[1543] Letter of March 12, 1523. Cp. “Zeitschr. für KG.,” 2, p. 131.
[1544] Owing to the rarity of the work, to which even the editor of the “Briefwechsel” had not access, we give in Latin the passages referred to from the copy contained in the Munich State Library: H 1´: “Necessario omnia eveniunt in omnibus creaturis.... Itaque sit hæc certa sententia, a Deo fieri omnia tam bona quam mala.” H 2´: “Nos vero dicemus, non solum permittere Deum creaturis ut operentur, sed ipsum omnia proprie agere, ut, sicut fatentur, proprium Dei opus esse Pauli vocationem ita fateantur, opera Dei propria esse sive quæ media vocantur, ut comedere, bibere, communia cum brutis, sive quæ mala sunt, ut Davidis adulterium, Manlii severitatem animadvertentis in filium.... Iam cum constet, Deum omnia facere, non permissive, sed potenter, ut Augustini verbo utamur, ita ut sit eius proprium opus Iudæ proditio sicut Pauli vocatio,” etc.—For Melanchthon’s statement in his “Loci” of the Lutheran denial of free-will, see above, vol. iii., p. 346.
[1545] “Corp. ref.,” 15, p. 441.
[1546] Melanchthon in his letter to the Elector August of Saxony, April, 1559. N. Paulus, “Luther und die Gewissensfreiheit,” Munich, 1905, p. 52 f. Cp. above, vol. iii., p. 347.
[1547] See vol. ii., p. 265.
[1548] “Comm. in Ep. ad. Gal.,” 1535, vol. i., p. 255. Denifle-Weiss, 1², p. 514. Cp. Luther’s Sermon of 1523 on the Feast of the Circumcision, “Werke,” Weim. ed., 10, 1, 1, p. 508; Erl. ed., 15², p. 199: It had been shown long before by the institution of circumcision “that no one could reach God and be saved by works, but only by faith. This is insisted upon throughout the whole of Scripture by teaching and example. Sin in us is not merely a work or deed, but our real nature and essence; for this reason does God circumcise that member which pertains to birth and by which human nature is perpetuated.” On the same page we find the following: “Nature is depraved through and through so that no will is left for what is good”; “our nature is all poisoned and crammed with sin,” etc.—The sermon in which the singularly outspoken statement concerning circumcision occurs is also found in the postils. Some unbecoming language is also met at the commencement of the passage in question where Luther says: “It is quite true that God’s works and commandments are folly to nature and reason; God’s way of acting is mad enough”; Luther, however, hastens to add, “but if we keep our heads and look into it attentively, we shall soon see that all is done in the wisest manner.”
[1549] Document of Oct. 14, 1518, “Briefwechsel,” 1 (p. 250 ff.), p. 256 ff.
[1550] Cp. our vol. i., p. 384.
[1551] Cp. Köstlin, “Luthers Theol.,” 2², p. 175, on passages dating from 1532 and 1539.
[1552] “Disputationes,” pp. 429, 431 (of 1538).