Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/220

 comfort is which comes from God he shows in Romans xv,* "What has been written was written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." He says "have hope," but hope is for that which we neither see nor feel.* This world's comfort tries to see and feel what the afflicted desire to have, and will none of patience ; but here we are told that patience is to abide and that the com- fort of the Scriptures is in hope. This is, in fact, what St. Paul does to the Corinthians. For when he has told them of God's comfort, he comes at last to praising them, telling them how they are a letter of Christ, ministered by his office of preaching, and written by the living Spirit.* Then he begins a psalm of praise to the Gospel, so that when a carnal man reads it he may well think, "Is the man drunk ? He wishes to comfort the Corinthians, but only praises himself and his office of preacher, and boasts of the Gospel." But he who re- gards it rightly perceives that good St. Paul draws God's true and rich comfort out of the Scriptures, and strengthens them and makes them glad by the Gospel.

Accordingly I, too, have undertaken to comfort your hearts in your tribulation with the comfort that I have from God. For I have had full information, from your exiled pastor. Dr. John Carlstadt,* and from others, of how the enemies of the Gospel and murderers of souls have treated you because of God's Word, which, with their outrageous blasphemy, they call Lutheran doctrine, so that they may have the appearance of doing God's service and persecuting man's doctrine. So the Jews did to the Apostles, as Christ prophesied.

It would be a worldly consolation and altogether profitless, nay, hurtful, to your souls, if I were to console you, or we were to console ourseves, with the thought that by rebukes and com- plaints we would take revenge for the outrages and the wickedness of these blasphemers. Even though we were to kill them all or drive them all out by force, or if we were to re- joice in the punishment that someone else would mete out to them because of our sufferings, that would do no good. For that is a worldly consolation and a worldly joy, and is un-

1 Romans xv, 4. *TT Corinthians ili, s^*

'Romans Tiii, 24. «John Drach was a natiTc of Carlstadt

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