A06521:203
Special and chosen sermons of D. Martin Luther collected out of his writings and…
Special and chosen sermons of D. Martin Luther collected out of his writings and preachings for the necessary instruction and edification of such, as hunger and seek after the perfect knowledge and inestimable glory which is in Christ Jesus, to the comfort and salvation of their souls. Englished by VV.G.Special and chosen sermons of D. Martin Luther collected out of his writings and preachings for the necessary instruction and edification of such, as hunger and seeke after the perfect knowledge and inestimable glorie which is in Christ Iesu, to the comfort and saluation of their soules. Englished by VV.G.
London: printed by Thomas Vautroullier, 1578
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.
Moreover, the hireling, saith Christ, which is not the shepherd, neither the sheep are his own, when he seeth the wolf coming, leaveth the sheep & fleeth, &c. 1This surely is a hard saying, that they which truly preach the Gospel, and strengthen & heal the sheep, nevertheless at the last do suffer the sheep to be caught and torn in pieces, and do then fly away, when the sheep have need of greatest help. As long as the wolves do not appear, they do their duty carefully & diligently, but as soon as they see the wolf break in, they forthwith leave the sheep. If they then have fed them well, that they be fat, strong, & whole, they are the better liked of the wolves, for whom they have fed them. But what is the hidden meaning of this parable? The meaning of Christ is this: In my kingdom (which consisteth in nothing else, but that the weak be strengthened, the sick healed, the faint hearted encouraged) the holy cross shall not be wanting.2 For when it is preached, that Christ only, whose silly sheep we are, hath care of us, strengtheneth, healeth, and helpeth us, & that our own strength and our own works are of no importance at all, (whereby all works of the world, and the diverse sorts of worshipping God which it inventeth are utterly disallowed) the world can not abide such manner of preaching, so that it is a natural property of the Gospel, to bring the cross with it as unseparably accompanying it, & he that will unfeignedly proofs it before the world, ⟨p. 90⟩must needs yield him self to bear persecution. Forasmuch as the case standeth thus, it is not hard to perceive how great difference there is between the true shepherds and the hirelings. He that is an hireling preacheth the Gospel as long as he is reported among men to be a learned,3 godly & holy man. But when as he is reproved or set upon as an heretic and wicked fellow, or moved to make a recantation, then he either recanteth, or taketh him self to his feet, leaving the miserable sheep alone without a shepherd, then their case becometh worse then it was before. What doth it then avail the sheep if they were well fed before?4 If they were true shepherds, they would spend their life before they would so leave the sheep to the jaws of the wolves, and would be ready always to offer their neck to the axe for the Gospels sake.