[Sidenote: Necessity and Choice]
Dear Friends: You heard yesterday the characteristics of a Christian
man, how his whole life is faith and love. Faith is directed toward
God, love toward man and one's neighbor, and consists in such love and
service for him as we have received from God without our work and
merit. Thus there are two things: the one, which is the most needful,
and which must be done in one way and no other; the other, which is a
matter of choice and not of necessity, which may be kept or not,
without endangering faith or incurring hell. In both, love must deal
with our neighbor in the same manner as God has dealt with us; it must
walk the straight road, straying neither to the let nor to the right.
In the things which are "musts" and are matters of necessity, such as
believing in Christ, love nevertheless never uses force or undue
constraint. Thus the mass is an evil thing, and God is displeased with
it, because it is performed as a sacrifice and work of merit.
Therefore it must be abolished. Here there is no room for question,
just as little as if you should ask whether you should pray to God.
Here we are entirely agreed: the private mass must be abolished, as I
have said in my writings[3]. And I heartily wish it would be abolished
everywhere and only the evangelical mass for all the people be
retained. Yet Christian love should not employ harshness here nor
force the matter. It should be preached and taught with tongue and
pen, that to hold mass in such a manner is a sin, but no one should be
dragged away from it by force. The matter should be let to God; His
word should do the work alone, without our work. Why? Because it is
not in my power to fashion the hearts of men as the potter moulds the
clay, and to do with them as I please. I can get no farther than to
men's ears; their hearts I cannot reach. And since I cannot pour faith
into their hearts, I cannot, nor should I, force any one to have
faith. That is God's work alone, who causes faith to live in the
heart. Therefore we should give free course to the Word, and not add
our works to it. We have the _jus verbi_[4], but not the
_executio_[5]; we should preach the Word, but the consequences must be
let to God's own good pleasure.
[Sidenote: Compulsion and Persuasion]
Now if I should rush in and abolish the mass by force, there are many
who would be compelled to consent to it and yet not know their own
minds, but say: I do not know if it is right or wrong, I do not know
where I stand, I was compelled by force to submit to the majority. And
this forcing and commanding results in a mere mockery, an external
show, a fool's play, man-made ordinances, sham-saints and hypocrites.
For where the heart is not good, I care nothing at all for the work.
We must first win the hearts of the people. And that is done when I
teach only the Word of God, preach the Gospel and say: "Dear lords or
pastors, desist from holding the mass, it is not right, you are
sinning when you do it; I cannot refrain from telling you this." But I
would not make it an ordinance for them, nor urge a general law; he
who would follow me could do so, and he who refused would remain
without. In the latter case the Word would sink into the heart and
perform its work. Thus he would become convinced and acknowledge his
error, and all away from the mass; to-morrow another would do the
same, and thus God would accomplish more with His Word than if you and
I would forge into one all power and authority. For if you have won
the heart, you have won the whole man--and the mass must finally fall
of its own weight and come to an end. And if the hearts and minds of
all men are united in the purpose--abolish the mass; but if all are
not heart and soul for its abolishment--leave it in God's hands, I
beseech you, otherwise the result will not be good. Not, indeed, that
I would again set up the mass; I let it live in God's name. Faith must
not be chained and imprisoned, nor bound by an ordinance to any work.
This is the principle by which you must be governed. For I am sure you
will not be able to carry out your plans, and if you should carry them
out with such general laws, then I will recant all the things that I
have written and preached, and I will not support you, and therefore I
ask you plainly: What harm can the mass do to you? You have your
faith, pure and strong, toward God, and the mass cannot hurt you.
[Sidenote: Paul's Method]
Love, therefore, demands that you have compassion on the weak, as all
the apostles had. Once, when Paul came to Athens, a mighty city, he
found in the temple many altars, and he went from one to the other and
looked at them all [Acts 17:16 ff.], but did not touch any one of them
even with his foot. But he stood in the midst of the market-place and
said they were all idolatrous works, and begged the people to forsake
them; yet he did not destroy one of them by force. When the word took
hold of their hearts, they forsook their idols of their own accord,
and in consequence idolatry fell of itself. Now, if I had seen that
they held mass, I would have preached and admonished them concerning
it. Had they heeded my admonition, they would have been won; if not, I
would nevertheless not have torn them from it by the hair or employed
any force, but simply allowed the Word to act, while I prayed for
them. For the Word created heaven and earth and all things; the Word
must do this thing, and not we poor sinners.
[Sidenote: Luther's Method]
[Sidenote: Jerome and Augustine]
In conclusion: I will preach it, teach it, write it, but I will
constrain no man by force, for faith must come freely without
compulsion. Take myself as an example. I have opposed the indulgences
and all the papists, but never by force. I simply taught, preached,
wrote God's Word; otherwise I did nothing. And then while I slept, or
drank Wittenberg beer with my Philip[6] and with Amsdor[7], the Word
so greatly weakened the papacy, that never a prince or emperor
inflicted such damage upon it. I did nothing; the Word did it all. Had
I desired to foment trouble, I could have brought great bloodshed upon
Germany, Yea, I could have started such a little game at Worms that
even the emperor would not have been safe. But what would it have
been? A fool's play. I did nothing; I left it to the Word. What do you
suppose is Satan's thought, when an effort is made to do things by
violence? He sits back in hell and thinks: How fine a game these fools
will make for me! But it brings him distress when we only spread the
Word, and let it alone do the work. For it is almighty and takes
captive the hearts, and if the hearts are captured the evil work will
all of itself. Let me cite an instance. Aforetime there were sects,
too, Jewish and Gentile Christians, differing on the law of Moses in
respect to circumcision. The former would keep it, the latter not [1
Cor. 7:18 ff.]. Then came Paul and preached that it might be kept or
not, it mattered not one way or the other; they should make no "must"
of it, but leave it to the choice of the individual; to keep it or
not, was immaterial. Later came Jerome, who would have made a "must"
out of it, and wanted laws and ordinances to prohibit it. Then came
St. Augustine, who held to the opinion of St. Paul: it might be kept
or not, as one wished; St. Jerome had missed the meaning of St. Paul
by a hundred miles. The two doctors bumped heads rather hard over the
proposition. But when St. Augustine died, St. Jerome accomplished his
purpose. After that came the popes; they would add something of their
own, and they, too, made laws. Thus out of the making of one law grew
a thousand laws, until they have completely buried us under laws. And
so it will be here; one law will soon make two, two will increase to
three, and so forth.
Let this be enough at this time concerning the things that are
necessary, and let us beware lest we lead astray those of weak
conscience.