Part 45 (1/2)

We shall now speak of the fruit of this sacrahbor even as God has treated us Noe have received froed and given us His righteousness and everything that He has, has poured out upon us all His treasures, which no el can understand or fatho even from the earth to the heavens

[Sidenote: The Lack of Love]

Love, I say, is a fruit of this sacra you here in Wittenberg, although there is ht to practice it above all other things This is the principal thing, and alone is seeerness for this, and you want to do all sorts of unnecessary things, which are of no account If you do not want to show yourselves Christians by your love, then leave the other things undone, too, for St Paul says in I Corinthians, ”If I speak with the tongues ofbrass or a tinkling cy of Paul And further: ”And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all h I have all faith, so that I could re And if I bestow all ive my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth ot so far as that, although you have received great and rich gifts froe of the Scriptures It is true, you have the pure Gospel and the true Word of God, but no one as yet has given his goods to the poor, no one has yet been burned, and even these things would profit nothing without love You would take all of God's goods in the sacraain in love One will not lend the other a helping hand, no one thinks first of another, but every one looks out or hi else go as it will,--if anybody is helped, well and good No one looks after the poor or seeks how to help them It is pitiful You have heard many sermons about it and all e you to faith and love

And if you will not love one another, God will send a great plague upon you; let this be a warning to you, for God will not reveal His Word and have it preached in vain You are te God too far, my friends If some one in times past had preached the Word to our forefathers, they would perchance have acted differently Or if the Word were preached to-day to many poor children in the cloisters, they would receive it with ive yourselves to other things, which are unnecessary and foolish

I commend you to God

THE EIGHTH SERMON

A SHORT SUMMARY[21] OF THE SERMON OF DR M LUTHER DELIVERED ON REMINISCERE SUNDAY ON PRIVATE CONFESSION

[Sidenote: Confession before the Congregation]

Noe have heard all the things which ought to be considered here, except confession Of this we shall speak now In the first place, There is a confession which is founded on the Scriptures; namely, when soe, and is accused before the congregation If he abandons his sin, they intercede for hiation, he is excluded fro to do with him And this confession is commanded by God in Matthew xviii, ”If thy brother trespass against thee (so that thou and others are offended), go and tell him his fault between thee and hier even a trace to be found, and in this particular the Gospel is put aside in this place He who could reestablish it would perforht to have taken pains and reestablished this kind of confession, and let the other things go For by this no one would have been offended, and it would have been accomplished without disturbance It should be done in this way: When you see a usurer, adulterer, thief or drunkard, you should go to hiive up his sin If he will not hear, you should take two others with you and adive up his sin But if he scorns that, you should tell the pastor before the whole congregation, have your witnesses with you, and accuse hi: ”Dear pastor, this man has done this and that, and would not receive our brotherly adether with ive up and willingly acknowledge his guilt, the pastor should exclude him and put him under the ban before the whole asseation, until he coain This would be Christian But I cannot undertake to carry it out single-handed

[Sidneote: Confession to God]

Secondly, A confession is necessary for us, e go away in a corner by ourselves, and confess to God Himself and pour out before Him all our faults And this confession is also commanded From this comes the familiar word of Scripture: ”_Facite judicium et justitiam_” [Gen

18:19] _Judicium acere est nos ipsos accusare et damnare; justitiam autem acere est idere misericordiae Dei_[22] As it is written, ”Blessed are they that keep judg and conde himself, and this is true hu else than ato God or the ain This is what David ressions unto the Lord,” [Ps 32:5 f]

and, ”Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin; for this all Thy saints shall pray unto Thee”

[Sidenote: Confession to a Brother]

Thirdly, There is also a confession when one takes another aside, and tells him what troubles him, so that he may hear from him a word of comfort; and this confession is co which I condeo to confession just because the pope wishes it and has commanded it For I wish him to keep his hands of the confession and not make of it a compulsion or command, which he has not the power to do Yet I will let no ive it up for all the treasures in the world, since I knohat coiven me No one knohat it can do or hiledago, if the confession had not sustained me For there are many doubts which a man cannot resolve by himself, and so he takes a brother aside and tells him his trouble What harhbor, puts himself to shame, looks or a word of comfort from him, and takes it to himself and believes it, as if he heard it from God hiree as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them”

[Matt 18:19]

[Sidenote: Many Absolutions]

And we then our tiainst God

Therefore no man shall forbid the confession nor keep or drive any one away froer to be rid of theo and confess to another in secret, and receive what is said to him there as if it ca and firnore this confession and confess to God alone But howfaith? Therefore, as I have said, I will not let this private confession be taken from me Yet I would force no one to it, but leave the matter to every one's free will

[Sidenote: Five Comforts for the Conscience]

For our God is not so thening for our conscience, or one absolution, but we have many absolutions in the Gospel, and are showered richly with theive ive you” [Matt

6:14] Another coive us our trespasses,” [Matt 6:12] etc A third is our baptism, when I reason thus: See, my Lord, I arace and o and receive a sure absolution as if God Himself spake it, so that I iven Finally I take to myself the blessed sacran that I am rid of my sins and God has freed me froives me His body to eat and His blood to drink, so that I shall not and cannot despair: I cannot doubt I have a gracious God Thus we see that confession must not be despised, but that it is a true comfort And since we need ainst the devil, death, hell and sin, we must not allow any of our weapons to be taken away, but keep intact the whole arainst our eneht with the devil and to overcome him I knoell; I have eaten salt with him once or twice[24] I know him well, and he knows me well, too I only you knew him, you would not in this manner drive out confession

I commend you to God Amen

FOOTNOTES