[2187] Luthardt refers here to Luther’s “Werke,” Erl. ed., 39, p. 250 f., where the latter says in his exposition of Psalm lxxxii. (lxxxi.) 1530: “Because the rulers, besides their other duties, must promote God’s Word and its preachers,” “they must punish public blasphemers”; among these were the false teachers and those who teach that each one must himself make satisfaction for his sins (he means the Catholics). “Whoever wishes to live amongst the burghers must keep the laws of the borough and not dishonour or abuse them, else they must go,” i.e. the rulers must compel those Catholics who were living amongst Protestants to emigrate. “The offender was acting contrary to the Gospel and the common article of the creed which we recite: ‘I believe in the forgiveness of sins.’ Such articles held by the whole of Christendom have already been sufficiently examined, proved and decided by Scripture and the confession of the whole of Christendom, confirmed by many miracles and sealed with the blood of the martyrs.”
[2188] In the continuation of the above passage Luther says of such controversies: “Let the rulers step in and examine the case and whichever party is not in agreement with Scripture, let him be commanded to be silent.... For it is not good for the people to hear contradictory preaching in the parish or district,” etc. Luther, however, not only demands, as Luthardt says, that these “heretics” should be banished, but also that they should be punished as public blasphemers. Cp. below, p. 578.
[2189] “Opp. lat. exeg.,” 20, p. 97.
[2190] “Werke,” Weim. ed., 30, 2, p. 538; Erl. ed., 17², p. 392. Luther, however, emphasises the true preaching office so much that he represents his pure Gospel teaching as alone capable of preserving peace, a fact which is usually passed over. “No University, institution or monastery” had been able to accomplish what the preaching office was now able to do; the “blind bloodhounds abandoned the preaching office and gave themselves up to lies.”
[2191] “Werke,” ib., p. 555=402.
[2192] Ib., p. 537 f.=392.
[2193] Reference is made here to the passage in the Home-Postils, “Werke,” Erl. ed., 3², p. 450. Here we read, p. 449, that the “rulers must promote matrimony and the management of the home, and see that the young are properly educated”; for this reason theirs was “a divine and holy state.”
[2194] “Werke,” Erl. ed., 4², p. 388, in the Home-Postils.
[2195] Cp. the passages in Köstlin, “Luthers Theologie,” 2², p. 321.
[2196] Weim. ed., 31, 1, p. 153; Erl. ed., 21, p. 60.