Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who according
to the riches of His mercy hath preserved in His Church this sacrament
at least, untouched and untainted by the ordinances of men, and hath
made it free unto all nations and every estate of mankind, nor
suffered it to be oppressed by the filthy and godless monsters of
greed and superstition. For He desired that by it little children,
incapable of greed and superstition, might be initiated and sanctified
in the simple faith of His Word; for whom even to-day baptism hath its
chief blessing. But if this sacrament were to be given to such as had
arrived at man's estate, methinks it could not possibly have retained
its power and its glory against the tyranny of greed and superstition
which has everywhere laid waste things divine. Doubtless the wisdom of
the flesh would here too have devised its preparations and
worthinesses, its reservations, restrictions, and I know not what
other snares for taking money, until water fetched as high a price as
parchment[82] does now.
But Satan, though he could not quench the power of baptism in little
children, nevertheless succeeded in quenching it in all adults, so
that there are scarce any who call to mind their baptism and still
fewer who glory in it; so many other ways have they discovered of
ridding themselves of their sins and of reaching heaven. The source of
these false opinions is that dangerous saying of St.
Jerome's[83]--either unhappily phrased or wrongly interpreted--in
which he terms penance "the second plank" after the shipwreck; as if
baptism were not penance. Accordingly, when men fall into sin, they
despair of "the first plank," which is the ship, as though it had gone
under, and fasten all their faith on the second plank, that is,
penance. This has produced those endless burdens of vows, religious
works, satisfactions, pilgrimages, indulgences, and sects[84], whence
has arisen that flood of books, questions, opinions and human
traditions, which the world cannot contain; so that this tyranny plays
worse havoc with the Church of God than any tyrant ever did with the
Jewish people or with any other nation under heaven.
It was the duty of the pontiffs to abate this evil, and with all
diligence to lead Christians to the true understanding of baptism, so
that they might know what manner of men they are and how it becomes
Christians to live. But instead of this, their work is now to lead the
people as far astray as possible from their baptism, to immerse all
men in the flood of their oppression, and to cause the people of
Christ, as the prophet says, to forget Him days without number [Jer.
2:32]. O unhappy, all who bear the name of priest to-day! They not
only do not know nor do what becometh priests, but they are ignorant
of what they ought to know and do. They fulfil the saying in Isaiah
lvi: "His watch-men are all blind, they are all ignorant: the
shepherds themselves knew no understanding; all have declined into
their own way, every one after his own gain." [Isa. 56:10]
[Sidenote: The First Part of Baptism: The Divine Promise]
Now, the first thing in baptism to be considered is the divine
promise, which says: "He that believeth and is baptised shall be
saved." This promise must be set far above all the glitter of works,
vows, religious orders, and whatever man has added thereto; for on it
all our salvation depends [Mark 16:16]. But we must so consider it as
to exercise our faith therein and in nowise doubt that we are saved
when we are baptised. For unless this faith be present or be conferred
in baptism, baptism will profit us nothing, nay, it becomes a
hindrance to us, not only in the moment of its reception, but all the
days of our life; for such unbelief accuses God's promise of being a
lie, and this is the blackest of all sins. If we set ourselves to this
exercise of faith, we shall at once perceive how difficult it is to
believe this promise of God. For our human weakness, conscious of its
sins, finds nothing more difficult to believe than that it is saved or
will be saved; and yet unless it does believe this, it cannot be
saved, because it does not believe the truth of God that promiseth
salvation.
This message should have been untiringly impressed upon the people and
this promise dinned without ceasing in their ears; their baptism
should have been called again and again to their mind, and faith
constantly awakened and nourished. For, just as the truth of this
divine promise, once pronounced over us, continues unto death, so our
faith in the same ought never to cease, but to be nourished and
strengthened until death, by the continual remembrance of this promise
made to us in baptism. Therefore, when we rise from sins, or repent,
we do but return to the power and the faith of baptism from whence we
fell, and find our way back to the promise then made to us, from which
we departed when we sinned. For the truth of the promise once made
remains steadfast, ever ready to receive us back with open arms when
we return. This, if I mistake not, is the real meaning of the obscure
saying, that baptism is the beginning and foundation of all the
sacraments, without which none of the others may be received.
It will, therefore, be no small gain or a penitent to lay hold before
all else on the memory of his baptism, confidently to call to mind the
promise of God, which he has forsaken, and to plead it with His Lord,
rejoicing that he is baptised and therefore is yet within the fortress
of salvation, and abhorring his wicked ingratitude in falling away
from its faith and truth. His soul will find wondrous comfort, and
will be encouraged to hope or mercy, when he considers that the divine
promise which God made to him and which cannot possibly lie, still
stands unbroken and unchanged, yea, unchangeable by any sins; as Paul
says in 1I Timothy ii, "If we believe not. He continueth faithful, He
cannot deny Himself." [2 Tim. 2:13] Ay, this truth of God will sustain
him, so that if all else should sink in ruins, this truth, if he
believe it, will not ail him. For in it he has a shield against all
assaults of the enemy, an answer to the sins that disturb his
conscience, an antidote for the dread of death and judgment, and a
comfort in every temptation,--namely, this one truth,--and he can say,
"God is faithful that promised [Heb. 10:23], Whose sign I have
received in my baptism. If God be for me, who is against me?" [Rom.
8:31]
The children of Israel, whenever they repented of their sins, turned
their thoughts first of all to the exodus from Egypt, and, remembering
this, returned to God Who had brought them out. This memory and this
refuge were many times impressed upon them by Moses, and afterward
repeated by David. How much rather ought we to call to mind our exodus
from Egypt, and, remembering, turn back again to Him Who led us forth
through the washing of regeneration [Titus 3:5], which we are bidden
remember for this very purpose. And this we can do most fittingly in
the sacrament of bread and wine. Indeed, in olden times these three
sacraments--penance, baptism and the bread--were all celebrated at the
same service, and one supplemented and assisted the other. We read
also of a certain holy virgin who in every time of temptation made
baptism her sole defence, saying simply, "I am a Christian"; and
straight-way the adversary led from her, or he knew the power of her
baptism and of her faith which clung to the truth of God's
promise[85].
Lo, how rich therefore is a Christian, or one who is baptised! Even if
he would, he cannot lose his salvation, however much he sin, unless he
will not believe. For no sin can condemn him save unbelief alone. All
other sins,--if faith in God's promise made in baptism return or
remain,--all other sins, I say, are immediately blotted out through
that same faith, or rather through the truth of God, because He cannot
deny Himself if you but confess Him and cling believing to Him that
promises. But as for contrition, confession of sins, and
satisfaction[86],--with all those carefully thought-out exercises of
men,--if you turn your attention to them and neglect this truth of
God, they will suddenly fail you and leave you more wretched than
before. For whatever is done without faith in the truth of God, is
vanity of vanities and vexation of spirit [Eccl. 1:2, 14].
Again, how perilous, nay, how false it is to suppose that penance is
the second plank after the shipwreck! How harmful an error it is to
believe that the power of baptism is broken, and the ship has
foundered, because we have sinned! Nay; that one, solid and unsinkable
ship remains, and is never broken up into floating timbers; it carries
all those who are brought to the harbor of salvation; it is the truth
of God giving us its promise in the sacraments. Many, indeed, rashly
leap overboard and perish in the waves; these are they who depart from
faith in the promise and plunge into sin. But the ship herself remains
intact and holds her steady course; and if one be able somehow to
return to the ship, it is not on any plank but in the good ship
herself that he is borne to life. Such an one is he who through faith
returns to the sure promise of God that abideth forever. Therefore
Peter, in his second epistle, rebukes them that sin, because they have
forgotten that they were purged from their old sins [2 Peter 1:9]; in
which words he doubtless chides their ingratitude or the baptism they
had received and their wicked unbelief.
What is the good, then, of making many books on baptism and yet not
teaching this faith in the promise? All the sacraments were instituted
for the purpose of nourishing faith, but these godless men so
completely pass over this faith that they even assert a man dare not
be certain of the forgiveness of sins, that is, of the grace of the
sacraments. With such wicked teachings they delude the world, and not
only take captive but altogether destroy the sacrament of baptism, in
which the chief glory of our conscience consists. Meanwhile they madly
rage against the miserable souls of men with their contritions,
anxious confessions, circumstances[87], satisfactions, works and
endless other absurdities. Read, therefore, with great caution the
Master of the Sentences[88] in his fourth book, or, better yet,
despise him together with all his commentators, who at their best
write only of the material and form[87] of the sacraments, that is,
they treat of the dead and death-dealing letter of the sacraments, but
pass over in utter silence the spirit, life and use, that is, the
truth of the divine promise and our faith.
Beware, therefore, lest the external pomp of works and the deceits of
human traditions mislead you, so that you may not wrong the divine
truth and your faith. If you would be saved, you must begin with the
faith of the sacraments, without any works whatever; but on faith the
works will follow: only do not think lightly of faith, which is a
work, and of all works the most excellent and the most difficult to
do. Through it alone you will be saved, even if you should be
compelled to do without any other works. For it is a work of God, not
of man, as Paul teaches [Eph. 2:8]. The other works He works through
us and with our help, but this one He works in us and without our
help.
From this we can clearly see the difference, in baptism, between man
the minister and God the Doer. For man baptises and does not baptise:
he baptises, for he performs the work, immersing the person to be
baptised; he does not baptise, for in that act he officiates not by
his own authority, but in the stead of God. Hence, we ought to receive
baptism at the hands of a man just as if Christ Himself, nay, God
Himself, were baptising us with His own hands. For it is not man's
baptism, but Christ's and God's baptism, which we receive by the hand
of a man; just as every other created thing that we make use of by the
hand of another, is God's alone. Therefore beware of dividing baptism
in such a way as to ascribe the outward part to man and the inward
part to God. Ascribe both to God alone, and look upon the person
administering it as the instrument in God's hands, by which the Lord
sitting in heaven thrusts you under the water with His own hands, and
speaking by the mouth of His minister promises you, on earth with a
human voice, the forgiveness of your sins.
This the words themselves indicate, when the priest says: "I baptise
thee in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Amen"--and not: "I baptise thee in my own name." It is as though he
said: "What I do, I do not by my own authority, but in the name and
stead of God, so that you should regard it just as if our Lord Himself
had done it in a visible manner. The Doer and the minister are
different persons, but the work of both is the same work, or, rather,
it is the work of the Doer alone, through my ministry." For I hold
that "in the name of" refers to the person of the Doer, so that the
name of the Lord is not only to be uttered and invoked while the work
is being done, but the work itself is to be done not as one's own
work, but in the name and stead of another. In this sense Christ says,
"Many shall come in my name," [Matt. 24:5] and in Romans i it is said,
"By whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the
faith, in all nations, for His name." [Rom. 1:5]
This view I heartily endorse; for there is much of comfort and a mighty
aid to faith in the knowledge that one has been baptised not by man,
but by the Triune God Himself through a man acting among us in His
name. This will dispose of that fruitless quarrel about the "form"[90]
of baptism, as these words are called. The Greeks say: "May the
servant of Christ be baptised," while the Latins say: "I baptise."
Others again, pedantic triflers, condemn the use of the words, "I
baptise thee in the name of Jesus Christ"[91]--although it is certain
that the Apostles used this formula in baptising, as we read in the
Acts of the Apostles--and would allow no other form to be valid than
this: "I baptise thee in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost." But their contention is in vain, for they bring no
proof, but merely assert their own dreams. Baptism truly saves in
whatever way it is administered, if only it be not administered in the
name of man but of God. Nay, I have no doubt that if one received
baptism in the name of the Lord, even though the wicked minister
should not give it in the name of the Lord, he would yet be truly
baptised in the name of the Lord. For the effect of baptism depends
not so much on the faith or use of him that confers it as on the faith
or use of him that receives it; of which we have an illustration in
the case of the play-actor who was baptised in jest[92]. Such anxious
disputings and questionings are aroused in us by those who ascribe
nothing to faith and everything to works and forms, whereas we owe
everything to faith alone and nothing to forms, and faith makes us
free in spirit from all those scruples and fancies.
[Sidenote: The Second Part of Baptism: The Sign, or Sacrament]
The second part of baptism is the sign, or sacrament, which is that
immersion into water whence also it derives its name; for the Greek
_baptizo_ means I immerse, and _baptisma_ means immersion. For, as has
been said[93], signs are added to the divine promises to represent
that which the words signify, for, as they now say, that which the
sacrament "effectively signifies." We shall see how much of truth
there is in this. The great majority have supposed that there is some
hidden spiritual power in the word or in the water, which works the
grace of God in the soul of the recipient. Others deny this and hold
that there is no power in the sacraments, but that grace is given by
God alone, Who according to His covenant aids the sacraments He has
instituted[94]. Yet all are agreed that the sacraments are effective
signs of grace, and they reach this conclusion by this one argument:
If the sacraments of the New Law merely "signified," it would not be
apparent in what respect they surpassed the sacraments of the Old Law.
Hence they have been driven to attribute such great power to the
sacraments of the New Law that in their opinion they benefit even such
men as are in mortal sins, and that they do not require faith or
grace; it is sufficient not to oppose a "bar," that is, an actual
intention to sin again.
But these views must be carefully avoided and shunned, because they
are godless and infidel, being contrary to faith and to the nature of
the sacraments. For it is an error to hold that the sacraments of the
New Law differ from those of the Old Law in the efficacy of their
"signifying." The "signifying" of both is equally efficacious. The
same God Who now saves me by baptism saved Abel by his sacrifice, Noah
by the bow, Abraham by circumcision, and all the others by their
respective signs. So far as the "signifying" is concerned, there is no
difference between a sacrament of the Old Law and one of the New;
provided that by the Old Law you mean that which God wrought among the
patriarchs and other fathers in the days of the law. But those signs
which were given to the patriarchs and fathers must be sharply
distinguished from the legal types which Moses instituted in his law,
such as the priestly rites concerning robes, vessels, meats,
dwellings, and the like. Between these and the sacraments of the New
Law there is a vast difference, but no less between them and those
signs that God from time to time gave to the fathers living judges
under the law, such as the sign of Gideon's fleece [Judges 6:36],
Manoah's sacrifice [Judges 13:19], or the sign which Isaiah offered to
Ahaz, in Isaiah vii [Isa. 7:10]; for to these signs God attached a
certain promise which required faith in Him.
This, then, is the difference between the legal types and the new and
old signs--the former have not attached to them any word of promise
requiring faith. Hence they are not signs of justification, for they
are not sacraments of the faith that alone justifies, but only
sacraments of works; their whole power and nature consisted in works,
not in faith, and he that observed them fulfilled them, even if he did
it without faith. But our signs, or sacraments, as well as those of
the fathers, have attached to them a word of promise, which requires
faith, and they cannot be fulfilled by any other work. Hence they are
signs or sacraments of justification, for they are the sacraments of
justifying faith and not of works. Their whole efficacy, therefore,
consists in faith itself, not in the doing of a work; for whoever
believes them fulfils them, even if he should not do a single work.
Whence has arisen the saying, "Not the sacrament but the faith of the
sacrament justifies." Thus circumcision did not justify Abraham and
his seed, and yet the Apostle calls it the seal of the righteousness
of faith [Rom. 4:11], because faith in the promise, to which
circumcision was added, justified him and fulfilled that which
circumcision signified. For faith was the spiritual circumcision of
the foreskin of the heart [Deut. 10:16; Jer. 4:4], which was
symbolised by the literal circumcision of the flesh. And in the same
manner it was obviously not Abel's sacrifice that justified him, but
it was his faith, by which he offered himself wholly to God and which
was symbolised by the outward sacrifice.
Even so it is not baptism that justifies or benefits anyone, but it is
faith in the word of promise, to which baptism is added. This faith
justifies, and fulfils that which baptism signifies. For faith is the
submersion of the old man and the emerging of the new. Therefore it
cannot be that the new sacraments differ from the old, for both have
the divine promise and the same spirit of faith; although they do
differ vastly from the olden types on account of the word of promise,
which is the one decisive point of difference. Even so, to-day, the
outward show of vestments, holy places, meats and of all the endless
ceremonies has doubtless a fine symbolical meaning, which is to be
spiritually fulfilled; and yet because there is no word of divine
promise attached to these things, they can in nowise be compared with
the signs of baptism and of the bread, nor do they in any way justify
or benefit one, since they are fulfilled in the very observance, apart
from faith. For while they are taking place or are being performed,
they are being fulfilled; as the Apostle says of them, in Colossians
ii, "Which are all to perish with the using, after the commandments
and doctrines of men." [Col. 2:22] The sacraments, on the contrary,
are not fulfilled when they are observed, but when they are believed.
It cannot be true, therefore, that there is in the sacraments a power
efficacious for justification, or that they are effective signs of
grace[95]. All such assertions tend to destroy faith, and arise from
ignorance of the divine promise. Unless you should call them effective
in the sense that they certainly and efficaciously impart grace, where
faith is unmistakably present. But it is not in this sense that
efficacy is now ascribed to them; as witness the act that they are
said to benefit all men, even the godless and unbelieving, provided
they do not oppose a "bar"--as if such unbelief were not in itself the
most obstinate and hostile of all bars to grace. So firmly bent are
they on turning the sacrament into a command, and faith into a work.
For if the sacrament confers grace on me because I receive it, then
indeed I obtain grace by virtue of my work and not of faith; I lay
hold not on the promise in the sacrament, but on the sign instituted
and commanded by God. Do you not see, then, how completely the
sacraments have been misunderstood by our sententious theologians?[96]
They have taken no account, in their discussions on the sacraments, of
either faith or the promise, but cling only to the sign and the use of
the sign, and draw us away from faith to the work, from the word to
the sign. Thus they have not only carried the sacraments captive (as I
have said)[97], but have completely destroyed them, as far as they
were able.
Therefore, let us open our eyes and learn to give more heed to the
word than to the sign[98], and to faith than to the work, for the use
of the sign, remembering that wherever there is a divine promise there
faith is required, and that these two are so necessary to each other
that neither can be efficacious apart from the other. For it is not
possible to believe unless there be a promise, and the promise is not
established unless it be believed. But where these two meet, they give
a real and most certain efficacy to the sacraments. Hence, to seek the
efficacy of the sacrament apart from the promise and apart from faith,
is to labor in vain and to ind damnation. Thus Christ says: "He that
believeth and is baptised, shall be saved; he that believe not shall
be damned." [Mark 16:16] He shows us in this word that faith is so
necessary a part of the sacrament that it can save even without the
sacrament; for which reason He did not see it to say: "He that
believeth not, _and is not baptised_. . ."
Baptism, then, signifies two things--death and resurrection; that is,
full and complete justification. The minister's immersing the child in
the water signifies death; his drawing it forth again signifies life.
Thus Paul expounds it in Romans vi, "We are buried together with
Christ by baptism into death; that as Christ is risen from the dead by
the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life."
[Rom. 6:4] This death and resurrection we call the new creation,
regeneration, and the spiritual birth. And this must not be understood
only in a figurative sense, of the death of sin and the life of grace,
as many understand it, but of actual death and resurrection. The
significance of baptism is not an imaginary significance, and sin does
not completely die, nor does grace completely rise, until the body of
sin that we carry about in this life is destroyed; as the Apostle
teaches in the same chapter [Rom. 6:6]. For as long as we are in the
flesh, the desires of the flesh stir and are stirred. Wherefore, as
soon as ever we begin to believe, we also begin to die to this world
and to live unto God in the life to come; so that faith is truly a
death and a resurrection, that is, it is that spiritual baptism in
which we go under and come forth.
Hence it is indeed correct to say that baptism is a washing from sins,
but that expression is too weak and mild to bring out the full
significance of baptism, which is rather a symbol of death and
resurrection. For this reason I would have the candidates for baptism
completely immersed in the water, as the word[99] says and as the
sacrament signifies. Not that I deem this necessary, but it were well
to give to so perfect and complete a things a perfect and complete
sign; thus it was also doubtless instituted by Christ. The sinner does
not so much need to be washed as he needs to die, in order to be
wholly renewed and made another creature, and to be conformed to the
death and resurrection of Christ, with Whom, through baptism, he dies
and rises again. Although you may properly say that Christ was washed
clean of mortality when He died and rose again, yet that is a weaker
way of putting it than if you said He was completely changed and
renewed. In the same way it is far more forceful to say that baptism
signifies our utter dying and rising to eternal life, than to say that
it signifies merely our being washed clean from sins.
Here, again, you see that the sacrament of baptism, even in respect to
its sign, is not the matter of a moment, but continues for all time.
Although its administration is soon over, yet the thing it
signifies[100] continues until we die, nay, until we rise at the last
day. For as long as we live we are continually doing that which our
baptism signifies,--we die and rise again. We die, that is, not only
spiritually and in our affections, by renouncing the sins and vanities
of this world, but we die in very truth, we begin to leave this bodily
life and to lay hold on the life to come; so that there is, as they
say, a real and even a bodily going out of this world to the Father.
We must, therefore, beware of those who have reduced the power of
baptism to such a vanishing point as to say that the grace of God is
indeed inpoured in baptism, but afterwards poured out again through
sin, and that thereupon one must reach heaven by another way; as if
baptism had then become entirely useless. Do not you hold to such a
view, but know that baptism signifies your dying and living again, and
therefore, whether it be by penance or by any other way, you can but
return to the power of your baptism, and do afresh that which you were
baptised to do and which your baptism signified. Never does baptism
lose its power, unless you despair and refuse to return to its
salvation. You may, indeed, or a season wander away from the sign, but
that does not make the sign of none effect. You have, thus, been
baptised once in the sacrament, but you must be constantly baptised
again through faith, you must constantly die, you must constantly live
again. Baptism swallowed up your whole body, and gave it forth again;
even so that which baptism signifies[101] should swallow up your whole
life in body and soul, and give it forth again at the last day, clad
in robes of glory and immortality. We are, therefore, never without
the sign of baptism nor yet without the thing it signifies; nay, we
must be baptised ever more and more completely, until we perfectly
fulfil the sign, at the last day.
Therefore, whatever we do in this life that avails for the mortifying
of the flesh and the giving life to the spirit, belongs to baptism;
and the sooner we depart this life the sooner do we fulfil our
baptism, and the greater our sufferings the more closely do we conform
to our baptism. Hence those were the Church's halcyon days, when the
martyrs were being killed every day and accounted as sheep for the
slaughter [Ps. 44:22; Rom. 8:36]; for then the power of baptism
reigned supreme in the Church, which power we have to-day lost sight
of amid the multitude of works and doctrines of men. For all our life
should be baptism, and the fulfilling of the sign, or sacrament, of
baptism; we have been set free from all else and wholly given over to
baptism alone, that is, to death and resurrection.
[Sidenote: The Glorious Liberty of the Baptised]
This glorious liberty of ours, and this understanding of baptism have
been carried captive in our day; and whom have we to thank for this
but the Roman pontiff with his despotism? More than all others, it was
his first duty, as chief shepherd, to preach and defend this liberty
and this knowledge, as Paul says in I Corinthians: "Let a man so
account of us as of the ministers of Christ, and the dispensers of the
mysteries, or sacraments[101], of God." [1 Cor. 4:1] Instead of this,
he seeks only to oppress us with his decrees and his laws, and to
enslave and ensnare us in the tyranny of his power. By what right, in
God's name, does the pope impose his laws upon us? to say nothing of
his wicked and damnable neglect to teach these mysteries. Who gave him
power to despoil us of this liberty, granted us in baptism? One thing
only (as I have said)[103] has been enjoined upon us all the days of
our life,--to be baptised; that is, to be put to death and to live
again, through faith in Christ; and this faith alone should have been
taught, especially by the chief shepherd. But now there is not a word
said about faith, and the Church is laid waste with endless laws
concerning works and ceremonies; the power and right understanding of
baptism are put by, and faith in Christ is prevented.
Therefore I say: Neither pope nor bishop nor any other man has the
right to impose a single syllable of law upon a Christian man without
his consent; and if he does, it is done in the spirit of tyranny.
Therefore the prayers, fasts, donations, and whatever else the pope
decrees and demands in all of his decretals, as numerous as they are
iniquitous, he demands and decrees without any right whatever; and he
sins against the liberty of the Church whenever he attempts any such
thing. Hence it has come to pass that the churchmen of our day are
indeed such vigorous defenders of the liberty of the Church, that is,
of wood and stone, of land and rents--for "churchly" is nowadays the
same as "spiritual"--yet with such fictions they not only take captive
but utterly destroy the true liberty of the Church, and deal with us
far worse than the Turk, in opposition to the word of the Apostle, "Be
not made the bondslaves of men." [1 Cor. 7:23] For, verily, to be
subjected to their statutes and tyrannical laws is to be made the
bondslaves of men.
This impious and desperate tyranny is fostered by the pope's
disciples, who here drag in and pervert that saying of Christ, "He
that heareth you heareth me." [Luke 10:16] With puffed cheeks they
blow up this saying to a great size in support of their traditions.
Though Christ spake it to the apostles when they went forth to preach
the Gospel, and though it applies solely to the Gospel, they pass over
the Gospel and apply it only to their fables. He says in John x: "My
sheep hear my voice, but the voice of a stranger they hear not" [John
10:27]; and to this end He left us the Gospel, that His voice might be
uttered by the pontiffs. But they utter their own voice, and
themselves desire to be heard. Moreover, the Apostle says that he was
not sent to baptise but to preach the Gospel [1 Cor. 1:17]. Therefore,
no one is bound to the traditions of the pope, nor does he need to
give ear to him unless he teaches the Gospel and Christ, and the pope
should teach nothing but faith without any restrictions. But since
Christ says, "He that heareth you heareth me," [Luke 10:16] and does
not say to Peter only, "He that heareth thee"; why does not the pope
also hear others? In fine, where there is true faith, there must also
be the word of faith. Why then does not an unbelieving pope now and
then hear a believing servant of his, who has the word of faith? It is
blindness, sheer blindness, that holds the popes in its power.
But others, more shameless still, arrogantly ascribe to the pope the
power to make laws, on the basis of Matthew xvi, "Whatsoever thou
shalt bind," [Matt. 16:19] etc., though Christ treats in this passage
of binding and loosing sins, not of taking the whole Church captive
and oppressing it with laws. So this tyranny treats everything with
its own lying words and violently wrests and perverts the words of
God. I admit indeed that Christians ought to bear this accursed
tyranny just as they would bear any other violence of this world,
according to Christ's word: "If one strike thee on thy right cheek,
turn to him also the other." [Matt. 5:39] But this is my
complaint,--that the godless pontiffs boastfully claim the right to do
this, that they pretend to be seeking the Church's welfare with this
Babylon of theirs, and that they foist this fiction upon all mankind.
For if they did these things, and we suffered their violence, well
knowing, both of us, that it was godlessness and tyranny, then we
might number it among the things that tend to the mortifying of this
life and the fulfilling of our baptism, and might with a good
conscience glory in the inflicted injury. But now they seek to deprive
us of this consciousness of our liberty, and would have us believe
that what they do is well done, and must not be censured or complained
of as wrongdoing. Being wolves, they masquerade as shepherds; being
anti-christs, they would be honored as Christ.
Solely in behalf of this freedom of conscience, I lift my voice and
confidently cry: No laws may by any right be laid upon Christians,
whether by men or angels, without their consent; for we are free from
all things. And if any laws are laid upon us, we must bear them in
such a way as to preserve the consciousness of our liberty, and know
and certainly affirm that the making of such laws is an injustice,
which we will bear and glory in, giving heed not to justify the tyrant
nor yet to rebel against his tyranny. "For who is he," says Peter,
"that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?" [1
Pet. 3:13] "All things work together or good to the elect." [Rom.
8:28]
Nevertheless, since but few know this glory of baptism and the
blessedness of Christian liberty, and cannot know them because of the
tyranny of the pope, I for one will clear my skirts and salve my
conscience by bringing this charge against the pope and all his
papists: Unless they will abolish their laws and traditions, and
restore to Christ's churches their liberty and have it taught among
them, they are guilty of all the souls that perish under this
miserable captivity, and the papacy is of a truth the kingdom of
Babylon, yea, of very Antichrist! For who is "the man of sin" and "the
son of perdition" [2 Thess. 2:3 f.] but he that with his doctrines and
his laws increases sins and the perdition of souls in the Church,
while he sitteth in the Church as if he were God? All this the papal
tyranny has fulfilled, and more than fulfilled, these many centuries;
it has extinguished faith, obscured the sacraments and oppressed the
Gospel; but its own laws, which are not only impious and sacrilegious,
but even barbarous and foolish, it has enjoined and multiplied world
without end.
Behold, then, our miserable captivity; how the city doth sit solitary
that was full of people! How the mistress of the Gentiles is become as
a widow: the princess of provinces made tributary! There is none to
comfort her, all her friends have despised her. [Lament. 1:1 f.] So
many orders, so many rites, so many sects, so many professions,
exertions and works, in which Christians are engaged, until they lose
sight of their baptism, and for this swarm of locusts, cankerworms and
caterpillars [Joel 1:4] not one of them is able to remember that he is
baptised or what blessings his baptism brought him. We should be even
as little children, newly baptised, who are engaged in no efforts and
no works, but are free in every way, secure and saved solely through
the glory of their baptism. For we are indeed little children,
continually baptised anew in Christ.
[Sidenote: Infant Baptism]
In contradiction of what has been said, some will perhaps point to the
baptism of infants, who do not grasp the promise of God and cannot
have the faith of baptism; so that either faith is not necessary or
else infant baptism is without effect. Here I say what all say:
Infants are aided by the faith of others, namely, those who bring them
to baptism[104]. For the Word of God is powerful, when it is uttered,
to change even a godless heart, which is no less deaf and helpless
than any infant. Even so the infant is changed, cleansed and renewed
by inpoured faith, through the prayer of the Church that presents it
for baptism and believes, to which prayer all things are possible
[Mark 9:23]. Nor should I doubt that even a godless adult might be
changed, in any of the sacraments, if the same Church prayed and
presented him; as we read in the Gospel of the man sick of the palsy,
who was healed through the faith of others [Matt. 9:1 ff.]. I should
be ready to admit that in this sense the sacraments of the New Law are
efficacious to confer grace, not only to those who do not, but even to
those who do most obstinately, oppose a bar[105]. What obstacle will
not the faith of the Church and the prayer of faith remove? Do we not
believe that Stephen by this powerful means converted Paul the
Apostle? But then the sacraments accomplish what they do not by their
own power, but by the power of faith, without which they accomplish
nothing at all, as has been said[106].
There remains the question, whether it is right to baptise an infant
not yet born, with only a hand or a foot presenting. Here I will
decide nothing hastily, and confess my ignorance. I am not sure
whether the reason given by some is sufficient,--that the soul resides
in its entirety in every part of the body; or it is not the soul but
the body that is externally baptised with water. Nor do I share the
view of others, that he who is not yet born cannot be born again, even
though it has considerable force. I leave these matters to the
teaching of the Spirit, and meanwhile permit every one to abound in
his own sense [Rom. 14:15 (Vulg.)].
[Sidenote: Vows and the Baptismal Vow]
One thing I will add--and would to God I might persuade all to do
it!--viz., completely to abolish or avoid all vows, be they vows to
enter religious orders, to make pilgrimages or to do any works
whatsoever, that we may remain in the liberty of our baptism, which is
the most religious and rich in works. It is impossible to say how
greatly that widespread delusion of vows lowers baptism and obscures
the knowledge of Christian liberty; to say nothing now of the
unspeakable and infinite peril of souls which that mania for making
vows and that ill-advised rashness daily increase. O most godless
pontiffs and unhappy pastors, who slumber on unheeding and indulge
your evil lusts, without pity or this "affliction of Joseph," [Amos
6:4-6] so dreadful and fraught with peril!
Vows should either be abolished by a general edict, particularly such
as are taken for life, and all men diligently recalled to the vows of
baptism, or else everyone should be warned not to take a vow rashly,
and no one encouraged to do so, nay, permission be given only with
difficulty and reluctance. For we have vowed enough in baptism, nay,
more than we can ever fulfil; if we give ourselves to the keeping of
this one vow, we shall have all we can do. But now we compass earth
and sea to make many proselytes [Matt. 23:15]; we fill the world with
priests, monks and nuns, and imprison them all in life-long vows. You
will find those who argue and decide that a work done in fulfilment of
a vow ranks higher than one done without a vow, and is to be rewarded
with I know not what great rewards in heaven. Blind and godless
Pharisees, who measure righteousness and holiness by the greatness,
number or other quality of the works! But God measures them by faith
alone, and with Him there is no difference between works except that
which is wrought by faith.
With such bombast these wicked men advertise their inventions and puff
up human works, to lure on the unthinking populace, who are almost
always led by the glitter of works to make shipwreck of their faith,
to forget their baptism and do despite to their Christian liberty. For
a vow is a kind of law or requirement; therefore, when vows are
multiplied, laws and works are necessarily multiplied, and when this
is done, faith is extinguished and the liberty of baptism taken
captive. Others, not content with these wicked allurements, add yet
this and say that entrance into a religious order is a new
baptism[107], as it were, which may afterward be repeated as often as
the purpose to live the religious life is renewed. Thus these
"votaries" have appropriated to themselves all righteousness,
salvation and glory, and let to those who are merely baptised nothing
to compare with them. Nay, the Roman pontiff, that fountain and source
of all superstitions, confirms, approves and adorns this mode of life
with high-sounding bulls and dispensations, while no one deems baptism
worthy of even a thought. And with such glittering pomp (as we have
said)[108] they drive the easily led people of Christ into certain
disaster, so that in their ingratitude toward baptism they presume to
achieve greater things by their works than others achieve by their
faith.
Therefore, God again shows Himself froward to the froward [Ps. 18:26],
and to repay the makers of vows for their ingratitude and pride,
causes them to break their vows or to keep them only with prodigious
labor; to remain sunk in them, never coming to the knowledge of the
grace of faith and baptism; to continue in their hypocrisy unto the
end--since their spirit is not approved of God--and at last to become
a laughing-stock to the whole world, ever ensuing righteousness and
never attaining unto righteousness; so that they fulfil the word of
Isaiah: "The land is full of idols." [Isa. 2:8]
I am indeed far from forbidding or discouraging any one who may desire
to take a vow privately and of his own free choice; for I would not
altogether despise and condemn vows. But I would most strongly advise
against setting up and sanctioning the making of vows as a public mode
of life. It is enough that every one should have the private right to
take a vow at his peril; but to commend the vowing of vows as a public
mode of life--this I hold to be most harmful to the Church and to
simple souls. And I hold this, first, because it runs directly counter
to the Christian life; for a vow is a certain ceremonial law and a
human tradition or presumption, and from these the Christian has been
set free through baptism. For a Christian is subject to no laws but
the law of God. Again, there is no instance in Scripture of such a
vow, especially of life-long chastity, obedience and poverty[109]. But
whatever is without warrant of Scripture is hazardous and should by no
means be commended to any one, much less established as a common and
public mode of life, although whoever will must be permitted to make
the venture at his own peril. For certain works are wrought by the
Spirit in a few men, but they must not be made an example or a mode of
life or all.
Moreover, I greatly fear that these modes of life of the religious
orders belong to those things which the Apostle foretold: "They shall
teach a life in hypocrisy, forbidding to marry, to abstain from meats,
which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving." [1 Tim. 4:2
f.] Let no one retort by pointing to Sts. Bernard, Francis, Dominic
and others, who founded or fostered monastic orders. Terrible and
marvelous is God in His counsels toward the sons of men. He could keep
Daniel, Ananias, Azarias and Misael holy at the court of the king of
Babylon [Dan 1:6 ff.], that is, in the midst of godlessness; why could
He not sanctify those men also in their perilous mode of living or
guide them by the special operation of His Spirit, yet without
desiring it to be an example to others? Besides, it is certain that
none of them was saved through his vows and his "religious" life; they
were saved through faith alone, by which all men are saved, and with
which that splendid slavery of vows is more than anything else in
conflict.
But every one may hold to his own view of this [Rom. 14:5]. I will
return to my argument. Speaking now in behalf of the Church's liberty
and the glory of baptism, I feel myself in duty bound publicly to set
forth the counsel I have learned under the Spirit's guidance. I
therefore counsel the magnates of the churches, first of all, to
abolish all those vows, or at least not to approve and extol them. If
they will not do this, then I counsel all men who would be assured of
their salvation, to abstain from all vows, above all from the great
and life-long vows; I give this counsel especially to all growing boys
and youths. This I do, first, because this manner of life has no
witness or warrant in the Scriptures, as I have said, but is puffed up
solely by the bulls (and they truly are "bulls")[110] of human popes.
And, secondly, because it greatly tends to hypocrisy, by reason of its
outward show and its unusual character, which engender conceit and a
contempt of the common Christian life. And if there were no other
reason for abolishing these vows, this one were reason enough, namely,
that through them, faith and baptism are slighted and works are
exalted, which cannot be done without harmful results. For in the
religious orders there is scarce one in many thousands, who is not
more concerned about works than about faith, and on the basis of this
madness they have even made distinctions among themselves, such as
"the more strict" and "the more lax," as they call them[111].
Therefore I advise no one to enter any religious order or the
priesthood--nay, I dissuade everyone--unless he be forearmed with this
knowledge and understand that the works of monks and priests, be they
never so holy and arduous, differ no whit in the sight of God from the
works of the rustic toiling in the field or the woman going about her
household tasks, but that all works are measured before Him by faith
alone; as Jeremiah says: "O Lord, thine eyes are upon faith" [Jer.
5:3]; and Ecclesiasticus: "In every work of thine regard thy soul in
faith: for this is the keeping of the commandments." [Eccles. 32:27]
Nay, he should know that the menial housework of a maidservant or
manservant is ofttimes more acceptable to God than all the fastings
and other works of a monk or a priest, because the latter lacks faith.
Since, therefore, vows seem to tend nowadays only to the glorification
of works and to pride, it is to be feared that there is nowhere less
of faith and of the Church than among the priests, monks and bishops,
and that these men are in truth heathen or hypocrites, who imagine
themselves to be the Church or the heart of the Church, and
"spiritual," and the Church's leaders, when they are everything else
but that. And it is to be feared that this is indeed "the people of
the captivity," [Ps. 64:1 (Vulg.)] among whom all things freely given
us in baptism are held captive, while "the people of the earth" are
left behind in poverty and in small numbers, and, as is the lot of
married folk, appear vile in their eyes[112].
[Sidenote: Papal Dispensations and their Inconsistency]
From what has been said we learn that the Roman pontiff is guilty of
two glaring errors. In the first place, he grants dispensations from
vows[113], and does it as though he alone of all Christians possessed
this authority; such is the temerity and audacity of wicked men. If it
be possible to grant a dispensation from a vow, then any brother may
grant one to his neighbor or even to himself. But if one's neighbor
cannot grant a dispensation, neither can the pope by any right. For
whence has he his authority? From the power of the keys? But the keys
belong to all, and avail only for sins (Matthew xviii) [Matt. 18:15
ff.][114]. Now they themselves claim that vows are "of divine right."
Why then does the pope deceive and destroy the poor souls of men by
granting dispensations in matters of divine right, in which no
dispensations can be granted? He babbles indeed, in the section "Of
vows and their redemption,"[115] of having the power to change vows,
just as in the law the firstborn of an ass was changed or a sheep
[Ex.13:13]--as if the firstborn of an ass, and the vow he commands to
be everywhere and always offered, were one and the same thing, or as
if when God decrees in His law that a sheep shall be changed or an
ass, the pope, a mere man, may straightway claim the same power, not
in his own law but in God's! It was not a pope, but an ass changed for
a pope[116], that made this decretal; so egregiously senseless and
godless is it.
The other error is this. The pope decrees, on the other hand, that
marriage is dissolved if one party enter a monastery even without the
consent of the other, provided the marriage be not yet consummated.
Gramercy, what devil puts such monstrous things into the pope's mind!
God commands men to keep faith and not break their word to one
another, and again, to do good with that which is their own; for He
hates "robbery in a holocaust," [Isa. 61:8] as he says by the mouth of
Isaiah. But one spouse is bound by the marriage contract to keep faith
with the other, and he is not his own. He cannot break his faith by
any right, and whatever he does with himself is robbery if it be
without the other's consent. Why does not one who is burdened with
debts follow this same rule and obtain admission to an order, so as to
be released from his debts and be free to break his word? O more than
blind! Which is greater; the faith commanded by God or a vow devised
and chosen by man? Thou art a shepherd of souls, O pope? And ye that
teach such things are doctors of sacred theology? Why then do ye teach
them? Because, forsooth, ye have decked out your vow as a better work
than marriage, and do not exalt faith, which alone exalts all things,
but ye exalt works, which are naught in the sight of God, or which are
all alike so far as any merit is concerned[117].
I have no doubt, therefore, that neither men nor angels can grant a
dispensation from vows, if they be proper vows. But I am not fully
clear in my own mind whether all the things that men nowadays vow come
under the head of vows. For instance, it is simply foolish and stupid
for parents to dedicate their children, before birth or in early
infancy, to "the religious life," or to perpetual chastity; nay, it is
certain that this can by no means be termed a vow. It seems a mockery
of God to vow things which it is not at all in one's power to keep. As
to the triple vow of the monastic orders, the longer I consider it,
the less I comprehend it, and I marvel whence the custom of exacting
this vow has arisen. Still less do I understand at what age vows may
be taken in order to be legal and valid. I am pleased to find them
unanimously agreed that vows taken before the age of puberty are not
valid. Nevertheless, they deceive many young children who are ignorant
both of their age and of what they are vowing; they do not observe the
age of puberty in receiving such children, who after making their
profession are held captive and devoured by a troubled conscience, as
though they had afterward given their consent. As if a vow which was
invalid could afterward become valid with the lapse of time.
It seems absurd to me that the terms of a legal vow should be
prescribed to others by those who cannot prescribe them for
themselves. Nor do I see why a vow taken at eighteen years of age
should be valid, and not one taken at ten or twelve years. It will not
do to say that at eighteen a man feels his carnal desires. How is it
when he scarcely feels them at twenty or thirty, or when he feels them
more keenly at thirty than at twenty? Why do they not also set a
certain age-limit or the vows of poverty and obedience? But at what
age will you say a man should feel his greed and pride? Even the most
spiritual hardly become aware of these emotions. Therefore, no vow
will ever become binding and valid until we have become spiritual, and
no longer have any need of vows. You see, these are uncertain and
perilous matters, and it would therefore be a wholesome counsel to
leave such lofty modes of living, unhampered by vows, to the Spirit
alone, as they were of old, and by no means to change them into a rule
binding or life. But let this suffice for the present concerning
baptism and its liberty; in due time[118] I may treat of the vows at
greater length. Of a truth they stand sorely in need of it.