Survey of the Spiritual Antichrist, Part 1 · Chapter 11 · Conclusion 4
4. Conclusion.
Luther saith, the conscience of a beleever weake, and tender, terrified, challenged, accused▪ hath nothing to doe with the Law.
Luther tom. 1. f. 541.Luth. Nunquam p…c…at homo horribilius quam in eo articulo, in quo incipit legē sentire, s…u intelligere.
Luther tom. 2. l. 253.Impossibile est Christum & legem simul habitare in corde: aut enim legem aut Christum cedere oportet.
aLuther tom … f. 5….Discamus igitur diligentissimè hanc artem distinguendi inter has duas justitias,The guilt… conscience … beleever no… under the …. ut sciamus quatenus legi parere debeamus, diximus autem suprà quod lex in Christiano non debet exced…re limites s…os, se… tantum h… bere dominium in carnem Christiani — Dicas legi, consiste intra limites tuos, & exerce dominium in carnem, conscientiam autem n… attingas mihi, ubi nulla lex est.
Summa…rs & sapientia Christianorum est,bLu…her tom. 4 f 5. Excellent replyes of a beleever to the accusing Law. nescire legem, ignorare opera & totam justitiam activam, presertim cum conscientia luctatur cum judicio Dei: sicut extra populum Dei summa sapientia est, noscere, inspicere, & urgere legem, opera & activam justitiam.
Luther. cLuther tom. 4. fo. 15.Diabolo accusanti: tues peccator: ergo damnatus: respondere possumus: quia tu me peccatorem dicis, ideo vol… esse justus & salvus: imo damnaberis: non, confugio enim ad Christum qui sem tipsum tradidit pro peccatis meis.
dLuther to. 4 fo. 40.Cum conscientia perterrefit lege, nec ratio nem nec legem consulas: sed sola gratiâ ac consolationis verbo nitar…: ibi omnino sic te geras quasi nunquam de lege Dei quicquam audieras▪ sed…scendas in tenebras, ubi nec lex nec ratio lucet, sed solum aenigma fidei quae certo statuit te salvari extrà & ultrà legem— est & lex audienda sed suo loco & tempore.
Luth. Christiano nihil prorsus nego…ii▪ esse debet,eLuther to. 4. f. 46. A tempted bele…ver freed from the chalinges of the condemning Law. praesertim in tentatione cū lege & peccat…, quatenus est Christi…nus, est supra legem & peccatum, habet enim in corde praesen…em & inclusum, ut … gemmam, Christum d…m… num legis, itaque cum lex cum accusat, peccatum perterre▪ facit, int…tur Christum, quo fide apprehenso, habet …cum victorem legis peccati …orti… & diaboli, qui illis omnibus imperat, ne no…ere possint.
Luth tom. 4.117.Luther, Exten… tiones legis referend… sunt ad certamen conscientiae.
gLuth: tom: 4. f. 11….Nequ… satis viliter & odiose, cum in hoc argumento versamur, de ea loqui possumu…, ideo conscientia in vero agone nihil prorsus cogitare & nosse debet, nisi unicum Christum, acsummis viribus adnitatur, ut tum legem quam longissime è confl…ctu abjiciat.
hLuther tom … f. 118.Extra locum justificationis debemus cum Paulo reverenter sentire de lege & eam summis laudibus evehere, appellare sanctam, bonam, justam, spiritualem, divinam, …ebemus extra conscientiam facere ex ea Deum, in conscientia verò est verè Diabolus.
Luther tom. 1. f. 541.A man (a beleever) terrified in conscience, and under the despairing apprehensions of wrath doth never sin more horribly, then in that article of time, when he beginneth to feele and understand the Law (in its condemning power.)
Luther tom. 2. …. 253.Its unpossible that Christ and the Law can dwell together in one soule; for either must the Law or Christ yeeld the one to the other.
aLuther tom … f. 5….Luther, Let us learne to distinguish these two righteousnesses,The guilt… conscience … beleever no… under the …. that we may know how far we are to obey the Law, for we said that the Law ought not to exceed its limits, but only have dominion over the flesh of a Christian (to shew that he is a sinner, Saltmarsh saith free gr. 145. he is but a seeming sinner)—say thou to the law, stay within thy limits, and exercise dominion over the flesh, but come not neare my conscience (to condemne me, otherwise to obliege as a rule of obedience it doth) where there is no Law.
Its the great skill and wisdome of Christians to be ignorant of the Law and workes,bLu…her tom. 4 f 5. Excellent replyes of a beleever to the accusing Law. and of all active righteousnesse, especially when the conscience wrestleth with the justice of God, as without the Church of God, it is the great wisdome of God to know, consider, and presse the law, works and active righteousnes.
cLuther tom. 4. fo. 15.To the Divell accusing; thou art a sinner, and therefore damned, we may answer; because thou callest me a sinner, therefore I shall be just and saved: yea thou shall de damned: no, for I flye to Christ, who gave himselfe for my sinnes.
dLuther to. 4 fo. 40.When the concience is terrified with the Law, and wrestleth with the justice of God, consult neither with naturall reason, nor with the Law▪ but lean only to free grace and the word of consolation, and the…e thou mayest behave thy self as if thou hadst never heard any thing of the Law of God: there thou mayest enter in darknesse, where there shineth neither law nor reason, but only the mirror of faith, which may save thee without and beyond the Law— the Law is also to be heard in the own time and place.
eLuther to. 4. f. 46. A tempted bele…ver freed from the chalinges of the condemning Law.Luther, A Christian hath nothing at all to doe, especially under a temptation with the Law and sin, in so far as he is a Christian he is above the Law and sin, for he hath Christ the Lord of the Law inclosed in his heart as a ring hath a pearle indented in it; therefore when the Law accuseth him, and sin terrifieth him, he beholdeth Christ, who when he is apprehended by faith, he hath with him the conquerour of the law, sin, death, and hell, who commandeth these that they hurt him not.
Luth tom. 4.117.Extenuations of the Law, are referred to the conflict of conscience.
gLuth: tom▪ 4. f. 11….Nor can we vilely and hatefully enough speake of the Law in this argument; therefore the conscience in a true conflict, ought to thinke of, or know nothing but only Christ, and with all its might endeavour to remove the Law as far as can be, from the conflict.
hLuther tom … f. 118.Setting aside the case of justification, we ought with Paul to thinke reverently of the Law, and extoll it with great praises, as holy, good, just, spirituall, divine, and when the Law is out of the conscience, we are to make a God of it, but in the conscience its the Devill.
Now Antinomians not only in the case of Justification debase the Law, but they cry it downe as a rule of life, they have nothing to doe with Moses and his Law, or strict walking.
And where as Antinomians tell us the sinnes of beleevers are but sinnes to our sense and feeling, or before men, or sinnes in our conversation, not really, not before God, not in our conscience, not to faith, they never learned this from Luther, who expoundeth sense and faith a far other way.
For so iLuth…r tom. … f 154.55. A tempted s…nner is … from a sensitive … imp…ted rig…teousnesse.Luther speaketh, in a conflict of conscience we know by experience, sense of sin, wrath, hell, death, hath dominion, then we must say to the tempted, Brother, thou wouldst have a sensitive righteousnesse; that is, thou desirest to h…ve such a sense of righteousnesse, as thou hast of sinne▪ that shall not be; but thy righteousnesse must goe beyond the sense of sinne, and beleeve thou art righteous before God; that that is, thy righteousnesse is not visible or sensible, but there is hope it shall bee revealed in its owne time,
Luther iLuth…r tom. … f 154.55. A tempted s…nner is … from a sensitive … imp…ted rig…teousnesse.In certami…e conscientiae, experienti… doctiscimus, fortitor dominatur sensus peccati, irae dei, mortis, inferni-Ibi tum dicendum est, tentato: Tu frater vis habere iustititam sensitivam, id est, cupis ita sentire iustitiam, ut peccatum sentis, hoc non fiet. Sed tua iustitia debet transcendere sensum peccati & sperare te coram Deo justum esse, hoc est, …ustitia tua non est visibilis, non sensibilis, sed speratur suo tempore revelanda.
Luther never denyed the sinnes of beleevers to be reall sins, and that there was …o more originall sinne dwelling in a beleever then in Christ, as our grosse libertines doe. But he forbiddeth the tempted to measure their owne condition, as forlorne and hopelesse, from sense; because they feel sinne, wrath, hell, death, terrours of conscience, but contrary to the sense of all this, the weake soule must beleeve an invisible and spirituall righteousnesse, and seek no sensitive righteousnesse, as most men doe in conflicts of conscience.
Luther hath divers comfortable grounds of beleeving when the Law in its condemning power breakes in upon the conscience.
kLuther tom. 4.54. Christ on the crosse is to bee e…ed to comfort the weake beleever against his own sin.In cruce aliud peccatum invenio contra meum peccatum quod me accusat & devorat, peccatum scilicet aliud in carne Christi qui tollit peccatum mundi, omnipotens est, damnat & devorat peccatum meum.
l Fateor me peccâsse sed peccatum meum quod peccavi, damnatum est in Christo, qui est peccatum damnans, est autem peccatum illud damnans fortius damnato.
2 mLuther tom. 3 f. 376. The wayes of overcomming Law temptations.Luther, Sicut tutissimum est canem latrantem contemnere & praeterire, ita una vincendi ratio est contemnere rationes Satanae, neque cum iis disputare diutius.
nLuther tom. 3 f. 396.Textatus à Satana, cum nullum evadendi modum sent is, simpliciter claude oculos, & nihil responde, & commenda causam Deo.
oLuther tom. 3 376.Luther, Sathan nihil minus ferre potest quam sui contemptum.
pLuther tom. 3. fo. 489.Hi sunt amplexus ejus quibus amplectitur sponsam prae impatientia amoris.
qLuther tom. 4 f. 6.Luth. Non enim feram te (O lex) Tyrannum durum & crudelem exactorem in conscientia mea regnare; siquidem ea sedes est & templum Christi filii Dei.
rLuther tom. 4▪ f. 76.Qui possum esse sanctus cum habeam & sentiam peccatum? quod sentis & agnoscis peccatum, bonum est, gratias age Deo, ne despera. Est gradus ad sanitatem, cum aegrotus agnoscit, & fatetur morbum suum. S…d quomodo, liberabor à peccato? accurre ad medicum, mactatâ ratione, crede in eum.
Disce credere Christum non pro fictis aut pictis, sed veris, non pro parvis,sLuther tom. 4. f. 14. sed maximis: non pro uno atque alt…ro; Sed pro omnibus, non pro devictis (nullus: etiam Argelus velmi nimum peccatum vincere p…test) sed pro invictis peccatis traditum esse, & nisi inveniaris in numero eorum, qui dicuntur, nostri, hoc est qui ha…c fidei doctrinam habent▪ …cent, a… diunt, discunt, & ei credunt, tum plane de salu… tuâ actum est.
As 1. kLuther tom. 4.54. Christ on the crosse is to bee e…ed to comfort the weake beleever against his own sin.Luther, When I finde remorse of conscience for my sinne, I looke up to the brazen Serpent Christ on the crosse, and there I finde another sin against my sin, that other sinne in the flesh of Christ which taketh away the sinne of the world, is an omnipotent sinne and condemns and swallows up my sin.
And l I confesse I have sinned, but my sinne is condemned in Christ who is made a condemning sinne, and the condemning sin is stronger then the condemned.
2. mLuther tom. 3 f. 376. The wayes of overcomming Law temptations.As its most▪ safe to contemne and passe by a barking Dogge, so the only way of overcomming is to despise Sathans casting in thoughts, and dispute no longer with him.
And nLuther tom. 3 f. 396.when there is no escaping▪ close thy eyes and answer nothing, and commend the cause to God, he giveth a reason oLuther tom. 3 376.Sathan cannot indure to be a contemned enemy.
3. pLuther tom. 3. fo. 489.Luther, Tentations are the throngings or embracings of the bridegrome to the bride from impatience of love.
4. qLuther tom. 4 f. 6.Luther, The tempted is to say, I cannot endure thee (O Law) a rigorous Tyrant, and a cruell exacter, to reign in my conscience, for it is the seat and temple of Christ the Sonne of God.
5. rLuther tom. 4. f. 76.Luther, Its true the tempted saith, how can I be holy, when I have and f…el sin? that thou feelest and acknowledgest sin, its good, give thanks to God, despaire not; its a degree to health to feele sicknesse. But how shall I bee freed from sin? flye to the Physitian, follow not reason, beleeve, and sacrifice reason.
Antinomians comfort us thus, the sin of beleevers is seeming sin. Luther saith, its too reall, and must be cured by Christ.
6. sLuther tom. 4. f. 14.Luther, Christ dyed not for the painted and phancied, but for true sinners, and the chiefe sinners, not for one or two, but for all, not for conquered, but for unconquered sins, and if thou be of the number of these that beleeve, its good.
Luther, here would have the weake ones that finde hearing, learning, loving of his doctrine, … beleeving, that is such as have qualifications and conditions in them to know Christ dyed not for phancied men, but for them, Antinomians reject all qualifications and conditions▪ Yea.
Luther is for conditions in the Covenant of grace, and for preparations before conversion. Antinomians deny both.Luther comforts only these against the Law, who have this condition of Christ inclosed in their heart, as a pearle set in a ring, Luther tom. 4. f. 46. Yea though Luther be against all preparations of merits, yet is he cleare for preparations of order against the Antinomians.
tLuther tom. 4 f. 112.Legis proprium officium est nos reos facere, humiliare, occidere …o fi…e ut justificemur.
w Lex non facit filios Dei - atqui praeparat ad novam nativitatem qua fit per fidem.
xLuther to 4.10….Luther, Malleus lex opprimit pertinacem best ā presumptionem ut ista contusione homo in nihilum redactus desperat de sui… viribus: justitiam — …itiat misericordiam & remissi… nem peccatorum.
Luth. to. 1.472. Per fidem Christi non sumus liberi ab operibus, sed ad opinionibus ope…ū, id est, à stultâ praesumptione justificationis per opera quaesitae, fides enim conscientias nostras redimit, rectificat, & servat: quâ cognoscimus justitiam esse non in operibus, licet opera abesse neque possint, neque debeant.
Luther. Sentiens terrores & minas tuas, O Lex, immergo conscientiam meam in vulnera, sanguinem, mortem &c. Christi. Venit in mentem Christum velle expostulare nobiscum velle rationem à nobis exigere transactae vitae, &c.
zLuther tom. 4 f. 156.Luther. Cor dictat Deum adversum, verbum Dei sequi debeo, non sensum meum.
aLuth. 9. tom. 4. f. 289.Luther. Est diabolus persuasor mirificus— Verbum pingit Christum, non accusatorem, non durum exactorem.
Luther. bLuther to. 4. f. 289. Temtations and how they are resisted in the conscience.Quanquam caro non nihil murmuret, tamen Spiritus gemit ad Deum & potius intentatione perpetuo manere & perire cupit quam ad impietatem à Deo recidere.
cLuther tom. 4 f. 147.Hic canon est, quod in omnibus tentationibus, nos — ipsi alium fingimus Deum esse, quam sit, putamus enim Deum tunc non esse Deum, sed phantasma, id est, horrible spectrum.
Luther. Peccator es, igitur te odit Deus.dLuther tom. 4 f. 387. Haec consequentia vera est in naturâ, in jure civili — ad tribunal Christi—hoc sequitur, peccator es ergo confide.
eLuther to. 4.391.Luther Cum Sathan vexat conscientiam per legem, …tile est opponere Satanae. Quid ad te tamen, non peccavi tibi, sed Deo meo. Non enim sum tuus peccator. Quid igitur juris est in m…? — non peccavi tibi, non legi, non conscientiae, nulli homini, Angelo nulli, sed soli Deo.
tLuther tom. 4 f. 112.It is proper to the Law to make men guilty, to humble, kill, bring downe to hell, and take all from us, for this end, that we may be justified.
w The Law maketh not men sons of God— but it prepareth us for the new birth.
The Law is a fire and a hammer breaking the rocks,xLuther to 4.10…. to suppresse that pertinacious beast presumption, that a man may be brought to nothing, and despaire of his owne strength and righteousnesse, and being terrified, may thirst for mercy and pardon. More of this yee may see in Luther to. 1. fol. 11. p. 286.412. to. 4. f. 5. f. 296. to. 1.53.
Luther never ment that wee are freed from the Law as a rule of good workes, Luther to. 1.472. by the faith of Christ, we are not freed from workes, but from the opinion of workes; that is, from a foolish presumption of justification by workes.
Luther. Finding thy terrours and threatnings, O Law, I dip my conscience in the wounds, death, blood, resurrection of Christ; beside these I will see nothing, heare nothing For we think Christ will quarrell with us, and seeke a reckoning of our ill …ed life, and will accuse and condemne us.
zLuther tom. 4 f. 156.In tentations though sense say, that God is an enemy, I follow the Word that sayeth the contrary.
aLuth. 9. tom. 4. f. 289.The divell is an admirable perswader to cause us thinke a little sin a hainous crime. But the word pointeth Christ sweet, meeke.
10. bLuther to. 4. f. 289. Temtations and how they are resisted in the conscience.Luther. The flesh murmureth, but the Spirit sighes to God, and had rather dye in the tentation, then depart to wickednesse.
11. cLuther tom. 4 f. 147.Luther. This is a rule in all temptations, we fancie another God, and beleeve God not to bee God, but a phancie, a Ghost.
12. dLuther tom. 4 f. 387.This consequence (thou art a sinner, therefore God hateth thee) is true in the Civill Law or Court, but in Christs Tribunall; its true thou art a sinner, therefore beleeve.
13. eLuther to. 4.391.Luther. When Sathan vexeth the conscience with the Law, its fit to say to Sathan, what is that to thee, yet I have not sinned against thee, but against my God▪ for I am not thy sinner; what Law then hast thou in me?—I have not sinned to thee, not to the law, not to conscience, to no man▪ to no Angell, but only to God.
Luthers meaning is, that he hath not sinned to the Law, or so against it, that he should be therefore condemned, because he is pardoned in Christ.
fLuther to. 4▪ f. 400.Luther. Nulla alia re potest sanari hoc vulnus conscientiae quam verbo divinae promissionis.
gLuther tom. 4. fo. 413.Luther. Si es calamus contritus, noli te amplius conterere, aut Satana conterendum dare, sed da te Christo qui est foreign & amat conquass…tos & contritus Spiritu.
hLuther tom. 4 … ▪ …92.Luther. Desperatus non orat, dum desperatio durat—sed cum remittitur paroxysmus tum primum incipit clamor — plurimus adjuvatur animus, cum audit fratrem commodè tractantem verbum Dei▪ —cum ad hunc modum siducia in Deum — animo anxio inculcatur: tum surgit sci…tilla fidei & gemitus cordis, O si possem; sequitur tandem sensus gaudii, neque potest Deus hos gemitus negligere.
iLuther tom. 4 f. 502.Luther. Deus mammam gratiae etiam justificatis nonnunqu…m subtrahit, ut discamus. Quid nostra ipsorum justitia soleat facere, nempe, quod solet opprimere desperatione.
kLuther tom. 4 758. in Ps. 2.Luther. Cum Satan objicit, ecce es peccato…, non sic credis, non sic or…s, sicut requirit verbum: tu contra dic, quid me vexas his visibilibus? bene sentio ista, nec opus est, ut tu me doceas, illud opus est ut verbum sequar & transferam me ad invisibilia.
lLuther ex ad Cus. Aquilam. an. 1528. f. 393Luther. Maxima pars fallitur, quod non credunt has cogitationes esse tentationes Satanae.
mLuther to. 2. in Gen. c. 21. f. 188.Luth. Docemur in hoc certamine apprehēdendā promissionem in baptismo factam, quae certa & clara est, sed hoc cum fit, non statim cessat Sathan, sed reclamat in corde tuo, te non esse dignum istâ promissione, est autem opus ardenti oratione—ne extorqueatur nobi… promissio—Dic, scio promissam mihi propter filium Dei gratiam. Haec promissio non mentietur, etiamsi in exteriores tenebras abjiciar.
14. fLuther to. 4▪ f. 400.Luther. This wound of conscience cannot otherwise bee healed, but by the word of God.
gLuther tom. 4. fo. 413.If thou be a broken reed, doe not breake thy selfe any more, or give thy selfe to Sathan to be broken, but give thy selfe to Christ, who is a man-lover, and loveth the broken and bruised in Spirit.
16. hLuther tom. 4 … …92.The despairing soule prayes not, while the despaire continueth, — but when the feaver turneth to a cool, the cry begins— he is much helped when he heareth a brother rightly handling the word of promise — when faith in God is thus inculcated in a sad heart, then glimmereth up a sparcle of faith, and a sigh of heart, O if I could— then followeth sense of joy, God cannot despise these sighes.
17. iLuther tom. 4 f. 502.God withdraweth the paps and … of Grace from the justified, that we may learne to know what our owne righteousnes useth to doe, even to presse us with despaire.
18. kLuther tom. 4 758. in Ps. 2.when sathan objecteth, behold thou art a sinner, thou dost not so beleeve, thou dost no… so love as the word requireth: say thou againe, why vexest thou me with those visible things? I feel these well, there is no need that thou teach me, there is need I follow the word and turne to invisible things.
19 lLuther ex ad Cus. Aquilam. an. 1528. f. 393Luther. The greatest part of men are beguiled, that they know not that the thoughts of their utter casting out from God, is a tentation of Sathan.
20. mLuther to. 2. in Gen. c. 21. f. 188.Luther. In a conflict of despaire, we must hold the promise made in baptisme—if Sathan cease not, but cry in thy heart, thou art not worthy of that promise — wee must ardently pray that the promise be not throwne out of our hand. — Say, I know there is a promise of grace, for the Son of Gods sake made to me; this promise shall not lie, though I were cast in utter darknesse. I have stayed the longer on these, because possibly every Reader cannot have Luthers works at hand.