Part 25 (1/2)

[Sidenote: The Unction and Faith]

If such prayer were made, even to-day, over a sick rave and saintly men--it is beyond all doubt that we could heal as lect this faith, which the authority of the Apostle demands above all else By presbyters--that is, e and their faith--we understand the common herd of priests Moreover, we turn the daily or voluntary unction into an extreme unction, and finally, we not only do not effect the result pro of the sick, but weafter the very opposite And yet we boast that our sacra of the Apostle, which is diaians we are! Now I do not condemn this our sacrament of extreme unction, but I firmly deny that it is what the Apostle Jarees with ours neither in form, use, power nor purpose Nevertheless we shall nu those sacra and sprinkling of salt and holy water[193] For we cannot deny that every creature is sanctified by the word and by prayer, as the Apostle Paul teaches us [1 Tiiveness of sins and peace are granted through extreme unction; not because it is a sacrament divinely instituted, but because he who receives it believes that these blessings are granted to him For the faith of the recipient does not err, however much the minister may err For one who baptises or absolves in jest[194], that is, does not absolve so far as the minister is concerned, does yet truly absolve and baptise if the person he baptises or absolves believe How much more will one who adh he does not really confer peace, so far as his ministry is concerned, since there is no sacrament there The faith of the one anointed receives even that which the ive; it is sufficient for him to hear and believe the Word For whatever we believe we shall receive, that we do really receive, it matters not what the minister may do or not do, or whether he disse of Christ stands fast,--”All things are possible to him that believeth,” [Mark 9:23] and, ”Be it unto thee even as thou hast believed” [Matt 8:13] But in treating the sacra at all of this faith, but only babble with all their ht of the virtues of the sacra to the knowledge of the truth” [2 Ti that this unction was made extreme unction, or, thanks to that, it has been disturbed and subjected least of all the sacrareed This one last ,--they may freely be anointed, even without confession and communion If it had remained a practice of daily occurrence, especially if it had conferred health on the sick, even without taking away sins, how many worlds would not the pontiffs have under their control to-day? For through the one sacrah the power of the keys, as well as through the sacrahty e that they despise the prayer of faith, and therefore do not heal any sick, and that they have made or themselves, out of an ancient ceremony, a brand-new sacrament

Let this suffice now for these four sacraments I knoill displease those who believe that the number and use of the sacraments are to be learned not froh the Root them from the lecture halls of the universities, to which it is unquestionably indebted or whatever it has The papal despotism would not have attained its present position, had it not taken over so s from the universities For there was scarce another of the celebrated bishoprics that had so few learned pontiffs; only in violence, intrigue, and superstition has it hitherto surpassed the rest For the o differ so vastly from those who have since come into power, that one is compelled to refuse the name of Roman pontiff either to the former or to the latter

[Sidenote: Other Possible Sacraht seeard as sacraiven, such as prayer, the Word, and the cross Christ promised, in many places, that those who pray should be heard; especially in Luke xi, where He invites us in many parables to pray [Luke 11:5 ff] Of the Word He says: ”Blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it” [Luke 11:28] And ill tell how often He prolory to such as are afflicted, suffer, and are cast down? Nay, ill recount all the promises of God? The whole Scripture is concerned with provoking us to faith; now driving us with precepts and threats, noing us with pros are written are either precepts or promises; the precepts humble the proud with their deiveness

[Sidenote: Baptism and Bread the Only Sufficient Sacraments]

Nevertheless, it has seemed best to restrict the nans attached to thens, are bare pro, but two sacraments in the Church of God--baptism and bread; for only in these two do we find both the divinely instituted sign and the proiveness of sins The sacrament of penance, which I added to these two[195] lacks the divinely instituted visible sign, and is, as I have said[196], nothing but a return to baptism Nor can the scholastics say that their definition fits penance, for they too ascribe to the sacran, which is to impress upon the senses the form of that which it effects invisibly But penance, or absolution, has no such sign; wherefore they are constrained by their own definition, either to admit that penance is not a sacrament, and thus to reduce the nu forward another definition

Baptism, however, which we have applied to the whole of life, will truly be a sufficient substitute for all the sacra as we live And the bread is truly the sacra of Christ out of this world, that we may imitate Him Thus we s to the beginning and the entire course of life, the bread belongs to the end and to death And the Christian should use the as he is in this poor body, until, fully baptised and strengthened, he passes out of this world and is born unto the new life of eternity, to eat with Christ in the Kingdom of His Father, as He promised at the Last Supper,--”Amen I say to you, I will not drink from henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God” [Matt 26:29] Thus He seems clearly to have instituted the sacrament of the bread with a view to our entrance into the life to co[197] of both sacraments is fulfilled, baptism and bread will cease

[Sidenote: Conclusion]

Herewith I conclude this prelude, and freely and gladly offer it to all pious souls who desire to know the genuine sense of the Scriptures and the proper use of the sacraift of no iven us, as it is said in I Corinthians ii [1 Cor 2:12], and what use we ought to ment, we shall nothere These two things our theologians never taught us, nay, methinks they took particular pains to conceal theht theiven occasion to others to think out so better

It has at least been s

Nevertheless, not all can do all things[198] To the Godless, on the other hand, and those who in obstinate tyranny force on us their own teachings instead of God's, I confidently and freely oppose these pages, utterly indifferent to their senseless fury Yet I wish even them a sound uish them from such as are sound and truly Christian

I hear a ruainst ed to recant or be declared a heretic[199] If that is true, I desire this book to be a portion of the recantation I shallhad their pains for nothing The re, and it will, please Christ, be such as the Roive ample proof of my obedience[200] In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen

Why doth that i is near?

He takes not earthly realives the realms that ne'er decay[201]

FOOTNOTES

[1] Born at Steinheim, near Paderborn, in Westphalia; a proofreader in Melchior Lotter's printing-house at Leipzig, hose oldest son he went to Wittenberg in 1519; professor of poetry at the university; rector of the same, 1525; one of Luther's staunchest supporters; rector of the school at Lunenberg, 1532 until his death in 1540

Compare Enders, _Luther's Briewechsel_, II, 490; Tschackert, _op

cit_, 203, and literature in Cleentiarum Virtute_, 1518; others think he refers to the Sermon _von Ablass und Gnade_, of the same year

[3] Sylvester Prierias and the Dominicans Comp Kostlin-Kawerau, Luther, I, 189 ff

[4] _Resolutiones super prop, xiii_, 1519

[5] Comp The Papacy at Roworter des Ref zeitalters_ (Leipzig, 1908), p 62

[7] The Franciscan Augustin Alveld See Introduction, and co, 1599)

[8] Isidore Isolani See Introduction