A06521:250
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.
Now it were a point of this art, for a man thus to say unto his heart,1 if thou confess thy self to be a lost sheep, thou sayest right: but that thou wilt therefore run from Christ, and so think of him in thy mind, as though he were a man, which would chase and terrify thee, it is a suggestion and tentation of the devil. For if thou didst rightly consider him, and confess him as thy true shepherd, then wouldest thou not fly from his sight, neither ⟨p. 117⟩wouldest conceive terror in thy mind, but with all cheerfulness and boldness wouldest run unto him. For surely he is not therefore ready at hand that he may condemn thee, but he cometh to thee, seeking thee, that having laid thee on his shoulders, he may carry thee, and exempt & deliver thee from sins, errors, the devil and his power, yea and from all peril. Thou perceivest therefore that thou art a sinner, and hast deserved indignation, so much more earnestly is that shepherd to be sought and called for of thee, that he may deliver thee from it: of whom consider no otherwise in thy mind, then the sheep doth of his own shepherd, whom it can not fear, but seeing and hearing him becometh glad and cheerful, although it hath run from him, so that for this deed it hath a sufficient cause to fear. The whole matter therefore consisteth only in this, that thou do perfectly learn Christ aright,2 & consider him according to the word of God, and not according to the proper cogitations of thy mind, and thine own senses. For the cogitations of men are false and lying, but his words are true and can not deceive. Wherefore the word alone is to be engraven in our heart, and we must cleave unto it with a constant mind, whereby we may reprove our own heart of lying. For it alone must be true, and all things else that are contrary to it, false and vain. But truly this is an art, whereof I am ignorant, but much more those other light spirits, who boast many things of it, as they that know all things, when as they have even once heard any thing thereof, and nevertheless they do not a little perceive or try so much as any whit of it. For it is an easy thing to speak and preach of it, but how hard a thing it is to prove it in deed, they only have experience, who earnestly make trial thereof.
Now it were a point of this art, for a man thus to say vnto his heart,