A06492:844
Commentary upon the Epistle to the Galatians
A commentary of M. Doctor Martin Luther upon the Epistle of S. Paul to the Galatians first collected and gathered word by word out of his preaching, and now out of Latin faithfully translated into English for the unlearned. Wherein is set forth most excellently the glorious riches of Gods grace ...A commentarie of M. Doctor Martin Luther vpon the Epistle of S. Paul to the Galathians first collected and gathered vvord by vvord out of his preaching, and novv out of Latine faithfully translated into English for the vnlearned. Wherein is set forth most excellently the glorious riches of Gods grace ...
London: printed by Thomas Vautroullier dwelling wihtin sic, 1575London: printed by Thomas Vautroullier dvvelling vvihtin sic, 1575
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Verse. 19. Wherefore then serveth the law?
Verse. 19. VVherfore then serueth the lavve?
When we teach that a man is justified without the law and works, then doth this question necessarily follow: If the law do not justify, why then was it given? Also: Why doth God charge us and burden us with the law, if it do not justify? What is the cause that we are so hardly exercised and vexed with it, if they which work but one hour are made equal with us, which have borne the heat & burden of the day? When as that grace is once published unto us which the Gospel setteth out,1 by and by ariseth this great murmuring: without the which the Gospel can not be preached. The Jews had this opinion, that if they kept the law, they should be justified thereby. Therefore when they heard that the Gospel was preached concerning Christ, who came into the world to save, not the righteous, but sinners, & that they should go before ⟨image 150⟩them into the kingdom of God, they were wonderfully offended, complaining that they had borne the heavy yoke of the law so many years with great labour and toil, and that they were miserably vexed and oppressed with the tyranny of the law, without any profit, yea rather to their great hurt: Again, that the Gentiles who were Idolaters, obtained grace without any labour or travel.2 So do our Papists murmur at this day, saying: What hath it profited us that we have lived in a Cloister twenty, thirty, or forty years: that we have vowed chastity, poverty, obedience: that we have said so many Psalters, and so many Canonical Hours, & so many Masses: that we have so punished our bodies with fasting, prayers, chastisements. &c. if a husband, a wife, a Prince, a governor, a master, a scholar: if an hireling or a drudge bearing sacks, if a wench sweeping the house shall not only be made equal with us, but also be accepted as better and more worthy before God then we?