A06521:704
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.
To love God with all the soul,1 is to bestow our whole life & body at his pleasure, as if the love of creatures, or any tentation assail thee, or would overcome thee, thou mayst say: I will rather part from all these then I will forsake my God, whether he cast me of, either kill me, either drown me, or whatsoever through his permission shall come unto me, I had rather leave all things then him, I will depend on that my Lord, rather then upon all creatures, or upon any other thing whatsoever it be. Whatsoever I have and am, I will bestow, but him will I not forsake. The soul in the Scriptures signifieth the life of the body, & whatsoever is done by the five senses, as to eat, to drink, to sleep, to wake, to see, to hear, to smell, to taste, and whatsoever the soul worketh by the body.2 To love God with all the strength, is for Gods cause to renounce all the members and limbs of the body, so that one will offer to peril whatsoever he is able in his flesh and body, before he will commit that which is against God. To love God with all the mind,3 is to enterprise nothing but that which many please God, whereby he understand death the thought, which is in man, that that also be referred to God, and to all things that be acceptable unto him. Thou perceivest now what this commandment of God containeth in it. Thou shalt love God, Thou, Thou saith he, and that wholly, even every part of thee, not thy hands, not thy mouth, not thy knees alone. They which do these things, as it is said, do truly fulfil it: but no man liveth in the earth which doth so, yea we do all otherwise. Wherefore the law doth here make us all sinners, so that not so much as the least jot or point thereof is fulfilled of them that are most holy of all in the world. For no man doth so cleave with all his heart unto God, that he can leave all things ⟨p. 398⟩for his sake. We (alas) are gone so far, that we can not suffer so much as a little word, nay we will not forgo the value of a halfpenny for Gods cause.
To loue God with all the soule,1