A06521:73
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.
1By myrrh they signified a mortal man: for with myrrh dead bodies were anointed, that for certain years they should not putrefy. Now myrrh is a strong and bitter juice, which distilleth from the trees of Arabia, like unto gum, or as with us rosin issueth out of the pine tree, the fir tree, &c. But then ⟨p. 27⟩we offer myrrh unto Christ,2 when we firmly believe that he by his death hath overcome sin, Satan and hell. And this is a special faith. If we do but a little doubt here, it is not well with us. But if I believe from my hart, that death, sin, the devil, and hell are swallowed up in and by the death of Christ, I shall not be afraid of them all. I shall easily be preserved from rottenness which death bringeth, when I have myrrh, that is, the death of my Lord Christ in my body and soul, this will not suffer me to perish. So strong and valiant a thing is faith, unto which even all things are possible, as Christ saith Mar. 9. Here must we learn daily with our Lord Christ to bring under our old Adam, and to mortify his concupiscences, by the cross, and tentations, not that cross which we do chose, but which Christ layeth on us, let us bear it patiently and with a willing mind, that so our body may be subdued, and made subject to the spirit, that being so buried with Christ through baptism, we may be raised up again with him, and he alone may reign and live in us. Hereunto vehement sighing is required, which the holy Ghost doth make in us for our sake, as Paul saith Rom. 8. that Christ will help us, to keep under this unruly and obstinate flesh, that it presume not too licentiously, & thrust the noble soul into the mire. This our baptism doth signify, to wit, no other thing then that that old and stinking Adam be mortified, and buried, which we always ought to revolve in our mind, seeing that as long as we live here, sins do remain in us. Wherefore always some thing must be repaired in us without all intermission, through the cogitation of baptism, as it were in a house decayed through oldness, even until such time as we depart this life. Whereof S. Paul entreateth in very goodly words Rom. 6