The Thirty-Sixth Sermon, Which Is the Fourth Upon the Fifth Chapter - Ephesians 5:11-14
hereafter (Ephesians 6:13-17). Let us beware, then, to walk in this world in such a way that we may serve our God with true constancy and not be turned from Him by any troubles, impediments, hindrances, or obstacles that can be laid in our way.
Now, let us fall down before the Majesty of our good God, with acknowledgment of our faults, praying Him to touch us with such repentance that we may be sorry for them and rid them away more and more, to strengthen us in His fear and in the keeping of His holy commandments. In the meantime, may He bear with our infirmities until we are quite and completely rid of them, and make us to profit from day to day in the doctrine, that is to say, in the remission of our sins, until we come to the perfection of His righteousness and glory.
And so let us all say, Almighty God, heavenly Father...
The Thirty-Sixth Sermon, Which Is the Fourth Upon the Fifth Chapter 11. "Have nothing to do with the fruitless works of darkness, but rather expose them."
12. "For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret."
13. "But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible."
14. "Therefore it says, 'Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.'"
We have seen this morning that, although there are many things in the world to turn us away from serving God, we must not therefore swerve as though that might serve as an excuse for us. For there have been stumbling blocks in the world at all times, but the remedy for them is this doctrine: that God's children must stand on guard so they do not corrupt themselves by associating with unbelievers, because God has separated them.
And it is not enough for us not to be drunkards, whoremongers, thieves, or murderers; we must also shun all manner of evil wherever it may be. Indeed, we ought always to begin with ourselves (Matthew
7:3-5), for hypocrites will always see a speck in their neighbor's eye and yet bear a great stone in their own without feeling it. But if we want to be right and sound judges, let each person examine themselves and begin by condemning vice in themselves. Let us consider well whether we ourselves are at fault, so we may first and foremost make our own indictment before God by hating the evil that is in ourselves.
However, we must also show that we love God better than the world, and not maintain ourselves in the favor and friendship of the wicked by indulging them in their faults and flattering them. For this reason,
Saint Paul adds that we must instead rebuke those works that bring nothing but utter curse. This serves not only to show the zeal we have for God to be honored but also to draw back souls that are on the path to destruction and bring them back again to the way of salvation.
Here, then, are two reasons that should move us to reprove evil. The first is that it should distress us to see God offended and people provoke His wrath by overthrowing the order He has set. Seeing that God is despised in this way and His Word trampled underfoot, it should grieve us, as the Psalmist says, that we should take upon ourselves the reproaches that are offered to God (Psalm 69:9).
Also, we ought, out of duty, to care for those who are redeemed by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we see souls going to damnation, souls that cost God so dearly, and make no reckoning of it, it is to scorn the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. For that reason,
Saint Paul tells us that, inasmuch as we are separated from evil so that we should not be companions of those who despise God or be like them in any way, we must, to the utmost of our power, show that we hate their actions, so they may be ashamed of their lewdness and touched with repentance.
If we have once profited so far, it shall be a great gain to have drawn back a wretched soul that was on the way to destruction. Saint James speaks in the same manner, exhorting us to do it, saying: "The thing that you shall gain by it is that you shall save a soul from death"
(James 5:20). And even if people are hardened in their sins, it is still of great purpose for us to show the zeal we have for honoring God, and that His Word should not be so hindered, nor the order broken that He has set, without declaring that such things displease us.
If a person wants to be known as a good and faithful subject, they will not allow anyone to speak evil of their prince without standing against them. Likewise, that child will be considered unkind and dishonorable who hears their father wrongfully blamed and defamed and does not defend his honor or integrity.
Now, is not God our sovereign Prince? Yes, and although we are but wretched worms of the earth and vile carrion, yet He does us the honor to adopt us as His children. Now then, if wicked and heathenish folk deface His majesty, darken His righteousness, and even endeavor to strip His dominion from Him, and we remain silent, is that not an excessive and intolerable wickedness?
Therefore, let us mark well what is told to us here, for it is crucial that we pay careful attention to this text. This vice has reigned in the world throughout all ages, namely that as every person becomes more or less desirous to be flattered, they more easily tolerate others
—not in the manner we have seen before, where we ought to have compassion for the weak and exercise patience towards them, but quite the opposite. That is to say, we are content to feed evil continually and willingly enter into confederacy together. To ensure that others do not examine our vices too closely but instead leave us to do as we please, we grant everyone else the same liberty for themselves. And that is the cause of all the disorder in the world today.
Again, we are loath to provoke anyone's displeasure against us, insomuch that we would rather betray God, and betray our neighbors both body and soul, than use the liberty that God's Spirit commands us. We see a wretched person behaving wickedly, and we say, "Let him do as he pleases; it makes no matter to us." And why? Because we do not want to displease him. Again, we see others pervert all order of justice and corrupt the entire populace and country, yet we pass it over easily without speaking against it. And why? "I do not want to bring myself into disfavor with a person of authority. Let someone else lead the dance, and I will willingly say, 'Amen' to it. If he were hanged for a while, he would only get what he deserved. But
no thanks to me, in the meantime." Why? "I do not want to put myself in any danger over the matter."
Thus are vices passed over nowadays. Yet, God will not relinquish His right for all that. The sentence on His behalf shall remain inviolable, and according to it, we shall be condemned as full of treason. That is to say, we shall be held as companions of the wicked if we play the blind and deaf when we ought to restrain wickedness by setting ourselves against it. As much as it lies within us, we allow
God's honor to be debased, and all honesty to be overthrown, while we say nothing. Therefore, we ought to be more attentive to this warning to rebuke evil and, as I said before, show to the utmost of our power that we disapprove of it, being diligent to resist it if it lies within our power to do so.
If everyone employed themselves in this way, surely we would see another manner of righteousness in the world. What is the cause of God's name being so greatly blasphemed? It is because blasphemies are covered up, and everyone would rather defile themselves with the wickedness of others than incur any disfavor or displeasure. It is the same with drunkenness, lechery, robbery, extortion, and all manner of wanton acts that are committed. But if we had the zeal that Saint
Paul commands us here, surely we would be much more courageous and steadfast in rebuking those who do amiss.
On the other hand, we show ourselves to have no love or kindness among us when we allow good people to be trampled underfoot and mistreated, for we ought to reach out a helping hand to them. Again, souls go to destruction, and we do not remedy it, though God has graced us with the opportunity to take His place in saving those things that are in the way of being lost and damned.
Now, Saint Paul, having spoken thus, adds to confirm the same doctrine and to quicken the slothfulness that is in us. The reason why unbelievers take the liberty to do such evil, even things they are ashamed to speak of, is because they can hide themselves from men.
And why? Because they have no fear of God, and therefore they consider themselves to be well-hidden.
When a thief perceives nobody near him, he rifles cupboards, breaks open doors, steals, and carries things away. Very well, because he has not yet been convicted before a judge, he imagines he has escaped quite cleanly. If a robber or a murderer gets into some dark corner, he thinks himself well-hidden, and if he finds a person alone, he seizes him, strips him, wounds him, and even cuts his throat if he cannot otherwise subdue him. He thinks himself well-escaped because no one sees him.
It is the same with all other deeds; we are more ashamed of people than afraid of God. Scripture cries out that all our thoughts must come to account and that not only our wicked deeds shall be punished, but also even the things we thought to have been buried.
For at the last day, "the books shall be laid open," that is to say, nothing shall be forgotten, except we have obtained this grace that is promised in the Psalms: "Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered" (Psalm 32:1).
That is not done without repentance. But those who are hardened in all evil merely make a mockery of it; so long as they are not put to shame before people, they do not care what God does. They have become so brutish that they cannot wake up to consider what it is to harden their hearts against the sovereign majesty of God. Therefore, when unbelievers and despisers of God find covert and lurking holes
in that way, there is such vile licentiousness among them that one would be ashamed even to think of what they do and say.
But Saint Paul adds that when they are rebuked, the mischief is discovered, and their liberty cut off, because it serves as a bridle to them. Not only because they are blamed before men, but also because they feel themselves to be accountable to the heavenly
Judge, and that it is a dreadful thing to fall into His hands. To be brief, Saint Paul meant to show what purpose rebuking can serve when we use it rightly and with a good zeal of charity.
Now, I have told you already that we must not use any hypocrisy, nor justify ourselves by condemning other people. But when each of us has thoroughly examined his own life and hates the vices to which we are subject, and in which we are entangled, let us endeavor to bring ourselves home to God, praying Him to strengthen us by the power of His Holy Spirit so that we may strive to conform ourselves to His will and righteousness. And having done that, let us not flatter those who do wrong but tell them openly the thing that may do them good.
The benefit that will come from this, says Saint Paul, is that God shall not be so grievously offended as we see He is; and moreover, where people were previously shameless, they may be brought to some degree of honesty, and where it seemed they had permission to do all manner of evil, they shall repent and bring others to repentance with them. But much more ought this (that follows) to move us.
For, to say that we should live in this world and enjoy the infinite benefits that God bestows upon us, and meanwhile suffer His authority to be defaced—even when it may seem that people would try to pull Him from His throne by blaspheming His holy name,
provoking Him to anger while we let all slip—must we not be deemed utter villains and traitors?
If we were being supported by someone's generosity, and one should rail against him in his own house, or plot to murder him, or rob him of his goods, or defile his wife, or entice his child to wickedness, and meanwhile, we sat cramming ourselves, eating his bread, drinking his wine, and (to sum up) were fed and maintained at his expense, yet let it all go and say nothing to it—would we not deserve to be stoned and to have all men spit in our faces? Yes, certainly, for the vice of ingratitude will always be condemned, even among men.
Now, if we are so obligated to a mortal man as to maintain his honor and reputation when we are supported by his free generosity, what ought we to do for our God? Are we not in His house as long as we live in this world? Do we have even a drop of water except from His goodness and liberality? Behold, God has a fatherly care for us, and yet, notwithstanding, we allow His name to be blasphemed, His majesty to be stripped and deprived of all reverence, His Word to be torn to pieces, all the order He has commanded to be broken, the Church (which is His wife) to be corrupted and abused, and His children to be enticed to wickedness, while in the meantime, we remain silent.
I would like to know whether such silence does not clearly show that we are not worthy to eat a bit of bread, nor to be counted among the number of earthworms, lice, bedbugs, and other of the vilest and filthiest things of the world? Therefore, let us think carefully upon it, that we shall be found guilty of despising God's majesty, as we see, because we do not rebuke men's vices.
That is a cause why the wicked and heathenish sort become bolder, think the world is running on wheels on their side, and triumph in
their despising of God in such a manner—it comes partly from our silence. And this is what Saint Paul meant to show us here.
It follows, moreover, that the wretched souls whom our Lord Jesus Christ has bought so dearly, that He spared not Himself to save them, do perish and are given into Satan's possession through our sufferance; and in the meantime, we make no account of it at all.
Now then, do we not thereby reveal that we have not so much as one drop of charity in us? Yes, and that is the reason why I said that in so doing, we are traitors to God and to our neighbors. For when we have no better zeal towards God's name, nor better care for our neighbors' welfare, does not the world see in every way that we are full of cruelty and unkindness?
By cruelty, I mean towards men, in that we suffer them to perish, even knowing it and looking upon it; and by unkindness towards
God, because we do not give Him the honor He deserves when we do not have the courage to show, at the very least, that we dislike that men should so derogate from God's authority and the reverence they owe to Him. Therefore, whenever we are afraid to provoke men's displeasure or to purchase their ill will, let us think upon what is told to us here: namely, that we ought at the very least to fear the Lord, whose we are, and that seeing we are fed at His cost, we must not abide to see such lewdness committed against Him without showing, as much as possible and to the utmost of our power and ability, that we utterly abhor such things.
I say, as far as we can: for sometimes our mouths shall be so shut that we shall be able to do no more but sigh and lament at such utter disorder, when men become like devils let loose, flinging out into furiousness against God, and those who bear the sword seek nothing but to make a confused melee, so that all goodness may be forgotten.
For then (as I said) we have no other remedy but to be sorry for it, according as it is said of Lot, that it grieved his heart to be in Sodom
(2 Peter 2:7).
Therefore, let us not forbear, but let every one of us provoke himself to grief and sorrow when we see things so out of order, and let us give record of it as far as it may do good. Again, if there be any hope for us to win those that are so unruly, let us continually attempt to draw them to repentance; yes, let us strain ourselves to it. For many men use this proverb too lightly, that a man must not cast pearls among swine, and they assume that men are swine before they have tried what they are. Though they have been of light behavior, or even loose and lawless, so that the devil has after a sort carried them away, yet we must labor to win them back again, and have good hope of it, according to Saint Paul's saying that charity hopes well for all things (1 Corinthians 13:7).
So then, until such time as men show themselves utterly willful in evil, and that their diseases appear to be utterly incurable, let us endeavor to be good physicians to them, by the admonitions that God shall put into our mouths. And so you see what Saint Paul intended in saying that the unbelievers think themselves to be hidden when they are neither perceived nor rebuked, and that when they are left to themselves, they are, as it were, in the dark, and thereby conceive more boldness to do wickedly.
But we are partly the cause of it, and we cannot wash our hands of it, for God sets us in His place in that respect and gives us His Word, which has authority to condemn evil, and yet notwithstanding, all is suppressed and thrust underfoot. Mark that for one point. But on the contrary, when the wickedest men in the world are rebuked, then they perceive their shame, whereas before they could not discern
white from black. And why? For if a man is in the dark, he sees nothing at all, but staggers and stumbles; and though he is ever so much soiled, yet he does not perceive it.
Therefore, when God's Word is set before men, and we show offenders their faults with such liberty as is required, it is as if we showed them a mirror and said to them, "See what you are; you are as foul and filthy as can be: are you not ashamed to see yourself? Go wash your face." So then, warnings will always win at least this much, though not equally with all people; for, as I said before, many are hardened, so that Satan possesses them, and God has given them up to such a willful stubborn mind that they are past all shame.
Nevertheless, whenever any faithful person does his duty, it will always do some good, and some profit will come of it, insomuch that those who were like wild beasts, or wild bullocks, will return, and a person shall see some honesty in them. Therefore, let us gain that point if it is possible for us, or at least let us strain ourselves to win it.
And so you see what we are to gather upon these words of Saint Paul.
Now, as touching the word "rebuke," it signifies properly to discover what was hidden. And he allots this office to preaching, according whereunto he taunts the vainglory that reigned in the Church of Corinth (1 Corinthians 14:19), for their speaking in strange tongues to the intent to be commended, so that people might say of them,
"This man is a great scholar; this man can speak all languages." And yet, in the meantime, there was no edifying at all.
Likewise, in these days, in the papacy, the organs are piping on one side, and there is chanting of four parts on the other side, and there is such a store of gewgaws that the simple people are astonished but never a whit edified. But Saint Paul says that when we come together in the name of God, we must endeavor to fare the better by it. And
how may that be? It is (says he) when good men, and such as are already accustomed to fear and serve God, are edified by His word.
And not only that, but also if an unbeliever comes in, who was previously a mocker and never had any remorse of conscience, and hears what is uttered in the name of God—that is to say, that we cannot escape God's hand but must come before the judgment seat of our Lord Jesus Christ, and how dearly Jesus Christ has paid for us, and what a traitorousness it is for us to make the sacrifice of His death and passion unavailing—I say, when an unbeliever hears all this, and that we are exhorted to fear God and stirred up to love Him for the infinite grace which He shows towards us: although he was previously like a brute beast (says Saint Paul), yet shall he enter into himself and be rebuked.
For he uses there the same word which he uses here, the meaning whereof is (1 Corinthians 14:24–25) that whereas his conscience was as good as dead before, and he was in a manner brutish, he is compelled to examine himself and be ashamed, so that he cannot but give glory to God. Not that this befalls all indifferently, but we see that a number of people who had gone astray, forgotten God, and had no regard at all for their own soul's health shall be so touched at one sermon that they appear to be changed for all their life after.
Now, look at what is done in common assembly; the same ought every person to practice by himself. For we are not here with the intent that each person should profit himself only but so that we should also teach one another with mutual instruction. After that manner, we must rebuke offenders, to the end that they may take no more liberty to mock God in that way, nor to shake off His yoke, and to wander into all naughtiness. And that is, in effect, the thing that Saint Paul intended to show us here.
Now, to confirm this doctrine better, he adds yet another reason: "It is the light," says he, "that lays all things open." (Ephesians 5:13).
Heretofore he told us that when we are once enlightened by God's Spirit and Gospel, we must be as lamps to give light to the world. For we have the word of life, which serves not only to guide us but also to draw those into the right way who have gone astray. Going forward herewith, he says that it is the nature and property of light to discover. Therefore, when we suffer naughtiness to nestle and grow still deeper in hush-hush, we show that we are neither light nor children of the light, that is to say, that we belong neither to God nor to Jesus Christ.
To be short, Saint Paul means that we cannot give any proof of our Christianity nor of our faith but by hating and abhorring evil as much as possible, so that it may not have its full course and sway. But now let us think upon ourselves again. For (as I said) there is none of us all who is not guilty of fearing men more than God and of winking at others so that they should wink at us and not be inquisitive of our doings. Lo, how we betray one another by our silence.
But there is yet another vice that is worse and further out of square: namely, that besides our dissembling, we also help to feed the evil.
And so by that means, whoredom has its full scope because every man and woman plays the pander. When I say, "every one," I mean that most men and women nowadays wink at all manner of lewdness and disorder, and stop their ears at the things they might well hear.
Everyone seeks to conceal their fellows' lewdness, men for men, and women for women. They might remedy a great many enormities that are committed, but they would rather go and dirty their gowns and coats with other folks' dung and filthiness than uncover their vices.
To be short, everybody plays the pander in effect by concealing their neighbor's vice to the end that the other should do as much for him.
The same applies to all other sins. Yet, notwithstanding (as I said before), God has not spoken this in vain, but we shall one day feel the execution of the sentence which He speaks here by His Apostle, and then it will be too late to regret what we will not acknowledge now.
But let those who fear God learn and remember how it is said here that God's enlightening of us is to the end that each of us should examine himself and not be like blind wretches groping in the dark, stumbling on one side, and running against things on the other, but that we should know the way of salvation. Moreover, we must teach other people also by discovering the evil that lay hidden so that those who have turned their backs upon God and were content to have been in darkness still may understand that they must come to the light, whatever comes of it.
The very way, therefore, for us to show indeed and in earnest that we belong to God and are enlightened by His Holy Spirit and by His
Word is to discover things that would otherwise, as it were, lie lurking a long time if we did not draw them forth into the light. True, charity covers a multitude of sins (Proverbs 10:12), and it behooves us to be patient (1 Corinthians 13:7) and to bear with many infirmities. For it is not meet that we should defame one another
(James 4:11), as some do, who instead of warning those whom they see offend, fall to spreading rumors, so that the streets and marketplaces are full of them, and they so exaggerate the matter that from small mistakes they make deadly crimes.
Therefore, when Saint Paul bids us to discover men, it is not meant that we should defame one another in that manner, but that the wretched man who had his eyes blindfolded by Satan should be made
to perceive his own misery and naughtiness, so he might be ashamed of it; and that the woman who had given herself over to all unchastity might recover some honesty and return again to the right way by being put to shame through having her faults and vices laid before her.
The manner of discovering is not to backbite one another or to taunt and upbraid each other, nor to play the hypocrites who will strain at a gnat and swallow an ox or a sheep in one bite—that is to say, who will make a conscience of very small and light matters and not see a number of great enormities that they suffer to pass close by their noses without being any bit offended at them. We must not do so, but when we see mischief being fed and increased by our unfaithfulness, let us provide for it. Let every man be compelled to think better upon himself and upon his vices so that he may amend them. This, in effect, is the carefulness which Saint Paul enjoins us here; it is the very means to rid away the plagues that Satan would have maintained by silence and dissimulation.
Therefore, whenever we perceive any impostume lying hidden, let us beware that the matter does not settle so long within that the disease becomes incurable. Let us purge it out of hand, and let admonitions serve as it were for lances, letting of blood, and such other means and helps to take away the rotten matter that might mar and infect the whole body. So you see, in effect, how we ought to put this doctrine into use.
Now, hereupon Saint Paul infers that, therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ, in all the doctrine of the Gospel, speaks to those who have fallen asleep in their sins and to those who are as good as dead, with the intent that they should wake and rise up: and so shall we be enlightened by Him.
Now, we have here to remember first of all, that Jesus Christ does then raise us from the dead when He calls us to the faith and brings us into the hope of salvation. This is to the intent that we should perceive our state the better. For we see how men soothe and glorify themselves. Although there be nothing in them but utter confusion, yet they will need to put out their horns like snails to vaunt themselves, as it were, in despite of God and nature. Now, the Scripture says we are dead. We may well have some resemblance of life before we are converted to the faith of Jesus Christ. However, that life is but death before God.
And that is the cause why it is said in Saint John, "The hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live" (John 5:25), and "whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life"
(John 5:24).
Jesus Christ does not speak there of visible death or of the resurrection which we hope for at the latter day. Rather, He shows us how we have already a preparative of the second rising again when
God renews us and gives us a spiritual life. For we can do nothing but evil, as has been declared heretofore. Saint Paul also uses the same phrase of speech, namely that we are dead to God. Following the same matter here, he shows us that the whole drift of the Gospel is that we should rise from the dead.
For as long as we are strangers to God, who is the wellspring of life, where are we but in such a dungeon as it would have been better for us never to have been born? But we must wake: for one part of our death is the blockishness wherein we are, according to what I declared before, that we are so corrupted even from our mother's
womb that we can find no savor in well-doing, and we are stark blinded in our wicked lusts, and the devil drives and thrusts us forward in such a way that as long as God gives us the bridle, we can do nothing but grub down to the bottom of hell, to sink ourselves deeper into it.
Now, if we are once come to that point, there is no more soreness (as Saint Paul said before) (Romans 11:25), and there is nothing but such stubbornness that God is nothing to us; neither do we have any more feeling or perception of our sins. That is the cause why he says here that we must wake because we are in a deadly sleep until God stirs us up and makes us perceive what we are, that we may abhor our sins and return unto Him. So then, the entrance of life and salvation is that God visits us with His grace, whereas we were as dead wretches and had nothing in us but utter corruption. Mark that for one point.
Secondly, let us mark that besides the naughtiness which is in us, there is also such great hardness and willfulness that God must be forced to wake us as it were by force so that we may have some feeling of our vices and dislike them. True, this is done chiefly when
God calls us and pulls us out of the confusion in which we were. But yet every Christian must continue in this all the time of their life. For we shall never be so thoroughly awake that we do not need God's stirring us up continually.
You shall see some people so heavily asleep that even when their clothes are on and they are up on their feet, they go reeling still, half in a slumber, until they stretch forth themselves and set their hands to some business, and they are so heavy and drowsy that they still slumber even while awake. Even so is it with us. Although our Lord
Jesus Christ has done us the grace to draw us back from death and to
quicken us by His Holy Spirit and by His Word, yet we shall still feel ourselves slothful and sluggish, so He must be forced to wake us still.
Therefore, we need to be exhorted every day and to have our ears beaten early and late, as though Jesus Christ cried out shrill and loud to us, "What do you, you wretched souls? What are you looking at?"
Even if we heard such warnings without ceasing, we should still not be as thoroughly awake as would be necessary. Now then, we see what Saint Paul meant to declare in this strain: namely that what we feel through God's goodness in ourselves, we should put the same into practice toward our neighbors. Our Lord Jesus Christ has raised us from the dead and wakes us daily from the dead sleep through which we are so drowsy, and that is to the end that we should afterward wake up others who are asleep and endeavor to draw those to life who are as poor dead men.
Furthermore, when he says, "And Jesus Christ will enlighten you," it is not meant that we can rise up and awake of our own power, and that our Lord Jesus Christ does afterward add His grace. He means nothing of the sort. The effect of his intent is that we shall be enlightened by Jesus Christ.
And in what manner? Not only as though we were in some dark place (says Saint Paul) and had need of a candle as in the nighttime. Even though a man may not see very clearly, if he has but some glimmer of light, whether it be from the moon, stars, or anything else, he will have an aim to say, "Here is such a door or gate, and here is such a path or way." A man's eyes are not utterly unprofitable when he goes by night, however dark it may be.
But our Lord Jesus Christ enlightens us in a much more wondrous manner. For we are not only in the dark, but also stark blind. The remedy, therefore, which the Son of God brings us by teaching us the
doctrine of the Gospel is that He gives us our sight again. For our eyes were put out by the sin of our first father Adam, who would need to see too clearly. Vaingloriousness carried him away, making him desire to discern between good and evil more than was lawful for him. But instead of having greater light, he became brutish, and we with him, insomuch that all of us continue blind.
Now, therefore, we need to have our eyes restored again and to have God's Spirit serve us instead of eyes. Mark that for one point.
Again, in this world, there is nothing but dull darkness, yea, and that so thick, as we know not how to step one pace without stumbling or straying out of our way. Therefore, it stands us in need to be guided, and that our Lord Jesus Christ shows us the way. This is what Saint
Paul declares to us here, and how our Lord Jesus enlightens us: namely, not only that we are dim-sighted and that He helps us and supplies the want that is in us, but also that we are stark blind, yea, dead, and finally even in the pit of hell. Just as when a corpse is laid in the grave, men may well bring candles and torches to it, but it sees never the more for all that.
So then, our Lord Jesus imparts His light to us, not to make us see more clearly than we did before, but to give us our whole eyesight anew again, because we are stark blind. Now then, seeing that Jesus
Christ speaks after this manner, and continues day by day in waking us, and in making us see clearer and clearer, ought we not to follow
His example, and to hold back our neighbors as much as we can when we see them straying to their destruction? This is the substance of the things shown to us here.
Now, seeing that our Lord Jesus sets Himself forth for an example and pattern, we must be too barbarous and savage if we are not touched by it. And how? The Son of God has not only vouchsafed to
do His office in enlightening us, to show us the way of salvation, and to waken us from the deadly sleep in which we were overwhelmed, but also, when He has enlightened us, He wills us to serve as lamps for others to follow, so that we may show them the way. He will have us (after a sort) to execute one half of His office. Seeing then that the Son of God has done us such honor, if we, for all this, thrust this light underfoot, and neither do good to ourselves nor to other men with it, is it not too heinous a treachery?
Again, if we imagine ourselves to be discharged of our duty when each of us for his own part refrains from doing evil, and in the meantime, let others go to destruction, so that we have neither care nor willingness to remedy the matter when we see the Devil dragging them after him to everlasting death, must we not perceive therein that we do great wrong and injury to God by holding His light choked after that fashion, and in betraying our neighbors by suppressing the benefit which should serve to the everlasting salvation of their souls?
You see then that we shall always be blameworthy both before God and man unless we follow the thing that is shown to us here by our
Lord Jesus Christ, and bear this doctrine always in our hearts to put it into practice.
Namely, that they who call themselves Christians and will be so regarded must also be like trumpeters to wake those who are asleep, and like guides to direct those who go astray, and to bring them into the right way, who were wandered out before. In this manner, I say, we must all deal and continue doing so until we come to the happy meeting when our Lord Jesus Christ shall call us all to Him, to put us in possession of the inheritance which He has purchased for us.
Now, let us fall down before the Majesty of our good God, with acknowledgment of our faults, praying Him to make us perceive