A06521:544
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.
This place surely is very copious, and containeth in it divers things most worthy to be known, so that I greatly fear, that it shall not be handled of us according to the worthiness thereof. For it teacheth that it is not sufficient to believe that Christ is ⟨p. 298⟩come, but that we must also believe that he was sent of God, is the son of God, and also very man, borne of a Virgin, who alone hath fulfilled the Law, and that not for himself, but for us, that is, for our salvations sake. Let us weigh and consider these things in order. First it is sufficiently taught in the Gospel of John, that Christ is the son of God, and was sent of God, which he that believeth not is in a most miserable case, as Christ himself pronounceth Joh. 8: Except ye believe that I am he, ye shall dye in your since. And Joh. 1: In it was life, and that life was the light of men. For this cause the mind of man neither may nor ought to enjoy any other thing then that sovereign good, so, that it should be satisfied with any other then with it, whereof it was made, and which is the fountain of all good things: wherefore it is not the will of God that we should believe or repose our trust in any other thing, neither doth this honour belong to any other. And therefore God himself joined himself to man,1 being made man, that he might more forcibly allure men into him, and stir them up to believe in him. No good could come unto God hereby, but it was necessary for us that he should be made man, lest that we should believe in any other thing than in God alone. For if we should believe in Christ, and not in God, as God should be deprived of his honour, so should we be deprived of life and salvation. For we must believe in one God, who is the very truth, and we without him can neither live, nor obtain salvation. Whereas therefore the Apostle saith: God sent forth his Son, it is thereby manifest, that he was, before he came and was made man. Now if he be a son, he is more then a man or an Angel, which seeing they are the highest creatures, surely he is also true God. For to be the son of God is more then to be an Angel, as it is else where declared. Again,2 seeing that he is sent of God, and is his son, he must needs be an other person. And so the Apostle teacheth here, that the Father and the Son are one God, and two persons.