Part 5 (1/2)

Yet they must confess, no thanks to them, that St. Peter here speaks to all those that are Christians, even to those who lay aside all wickedness, deceit, hypocrisy and malice, etc., and are like new-born children, and drink the pure milk: so that their lie must bite itself in their mouth, since it stands forth a thing not to be gainsaid, that St. Peter speaks to all that are Christians; whence it is clear that they lie, and that St. Peter says nothing of their priesthood, which they have fancied and arrogate to themselves alone; wherefore our bishops are nothing but Nicholas-bishops, and as is their priesthood so are also their laws, sacrifices and works. It might be an excellent play to act out in the deep night, except that under the mask the divine name is reviled.

Therefore those alone are the holy and spiritual priesthood, who are true Christians and built upon this stone.

For since Christ is the bridegroom, and we all of us are the bride, so then the bride has all which the bridegroom has, even His own body; for if He gives Himself to the bride, He gives Himself for what He is, and on the other hand the bride gives herself to Him. Now Christ has been anointed the high and most exalted priest by G.o.d Himself; has also sacrificed His own body for us, which is the office of the high priest; besides, He prayed on the cross for us. Again, He has also preached the Gospel, and taught all men to know G.o.d and Himself.

These three offices has He also given to all of us: therefore, since He is a priest and we are his brethren, so all Christians have it in their power and charge, and an obligation rests upon them, to preach and to come before G.o.d, and that one should entreat for another and offer himself up to G.o.d; and provided that any one begin to preach the word of G.o.d or address it to others, he is then a priest.

_To offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to G.o.d through Jesus Christ._ As to spiritual offerings, it is not necessary that we should present them to the Pope; neither is sacrifice such as it was in the Old Testament, when men were required to sacrifice the tenth of all they had. Such outward sacrifices and priesthood have all now ceased, and all has become new and spiritual. The priest is Christ; and we all, since He has sacrificed His own body, must offer up ourselves. Here is now fulfilled all that was typified by outward sacrifices in the Old Testament, since they have all pa.s.sed away, and all of them may be said compendiously to preach the Gospel. Whoever preaches this exercises and carries out all that former--strikes the calf dead,--that is, kills the carnal mind and the old Adam. For this stubborn nature in flesh and blood must be slain by the Gospel; thus do we permit ourselves to be offered upon the cross and to die.

Herein is exercised the true priest's office, in that we sacrifice to G.o.d that wicked rogue, the corrupt old dolt (of our nature); if the world does it not, we must do it ourselves; but it must in the end be all removed, whatever we have of the old Adam, as we heard above in the first chapter. This is the only sacrifice that pleases and is acceptable to G.o.d. From this you may perceive whereto our foolish and blind leaders have brought us, and how this text has been kept under the bench. Now you may say, If that is true, that we are all priests and ought to preach, what sort of an inst.i.tution is there? must there then be no distinction among the people, and are the women, also, to be priests? Answer. In the Old Testament it is permitted to no priest to wear the tonsure. Not that it is wrong in itself; a person might very well suffer himself to be shorn if he chose, but it is reason that none make a distinction between himself and common Christians,--a thing which faith will not permit. So that they who are now called priests are all laymen like the others, and only some, for the office' sake, are selected out of the Church to preach. Thus there is only an outward distinction for the office' sake, inasmuch as one is called of the Church; but before G.o.d there is no difference, and some individuals are selected from the mult.i.tude, in order that they may bear and exercise the office which they all have; not that one is more elect than another. Therefore, no one should rise up of himself and preach in the Church, but one is to be selected and inst.i.tuted out of the congregation, who may be removed when it is desirable.

Yet have these men a.s.sumed a position of their own; as though directed by G.o.d, they have arrogated to themselves such license, that almost in the heart of christendom there is a greater distinction than that which exists between us and the Turks. When you look upon Christians you must observe no distinction, and you are not to say, this is a man or a woman, a servant or a master, old or young; as Paul tells us, Gal. iii.: They are all one and a purely spiritual people. So that all alike are priests, all alike may proclaim G.o.d's word, except that a woman is not to speak in the Church; but let the men preach, because of the command that they are to be subject to their husbands--as St. Paul teaches us, I. Cor. xiv.: Such order G.o.d permits to remain, but makes no distinction of the election. But where there are no men, but women only, as in the Nun's Cloisters, there a woman may be selected to preach.

This is now the true priesthood, which consists in those three points as we have heard,--namely, that we sacrifice spiritually; that we pray for the Church; that we preach. Whoever will do this, he is a priest, as all are bound to be, inasmuch as they should preach the word, pray for the Church, and offer themselves up before G.o.d. Let those fools then go who call the inst.i.tution of the priests spiritual, who yet bear no other office but just to wear the tonsure and to be anointed. If the being shorn and anointed makes a priest, then might I easily shear an a.s.s and anoint him, so that he should be a priest also.

Finally, St. Peter says, that we are to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to G.o.d through Jesus Christ. Since Christ is the corner stone whereon we are laid, it must be only through him that we are to treat with G.o.d, as we have heard sufficiently above; for G.o.d does not look upon my cross even though I torture myself to death, but he looks upon Christ through whom my works are acceptable before G.o.d, which otherwise would not be worth an alms of a straw's value. Therefore Scripture calls Christ properly a precious corner stone which imparts its virtue to all who through faith are built upon it. So, also, St. Peter teaches us in this pa.s.sage how Christ is the living stone--what Christ is; and the figure is a fine one, since it is easy to understand by it how we are to believe on Christ.--It follows, now, further:

V. 6-10. _Therefore it is contained in Scripture, Behold I lay in Zion an elect precious corner stone, and whoever believeth on Him shall not be put to shame. To you therefore who believe, He is precious, but to the unbelieving, the stone which the builders rejected is made a corner stone, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence, even to those that stumble at the word and believe not thereon, whereunto they were appointed. But ye are the chosen generation, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, the peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praise of him who has called you out of darkness into his wonderful light: who once were not a people, but are now the people of G.o.d, to whom G.o.d did not show mercy, but (now have obtained mercy) to whom He is now merciful._

I have before said, that St. Peter has enriched and fortified his Epistle well with Scripture, just as all preachers should do, in order that their foundation may rest entirely on the word of G.o.d.

Here also he introduces four or five texts, one upon another. The first he has taken from the prophet Isaiah, word for word, that Christ is a precious corner stone or foundation, and is the very pa.s.sage which we have just treated of and somewhat explained. It is truly an eminent proof text of the doctrine of faith, which is to be laid down as a foundation when we are to preach in a place where Christ has not been preached before. For it must be confessed that Christ is the stone on which faith should be built and should stand.

But that the prophet does not speak in this place of a material stone is evident from this, that it afterward follows, ”whoever believes on Him shall not be made ashamed.” If I am to _believe_ on Him, it must be a stone in a spiritual sense. For how am I to believe on stone and wood? Besides, He must be truly G.o.d, since, in the first commandment, G.o.d has forbidden that we should believe on anything else, but on Him only. Since then this stone is laid as a foundation on which we are to trust, it must be G.o.d Himself. On the other hand, He cannot be G.o.d alone, but must also therewith be like man, because He must be a part of the building, and not merely a part, but the head. If a man then erects a building, one stone must be like the other, that each have the complexion, nature, and form of the other: therefore, since we are built on Christ, he also must be like us, and of the same nature with the other stones that rest upon Him, even a real humanity as we all have. Thus does the Scripture, by simple and few words, express so great a matter, even the entire _summa_ of our faith, and in such brief words comprises more than any man can express.

Now what this that builds us up is, I have already said--namely, faith, whereby we are laid on Christ, and repose our trust upon this stone, and thus become like Him; and then this also must follow, that the building must be fitted one part to the other, for the other stones must all be laid and placed upon this stone. That is, of course, that love is a fruit of faith.

But why does the prophet call Him a foundation stone? For this reason: that no man can build a house except he lay one stone first as a foundation, for the other stones in the building cannot stand except on the foundation stone.

So we must all of us rest on Christ, and confess Him for a foundation stone. Therefore we are not to pride ourselves that the stone must receive something from us, but we must receive blessing from it alone; for we do not bear it up, but it bears us up, and upon Him lies sin, death, h.e.l.l, and all that we have to bear. So that all this--and whatever jars against us--cannot injure us if we have been placed on this foundation.

For if we remain resting on him, and leave ourselves upon Him, we must then remain where He is; just as natural stones must be left on their foundation stone.

Besides, the prophet calls Him a corner stone. The Holy Spirit has a way of His own of saying much in few words. Christ is a corner stone because he has brought Gentiles and Jews together who were at dead enmity one with another, and thus the Christian Church has been gathered of both cla.s.ses, whereof the Apostle Paul writes largely.

The Jews gloried in the law of G.o.d, and that they were G.o.d's people, and so despised the heathen. But now Christ has come, has taken away their boasting from the Jews, and called us who were Gentiles; and thus he has made us both one, by one faith, and He has so dealt with us that we both must confess that we have nothing of ourselves, but are all sinners, and only must expect righteousness and heaven from Him, and that we Gentiles may as justly claim that Christ has come to help us, as the Jews; wherefore He is the corner stone that joins both together in one, so that it becomes one building and one house.

This, now, is the conclusion to which the prophet comes: Whoever believes on Him shall not be put to shame. When the Holy Spirit says, that they shall not be ashamed who believe on Christ, he gives us to understand what he has in view,--to wit, that he has already published and confirmed the sentence, that the whole world must be confounded and put to shame. Yet he would draw forth some out of the mult.i.tude, so that no one may escape the shame but he who believes on Christ. So Christ explains Himself in the last of Mark: ”Whoever believes and is baptised shall be saved; but he who believes not shall be d.a.m.ned;” in which words, moreover, He accords with the prophets. So that Peter said well in the first chapter, that the prophets sought out the time, and diligently inquired after the salvation and concerning the future grace that was previously promised. So now Christ is to be preached, that He it is who has rescued us from this shame into which we were all plunged.

Now let any one come forward who chooses, and exalt free-will, and defend human ability. Though you should commingle together all human works and doctrines, and whatever springs from man, you have enough in this single pa.s.sage to overthrow it all, so that it must all fall like dry leaves from the tree.

For it is doomed that whatever does not rest upon this stone, _that_ is already lost. He does not suffer that you should attain anything by works. With such simplicity speaks forth the Spirit and the Divine Majesty, that it despises no one, yet with such authority that it overcomes all things. Who, then, will set himself against it, or who will not be terrified by it? Therefore G.o.d would have us entirely despair as it regards ourselves, and appropriate to ourselves only the blessings which _He_ has, and build on that foundation which no creature can overthrow; so that no one should trust in his own righteousness, but on Christ's righteousness, and on all that Christ has. But what is it to rest upon His righteousness? Nothing else but that I should despond in regard to myself, and think with myself,--my righteousness, my truth, must go to pieces, and what is built thereon; while His righteousness, His truth, His life, and all the blessings which He has, are eternal. There lies the foundation on which I stand; whatever stands not on this foundation, will all necessarily fall. But he who lets himself fall back on this, he alone shall not be put to shame, and shall rest safe, so that no violence shall ever injure him at all. Therefore Christ must be not only a stone, but G.o.d will lay Him also as a foundation on which we should confide. G.o.d has said this, who cannot lie.

Now this stone is not subservient to itself, but suffers itself to be trodden on, and buried in the earth so that it cannot be seen, and the other stones lie upon it and can be seen. Wherefore, it is given to us that we should partake of Him, and rest upon Him, and believe that what He has shall all be ours, as what He has procured; that He has done it for us; so that I may say,--this is my own property and treasure, over which my conscience can exult.--But St. Peter says further:

V. 7, 8. _To you, therefore, who believe, He is precious; but to the unbelieving, the stone which the builders rejected has become a corner stone, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence._ This exceedingly precious stone, says Peter, is indeed, to some, precious and honorable. But on the other hand, it is also to many not precious, but despised, and a stone of stumbling. How is this? The Scripture ascribes to it a twofold aspect, inasmuch as there are some that believe thereon, and, on the other hand, many who do not believe thereon. To them who believe, is He precious; so that my heart must be glad if I repose my confidence and trust upon Him. Therefore he says,--to you that believe, He is precious; that is, ye are greatly dependent on Him; for although He in Himself is precious and excellent, yet this may be of no service or help to me. Therefore He must be precious to us for this reason, because He gives us so many precious blessings; as an excellently precious stone, which does not retain its virtue in itself, but breaks forth and imparts all its powers, so that I have all that _it_ is.

But the unbelieving hold Him not as such a precious stone, but reject Him, and stumble upon Him, because He is not pleasing to them, but obnoxious and hateful; although He is yet delightful in Himself.

These are not only the great, openly avowed sinners, but much more those great saints who rest on their free-will, on their own works and righteousness, who must stumble on this stone and run upon it.