world, since I know what comfort and strength it has given me. No one
knows what it can do or him except one who has struggled much with the
devil. Yea, the devil would have slain me long ago, if the confession
had not sustained me. For there are many doubts which a man cannot
resolve by himself, and so he takes a brother aside and tells him his
trouble. What harm is there, if he humbles himself a little before his
neighbor, puts himself to shame, looks or a word of comfort from him,
and takes it to himself and believes it, as if he heard it from God
himself, as we read in Matthew xviii: “If two of you shall agree as
touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them.”
[Matt. 18:19]
[Sidenote: Many Absolutions]
And we must have many absolutions, so that we may strengthen our timid
consciences and despairing hearts against the devil and against God.
Therefore no man shall forbid the confession nor keep or drive any one
away from it. And if any one wrestles with his sins, is eager to be
rid of them and looks or some assurance from the Scriptures, let him
go and confess to another in secret, and receive what is said to him
there as if it came directly from God’s own lips. Whoever has the
strong and firm faith that his sins are forgiven, may ignore this
confession and confess to God alone. But how many have such a strong
faith? Therefore, as I have said, I will not let this private
confession be taken from me. Yet I would force no one to it, but leave
the matter to every one’s free will.
[Sidenote: Five Comforts for the Conscience]
For our God is not so miserly that He has left us with only one
comfort or strengthening for our conscience, or one absolution, but we
have many absolutions in the Gospel, and are showered richly with
them. For instance, we have this in the Gospel: “If ye forgive men
their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” [Matt.
6:14] Another comfort we have in the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our
trespasses,” [Matt. 6:12] etc. A third is our baptism, when I reason
thus: See, my Lord, I am baptized in Thy name so that I may be assured
of Thy grace and mercy. After that we have the private confession,
when I go and receive a sure absolution as if God Himself spake it, so
that I may be assured that my sins are forgiven. Finally I take to
myself the blessed sacrament, when I eat His body and drink His blood
as a sign that I am rid of my sins and God has freed me from all my
frailties; and in order to make me sure of this, He gives me His body
to eat and His blood to drink, so that I shall not and cannot despair:
I cannot doubt I have a gracious God. Thus we see that confession must
not be despised, but that it is a true comfort. And since we need many
absolutions and comforts, because we must fight against the devil,
death, hell and sin, we must not allow any of our weapons to be taken
away, but keep intact the whole armor and equipment which God has
given us or use against our enemies. For you do not yet know what work
it is to fight with the devil and to overcome him. I know it well; I
have eaten salt with him once or twice[24]. I know him well, and he
knows me well, too. I only you knew him, you would not in this manner
drive out confession.
I commend you to God. Amen.
Footnotes
[1] Cp. his experiences at the Wartburg. See Köstlin-Kawerau, I, 439
ff.
[2] Carlstadt, without authority, preached, administered the sacrament
and brought about the upheaval in the parish church—Luther’s own.
He was archdeacon and preacher at the castle church. See Müller,
Luther und Karlstadt, 69 and passim.
[3] In the Open Letter to the Christian Nobility and the *Babylonian
Captivity*. See pp. 125 f., 136 f., and 215 f. of this volume.
[4] Right to speak.
[5] Power to do.
[6] Melanchthon.
[7] See above, p. 61.
[8] Justus Jonas, provost at the castle church.
[9] Gabriel Zwilling, an Augustinian, who, next to Carlstadt, was the
leader in forcing the reforms which Luther is here discussing. See
Introduction, p. 388.
[10] Was Luther led by the name of Gabriel to add a last touch by the
mention of the other archangel, in the thought of St. Paul, that even
an angel from heaven cannot change the Gospel, Gal. 1:8. See note in
Weimar Ed., Xc, 438. See also a similar outburst in a letter to
Johann Lang in 1516, six years previous, where Gabriel Biel’s name
furnished the incitement. Enders, I, 54; Smith, I, 42.
[11] Namely, of the monasteries.
[12] A monastic order, founded 1084, noted or the strictness of its
rule.
[13] The Iconoclastic controversy in the Eastern church, which called
forth the Seventh Ecumenical Council at Nice in 787, whose decrees
were favorable to images in the churches. The controversy, which raged
for over a century, was finally settled in 843. Since the promulgation
of this decree the First Sunday in Lent has been celebrated annually
as the “Feast of Orthodoxy.” See Realencyk., III, 222 ff.
[14] See above, p. 309.
[15] i. e., Castor and Pollux.
[16] Luther’s great objection to the mass was its turning of the
Sacrament into a sacrifice. This view of the mass was for him an utter
perversion of the gospel, and, therefore, comes under the category of
essentials. See Vol. I, pp. 309 ff., and above, pp. 211 ff.
[17] See above, p. 407, note 1.
[18] Cf. above, p. 282.
[19] In the canon law, C. 12, X, de poenitentiis.
[20] On the last four paragraphs, cf. above, pp. 15 f.
[21] On this title, see Introduction, p. 389.
[22] “Let there be judgment and righteousness.” To keep judgment is to
accuse and condemn ourselves; but to do righteousness is to trust in
the mercy of God.
[23] The treatise *Von der Beichte, ob die der Papst Macht habe zu
gebieten*, written during the sojourn on the Wartburg. See *Weimar
Ed.*, VIII, 129; Erl. Ed., XXVII, 318.
[24] See above, p. 394.