Images de page
PDF
ePub

your house is left unto you desolate." And Daniel ix., and Zechariah xiv., prophecy of the same destruction with equal clearness.

Thus, then, have I sufficiently dwelt upon my exposition of THE LAST WORDS OF DAVID, according to the sense that I put upon this passage of the scripture, and for which I have given my reasons at the beginning.May God grant, that many may be raised up, who shall devote themselves to the doctrine which is from above, and to the Holy Scriptures; and who shall, from the very fountains themselves, restore unto us a more pure, and the genuine and mature meaning of the prophetical writings, and, as it were by a happy recovery, wrest them from those present malignant possessors, the Rabbins and their corruptions;-and may they effect it under a greater and more abundant influence of the Spirit than I have done. And this they will do, if they do not devote themselves, as sworn disciples, to following the Words of the Rabbins and their miserably forced grammatical cavillings and interpretations. And if we seek him thus, shall we be able to find and know, this our Lord and Saviour the Son of God, rightly, truly, and clearly.-To whom, with God the eternal Father and the Holy Ghost, be all glory and honour, world without end, Amen!

Errata in the "Last words of David."

Page 197, line 17, insert, {

[blocks in formation]

For all my salvation and all my desire

are nothing.

for mutilated read imitated.

1

THE

THREE CREEDS OR CONFESSIONS

OF THE

CHRISTIAN FAITH,

USED BY FULL CONSENT IN THE CHURCH.

!

Martin Luther

TO THE GODLY READER.

ALTHOUGH I have taught, and written in former works, very many things concerning the CHRISTIAN FAITH, what it is, and what are its power and efficacy; and although I have published to the world my Confession of Faith, in which I have openly testified, what, in what, and how, I believe, and in what articles of Faith I rest; yet, as the devil continually goes on to seek out and plan new and wonderful devices and sophistical inventions against me, I thought I would also collect together in one little bundle, as it were, these three Creeds (as they are generally called,) or Confessions of Faith, and send them forth into the world: as they are those which the whole Church has ever hitherto taught, read, and sung, with universal consent.

[ocr errors]

Wherefore, I would here again openly testify, that I exactly agree in faith with the true Christian Church, which has all along with universal consent taught and held these Three Creeds. And, on the other hand, that I with my whole soul dissent from, and abhor, that false hypocritical church, which is the most bitter enemy to the true Church of Christ, and which, neglecting and obscuring these all beautiful Creeds or Confessions, has introduced a multifarious idolatry into the Church. In the same way it was also, that the Israelites of old, neglecting the true worship delivered and instituted from above, and leaving the temple of God, invented a multiplex idolatry in the vallies, on the mountains, and under the trees; and yet, still arrogated to themselves the title of the true people of God; and under that pretext, bitterly persecuted and cruelly murdered the holy prophets who openly convicted them of their errors, and, at last, the Lord Christ Jesus himself.

« PrécédentContinuer »