75. Therefore, learn well this saying of Peter, and think not that
thou alone endurest this severe, fearful temptation and these
onslaughts of the devil. Remember that thy brethren, not only they
who are dead--who also have set thee a good example--but also those
who live with thee in the world, have suffered and do suffer such
terror and distress. For they have the very same enemy Christ and all
Christendom have. Thou canst be glad and shout: God be praised! I am
not the only one that suffers, but with me there is a great
multitude, all Christians on earth, my beloved brothers and sisters,
even down to the last who shall walk this earth. And in this passage
Peter comforts and strengthens me, as Christ commanded him, who also
has tasted of these sorrows, and, indeed, in far greater measure than
I and others have.
76. I have at times thought, in my trials, that I should like to
argue with Peter and Paul as to whether they were tried more severely
than I. For, when he can do nothing else, the devil resorts to the
plan of leading a man to fix his attention solely on his own
affliction, and oppresses him with the thought: No man has been so
cast off by God, or has sunk so deep into anxiety and distress. The
devil has often so wearied me with such arguments that at length I
could offer no further opposition to him, but simply turned him over
to Christ, who can quickly silence him with arguments. If we have not
Christ with us, Satan proves far too strong for us. We cannot silence
him. He soon renders helpless all our skill, and slays us with our
own sword.
77. Ah, these seditious leaders and other self-secure spirits are
poor, miserable people, who know nothing at all of this conflict!
They drown in their own imaginations, and think they are perfect. And
some of them are so shameless and without fear as to blaspheme,
saying that God himself could not take their virtue from them. The
devil simply strengthens them in these thoughts, and hardens them the
more. This very thing is a sign that they do not yet know the devil;
they are already blinded and taken captive by him, so that he can
ruin them when he pleases.
78. Genuine Christians are not thus self-confident and boastful when
they are attacked. In severe conflicts and anxieties they labor that
the devil may not deprive them of the sword. I know that I am learned
and have seen something of what the devil can do; but I must bear him
witness, from my daily experience, that he can overcome me unless I
am well established in faith and have Christ in my heart. Thomas
Munzer was so firm and inflexible, as he thought, that he dared to
say that he would not behold Christ, if he did not himself wish to
speak with him. But at last, when the devil began to attack him, men
saw what his pride and boasts were. No, they are not the ones to
accomplish anything, who go about so boastful, as if they had
consumed the devil. They do not see that they, themselves, were long
since devoured seven times over by him and are held fast in his jaws.
79. The heretic Arius was also secure and proud enough against the
pious bishops and Christians. Yea, when he was punished for his error
by his bishop, and admonished to desist, he became the more
obstinate. He complained about the bitter persecution to which he was
subjected. But his suffering was that they would not approve his
horrible blasphemy. Just so in every age the heretics and
blasphemers, yea, even open murderers and tyrants, pose as martyrs
when they are not permitted to run against God's Word and against
pious people. So confident do they try to be that they have no fear
of God. They count the devil a dead bee until, at length, he suddenly
seizes and destroys them in a moment.
80. But the poor, tempted Christians have need of the comfort and the
strength furnished by God's Word. They must anxiously contend lest
they lose, in their hours of severe temptation, God, Christ, faith,
and Our Father. Therefore, the mission intrusted to Peter, to
strengthen his brethren, is most needful. So the same comfort was
necessary in his own temptations, and he was even given it beforehand
by Christ, who declared that he had prayed for him that his faith
might not be extinguished nor fail, which faith, however, from the
time of his denial on to the third day did almost die, and scarcely
the smallest spark remained.
Hence he now, as a true apostle, comforts those who are in the like
fears and straits of a sinking and expiring faith. He says to all the
suffering and comfortless: My dear brother, think not that thou alone
sufferest distress and temptation. Many of thy brethren have suffered
quite as heavily, perhaps more heavily. I, myself, have been as weak
as thou canst ever be. If thou dost not believe this, look and see
what occurred in the house of Caiaphas, the high-priest, when I, who
protested my readiness to go with Christ into prison and death, at a
word spoken to me by a maid, fell, and denied and abjured most
shamefully my beloved Lord. For three whole days I lay in misery. I
had no one to comfort me and none who suffered equally with myself. I
had no consolation except that my dear Master gave me, with his eyes,
one friendly look.
81. Therefore, no one should regard his distress and need as too
heavy and fearful, as if it were an entirely new thing, something
which had never been experienced by others. To thee it may be
something new and untried. But look about thee, at the great
multitude of the Church, from the beginning until this hour. The
Church has been set in the world to suffer the attacks of the devil,
and without ceasing it must be sifted as wheat, as Christ's words
suggest, Luke 22, 31.
My friend, thou hast not yet seen nor experienced what our first
parents endured their whole life long, and after them all the holy
fathers until Christ. Peter, also, has been farther in this school
than I and thou, and I would say that the same temptation as his
could hardly be found. Paul says of him and the beloved apostles (1
Cor 4, 9): "For, I think, God hath set forth us the apostles last of
all, as men doomed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the
world, both to angels and men"--so that Satan may torment us
according to his will, and thus work out his pleasure upon us. And
what are the sufferings of all men combined when compared with
Christ's agony and conflict, in that he sweat blood for thee?
82. When the devil plagues and assails thee with his manifold
temptations, refer him to Christ, with whom to dispute about the
severe temptations, the death struggle, the anguish of hell, etc.
Comfort thyself that thou art one of a great company of sufferers,
past present and future. O beautiful, glorious company! All under one
lord and head, who took from the devil his power and hell-fire. In
short, thy affliction cannot prove so great that thou wilt not find
it paralleled in the lives of the apostles, prophets, patriarchs and
all the saints, especially of Christ himself; with whom, if we
suffer, let us not doubt, says Paul, that we shall "be also
glorified," Rom 8, 17.
_Fourth Sunday After Trinity_
Text: Romans 8, 18-22.
18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to
us-ward. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for
the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected
to vanity not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it,
in hope 21 that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the
bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children
of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and
travaileth in pain together until now.