Monday, March 1, 2010

worse than the pope/3

This is the end of the passage.

("Worse than the pope/1" is the middle; " /2" is the beginning of the passage; " /3" is the end.  There is nothing omitted.)

I fear, that we are so trifling with the gospel that we are worse in the eyes of God than the papists.  If something is to be stolen, ever, better from a rich man than from a beggar or orphan, who has nothing besides a morsel of bread.  Sirach said:  "Trouble not the widows and orphans, for their tears go upward not downward" , that is they cry to him, who is above.  Those are the waters which cross mountains, as a proverb says, and God is not called for nothing the Father of widows and orphans, because even when they are deserted by everyone else, God still cares for them.  But it is better that we take care of widows and orphans and help them, because they are thus commended/commanded to us.  But if He has to do it himself, He will begin such a sport with us which goes like this:  "If you will cause sorrow to the widows, I will cause it to happen that your wives' young men will be struck down, and so your women and your children become widows and orphans."  As we see, nowadays, the Turk makes widows and orphans; however, we deserve this.

Well, a person is not supposed to reprimand people. (?!) Christ can preach, too.  Here (Matthew passage) he uses vinegar and forgets all honey and says:  Woe, woe, you who grab everything for yourself, dig and scratch, and still want to be called good Evangelicals.  See to it, that the gospel is not just on your lips (hovering over your tongue) while you are actually doing the opposite.

Ouch.  Papist, Lutheran and Calvinist should probably all smart together.

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