves. Before the eyes of these men it is expedient to 
+eat flesh, to break fasts, and to do in behalf of the liberty of 
+faith things which they hold to be the greatest sins. We must say 
+of them, "Let them alone; they be blind leaders of the blind" 
+(Matt. xv. 14). In this way Paul also would not have Titus 
+circumcised, though these men urged it; and Christ defended the 
+Apostles, who had plucked ears of corn on the Sabbath day; and 
+many like instances.
+
+Or else we may meet with simple-minded and ignorant persons, weak 
+in the faith, as the Apostle calls them, who are as yet unable to 
+apprehend that liberty of faith, even if willing to do so. These 
+we must spare, lest they should be offended. We must bear with 
+their infirmity, till they shall be more fully instructed. For 
+since these men do not act thus from hardened malice, but only 
+from weakness of faith, therefore, in order to avoid giving them 
+offence, we must keep fasts and do other things which they 
+consider necessary. This is required of us by charity, which 
+injures no one, but serves all men. It is not the fault of these 
+persons that they are weak, but that of their pastors, who by the 
+snares and weapons of their own traditions have brought them into 
+bondage and wounded their souls when they ought to have been set 
+free and healed by the teaching of faith and liberty. Thus the 
+Apostle says, "If meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no 
+flesh while the world standeth" (1 Cor. viii. 13); and again, "I 
+know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing 
+unclean of itself; but to him that esteemeth anything to be 
+unclean, to him it is unclean. It is evil for that man who eateth 
+with offence" (Rom. xiv. 14, 20).
+
+Thus, though we ought boldly to resist those teachers of 
+tradition, and though the laws of the pontiffs, by which they 
+make aggressions on the people of God, deserve sharp reproof, yet 
+we must spare the timid crowd, who are held captive by the laws 
+of those impious tyrants, till they are set free. Fight 
+vigorously against the wolves, but on behalf of the sheep, not 
+against the sheep. And this you may do by inveighing against the 
+laws and lawgivers, and yet at the same time observing these laws 
+with the weak, lest they be offended, until they shall themselves 
+recognise the tyranny, and understand their own liberty. If you 
+wish to use your liberty, do it secretly, as Paul says, "Hast 
+thou faith? have it to thyself before God" (Rom. xiv. 22). But 
+take care not to use it in the presence of the weak. On the other 
+hand, in the presence of tyrants and obstinate opposers, use your 
+liberty in their despite, and with the utmost pertinacity, that 
+they too may understand that they are tyrants, and their laws 
+useless for justification, nay that they had no right to 
+establish such laws.
+
+Since then we cannot live in this world without ceremonies and 
+works, since the hot and inexperienced period of youth has need 
+of being restrained and protected by such bonds, and since every 
+one is bound to keep under his own body by attention to these 
+things, therefore the minister of Christ must be prudent and 
+faithful in so ruling and teaching the people of Christ, in all 
+these matters, that no root of bitterness may spring up among 
+them, and so many be defiled, as Paul warned the Hebrews; that 
+is, that they may not lose the faith, and begin to be defiled by 
+a belief in works as the means of justification. This is a thing 
+which easily happens, and defiles very many, unless faith be 
+constantly inculcated along with works. It is impossible to avoid 
+this evil, when faith is passed over in silence, and only the 
+ordinances of men are taught, as has been done hitherto by the 
+pestilent, impious, and soul-destroying traditions of our 
+pontiffs and opinions of our theologians. An infinite number of 
+souls have been drawn down to hell by these snares, so that you 
+may recognise the work of antichrist.
+
+In brief, as poverty is imperilled amid riches, honesty amid 
+business, humility amid honours, abstinence amid feasting, purity 
+amid pleasures, so is justification by faith imperilled among 
+ceremonies. Solomon says, "Can a man take fire in his bosom, and 
+his clothes not be burned?" (Prov. vi. 27). And yet as we must 
+live among riches, business, honours, pleasures, feastings, so 
+must we among ceremonies, that is among perils. Just as infant 
+boys have the greatest need of being cherished in the bosoms and 
+by the care of girls, that they may not die, and yet, when they 
+are grown, there is peril to their salvation in living among 
+girls, so inexperienced and fervid young men require to be kept 
+in and restrained by the barriers of ceremonies, even were they 
+of iron, lest their weak minds should rush headlong into vice. 
+And yet it would be death to them to persevere in believing that 
+they can be justified by these things. They must rather be taught 
+that they have been thus imprisoned, not with the purpose of 
+their being justified or gaining merit in this way, but in order 
+that they might avoid wrong-doing, and be more easily instructed 
+in that righteousness which is by faith, a thing which the 
+headlong character of youth would not bear unless it were put 
+under restraint.
+
+Hence in the Christian life ceremonies are to be no otherwise 
+looked upon than as builders and workmen look upon those 
+preparations for building or working which are not made with any 
+view of being permanent or anything in themselves, but only 
+because without them there could be no building and no work. When 
+the structure is completed, they are laid aside. Here you see 
+that we do not contemn these preparations, but set the highest 
+value on them; a belief in them we do contemn, because no one 
+thinks that they constitute a real and permanent structure. If 
+any one were so manifestly out of his senses as to have no other 
+object in life but that of setting up these preparations with all 
+possible expense, diligence, and perseverance, while he never 
+thought of the structure itself, but pleased himself and made his 
+boast of these useless preparations and props, should we not all 
+pity his madness and think that, at the cost thus thrown away, 
+some great building might have been raised?
+
+Thus, too, we do not contemn works and ceremonies--nay, we set 
+the highest value on them; but we contemn the belief in works, 
+which no one should consider to constitute true righteousness, as 
+do those hypocrites who employ and throw away their whole life in 
+the pursuit of works, and yet never attain to that for the sake 
+of which the works are done. As the Apostle says, they are "ever 
+learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth" (2 
+Tim. iii. 7). They appear to wish to build, they make 
+preparations, and yet they never do build; and thus they continue 
+in a show of godliness, but never attain to its power.
+
+Meanwhile they please themselves with this zealous pursuit, and 
+even dare to judge all others, whom they do not see adorned with 
+such a glittering display of works; while, if they had been 
+imbued with faith, they might have done great things for their 
+own and others' salvation, at the same cost which they now waste 
+in abuse of the gifts of God. But since human nature and natural 
+reason, as they call it, are naturally superstitious, and quick 
+to believe that justification can be attained by any laws or 
+works proposed to them, and since nature is also exercised and 
+confirmed in the same view by the practice of all earthly 
+lawgivers, she can never of her own power free herself from this 
+bondage to works, and come to a recognition of the liberty of 
+faith.
+
+We have therefore need to pray that God will lead us and make us 
+taught of God, that is, ready to learn from God; and will 
+Himself, as He has promised, write His law in our hearts; 
+otherwise there is no hope for us. For unless He himself teach us 
+inwardly this wisdom hidden in a mystery, nature cannot but 
+condemn it and judge it to be heretical. She takes offence at it, 
+and it seems folly to her, just as we see that it happened of old 
+in the case of the prophets and Apostles, and just as blind and 
+impious pontiffs, with their flatterers, do now in my case and 
+that of those who are like me, upon whom, together with 
+ourselves, may God at length have mercy, and lift up the light of 
+His countenance upon them, that we may know His way upon earth 
+and His saving health among all nations, who is blessed for 
+evermore. Amen. In the year of the Lord MDXX.
+
+
+
+
+
+This text was converted to ascii format for Project Wittenberg by
+Elizabeth T. Knuth and is in the public domain.  You may freely
+distribute, copy or print this text.  Please direct any comments
+or suggestions to: Rev. Robert E. Smith of the Walther Library at
+Concordia Theological Seminary.
+
+E-mail: cosmithb@ash.palni.edu
+Surface Mail: 6600 N. Clinton St., Ft.  Wayne, IN 46825 USA
+Phone: (219) 452-2123  Fax: (219) 452-2126
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg Etext Concerning Christian Liberty, by Luther
+
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