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      Concerning Christian Liberty, by Martin Luther
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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Concerning Christian Liberty, by Martin Luther

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
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Title: Concerning Christian Liberty
       With Letter Of Martin Luther To Pope Leo X.

Author: Martin Luther

Release Date: February 25, 2006 [EBook #1911]
Last Updated: February 4, 2013

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONCERNING CHRISTIAN LIBERTY ***




Produced by Elizabeth T. Knuth and David Widger





</pre>
    <p>
      <br /> <br />
    </p>
    <h1>
      CONCERNING CHRISTIAN LIBERTY
    </h1>
    <p>
      <br />
    </p>
    <h2>
      by Martin Luther
    </h2>
    <p>
      <br /> <br />
    </p>
    <hr />
    <p>
      <br /> <br />
    </p>
    <h2>
      Contents
    </h2>
    <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto">
      <tr>
        <td>
          <p class="toc">
            <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> LETTER OF MARTIN LUTHER TO POPE LEO X.
            </a>
          </p>
          <p class="toc">
            <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> CONCERNING CHRISTIAN LIBERTY </a>
          </p>
        </td>
      </tr>
    </table>
    <p>
      <br /> <br />
    </p>
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    <p>
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    <h2>
      LETTER OF MARTIN LUTHER TO POPE LEO X.
    </h2>
    <p>
      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&mdash;fearless of the futile decrees of your
      predecessors Pius and Julius, who in their foolish tyranny prohibited such
      an action&mdash;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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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&mdash;as you are not ignorant&mdash;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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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?
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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?
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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&mdash;if indeed he
      does see it&mdash;that there is One in heaven who resists the proud, and
      humbles the presumptuous.
    </p>
    <p>
      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&mdash;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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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&mdash;a word which I have ever
      longed to hear.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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!
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      Wittenberg, 6th September, 1520.
    </p>
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    <h2>
      CONCERNING CHRISTIAN LIBERTY
    </h2>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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&mdash;for these alone I am trying to
      serve&mdash;I first lay down these two propositions, concerning spiritual
      liberty and servitude:&mdash;
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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).
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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).
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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).
    </p>
    <p>
      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).
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      Now when a man has through the precepts been taught his own impotence, and
      become anxious by what means he may satisfy the law&mdash;for the law must
      be satisfied, so that no jot or tittle of it may pass away, otherwise he
      must be hopelessly condemned&mdash;then, being truly humbled and brought
      to nothing in his own eyes, he finds in himself no resource for
      justification and salvation.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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).
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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&mdash;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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.).
    </p>
    <p>
      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&mdash;nay, by far the most perfect of all
      marriages&mdash;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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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?
    </p>
    <p>
      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,&mdash;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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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
      loving-kindness, and in mercies" (Hosea ii. 19, 20).
    </p>
    <p>
      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).
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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&mdash;for
      otherwise how could He defend and save us from them?&mdash;but it is not
      in these, nor by these, that His kingdom stands.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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).
    </p>
    <p>
      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).
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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&mdash;for faith alone suffices for my salvation&mdash;unless that in
      it faith may exercise the power and empire of its liberty. This is the
      inestimable power and liberty of Christians.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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).
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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).
    </p>
    <p>
      These works, however, must not be done with any notion that by them a man
      can be justified before God&mdash;for faith, which alone is righteousness
      before God, will not bear with this false notion&mdash;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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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&mdash;since by the grace of God
      he is already saved and rich in all things through his faith&mdash;but
      solely that which is well-pleasing to God.
    </p>
    <p>
      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),&mdash;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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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).
    </p>
    <p>
      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&mdash;that is, by the promise of His grace&mdash;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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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).
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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&mdash;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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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).
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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&mdash;for all these things He had
      from the very beginning&mdash;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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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:&mdash;
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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&mdash;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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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).
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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&mdash;for they are
      already justified by faith&mdash;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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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&mdash;provided he require nothing
      contrary to the will of God&mdash;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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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?
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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).
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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).
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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?
    </p>
    <p>
      Thus, too, we do not contemn works and ceremonies&mdash;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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      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.
    </p>
    <p>
      <br /> <br />
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">





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