A06525:31
A very comfortable and necessary sermon in these our days made by the right…A very comfortable and necessary sermon in these our dayes made by the right…
A very comfortable and necessary sermon in these our days made by the right reverend father and faithful servant of Jesus Christ Martin Luther ; concerning the coming of our Saviour Christ to Judgement and the signs that go before the Last Day, which sermon is an exposition of the Gospel appointed to be red in the church on the second Sunday in Advent ; and is now newly translated out of Latin into English and something augmented and enlarged by the translator with certain notes in the margin.A very comfortable and necessary sermon in these our dayes made by the right reuerend father and faithfull seruaunt of Iesus Christ Martin Luther ; concerning the comming of our Sauior Christ to Iudgement and the signes that go before the Last Day, which sermon is an exposition of the Gospell appointed to be red in the church on the second Sonday in Aduent ; and is now newly translated out of Latin into English and something augmented and enlarged by the translator with certaine notes in the margent.
London: printed by John Daye, 1570London: printed by Iohn Daye, 1570
The Sermon, or exposition of the Gospel.The Sermon, or exposition of the Gospell.
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.
Ecclesiastical persons that are in authority, seek more the maintenance of their own honour and estimation, then the furtherance of the Gospel. They seek not the increase of godly preachers in their Dioceses, nor the reformation of such as are idle, and ungodly: ⟨image 17⟩yea they suffer their own families at home to be full of dissoluteness, much more their Diocese abroad. They admit into the ministry all manner lewd & unlearned persons: They able not unto one only, but unto many benefices, those that are both unable, & unwilling to discharge one, or to take any pains at all in the vineyard of God: yea many boys that are neither Ministers, nor fit to enter into the Ministry. Private Ministers are some of them, idle loiterers, dumb dogs, hirelings which suffer the wolf to devour their flock, feeders of them selves, and not of Christs sheep committed to their charge. Other some (taking upon them to be Preachers, not so much inwardly as outwardly called thereunto) in preaching the Gospel, preach them selves, and not Christ, as men not endued with the spirit of God ⟨image 18⟩(which without partiality reproveth all the world of sin, righteousness and Judgement) they rebuke some of lower sort, and flatter such as are able to do them a pleasure. They preach many times sound doctrine, but by their wicked living they bring it in contempt, and are thereby cause of more offences, than if they had spoken nothing at all. They speak many times of them selves, and not that which they have heard in the Prophets and Evangelists, and writings of the Apostles, but their own fantasies. They do not glorify Christ, but them selves: For they take not that which is Christs, but that which is their own, & declare that unto the people. The most part of the people hear not the word of God at all, but either absent them selves from y• Church, or else suddenly depart, before they have heard the Scriptures ⟨image 18⟩read, or any part thereof expounded. Generally all sorts of men, the more they are instructed by the word of God, the worse they are, & can not abide in any case to be reprehended and rebuked for their wickedness.
Ecclesiastical persons that are in authoritie, seke more the maintenaunce of their owne honour and estimation, then the furtherance of the Gospel. They seke not the encrease of godly preachers in their Diocesses, nor the reformatiō of such as are idle, and vngodly: