CONCERNING CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

by Martin Luther

Contents

LETTER OF MARTIN LUTHER TO POPE LEO X.

Among those monstrous evils of this age with which I have now for three
years been waging war, I am sometimes compelled to look to you and to call
you to mind, most blessed father Leo. In truth, since you alone are
everywhere considered as being the cause of my engaging in war, I cannot
at any time fail to remember you; and although I have been compelled by
the causeless raging of your impious flatterers against me to appeal from
your seat to a future council—fearless of the futile decrees of your
predecessors Pius and Julius, who in their foolish tyranny prohibited such
an action—yet I have never been so alienated in feeling from your
Blessedness as not to have sought with all my might, in diligent prayer
and crying to God, all the best gifts for you and for your see. But those
who have hitherto endeavoured to terrify me with the majesty of your name
and authority, I have begun quite to despise and triumph over. One thing I
see remaining which I cannot despise, and this has been the reason of my
writing anew to your Blessedness: namely, that I find that blame is cast
on me, and that it is imputed to me as a great offence, that in my
rashness I am judged to have spared not even your person.

Now, to confess the truth openly, I am conscious that, whenever I have had
to mention your person, I have said nothing of you but what was honourable
and good. If I had done otherwise, I could by no means have approved my
own conduct, but should have supported with all my power the judgment of
those men concerning me, nor would anything have pleased me better, than
to recant such rashness and impiety. I have called you Daniel in Babylon;
and every reader thoroughly knows with what distinguished zeal I defended
your conspicuous innocence against Silvester, who tried to stain it.
Indeed, the published opinion of so many great men and the repute of your
blameless life are too widely famed and too much reverenced throughout the
world to be assailable by any man, of however great name, or by any arts.
I am not so foolish as to attack one whom everybody praises; nay, it has
been and always will be my desire not to attack even those whom public
repute disgraces. I am not delighted at the faults of any man, since I am
very conscious myself of the great beam in my own eye, nor can I be the
first to cast a stone at the adulteress.

I have indeed inveighed sharply against impious doctrines, and I have not
been slack to censure my adversaries on account, not of their bad morals,
but of their impiety. And for this I am so far from being sorry that I
have brought my mind to despise the judgments of men and to persevere in
this vehement zeal, according to the example of Christ, who, in His zeal,
calls His adversaries a generation of vipers, blind, hypocrites, and
children of the devil. Paul, too, charges the sorcerer with being a child
of the devil, full of all subtlety and all malice; and defames certain
persons as evil workers, dogs, and deceivers. In the opinion of those
delicate-eared persons, nothing could be more bitter or intemperate than
Paul’s language. What can be more bitter than the words of the prophets?
The ears of our generation have been made so delicate by the senseless
multitude of flatterers that, as soon as we perceive that anything of ours
is not approved of, we cry out that we are being bitterly assailed; and
when we can repel the truth by no other pretence, we escape by attributing
bitterness, impatience, intemperance, to our adversaries. What would be
the use of salt if it were not pungent, or of the edge of the sword if it
did not slay? Accursed is the man who does the work of the Lord
deceitfully.

Wherefore, most excellent Leo, I beseech you to accept my vindication,
made in this letter, and to persuade yourself that I have never thought
any evil concerning your person; further, that I am one who desires that
eternal blessing may fall to your lot, and that I have no dispute with any
man concerning morals, but only concerning the word of truth. In all other
things I will yield to any one, but I neither can nor will forsake and
deny the word. He who thinks otherwise of me, or has taken in my words in
another sense, does not think rightly, and has not taken in the truth.

Your see, however, which is called the Court of Rome, and which neither
you nor any man can deny to be more corrupt than any Babylon or Sodom, and
quite, as I believe, of a lost, desperate, and hopeless impiety, this I
have verily abominated, and have felt indignant that the people of Christ
should be cheated under your name and the pretext of the Church of Rome;
and so I have resisted, and will resist, as long as the spirit of faith
shall live in me. Not that I am striving after impossibilities, or hoping
that by my labours alone, against the furious opposition of so many
flatterers, any good can be done in that most disordered Babylon; but that
I feel myself a debtor to my brethren, and am bound to take thought for
them, that fewer of them may be ruined, or that their ruin may be less
complete, by the plagues of Rome. For many years now, nothing else has
overflowed from Rome into the world—as you are not ignorant—than
the laying waste of goods, of bodies, and of souls, and the worst examples
of all the worst things. These things are clearer than the light to all
men; and the Church of Rome, formerly the most holy of all Churches, has
become the most lawless den of thieves, the most shameless of all
brothels, the very kingdom of sin, death, and hell; so that not even
antichrist, if he were to come, could devise any addition to its
wickedness.

Meanwhile you, Leo, are sitting like a lamb in the midst of wolves, like
Daniel in the midst of lions, and, with Ezekiel, you dwell among
scorpions. What opposition can you alone make to these monstrous evils?
Take to yourself three or four of the most learned and best of the
cardinals. What are these among so many? You would all perish by poison
before you could undertake to decide on a remedy. It is all over with the
Court of Rome; the wrath of God has come upon her to the uttermost. She
hates councils; she dreads to be reformed; she cannot restrain the madness
of her impiety; she fills up the sentence passed on her mother, of whom it
is said, “We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed; let us
forsake her.” It had been your duty and that of your cardinals to apply a
remedy to these evils, but this gout laughs at the physician’s hand, and
the chariot does not obey the reins. Under the influence of these
feelings, I have always grieved that you, most excellent Leo, who were
worthy of a better age, have been made pontiff in this. For the Roman
Court is not worthy of you and those like you, but of Satan himself, who
in truth is more the ruler in that Babylon than you are.

Oh, would that, having laid aside that glory which your most abandoned
enemies declare to be yours, you were living rather in the office of a
private priest or on your paternal inheritance! In that glory none are
worthy to glory, except the race of Iscariot, the children of perdition.
For what happens in your court, Leo, except that, the more wicked and
execrable any man is, the more prosperously he can use your name and
authority for the ruin of the property and souls of men, for the
multiplication of crimes, for the oppression of faith and truth and of the
whole Church of God? Oh, Leo! in reality most unfortunate, and sitting on
a most perilous throne, I tell you the truth, because I wish you well; for
if Bernard felt compassion for his Anastasius at a time when the Roman
see, though even then most corrupt, was as yet ruling with better hope
than now, why should not we lament, to whom so much further corruption and
ruin has been added in three hundred years?

Is it not true that there is nothing under the vast heavens more corrupt,
more pestilential, more hateful, than the Court of Rome? She incomparably
surpasses the impiety of the Turks, so that in very truth she, who was
formerly the gate of heaven, is now a sort of open mouth of hell, and such
a mouth as, under the urgent wrath of God, cannot be blocked up; one
course alone being left to us wretched men: to call back and save some
few, if we can, from that Roman gulf.

Behold, Leo, my father, with what purpose and on what principle it is that
I have stormed against that seat of pestilence. I am so far from having
felt any rage against your person that I even hoped to gain favour with
you and to aid you in your welfare by striking actively and vigorously at
that your prison, nay, your hell. For whatever the efforts of all minds
can contrive against the confusion of that impious Court will be
advantageous to you and to your welfare, and to many others with you.
Those who do harm to her are doing your office; those who in every way
abhor her are glorifying Christ; in short, those are Christians who are
not Romans.

But, to say yet more, even this never entered my heart: to inveigh against
the Court of Rome or to dispute at all about her. For, seeing all remedies
for her health to be desperate, I looked on her with contempt, and, giving
her a bill of divorcement, said to her, “He that is unjust, let him be
unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still,” giving
myself up to the peaceful and quiet study of sacred literature, that by
this I might be of use to the brethren living about me.

While I was making some advance in these studies, Satan opened his eyes
and goaded on his servant John Eccius, that notorious adversary of Christ,
by the unchecked lust for fame, to drag me unexpectedly into the arena,
trying to catch me in one little word concerning the primacy of the Church
of Rome, which had fallen from me in passing. That boastful Thraso,
foaming and gnashing his teeth, proclaimed that he would dare all things
for the glory of God and for the honour of the holy apostolic seat; and,
being puffed up respecting your power, which he was about to misuse, he
looked forward with all certainty to victory; seeking to promote, not so
much the primacy of Peter, as his own pre-eminence among the theologians
of this age; for he thought it would contribute in no slight degree to
this, if he were to lead Luther in triumph. The result having proved
unfortunate for the sophist, an incredible rage torments him; for he feels
that whatever discredit to Rome has arisen through me has been caused by
the fault of himself alone.

Suffer me, I pray you, most excellent Leo, both to plead my own cause, and
to accuse your true enemies. I believe it is known to you in what way
Cardinal Cajetan, your imprudent and unfortunate, nay unfaithful, legate,
acted towards me. When, on account of my reverence for your name, I had
placed myself and all that was mine in his hands, he did not so act as to
establish peace, which he could easily have established by one little
word, since I at that time promised to be silent and to make an end of my
case, if he would command my adversaries to do the same. But that man of
pride, not content with this agreement, began to justify my adversaries,
to give them free licence, and to order me to recant, a thing which was
certainly not in his commission. Thus indeed, when the case was in the
best position, it came through his vexatious tyranny into a much worse
one. Therefore whatever has followed upon this is the fault not of Luther,
but entirely of Cajetan, since he did not suffer me to be silent and
remain quiet, which at that time I was entreating for with all my might.
What more was it my duty to do?

Next came Charles Miltitz, also a nuncio from your Blessedness. He, though
he went up and down with much and varied exertion, and omitted nothing
which could tend to restore the position of the cause thrown into
confusion by the rashness and pride of Cajetan, had difficulty, even with
the help of that very illustrious prince the Elector Frederick, in at last
bringing about more than one familiar conference with me. In these I again
yielded to your great name, and was prepared to keep silence, and to
accept as my judge either the Archbishop of Treves, or the Bishop of
Naumburg; and thus it was done and concluded. While this was being done
with good hope of success, lo! that other and greater enemy of yours,
Eccius, rushed in with his Leipsic disputation, which he had undertaken
against Carlstadt, and, having taken up a new question concerning the
primacy of the Pope, turned his arms unexpectedly against me, and
completely overthrew the plan for peace. Meanwhile Charles Miltitz was
waiting, disputations were held, judges were being chosen, but no decision
was arrived at. And no wonder! for by the falsehoods, pretences, and arts
of Eccius the whole business was brought into such thorough disorder,
confusion, and festering soreness, that, whichever way the sentence might
lean, a greater conflagration was sure to arise; for he was seeking, not
after truth, but after his own credit. In this case too I omitted nothing
which it was right that I should do.

I confess that on this occasion no small part of the corruptions of Rome
came to light; but, if there was any offence in this, it was the fault of
Eccius, who, in taking on him a burden beyond his strength, and in
furiously aiming at credit for himself, unveiled to the whole world the
disgrace of Rome.

Here is that enemy of yours, Leo, or rather of your Court; by his example
alone we may learn that an enemy is not more baneful than a flatterer. For
what did he bring about by his flattery, except evils which no king could
have brought about? At this day the name of the Court of Rome stinks in
the nostrils of the world, the papal authority is growing weak, and its
notorious ignorance is evil spoken of. We should hear none of these
things, if Eccius had not disturbed the plans of Miltitz and myself for
peace. He feels this clearly enough himself in the indignation he shows,
too late and in vain, against the publication of my books. He ought to
have reflected on this at the time when he was all mad for renown, and was
seeking in your cause nothing but his own objects, and that with the
greatest peril to you. The foolish man hoped that, from fear of your name,
I should yield and keep silence; for I do not think he presumed on his
talents and learning. Now, when he sees that I am very confident and speak
aloud, he repents too late of his rashness, and sees—if indeed he
does see it—that there is One in heaven who resists the proud, and
humbles the presumptuous.

Since then we were bringing about by this disputation nothing but the
greater confusion of the cause of Rome, Charles Miltitz for the third time
addressed the Fathers of the Order, assembled in chapter, and sought their
advice for the settlement of the case, as being now in a most troubled and
perilous state. Since, by the favour of God, there was no hope of
proceeding against me by force, some of the more noted of their number
were sent to me, and begged me at least to show respect to your person and
to vindicate in a humble letter both your innocence and my own. They said
that the affair was not as yet in a position of extreme hopelessness, if
Leo X., in his inborn kindliness, would put his hand to it. On this I, who
have always offered and wished for peace, in order that I might devote
myself to calmer and more useful pursuits, and who for this very purpose
have acted with so much spirit and vehemence, in order to put down by the
strength and impetuosity of my words, as well as of my feelings, men whom
I saw to be very far from equal to myself—I, I say, not only gladly
yielded, but even accepted it with joy and gratitude, as the greatest
kindness and benefit, if you should think it right to satisfy my hopes.

Thus I come, most blessed Father, and in all abasement beseech you to put
to your hand, if it is possible, and impose a curb to those flatterers who
are enemies of peace, while they pretend peace. But there is no reason,
most blessed Father, why any one should assume that I am to utter a
recantation, unless he prefers to involve the case in still greater
confusion. Moreover, I cannot bear with laws for the interpretation of the
word of God, since the word of God, which teaches liberty in all other
things, ought not to be bound. Saving these two things, there is nothing
which I am not able, and most heartily willing, to do or to suffer. I hate
contention; I will challenge no one; in return I wish not to be
challenged; but, being challenged, I will not be dumb in the cause of
Christ my Master. For your Blessedness will be able by one short and easy
word to call these controversies before you and suppress them, and to
impose silence and peace on both sides—a word which I have ever
longed to hear.

Therefore, Leo, my Father, beware of listening to those sirens who make
you out to be not simply a man, but partly a god, so that you can command
and require whatever you will. It will not happen so, nor will you
prevail. You are the servant of servants, and more than any other man, in
a most pitiable and perilous position. Let not those men deceive you who
pretend that you are lord of the world; who will not allow any one to be a
Christian without your authority; who babble of your having power over
heaven, hell, and purgatory. These men are your enemies and are seeking
your soul to destroy it, as Isaiah says, “My people, they that call thee
blessed are themselves deceiving thee.” They are in error who raise you
above councils and the universal Church; they are in error who attribute
to you alone the right of interpreting Scripture. All these men are
seeking to set up their own impieties in the Church under your name, and
alas! Satan has gained much through them in the time of your predecessors.

In brief, trust not in any who exalt you, but in those who humiliate you.
For this is the judgment of God: “He hath cast down the mighty from their
seat, and hath exalted the humble.” See how unlike Christ was to His
successors, though all will have it that they are His vicars. I fear that
in truth very many of them have been in too serious a sense His vicars,
for a vicar represents a prince who is absent. Now if a pontiff rules
while Christ is absent and does not dwell in his heart, what else is he
but a vicar of Christ? And then what is that Church but a multitude
without Christ? What indeed is such a vicar but antichrist and an idol?
How much more rightly did the Apostles speak, who call themselves servants
of a present Christ, not the vicars of an absent one!

Perhaps I am shamelessly bold in seeming to teach so great a head, by whom
all men ought to be taught, and from whom, as those plagues of yours
boast, the thrones of judges receive their sentence; but I imitate St.
Bernard in his book concerning Considerations addressed to Eugenius, a
book which ought to be known by heart by every pontiff. I do this, not
from any desire to teach, but as a duty, from that simple and faithful
solicitude which teaches us to be anxious for all that is safe for our
neighbours, and does not allow considerations of worthiness or
unworthiness to be entertained, being intent only on the dangers or
advantage of others. For since I know that your Blessedness is driven and
tossed by the waves at Rome, so that the depths of the sea press on you
with infinite perils, and that you are labouring under such a condition of
misery that you need even the least help from any the least brother, I do
not seem to myself to be acting unsuitably if I forget your majesty till I
shall have fulfilled the office of charity. I will not flatter in so
serious and perilous a matter; and if in this you do not see that I am
your friend and most thoroughly your subject, there is One to see and
judge.

In fine, that I may not approach you empty-handed, blessed Father, I bring
with me this little treatise, published under your name, as a good omen of
the establishment of peace and of good hope. By this you may perceive in
what pursuits I should prefer and be able to occupy myself to more profit,
if I were allowed, or had been hitherto allowed, by your impious
flatterers. It is a small matter, if you look to its exterior, but, unless
I mistake, it is a summary of the Christian life put together in small
compass, if you apprehend its meaning. I, in my poverty, have no other
present to make you, nor do you need anything else than to be enriched by
a spiritual gift. I commend myself to your Paternity and Blessedness, whom
may the Lord Jesus preserve for ever. Amen.

Wittenberg, 6th September, 1520.

CONCERNING CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

Christian faith has appeared to many an easy thing; nay, not a few even
reckon it among the social virtues, as it were; and this they do because
they have not made proof of it experimentally, and have never tasted of
what efficacy it is. For it is not possible for any man to write well
about it, or to understand well what is rightly written, who has not at
some time tasted of its spirit, under the pressure of tribulation; while
he who has tasted of it, even to a very small extent, can never write,
speak, think, or hear about it sufficiently. For it is a living fountain,
springing up into eternal life, as Christ calls it in John iv.

Now, though I cannot boast of my abundance, and though I know how poorly I
am furnished, yet I hope that, after having been vexed by various
temptations, I have attained some little drop of faith, and that I can
speak of this matter, if not with more elegance, certainly with more
solidity, than those literal and too subtle disputants who have hitherto
discoursed upon it without understanding their own words. That I may open
then an easier way for the ignorant—for these alone I am trying to
serve—I first lay down these two propositions, concerning spiritual
liberty and servitude:—

A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a
Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every
one.

Although these statements appear contradictory, yet, when they are found
to agree together, they will make excellently for my purpose. They are
both the statements of Paul himself, who says, “Though I be free from all
men, yet have I made myself servant unto all” (1 Cor. ix. 19), and “Owe no
man anything, but to love one another” (Rom. xiii. 8). Now love is by its
own nature dutiful and obedient to the beloved object. Thus even Christ,
though Lord of all things, was yet made of a woman; made under the law; at
once free and a servant; at once in the form of God and in the form of a
servant.

Let us examine the subject on a deeper and less simple principle. Man is
composed of a twofold nature, a spiritual and a bodily. As regards the
spiritual nature, which they name the soul, he is called the spiritual,
inward, new man; as regards the bodily nature, which they name the flesh,
he is called the fleshly, outward, old man. The Apostle speaks of this:
“Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day”
(2 Cor. iv. 16). The result of this diversity is that in the Scriptures
opposing statements are made concerning the same man, the fact being that
in the same man these two men are opposed to one another; the flesh
lusting against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh (Gal. v. 17).

We first approach the subject of the inward man, that we may see by what
means a man becomes justified, free, and a true Christian; that is, a
spiritual, new, and inward man. It is certain that absolutely none among
outward things, under whatever name they may be reckoned, has any
influence in producing Christian righteousness or liberty, nor, on the
other hand, unrighteousness or slavery. This can be shown by an easy
argument.

What can it profit the soul that the body should be in good condition,
free, and full of life; that it should eat, drink, and act according to
its pleasure; when even the most impious slaves of every kind of vice are
prosperous in these matters? Again, what harm can ill-health, bondage,
hunger, thirst, or any other outward evil, do to the soul, when even the
most pious of men and the freest in the purity of their conscience, are
harassed by these things? Neither of these states of things has to do with
the liberty or the slavery of the soul.

And so it will profit nothing that the body should be adorned with sacred
vestments, or dwell in holy places, or be occupied in sacred offices, or
pray, fast, and abstain from certain meats, or do whatever works can be
done through the body and in the body. Something widely different will be
necessary for the justification and liberty of the soul, since the things
I have spoken of can be done by any impious person, and only hypocrites
are produced by devotion to these things. On the other hand, it will not
at all injure the soul that the body should be clothed in profane raiment,
should dwell in profane places, should eat and drink in the ordinary
fashion, should not pray aloud, and should leave undone all the things
above mentioned, which may be done by hypocrites.

And, to cast everything aside, even speculation, meditations, and whatever
things can be performed by the exertions of the soul itself, are of no
profit. One thing, and one alone, is necessary for life, justification,
and Christian liberty; and that is the most holy word of God, the Gospel
of Christ, as He says, “I am the resurrection and the life; he that
believeth in Me shall not die eternally” (John xi. 25), and also, “If the
Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John viii. 36), and,
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out
of the mouth of God” (Matt. iv. 4).

Let us therefore hold it for certain and firmly established that the soul
can do without everything except the word of God, without which none at
all of its wants are provided for. But, having the word, it is rich and
wants for nothing, since that is the word of life, of truth, of light, of
peace, of justification, of salvation, of joy, of liberty, of wisdom, of
virtue, of grace, of glory, and of every good thing. It is on this account
that the prophet in a whole Psalm (Psalm cxix.), and in many other places,
sighs for and calls upon the word of God with so many groanings and words.

Again, there is no more cruel stroke of the wrath of God than when He
sends a famine of hearing His words (Amos viii. 11), just as there is no
greater favour from Him than the sending forth of His word, as it is said,
“He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their
destructions” (Psalm cvii. 20). Christ was sent for no other office than
that of the word; and the order of Apostles, that of bishops, and that of
the whole body of the clergy, have been called and instituted for no
object but the ministry of the word.

But you will ask, What is this word, and by what means is it to be used,
since there are so many words of God? I answer, The Apostle Paul (Rom. i.)
explains what it is, namely the Gospel of God, concerning His Son,
incarnate, suffering, risen, and glorified, through the Spirit, the
Sanctifier. To preach Christ is to feed the soul, to justify it, to set it
free, and to save it, if it believes the preaching. For faith alone and
the efficacious use of the word of God, bring salvation. “If thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom. x. 9);
and again, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one
that believeth” (Rom. x. 4), and “The just shall live by faith” (Rom. i.
17). For the word of God cannot be received and honoured by any works, but
by faith alone. Hence it is clear that as the soul needs the word alone
for life and justification, so it is justified by faith alone, and not by
any works. For if it could be justified by any other means, it would have
no need of the word, nor consequently of faith.

But this faith cannot consist at all with works; that is, if you imagine
that you can be justified by those works, whatever they are, along with
it. For this would be to halt between two opinions, to worship Baal, and
to kiss the hand to him, which is a very great iniquity, as Job says.
Therefore, when you begin to believe, you learn at the same time that all
that is in you is utterly guilty, sinful, and damnable, according to that
saying, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. iii.
23), and also: “There is none righteous, no, not one; they are all gone
out of the way; they are together become unprofitable: there is none that
doeth good, no, not one” (Rom. iii. 10-12). When you have learnt this, you
will know that Christ is necessary for you, since He has suffered and
risen again for you, that, believing on Him, you might by this faith
become another man, all your sins being remitted, and you being justified
by the merits of another, namely of Christ alone.

Since then this faith can reign only in the inward man, as it is said,
“With the heart man believeth unto righteousness” (Rom. x. 10); and since
it alone justifies, it is evident that by no outward work or labour can
the inward man be at all justified, made free, and saved; and that no
works whatever have any relation to him. And so, on the other hand, it is
solely by impiety and incredulity of heart that he becomes guilty and a
slave of sin, deserving condemnation, not by any outward sin or work.
Therefore the first care of every Christian ought to be to lay aside all
reliance on works, and strengthen his faith alone more and more, and by it
grow in the knowledge, not of works, but of Christ Jesus, who has suffered
and risen again for him, as Peter teaches (1 Peter v.) when he makes no
other work to be a Christian one. Thus Christ, when the Jews asked Him
what they should do that they might work the works of God, rejected the
multitude of works, with which He saw that they were puffed up, and
commanded them one thing only, saying, “This is the work of God: that ye
believe on Him whom He hath sent, for Him hath God the Father sealed”
(John vi. 27, 29).

Hence a right faith in Christ is an incomparable treasure, carrying with
it universal salvation and preserving from all evil, as it is said, “He
that believeth and is baptised shall be saved; but he that believeth not
shall be damned” (Mark xvi. 16). Isaiah, looking to this treasure,
predicted, “The consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness. For
the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined (verbum
abbreviatum et consummans), in the midst of the land” (Isa. x. 22, 23). As
if he said, “Faith, which is the brief and complete fulfilling of the law,
will fill those who believe with such righteousness that they will need
nothing else for justification.” Thus, too, Paul says, “For with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness” (Rom. x. 10).

But you ask how it can be the fact that faith alone justifies, and affords
without works so great a treasure of good things, when so many works,
ceremonies, and laws are prescribed to us in the Scriptures? I answer,
Before all things bear in mind what I have said: that faith alone without
works justifies, sets free, and saves, as I shall show more clearly below.

Meanwhile it is to be noted that the whole Scripture of God is divided
into two parts: precepts and promises. The precepts certainly teach us
what is good, but what they teach is not forthwith done. For they show us
what we ought to do, but do not give us the power to do it. They were
ordained, however, for the purpose of showing man to himself, that through
them he may learn his own impotence for good and may despair of his own
strength. For this reason they are called the Old Testament, and are so.

For example, “Thou shalt not covet,” is a precept by which we are all
convicted of sin, since no man can help coveting, whatever efforts to the
contrary he may make. In order therefore that he may fulfil the precept,
and not covet, he is constrained to despair of himself and to seek
elsewhere and through another the help which he cannot find in himself; as
it is said, “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is thine
help” (Hosea xiii. 9). Now what is done by this one precept is done by
all; for all are equally impossible of fulfilment by us.

Now when a man has through the precepts been taught his own impotence, and
become anxious by what means he may satisfy the law—for the law must
be satisfied, so that no jot or tittle of it may pass away, otherwise he
must be hopelessly condemned—then, being truly humbled and brought
to nothing in his own eyes, he finds in himself no resource for
justification and salvation.

Then comes in that other part of Scripture, the promises of God, which
declare the glory of God, and say, “If you wish to fulfil the law, and, as
the law requires, not to covet, lo! believe in Christ, in whom are
promised to you grace, justification, peace, and liberty.” All these
things you shall have, if you believe, and shall be without them if you do
not believe. For what is impossible for you by all the works of the law,
which are many and yet useless, you shall fulfil in an easy and summary
way through faith, because God the Father has made everything to depend on
faith, so that whosoever has it has all things, and he who has it not has
nothing. “For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have
mercy upon all” (Rom. xi. 32). Thus the promises of God give that which
the precepts exact, and fulfil what the law commands; so that all is of
God alone, both the precepts and their fulfilment. He alone commands; He
alone also fulfils. Hence the promises of God belong to the New Testament;
nay, are the New Testament.

Now, since these promises of God are words of holiness, truth,
righteousness, liberty, and peace, and are full of universal goodness, the
soul, which cleaves to them with a firm faith, is so united to them, nay,
thoroughly absorbed by them, that it not only partakes in, but is
penetrated and saturated by, all their virtues. For if the touch of Christ
was healing, how much more does that most tender spiritual touch, nay,
absorption of the word, communicate to the soul all that belongs to the
word! In this way therefore the soul, through faith alone, without works,
is from the word of God justified, sanctified, endued with truth, peace,
and liberty, and filled full with every good thing, and is truly made the
child of God, as it is said, “To them gave He power to become the sons of
God, even to them that believe on His name” (John i. 12).

From all this it is easy to understand why faith has such great power, and
why no good works, nor even all good works put together, can compare with
it, since no work can cleave to the word of God or be in the soul. Faith
alone and the word reign in it; and such as is the word, such is the soul
made by it, just as iron exposed to fire glows like fire, on account of
its union with the fire. It is clear then that to a Christian man his
faith suffices for everything, and that he has no need of works for
justification. But if he has no need of works, neither has he need of the
law; and if he has no need of the law, he is certainly free from the law,
and the saying is true, “The law is not made for a righteous man” (1 Tim.
i. 9). This is that Christian liberty, our faith, the effect of which is,
not that we should be careless or lead a bad life, but that no one should
need the law or works for justification and salvation.

Let us consider this as the first virtue of faith; and let us look also to
the second. This also is an office of faith: that it honours with the
utmost veneration and the highest reputation Him in whom it believes,
inasmuch as it holds Him to be truthful and worthy of belief. For there is
no honour like that reputation of truth and righteousness with which we
honour Him in whom we believe. What higher credit can we attribute to any
one than truth and righteousness, and absolute goodness? On the other
hand, it is the greatest insult to brand any one with the reputation of
falsehood and unrighteousness, or to suspect him of these, as we do when
we disbelieve him.

Thus the soul, in firmly believing the promises of God, holds Him to be
true and righteous; and it can attribute to God no higher glory than the
credit of being so. The highest worship of God is to ascribe to Him truth,
righteousness, and whatever qualities we must ascribe to one in whom we
believe. In doing this the soul shows itself prepared to do His whole
will; in doing this it hallows His name, and gives itself up to be dealt
with as it may please God. For it cleaves to His promises, and never
doubts that He is true, just, and wise, and will do, dispose, and provide
for all things in the best way. Is not such a soul, in this its faith,
most obedient to God in all things? What commandment does there remain
which has not been amply fulfilled by such an obedience? What fulfilment
can be more full than universal obedience? Now this is not accomplished by
works, but by faith alone.

On the other hand, what greater rebellion, impiety, or insult to God can
there be, than not to believe His promises? What else is this, than either
to make God a liar, or to doubt His truth—that is, to attribute
truth to ourselves, but to God falsehood and levity? In doing this, is not
a man denying God and setting himself up as an idol in his own heart? What
then can works, done in such a state of impiety, profit us, were they even
angelic or apostolic works? Rightly hath God shut up all, not in wrath nor
in lust, but in unbelief, in order that those who pretend that they are
fulfilling the law by works of purity and benevolence (which are social
and human virtues) may not presume that they will therefore be saved, but,
being included in the sin of unbelief, may either seek mercy, or be justly
condemned.

But when God sees that truth is ascribed to Him, and that in the faith of
our hearts He is honoured with all the honour of which He is worthy, then
in return He honours us on account of that faith, attributing to us truth
and righteousness. For faith does truth and righteousness in rendering to
God what is His; and therefore in return God gives glory to our
righteousness. It is true and righteous that God is true and righteous;
and to confess this and ascribe these attributes to Him, this it is to be
true and righteous. Thus He says, “Them that honour Me I will honour, and
they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed” (1 Sam. ii. 30). And so
Paul says that Abraham’s faith was imputed to him for righteousness,
because by it he gave glory to God; and that to us also, for the same
reason, it shall be imputed for righteousness, if we believe (Rom. iv.).

The third incomparable grace of faith is this: that it unites the soul to
Christ, as the wife to the husband, by which mystery, as the Apostle
teaches, Christ and the soul are made one flesh. Now if they are one
flesh, and if a true marriage—nay, by far the most perfect of all
marriages—is accomplished between them (for human marriages are but
feeble types of this one great marriage), then it follows that all they
have becomes theirs in common, as well good things as evil things; so that
whatsoever Christ possesses, that the believing soul may take to itself
and boast of as its own, and whatever belongs to the soul, that Christ
claims as His.

If we compare these possessions, we shall see how inestimable is the gain.
Christ is full of grace, life, and salvation; the soul is full of sin,
death, and condemnation. Let faith step in, and then sin, death, and hell
will belong to Christ, and grace, life, and salvation to the soul. For, if
He is a Husband, He must needs take to Himself that which is His wife’s,
and at the same time, impart to His wife that which is His. For, in giving
her His own body and Himself, how can He but give her all that is His?
And, in taking to Himself the body of His wife, how can He but take to
Himself all that is hers?

In this is displayed the delightful sight, not only of communion, but of a
prosperous warfare, of victory, salvation, and redemption. For, since
Christ is God and man, and is such a Person as neither has sinned, nor
dies, nor is condemned, nay, cannot sin, die, or be condemned, and since
His righteousness, life, and salvation are invincible, eternal, and
almighty,—when I say, such a Person, by the wedding-ring of faith,
takes a share in the sins, death, and hell of His wife, nay, makes them
His own, and deals with them no otherwise than as if they were His, and as
if He Himself had sinned; and when He suffers, dies, and descends to hell,
that He may overcome all things, and since sin, death, and hell cannot
swallow Him up, they must needs be swallowed up by Him in stupendous
conflict. For His righteousness rises above the sins of all men; His life
is more powerful than all death; His salvation is more unconquerable than
all hell.

Thus the believing soul, by the pledge of its faith in Christ, becomes
free from all sin, fearless of death, safe from hell, and endowed with the
eternal righteousness, life, and salvation of its Husband Christ. Thus He
presents to Himself a glorious bride, without spot or wrinkle, cleansing
her with the washing of water by the word; that is, by faith in the word
of life, righteousness, and salvation. Thus He betrothes her unto Himself
“in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in judgment, and in
loving-kindness, and in mercies” (Hosea ii. 19, 20).

Who then can value highly enough these royal nuptials? Who can comprehend
the riches of the glory of this grace? Christ, that rich and pious
Husband, takes as a wife a needy and impious harlot, redeeming her from
all her evils and supplying her with all His good things. It is impossible
now that her sins should destroy her, since they have been laid upon
Christ and swallowed up in Him, and since she has in her Husband Christ a
righteousness which she may claim as her own, and which she can set up
with confidence against all her sins, against death and hell, saying, “If
I have sinned, my Christ, in whom I believe, has not sinned; all mine is
His, and all His is mine,” as it is written, “My beloved is mine, and I am
His” (Cant. ii. 16). This is what Paul says: “Thanks be to God, which
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ,” victory over sin and
death, as he says, “The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is
the law” (1 Cor. xv. 56, 57).

From all this you will again understand why so much importance is
attributed to faith, so that it alone can fulfil the law and justify
without any works. For you see that the First Commandment, which says,
“Thou shalt worship one God only,” is fulfilled by faith alone. If you
were nothing but good works from the soles of your feet to the crown of
your head, you would not be worshipping God, nor fulfilling the First
Commandment, since it is impossible to worship God without ascribing to
Him the glory of truth and of universal goodness, as it ought in truth to
be ascribed. Now this is not done by works, but only by faith of heart. It
is not by working, but by believing, that we glorify God, and confess Him
to be true. On this ground faith alone is the righteousness of a Christian
man, and the fulfilling of all the commandments. For to him who fulfils
the first the task of fulfilling all the rest is easy.

Works, since they are irrational things, cannot glorify God, although they
may be done to the glory of God, if faith be present. But at present we
are inquiring, not into the quality of the works done, but into him who
does them, who glorifies God, and brings forth good works. This is faith
of heart, the head and the substance of all our righteousness. Hence that
is a blind and perilous doctrine which teaches that the commandments are
fulfilled by works. The commandments must have been fulfilled previous to
any good works, and good works follow their fulfillment, as we shall see.

But, that we may have a wider view of that grace which our inner man has
in Christ, we must know that in the Old Testament God sanctified to
Himself every first-born male. The birthright was of great value, giving a
superiority over the rest by the double honour of priesthood and kingship.
For the first-born brother was priest and lord of all the rest.

Under this figure was foreshown Christ, the true and only First-born of
God the Father and of the Virgin Mary, and a true King and Priest, not in
a fleshly and earthly sense. For His kingdom is not of this world; it is
in heavenly and spiritual things that He reigns and acts as Priest; and
these are righteousness, truth, wisdom, peace, salvation, etc. Not but
that all things, even those of earth and hell, are subject to Him—for
otherwise how could He defend and save us from them?—but it is not
in these, nor by these, that His kingdom stands.

So, too, His priesthood does not consist in the outward display of
vestments and gestures, as did the human priesthood of Aaron and our
ecclesiastical priesthood at this day, but in spiritual things, wherein,
in His invisible office, He intercedes for us with God in heaven, and
there offers Himself, and performs all the duties of a priest, as Paul
describes Him to the Hebrews under the figure of Melchizedek. Nor does He
only pray and intercede for us; He also teaches us inwardly in the spirit
with the living teachings of His Spirit. Now these are the two special
offices of a priest, as is figured to us in the case of fleshly priests by
visible prayers and sermons.

As Christ by His birthright has obtained these two dignities, so He
imparts and communicates them to every believer in Him, under that law of
matrimony of which we have spoken above, by which all that is the
husband’s is also the wife’s. Hence all we who believe on Christ are kings
and priests in Christ, as it is said, “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth
the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous
light” (1 Peter ii. 9).

These two things stand thus. First, as regards kingship, every Christian
is by faith so exalted above all things that, in spiritual power, he is
completely lord of all things, so that nothing whatever can do him any
hurt; yea, all things are subject to him, and are compelled to be
subservient to his salvation. Thus Paul says, “All things work together
for good to them who are the called” (Rom. viii. 28), and also, “Whether
life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours; and
ye are Christ’s” (1 Cor. iii. 22, 23).

Not that in the sense of corporeal power any one among Christians has been
appointed to possess and rule all things, according to the mad and
senseless idea of certain ecclesiastics. That is the office of kings,
princes, and men upon earth. In the experience of life we see that we are
subjected to all things, and suffer many things, even death. Yea, the more
of a Christian any man is, to so many the more evils, sufferings, and
deaths is he subject, as we see in the first place in Christ the
First-born, and in all His holy brethren.

This is a spiritual power, which rules in the midst of enemies, and is
powerful in the midst of distresses. And this is nothing else than that
strength is made perfect in my weakness, and that I can turn all things to
the profit of my salvation; so that even the cross and death are compelled
to serve me and to work together for my salvation. This is a lofty and
eminent dignity, a true and almighty dominion, a spiritual empire, in
which there is nothing so good, nothing so bad, as not to work together
for my good, if only I believe. And yet there is nothing of which I have
need—for faith alone suffices for my salvation—unless that in
it faith may exercise the power and empire of its liberty. This is the
inestimable power and liberty of Christians.

Nor are we only kings and the freest of all men, but also priests for
ever, a dignity far higher than kingship, because by that priesthood we
are worthy to appear before God, to pray for others, and to teach one
another mutually the things which are of God. For these are the duties of
priests, and they cannot possibly be permitted to any unbeliever. Christ
has obtained for us this favour, if we believe in Him: that just as we are
His brethren and co-heirs and fellow-kings with Him, so we should be also
fellow-priests with Him, and venture with confidence, through the spirit
of faith, to come into the presence of God, and cry, “Abba, Father!” and
to pray for one another, and to do all things which we see done and
figured in the visible and corporeal office of priesthood. But to an
unbelieving person nothing renders service or work for good. He himself is
in servitude to all things, and all things turn out for evil to him,
because he uses all things in an impious way for his own advantage, and
not for the glory of God. And thus he is not a priest, but a profane
person, whose prayers are turned into sin, nor does he ever appear in the
presence of God, because God does not hear sinners.

Who then can comprehend the loftiness of that Christian dignity which, by
its royal power, rules over all things, even over death, life, and sin,
and, by its priestly glory, is all-powerful with God, since God does what
He Himself seeks and wishes, as it is written, “He will fulfil the desire
of them that fear Him; He also will hear their cry, and will save them”?
(Psalm cxlv. 19). This glory certainly cannot be attained by any works,
but by faith only.

From these considerations any one may clearly see how a Christian man is
free from all things; so that he needs no works in order to be justified
and saved, but receives these gifts in abundance from faith alone. Nay,
were he so foolish as to pretend to be justified, set free, saved, and
made a Christian, by means of any good work, he would immediately lose
faith, with all its benefits. Such folly is prettily represented in the
fable where a dog, running along in the water and carrying in his mouth a
real piece of meat, is deceived by the reflection of the meat in the
water, and, in trying with open mouth to seize it, loses the meat and its
image at the same time.

Here you will ask, “If all who are in the Church are priests, by what
character are those whom we now call priests to be distinguished from the
laity?” I reply, By the use of these words, “priest,” “clergy,” “spiritual
person,” “ecclesiastic,” an injustice has been done, since they have been
transferred from the remaining body of Christians to those few who are
now, by hurtful custom, called ecclesiastics. For Holy Scripture makes no
distinction between them, except that those who are now boastfully called
popes, bishops, and lords, it calls ministers, servants, and stewards, who
are to serve the rest in the ministry of the word, for teaching the faith
of Christ and the liberty of believers. For though it is true that we are
all equally priests, yet we cannot, nor, if we could, ought we all to,
minister and teach publicly. Thus Paul says, “Let a man so account of us
as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God” (1
Cor. iv. 1).

This bad system has now issued in such a pompous display of power and such
a terrible tyranny that no earthly government can be compared to it, as if
the laity were something else than Christians. Through this perversion of
things it has happened that the knowledge of Christian grace, of faith, of
liberty, and altogether of Christ, has utterly perished, and has been
succeeded by an intolerable bondage to human works and laws; and,
according to the Lamentations of Jeremiah, we have become the slaves of
the vilest men on earth, who abuse our misery to all the disgraceful and
ignominious purposes of their own will.

Returning to the subject which we had begun, I think it is made clear by
these considerations that it is not sufficient, nor a Christian course, to
preach the works, life, and words of Christ in a historic manner, as facts
which it suffices to know as an example how to frame our life, as do those
who are now held the best preachers, and much less so to keep silence
altogether on these things and to teach in their stead the laws of men and
the decrees of the Fathers. There are now not a few persons who preach and
read about Christ with the object of moving the human affections to
sympathise with Christ, to indignation against the Jews, and other
childish and womanish absurdities of that kind.

Now preaching ought to have the object of promoting faith in Him, so that
He may not only be Christ, but a Christ for you and for me, and that what
is said of Him, and what He is called, may work in us. And this faith is
produced and is maintained by preaching why Christ came, what He has
brought us and given to us, and to what profit and advantage He is to be
received. This is done when the Christian liberty which we have from
Christ Himself is rightly taught, and we are shown in what manner all we
Christians are kings and priests, and how we are lords of all things, and
may be confident that whatever we do in the presence of God is pleasing
and acceptable to Him.

Whose heart would not rejoice in its inmost core at hearing these things?
Whose heart, on receiving so great a consolation, would not become sweet
with the love of Christ, a love to which it can never attain by any laws
or works? Who can injure such a heart, or make it afraid? If the
consciousness of sin or the horror of death rush in upon it, it is
prepared to hope in the Lord, and is fearless of such evils, and
undisturbed, until it shall look down upon its enemies. For it believes
that the righteousness of Christ is its own, and that its sin is no longer
its own, but that of Christ; but, on account of its faith in Christ, all
its sin must needs be swallowed up from before the face of the
righteousness of Christ, as I have said above. It learns, too, with the
Apostle, to scoff at death and sin, and to say, “O death, where is thy
sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the
strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. xv. 55-57). For death is
swallowed up in victory, not only the victory of Christ, but ours also,
since by faith it becomes ours, and in it we too conquer.

Let it suffice to say this concerning the inner man and its liberty, and
concerning that righteousness of faith which needs neither laws nor good
works; nay, they are even hurtful to it, if any one pretends to be
justified by them.

And now let us turn to the other part: to the outward man. Here we shall
give an answer to all those who, taking offence at the word of faith and
at what I have asserted, say, “If faith does everything, and by itself
suffices for justification, why then are good works commanded? Are we then
to take our ease and do no works, content with faith?” Not so, impious
men, I reply; not so. That would indeed really be the case, if we were
thoroughly and completely inner and spiritual persons; but that will not
happen until the last day, when the dead shall be raised. As long as we
live in the flesh, we are but beginning and making advances in that which
shall be completed in a future life. On this account the Apostle calls
that which we have in this life the firstfruits of the Spirit (Rom. viii.
23). In future we shall have the tenths, and the fullness of the Spirit.
To this part belongs the fact I have stated before: that the Christian is
the servant of all and subject to all. For in that part in which he is
free he does no works, but in that in which he is a servant he does all
works. Let us see on what principle this is so.

Although, as I have said, inwardly, and according to the spirit, a man is
amply enough justified by faith, having all that he requires to have,
except that this very faith and abundance ought to increase from day to
day, even till the future life, still he remains in this mortal life upon
earth, in which it is necessary that he should rule his own body and have
intercourse with men. Here then works begin; here he must not take his
ease; here he must give heed to exercise his body by fastings, watchings,
labour, and other regular discipline, so that it may be subdued to the
spirit, and obey and conform itself to the inner man and faith, and not
rebel against them nor hinder them, as is its nature to do if it is not
kept under. For the inner man, being conformed to God and created after
the image of God through faith, rejoices and delights itself in Christ, in
whom such blessings have been conferred on it, and hence has only this
task before it: to serve God with joy and for nought in free love.

But in doing this he comes into collision with that contrary will in his
own flesh, which is striving to serve the world and to seek its own
gratification. This the spirit of faith cannot and will not bear, but
applies itself with cheerfulness and zeal to keep it down and restrain it,
as Paul says, “I delight in the law of God after the inward man; but I see
another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing
me into captivity to the law of sin” (Rom. vii. 22, 23), and again, “I
keep under my body, and bring it unto subjection, lest that by any means,
when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (1 Cor. ix.
27), and “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh, with the
affections and lusts” (Gal. v. 24).

These works, however, must not be done with any notion that by them a man
can be justified before God—for faith, which alone is righteousness
before God, will not bear with this false notion—but solely with
this purpose: that the body may be brought into subjection, and be
purified from its evil lusts, so that our eyes may be turned only to
purging away those lusts. For when the soul has been cleansed by faith and
made to love God, it would have all things to be cleansed in like manner,
and especially its own body, so that all things might unite with it in the
love and praise of God. Thus it comes that, from the requirements of his
own body, a man cannot take his ease, but is compelled on its account to
do many good works, that he may bring it into subjection. Yet these works
are not the means of his justification before God; he does them out of
disinterested love to the service of God; looking to no other end than to
do what is well-pleasing to Him whom he desires to obey most dutifully in
all things.

On this principle every man may easily instruct himself in what measure,
and with what distinctions, he ought to chasten his own body. He will
fast, watch, and labour, just as much as he sees to suffice for keeping
down the wantonness and concupiscence of the body. But those who pretend
to be justified by works are looking, not to the mortification of their
lusts, but only to the works themselves; thinking that, if they can
accomplish as many works and as great ones as possible, all is well with
them, and they are justified. Sometimes they even injure their brain, and
extinguish nature, or at least make it useless. This is enormous folly,
and ignorance of Christian life and faith, when a man seeks, without
faith, to be justified and saved by works.

To make what we have said more easily understood, let us set it forth
under a figure. The works of a Christian man, who is justified and saved
by his faith out of the pure and unbought mercy of God, ought to be
regarded in the same light as would have been those of Adam and Eve in
paradise and of all their posterity if they had not sinned. Of them it is
said, “The Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to
dress it and to keep it” (Gen. ii. 15). Now Adam had been created by God
just and righteous, so that he could not have needed to be justified and
made righteous by keeping the garden and working in it; but, that he might
not be unemployed, God gave him the business of keeping and cultivating
paradise. These would have indeed been works of perfect freedom, being
done for no object but that of pleasing God, and not in order to obtain
justification, which he already had to the full, and which would have been
innate in us all.

So it is with the works of a believer. Being by his faith replaced afresh
in paradise and created anew, he does not need works for his
justification, but that he may not be idle, but may exercise his own body
and preserve it. His works are to be done freely, with the sole object of
pleasing God. Only we are not yet fully created anew in perfect faith and
love; these require to be increased, not, however, through works, but
through themselves.

A bishop, when he consecrates a church, confirms children, or performs any
other duty of his office, is not consecrated as bishop by these works;
nay, unless he had been previously consecrated as bishop, not one of those
works would have any validity; they would be foolish, childish, and
ridiculous. Thus a Christian, being consecrated by his faith, does good
works; but he is not by these works made a more sacred person, or more a
Christian. That is the effect of faith alone; nay, unless he were
previously a believer and a Christian, none of his works would have any
value at all; they would really be impious and damnable sins.

True, then, are these two sayings: “Good works do not make a good man, but
a good man does good works”; “Bad works do not make a bad man, but a bad
man does bad works.” Thus it is always necessary that the substance or
person should be good before any good works can be done, and that good
works should follow and proceed from a good person. As Christ says, “A
good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring
forth good fruit” (Matt. vii. 18). Now it is clear that the fruit does not
bear the tree, nor does the tree grow on the fruit; but, on the contrary,
the trees bear the fruit, and the fruit grows on the trees.

As then trees must exist before their fruit, and as the fruit does not
make the tree either good or bad, but on the contrary, a tree of either
kind produces fruit of the same kind, so must first the person of the man
be good or bad before he can do either a good or a bad work; and his works
do not make him bad or good, but he himself makes his works either bad or
good.

We may see the same thing in all handicrafts. A bad or good house does not
make a bad or good builder, but a good or bad builder makes a good or bad
house. And in general no work makes the workman such as it is itself; but
the workman makes the work such as he is himself. Such is the case, too,
with the works of men. Such as the man himself is, whether in faith or in
unbelief, such is his work: good if it be done in faith; bad if in
unbelief. But the converse is not true that, such as the work is, such the
man becomes in faith or in unbelief. For as works do not make a believing
man, so neither do they make a justified man; but faith, as it makes a man
a believer and justified, so also it makes his works good.

Since then works justify no man, but a man must be justified before he can
do any good work, it is most evident that it is faith alone which, by the
mere mercy of God through Christ, and by means of His word, can worthily
and sufficiently justify and save the person; and that a Christian man
needs no work, no law, for his salvation; for by faith he is free from all
law, and in perfect freedom does gratuitously all that he does, seeking
nothing either of profit or of salvation—since by the grace of God
he is already saved and rich in all things through his faith—but
solely that which is well-pleasing to God.

So, too, no good work can profit an unbeliever to justification and
salvation; and, on the other hand, no evil work makes him an evil and
condemned person, but that unbelief, which makes the person and the tree
bad, makes his works evil and condemned. Wherefore, when any man is made
good or bad, this does not arise from his works, but from his faith or
unbelief, as the wise man says, “The beginning of sin is to fall away from
God”; that is, not to believe. Paul says, “He that cometh to God must
believe” (Heb. xi. 6); and Christ says the same thing: “Either make the
tree good and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit
corrupt” (Matt. xii. 33),—as much as to say, He who wishes to have
good fruit will begin with the tree, and plant a good one; even so he who
wishes to do good works must begin, not by working, but by believing,
since it is this which makes the person good. For nothing makes the person
good but faith, nor bad but unbelief.

It is certainly true that, in the sight of men, a man becomes good or evil
by his works; but here “becoming” means that it is thus shown and
recognised who is good or evil, as Christ says, “By their fruits ye shall
know them” (Matt. vii. 20). But all this stops at appearances and
externals; and in this matter very many deceive themselves, when they
presume to write and teach that we are to be justified by good works, and
meanwhile make no mention even of faith, walking in their own ways, ever
deceived and deceiving, going from bad to worse, blind leaders of the
blind, wearying themselves with many works, and yet never attaining to
true righteousness, of whom Paul says, “Having a form of godliness, but
denying the power thereof, ever learning and never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. iii. 5, 7).

He then who does not wish to go astray, with these blind ones, must look
further than to the works of the law or the doctrine of works; nay, must
turn away his sight from works, and look to the person, and to the manner
in which it may be justified. Now it is justified and saved, not by works
or laws, but by the word of God—that is, by the promise of His grace—so
that the glory may be to the Divine majesty, which has saved us who
believe, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to His mercy, by the word of His grace.

From all this it is easy to perceive on what principle good works are to
be cast aside or embraced, and by what rule all teachings put forth
concerning works are to be understood. For if works are brought forward as
grounds of justification, and are done under the false persuasion that we
can pretend to be justified by them, they lay on us the yoke of necessity,
and extinguish liberty along with faith, and by this very addition to
their use they become no longer good, but really worthy of condemnation.
For such works are not free, but blaspheme the grace of God, to which
alone it belongs to justify and save through faith. Works cannot
accomplish this, and yet, with impious presumption, through our folly,
they take it on themselves to do so; and thus break in with violence upon
the office and glory of grace.

We do not then reject good works; nay, we embrace them and teach them in
the highest degree. It is not on their own account that we condemn them,
but on account of this impious addition to them and the perverse notion of
seeking justification by them. These things cause them to be only good in
outward show, but in reality not good, since by them men are deceived and
deceive others, like ravening wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Now this leviathan, this perverted notion about works, is invincible when
sincere faith is wanting. For those sanctified doers of works cannot but
hold it till faith, which destroys it, comes and reigns in the heart.
Nature cannot expel it by her own power; nay, cannot even see it for what
it is, but considers it as a most holy will. And when custom steps in
besides, and strengthens this pravity of nature, as has happened by means
of impious teachers, then the evil is incurable, and leads astray
multitudes to irreparable ruin. Therefore, though it is good to preach and
write about penitence, confession, and satisfaction, yet if we stop there,
and do not go on to teach faith, such teaching is without doubt deceitful
and devilish. For Christ, speaking by His servant John, not only said,
“Repent ye,” but added, “for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. iii.
2).

For not one word of God only, but both, should be preached; new and old
things should be brought out of the treasury, as well the voice of the law
as the word of grace. The voice of the law should be brought forward, that
men may be terrified and brought to a knowledge of their sins, and thence
be converted to penitence and to a better manner of life. But we must not
stop here; that would be to wound only and not to bind up, to strike and
not to heal, to kill and not to make alive, to bring down to hell and not
to bring back, to humble and not to exalt. Therefore the word of grace and
of the promised remission of sin must also be preached, in order to teach
and set up faith, since without that word contrition, penitence, and all
other duties, are performed and taught in vain.

There still remain, it is true, preachers of repentance and grace, but
they do not explain the law and the promises of God to such an end, and in
such a spirit, that men may learn whence repentance and grace are to come.
For repentance comes from the law of God, but faith or grace from the
promises of God, as it is said, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by
the word of God” (Rom. x. 17), whence it comes that a man, when humbled
and brought to the knowledge of himself by the threatenings and terrors of
the law, is consoled and raised up by faith in the Divine promise. Thus
“weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Psalm
xxx. 5). Thus much we say concerning works in general, and also concerning
those which the Christian practises with regard to his own body.

Lastly, we will speak also of those works which he performs towards his
neighbour. For man does not live for himself alone in this mortal body, in
order to work on its account, but also for all men on earth; nay, he lives
only for others, and not for himself. For it is to this end that he brings
his own body into subjection, that he may be able to serve others more
sincerely and more freely, as Paul says, “None of us liveth to himself,
and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord;
and whether we die, we die unto the Lord” (Rom. xiv. 7, 8). Thus it is
impossible that he should take his ease in this life, and not work for the
good of his neighbours, since he must needs speak, act, and converse among
men, just as Christ was made in the likeness of men and found in fashion
as a man, and had His conversation among men.

Yet a Christian has need of none of these things for justification and
salvation, but in all his works he ought to entertain this view and look
only to this object—that he may serve and be useful to others in all
that he does; having nothing before his eyes but the necessities and the
advantage of his neighbour. Thus the Apostle commands us to work with our
own hands, that we may have to give to those that need. He might have
said, that we may support ourselves; but he tells us to give to those that
need. It is the part of a Christian to take care of his own body for the
very purpose that, by its soundness and well-being, he may be enabled to
labour, and to acquire and preserve property, for the aid of those who are
in want, that thus the stronger member may serve the weaker member, and we
may be children of God, thoughtful and busy one for another, bearing one
another’s burdens, and so fulfilling the law of Christ.

Here is the truly Christian life, here is faith really working by love,
when a man applies himself with joy and love to the works of that freest
servitude in which he serves others voluntarily and for nought, himself
abundantly satisfied in the fulness and riches of his own faith.

Thus, when Paul had taught the Philippians how they had been made rich by
that faith in Christ in which they had obtained all things, he teaches
them further in these words: “If there be therefore any consolation in
Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any
bowels and mercies, fulfil ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the
same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through
strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better
than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also
on the things of others” (Phil. ii. 1-4).

In this we see clearly that the Apostle lays down this rule for a
Christian life: that all our works should be directed to the advantage of
others, since every Christian has such abundance through his faith that
all his other works and his whole life remain over and above wherewith to
serve and benefit his neighbour of spontaneous goodwill.

To this end he brings forward Christ as an example, saying, “Let this mind
be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no
reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself,
and became obedient unto death” (Phil. ii. 5-8). This most wholesome
saying of the Apostle has been darkened to us by men who, totally
misunderstanding the expressions “form of God,” “form of a servant,”
“fashion,” “likeness of men,” have transferred them to the natures of
Godhead and manhood. Paul’s meaning is this: Christ, when He was full of
the form of God and abounded in all good things, so that He had no need of
works or sufferings to be just and saved—for all these things He had
from the very beginning—yet was not puffed up with these things, and
did not raise Himself above us and arrogate to Himself power over us,
though He might lawfully have done so, but, on the contrary, so acted in
labouring, working, suffering, and dying, as to be like the rest of men,
and no otherwise than a man in fashion and in conduct, as if He were in
want of all things and had nothing of the form of God; and yet all this He
did for our sakes, that He might serve us, and that all the works He
should do under that form of a servant might become ours.

Thus a Christian, like Christ his Head, being full and in abundance
through his faith, ought to be content with this form of God, obtained by
faith; except that, as I have said, he ought to increase this faith till
it be perfected. For this faith is his life, justification, and salvation,
preserving his person itself and making it pleasing to God, and bestowing
on him all that Christ has, as I have said above, and as Paul affirms:
“The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of
God” (Gal. ii. 20). Though he is thus free from all works, yet he ought to
empty himself of this liberty, take on him the form of a servant, be made
in the likeness of men, be found in fashion as a man, serve, help, and in
every way act towards his neighbour as he sees that God through Christ has
acted and is acting towards him. All this he should do freely, and with
regard to nothing but the good pleasure of God, and he should reason thus:—

Lo! my God, without merit on my part, of His pure and free mercy, has
given to me, an unworthy, condemned, and contemptible creature all the
riches of justification and salvation in Christ, so that I no longer am in
want of anything, except of faith to believe that this is so. For such a
Father, then, who has overwhelmed me with these inestimable riches of His,
why should I not freely, cheerfully, and with my whole heart, and from
voluntary zeal, do all that I know will be pleasing to Him and acceptable
in His sight? I will therefore give myself as a sort of Christ, to my
neighbour, as Christ has given Himself to me; and will do nothing in this
life except what I see will be needful, advantageous, and wholesome for my
neighbour, since by faith I abound in all good things in Christ.

Thus from faith flow forth love and joy in the Lord, and from love a
cheerful, willing, free spirit, disposed to serve our neighbour
voluntarily, without taking any account of gratitude or ingratitude,
praise or blame, gain or loss. Its object is not to lay men under
obligations, nor does it distinguish between friends and enemies, or look
to gratitude or ingratitude, but most freely and willingly spends itself
and its goods, whether it loses them through ingratitude, or gains
goodwill. For thus did its Father, distributing all things to all men
abundantly and freely, making His sun to rise upon the just and the
unjust. Thus, too, the child does and endures nothing except from the free
joy with which it delights through Christ in God, the Giver of such great
gifts.

You see, then, that, if we recognize those great and precious gifts, as
Peter says, which have been given to us, love is quickly diffused in our
hearts through the Spirit, and by love we are made free, joyful,
all-powerful, active workers, victors over all our tribulations, servants
to our neighbour, and nevertheless lords of all things. But, for those who
do not recognise the good things given to them through Christ, Christ has
been born in vain; such persons walk by works, and will never attain the
taste and feeling of these great things. Therefore just as our neighbour
is in want, and has need of our abundance, so we too in the sight of God
were in want, and had need of His mercy. And as our heavenly Father has
freely helped us in Christ, so ought we freely to help our neighbour by
our body and works, and each should become to other a sort of Christ, so
that we may be mutually Christs, and that the same Christ may be in all of
us; that is, that we may be truly Christians.

Who then can comprehend the riches and glory of the Christian life? It can
do all things, has all things, and is in want of nothing; is lord over
sin, death, and hell, and at the same time is the obedient and useful
servant of all. But alas! it is at this day unknown throughout the world;
it is neither preached nor sought after, so that we are quite ignorant
about our own name, why we are and are called Christians. We are certainly
called so from Christ, who is not absent, but dwells among us—provided,
that is, that we believe in Him and are reciprocally and mutually one the
Christ of the other, doing to our neighbour as Christ does to us. But now,
in the doctrine of men, we are taught only to seek after merits, rewards,
and things which are already ours, and we have made of Christ a taskmaster
far more severe than Moses.

The Blessed Virgin beyond all others, affords us an example of the same
faith, in that she was purified according to the law of Moses, and like
all other women, though she was bound by no such law and had no need of
purification. Still she submitted to the law voluntarily and of free love,
making herself like the rest of women, that she might not offend or throw
contempt on them. She was not justified by doing this; but, being already
justified, she did it freely and gratuitously. Thus ought our works too to
be done, and not in order to be justified by them; for, being first
justified by faith, we ought to do all our works freely and cheerfully for
the sake of others.

St. Paul circumcised his disciple Timothy, not because he needed
circumcision for his justification, but that he might not offend or
contemn those Jews, weak in the faith, who had not yet been able to
comprehend the liberty of faith. On the other hand, when they contemned
liberty and urged that circumcision was necessary for justification, he
resisted them, and would not allow Titus to be circumcised. For, as he
would not offend or contemn any one’s weakness in faith, but yielded for
the time to their will, so, again, he would not have the liberty of faith
offended or contemned by hardened self-justifiers, but walked in a middle
path, sparing the weak for the time, and always resisting the hardened,
that he might convert all to the liberty of faith. On the same principle
we ought to act, receiving those that are weak in the faith, but boldly
resisting these hardened teachers of works, of whom we shall hereafter
speak at more length.

Christ also, when His disciples were asked for the tribute money, asked of
Peter whether the children of a king were not free from taxes. Peter
agreed to this; yet Jesus commanded him to go to the sea, saying, “Lest we
should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast a hook, and take up the
fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth thou shalt
find a piece of money; that take, and give unto them for Me and thee”
(Matt. xvii. 27).

This example is very much to our purpose; for here Christ calls Himself
and His disciples free men and children of a King, in want of nothing; and
yet He voluntarily submits and pays the tax. Just as far, then, as this
work was necessary or useful to Christ for justification or salvation, so
far do all His other works or those of His disciples avail for
justification. They are really free and subsequent to justification, and
only done to serve others and set them an example.

Such are the works which Paul inculcated, that Christians should be
subject to principalities and powers and ready to every good work (Titus
iii. 1), not that they may be justified by these things—for they are
already justified by faith—but that in liberty of spirit they may
thus be the servants of others and subject to powers, obeying their will
out of gratuitous love.

Such, too, ought to have been the works of all colleges, monasteries, and
priests; every one doing the works of his own profession and state of
life, not in order to be justified by them, but in order to bring his own
body into subjection, as an example to others, who themselves also need to
keep under their bodies, and also in order to accommodate himself to the
will of others, out of free love. But we must always guard most carefully
against any vain confidence or presumption of being justified, gaining
merit, or being saved by these works, this being the part of faith alone,
as I have so often said.

Any man possessing this knowledge may easily keep clear of danger among
those innumerable commands and precepts of the Pope, of bishops, of
monasteries, of churches, of princes, and of magistrates, which some
foolish pastors urge on us as being necessary for justification and
salvation, calling them precepts of the Church, when they are not so at
all. For the Christian freeman will speak thus: I will fast, I will pray,
I will do this or that which is commanded me by men, not as having any
need of these things for justification or salvation, but that I may thus
comply with the will of the Pope, of the bishop, of such a community or
such a magistrate, or of my neighbour as an example to him; for this cause
I will do and suffer all things, just as Christ did and suffered much more
for me, though He needed not at all to do so on His own account, and made
Himself for my sake under the law, when He was not under the law. And
although tyrants may do me violence or wrong in requiring obedience to
these things, yet it will not hurt me to do them, so long as they are not
done against God.

From all this every man will be able to attain a sure judgment and
faithful discrimination between all works and laws, and to know who are
blind and foolish pastors, and who are true and good ones. For whatsoever
work is not directed to the sole end either of keeping under the body, or
of doing service to our neighbour—provided he require nothing
contrary to the will of God—is no good or Christian work. Hence I
greatly fear that at this day few or no colleges, monasteries, altars, or
ecclesiastical functions are Christian ones; and the same may be said of
fasts and special prayers to certain saints. I fear that in all these
nothing is being sought but what is already ours; while we fancy that by
these things our sins are purged away and salvation is attained, and thus
utterly do away with Christian liberty. This comes from ignorance of
Christian faith and liberty.

This ignorance and this crushing of liberty are diligently promoted by the
teaching of very many blind pastors, who stir up and urge the people to a
zeal for these things, praising them and puffing them up with their
indulgences, but never teaching faith. Now I would advise you, if you have
any wish to pray, to fast, or to make foundations in churches, as they
call it, to take care not to do so with the object of gaining any
advantage, either temporal or eternal. You will thus wrong your faith,
which alone bestows all things on you, and the increase of which, either
by working or by suffering, is alone to be cared for. What you give, give
freely and without price, that others may prosper and have increase from
you and your goodness. Thus you will be a truly good man and a Christian.
For what to you are your goods and your works, which are done over and
above for the subjection of the body, since you have abundance for
yourself through your faith, in which God has given you all things?

We give this rule: the good things which we have from God ought to flow
from one to another and become common to all, so that every one of us may,
as it were, put on his neighbour, and so behave towards him as if he were
himself in his place. They flowed and do flow from Christ to us; He put us
on, and acted for us as if He Himself were what we are. From us they flow
to those who have need of them; so that my faith and righteousness ought
to be laid down before God as a covering and intercession for the sins of
my neighbour, which I am to take on myself, and so labour and endure
servitude in them, as if they were my own; for thus has Christ done for
us. This is true love and the genuine truth of Christian life. But only
there is it true and genuine where there is true and genuine faith. Hence
the Apostle attributes to charity this quality: that she seeketh not her
own.

We conclude therefore that a Christian man does not live in himself, but
in Christ and in his neighbour, or else is no Christian: in Christ by
faith; in his neighbour by love. By faith he is carried upwards above
himself to God, and by love he sinks back below himself to his neighbour,
still always-abiding in God and His love, as Christ says, “Verily I say
unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God
ascending and descending upon the Son of man” (John i. 51).

Thus much concerning liberty, which, as you see, is a true and spiritual
liberty, making our hearts free from all sins, laws, and commandments, as
Paul says, “The law is not made for a righteous man” (1 Tim. i. 9), and
one which surpasses all other external liberties, as far as heaven is
above earth. May Christ make us to understand and preserve this liberty.
Amen.

Finally, for the sake of those to whom nothing can be stated so well but
that they misunderstand and distort it, we must add a word, in case they
can understand even that. There are very many persons who, when they hear
of this liberty of faith, straightway turn it into an occasion of licence.
They think that everything is now lawful for them, and do not choose to
show themselves free men and Christians in any other way than by their
contempt and reprehension of ceremonies, of traditions, of human laws; as
if they were Christians merely because they refuse to fast on stated days,
or eat flesh when others fast, or omit the customary prayers; scoffing at
the precepts of men, but utterly passing over all the rest that belongs to
the Christian religion. On the other hand, they are most pertinaciously
resisted by those who strive after salvation solely by their observance of
and reverence for ceremonies, as if they would be saved merely because
they fast on stated days, or abstain from flesh, or make formal prayers;
talking loudly of the precepts of the Church and of the Fathers, and not
caring a straw about those things which belong to our genuine faith. Both
these parties are plainly culpable, in that, while they neglect matters
which are of weight and necessary for salvation, they contend noisily
about such as are without weight and not necessary.

How much more rightly does the Apostle Paul teach us to walk in the middle
path, condemning either extreme and saying, “Let not him that eateth
despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him
that eateth” (Rom. xiv. 3)! You see here how the Apostle blames those who,
not from religious feeling, but in mere contempt, neglect and rail at
ceremonial observances, and teaches them not to despise, since this
“knowledge puffeth up.” Again, he teaches the pertinacious upholders of
these things not to judge their opponents. For neither party observes
towards the other that charity which edifieth. In this matter we must
listen to Scripture, which teaches us to turn aside neither to the right
hand nor to the left, but to follow those right precepts of the Lord which
rejoice the heart. For just as a man is not righteous merely because he
serves and is devoted to works and ceremonial rites, so neither will he be
accounted righteous merely because he neglects and despises them.

It is not from works that we are set free by the faith of Christ, but from
the belief in works, that is from foolishly presuming to seek
justification through works. Faith redeems our consciences, makes them
upright, and preserves them, since by it we recognise the truth that
justification does not depend on our works, although good works neither
can nor ought to be absent, just as we cannot exist without food and drink
and all the functions of this mortal body. Still it is not on them that
our justification is based, but on faith; and yet they ought not on that
account to be despised or neglected. Thus in this world we are compelled
by the needs of this bodily life; but we are not hereby justified. “My
kingdom is not hence, nor of this world,” says Christ; but He does not
say, “My kingdom is not here, nor in this world.” Paul, too, says, “Though
we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh” (2 Cor. x. 3), and
“The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of
God” (Gal. ii. 20). Thus our doings, life, and being, in works and
ceremonies, are done from the necessities of this life, and with the
motive of governing our bodies; but yet we are not justified by these
things, but by the faith of the Son of God.

The Christian must therefore walk in the middle path, and set these two
classes of men before his eyes. He may meet with hardened and obstinate
ceremonialists, who, like deaf adders, refuse to listen to the truth of
liberty, and cry up, enjoin, and urge on us their ceremonies, as if they
could justify us without faith. Such were the Jews of old, who would not
understand, that they might act well. These men we must resist, do just
the contrary to what they do, and be bold to give them offence, lest by
this impious notion of theirs they should deceive many along with
themselves. Before the eyes of these men it is expedient to eat flesh, to
break fasts, and to do in behalf of the liberty of faith things which they
hold to be the greatest sins. We must say of them, “Let them alone; they
be blind leaders of the blind” (Matt. xv. 14). In this way Paul also would
not have Titus circumcised, though these men urged it; and Christ defended
the Apostles, who had plucked ears of corn on the Sabbath day; and many
like instances.

Or else we may meet with simple-minded and ignorant persons, weak in the
faith, as the Apostle calls them, who are as yet unable to apprehend that
liberty of faith, even if willing to do so. These we must spare, lest they
should be offended. We must bear with their infirmity, till they shall be
more fully instructed. For since these men do not act thus from hardened
malice, but only from weakness of faith, therefore, in order to avoid
giving them offence, we must keep fasts and do other things which they
consider necessary. This is required of us by charity, which injures no
one, but serves all men. It is not the fault of these persons that they
are weak, but that of their pastors, who by the snares and weapons of
their own traditions have brought them into bondage and wounded their
souls when they ought to have been set free and healed by the teaching of
faith and liberty. Thus the Apostle says, “If meat make my brother to
offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth” (1 Cor. viii. 13);
and again, “I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is
nothing unclean of itself; but to him that esteemeth anything to be
unclean, to him it is unclean. It is evil for that man who eateth with
offence” (Rom. xiv. 14, 20).

Thus, though we ought boldly to resist those teachers of tradition, and
though the laws of the pontiffs, by which they make aggressions on the
people of God, deserve sharp reproof, yet we must spare the timid crowd,
who are held captive by the laws of those impious tyrants, till they are
set free. Fight vigorously against the wolves, but on behalf of the sheep,
not against the sheep. And this you may do by inveighing against the laws
and lawgivers, and yet at the same time observing these laws with the
weak, lest they be offended, until they shall themselves recognise the
tyranny, and understand their own liberty. If you wish to use your
liberty, do it secretly, as Paul says, “Hast thou faith? have it to
thyself before God” (Rom. xiv. 22). But take care not to use it in the
presence of the weak. On the other hand, in the presence of tyrants and
obstinate opposers, use your liberty in their despite, and with the utmost
pertinacity, that they too may understand that they are tyrants, and their
laws useless for justification, nay that they had no right to establish
such laws.

Since then we cannot live in this world without ceremonies and works,
since the hot and inexperienced period of youth has need of being
restrained and protected by such bonds, and since every one is bound to
keep under his own body by attention to these things, therefore the
minister of Christ must be prudent and faithful in so ruling and teaching
the people of Christ, in all these matters, that no root of bitterness may
spring up among them, and so many be defiled, as Paul warned the Hebrews;
that is, that they may not lose the faith, and begin to be defiled by a
belief in works as the means of justification. This is a thing which
easily happens, and defiles very many, unless faith be constantly
inculcated along with works. It is impossible to avoid this evil, when
faith is passed over in silence, and only the ordinances of men are
taught, as has been done hitherto by the pestilent, impious, and
soul-destroying traditions of our pontiffs and opinions of our
theologians. An infinite number of souls have been drawn down to hell by
these snares, so that you may recognise the work of antichrist.

In brief, as poverty is imperilled amid riches, honesty amid business,
humility amid honours, abstinence amid feasting, purity amid pleasures, so
is justification by faith imperilled among ceremonies. Solomon says, “Can
a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?” (Prov. vi.
27). And yet as we must live among riches, business, honours, pleasures,
feastings, so must we among ceremonies, that is among perils. Just as
infant boys have the greatest need of being cherished in the bosoms and by
the care of girls, that they may not die, and yet, when they are grown,
there is peril to their salvation in living among girls, so inexperienced
and fervid young men require to be kept in and restrained by the barriers
of ceremonies, even were they of iron, lest their weak minds should rush
headlong into vice. And yet it would be death to them to persevere in
believing that they can be justified by these things. They must rather be
taught that they have been thus imprisoned, not with the purpose of their
being justified or gaining merit in this way, but in order that they might
avoid wrong-doing, and be more easily instructed in that righteousness
which is by faith, a thing which the headlong character of youth would not
bear unless it were put under restraint.

Hence in the Christian life ceremonies are to be no otherwise looked upon
than as builders and workmen look upon those preparations for building or
working which are not made with any view of being permanent or anything in
themselves, but only because without them there could be no building and
no work. When the structure is completed, they are laid aside. Here you
see that we do not contemn these preparations, but set the highest value
on them; a belief in them we do contemn, because no one thinks that they
constitute a real and permanent structure. If any one were so manifestly
out of his senses as to have no other object in life but that of setting
up these preparations with all possible expense, diligence, and
perseverance, while he never thought of the structure itself, but pleased
himself and made his boast of these useless preparations and props, should
we not all pity his madness and think that, at the cost thus thrown away,
some great building might have been raised?

Thus, too, we do not contemn works and ceremonies—nay, we set the
highest value on them; but we contemn the belief in works, which no one
should consider to constitute true righteousness, as do those hypocrites
who employ and throw away their whole life in the pursuit of works, and
yet never attain to that for the sake of which the works are done. As the
Apostle says, they are “ever learning and never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. iii. 7). They appear to wish to build,
they make preparations, and yet they never do build; and thus they
continue in a show of godliness, but never attain to its power.

Meanwhile they please themselves with this zealous pursuit, and even dare
to judge all others, whom they do not see adorned with such a glittering
display of works; while, if they had been imbued with faith, they might
have done great things for their own and others’ salvation, at the same
cost which they now waste in abuse of the gifts of God. But since human
nature and natural reason, as they call it, are naturally superstitious,
and quick to believe that justification can be attained by any laws or
works proposed to them, and since nature is also exercised and confirmed
in the same view by the practice of all earthly lawgivers, she can never
of her own power free herself from this bondage to works, and come to a
recognition of the liberty of faith.

We have therefore need to pray that God will lead us and make us taught of
God, that is, ready to learn from God; and will Himself, as He has
promised, write His law in our hearts; otherwise there is no hope for us.
For unless He himself teach us inwardly this wisdom hidden in a mystery,
nature cannot but condemn it and judge it to be heretical. She takes
offence at it, and it seems folly to her, just as we see that it happened
of old in the case of the prophets and Apostles, and just as blind and
impious pontiffs, with their flatterers, do now in my case and that of
those who are like me, upon whom, together with ourselves, may God at
length have mercy, and lift up the light of His countenance upon them,
that we may know His way upon earth and His saving health among all
nations, who is blessed for evermore. Amen. In the year of the Lord MDXX.