Martin Luther

“ Aristotle does indeed say something of note when he makes the end of man to be happiness, a happiness consisting in the action of virtue. But in all this weakness of our nature, who is there that ever yet attained unto that end, when even the very best of men are exposed to a multitude of evils, which the common trials of life or the depravity and malice of men are sure to bring upon them? That happiness of which Aristotle speaks, requires tranquility of mind to make it perfect; but who can always hold fast that peace of mind, amid such tossings to and fro of human life? ”

“ For who would not judge it an absurdity to suppose that man, who is designed to live eternally, should be born from one single drop as it were of seed from the loins of the father? There is even a greater apparent absurdity in this than in Moses saying, that man was formed from a lump of earth by the finger of God. But by all this folly reason plainly shows that she understands nothing of God, who, by the efficacy of a single thought, thus makes out of a lump of earth not only the seed of man, but man himself; and makes also, as Moses afterwards says, the woman out of a single rib of the man. ”

“ When therefore God says, "Where art thou?" it is as if he had said, "Thinkest thou that I see thee not?" For he will have Adam to see and feel that though hidden he is not hidden from God! And that though he flees from God, from God he cannot flee. For this is the very nature of all sin; it causes us to attempt to flee from the wrath of God, from which wrath we find it impossible to flee. It is indeed the utmost folly to think that we shall find a remedy in fleeing from God, rather than in returning to him; yet it is the very nature of sin that the sinner cannot return to God. ”

“ Can he not after that poor body is laid in the tomb raise it again to another and a new life? Wherefore we are to learn from this book of Genesis the power of God; that we may accustom ourselves to doubt nothing that God promises in his Word! For, in this glorious and marvellous creation work is laid a confirmation of our faith in all the promises of God; that there is nothing so difficult, nothing so impossible, which God cannot do and perfect by his Word. For all this is here proved by God's creation of the heaven, earth, sea and all that is in them. ”

“ This multiform corruption of nature therefore ought not only not to be extenuated, but to be as much as possible magnified. It ought to be shown that man is not only fallen from the image of God, from the knowledge of God, from the knowledge of all other creatures, and from all the dignity and glory of his nakedness, into ignorance of God, into blasphemies against God, and into hatred and contempt of God; but that he is fallen even into enmity against God; to say nothing at the present time of that tyranny of Satan to which our nature has by sin made itself the basest slave. ”

“ But originally, before the sin of the fall, the difference was far greater and far more illustrious; while as yet Adam and Eve fully knew God and all his creatures, and were wholly absorbed in the goodness, righteousness and worship of God. Hence also there was between Adam and Eve themselves a singular unity of minds and of wills. Nor was there in the whole world an object sweeter to Adam or more beautiful in his eyes than his Eve! Nor is a wife, as the heathen say, a necessary evil. And why call they a wife an evil? The reason is manifest. They know nothing of the cause of evil. ”

“ Philosophers knew nothing of the cause of sin, of the cause of death, nor of the cause of the great calamities to which the human race are subject; nor did they know anything of the restitution of all things, nor of eternal life. They were continually inquiring, how there is so much misery in the nature of the human race, which is so exalted and excellent. How often do they exclaim against and lament man's violent and impetuous inclinations to vice! They see that his virtues are weak and that they are only faint attempts which soon vanish and end in nothing ”

“ This name Adam gives to the woman contains in it a wonderful and sweet description of marriage, in which, as the lawyers express it, "The woman shines in the rays of her husband." For whatever the husband possesses, is possessed and held by the wife also. And not only is all their wealth possessed by them in common, but their children also, their food, their bed, and their habitation. Their wishes are also equal. So that the husband differs from the wife in no other thing than in sex. In every other respect, the woman is really a man. ”

“ At length came the greater curse of the Flood, which destroyed paradise and the whole human race, and swept them from the face of the earth. For if at this day rivers, bursting their banks, inflict by their floods such mighty calamities on men, beasts and fields, what must we suppose to have been the awfulness and horror of the calamities brought upon the earth by the universal Deluge! ”

“ That very state of body therefore which was in Adam and Eve their highest glory, would be in us, should we be seen in that state, our deepest shame. It was the very glory of man and would have continued to be so, had he remained in his original innocency, that while all the other animals had need of hairs, feathers, scales, etc., to cover their unsightliness, man alone was created with that dignity and beauty of body, that he could appear uncovered, in the glory of his created nakedness. ”

“ When we look back therefore to this first cause, then can we speak of all these things with pureness, with holiness and with joy. But if we leave out the first cause, we cannot even think of them without baseness and obscenity.
From this part of our sacred discussion we further behold the horrible nature of the fall and of original sin, in that the whole human race is sunk in ignorance of its very origin. We see male and female come together in marriage union. We see the female at her appointed time bring forth from a drop of masculine blood her infant into the light of heaven. ”

“ After God had thus finished all his works, he here speaks after the manner of one fatigued, as if he had said, "Behold I have now prepared all things for man with all perfectness. I have prepared for him the heaven as his canopy and the earth as his floor. His possessions and his wealth are the animals with all the productions of the earth, the sea and the air. ”

“ The essential principles are the same in all temptations and in all sins, whether of lust, of anger, or avarice, etc. While the sin is in the act, it is not felt; it terrifies not, it stings not, but it rather flatters the passions and delights. And no marvel that the case should be so with us when we are infected with this poison of original sin, from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head, and especially when we reflect that the sins of paradise took place in nature while it was yet sound and perfect. ”

“ From this same creation of man also we may learn, what the real power of free will is, of which our adversaries boast so much. We have indeed in a certain sense a free will, in those things which are put under us. For we are by the command of God appointed lords of the fishes of the sea, of the fowls of heaven and of the beasts of the field. These we kill when we please. We enjoy the food, and other blessings they supply. But in the things pertaining unto God, which are above us and not put under us, man has no free-will at all. But he is in reality as clay in the hand of the potter. ”

“ The word created is a thing, or fact, or work done, by means of the word uncreated. For what is the whole creation but the word of God spoken forth or uttered? But the word uncreated is the divine mind or thought, the internal command of God, flowing from God, and the same as God, and yet it is a distinct Person. And thus God reveals himself unto us as the speaker, having with or in himself, the word increate, by which he created the world and all things with the utmost facility of operation, namely by merely speaking! ”

“ Wherefore my opinion is that in each case by paradise is meant that condition or state in which Adam was, when in paradise, full of peace and rest and safety, and full of all those gifts of blessedness, which are enjoyed where there is no sin and no death. As if Christ had said, today shalt thou be with me in paradise, free from sin, and safe from death. Just as Adam in Paradise was free from sin and from all death and from all curse. Thus I believe paradise to be a paradise state. ”

“ And if man had not fallen this act of generation would have been most pure, most holy and most honorable. For as no one blushes to converse, eat and drink with his wife, because all these things are honorable among all men, so, had it not been for the fall of Adam, the act of generation would also have been most honorable and void of all "shame!"
Generation has indeed been left to us, even in this state of fallen and corrupted nature. But there has adhered to it that poison of the devil, an impure lust and prurient concupiscence, which is the cause of numberless sins and evils ”

“ We teach, we exhort, we rebuke, we turn ourselves every way, that we may recall the multitude from the security of sin to the fear of God. But the world, like an untamed beast, still goes on and follows not the Word, but its own lusts, which it strives to palliate under the appearance of what is honest and right. The prophets and the apostles also stand before us as examples of the same labor in vain, and we also are taught the same by our own experience. ”

“ To view the great and solemn matter of marriage thus, is "to set our blessings in their fairest light." This is not to look at our evils only, but to delight ourselves in the benefits and the great blessing of God in his holy ordinance of marriage; and under those benefits and that blessing, to sink out of sight the various punishments, corruptions, pains and afflictions by which it is compassed.
But the godly alone understand these things and do them. They alone view marriage aright. They alone give honor unto women, as unto the weaker vessel ”

“ For God does not deign to condemn Satan on his own account, by these his words; but he deems it sufficient to leave Satan to be condemned by his own conscience. All that God speaks to Satan, he speaks for the sake of Adam and Eve; that they may hear this judgment of God upon him and may comfort themselves, by thus hearing and seeing that God is the adversary to the nature of him, who had inflicted such a wound on man. For out of these very words of God to Satan, there begin to shine forth grace and mercy ”

“ The marriage union of male and female is an institution appointed of God. How is that union polluted by the fall and by sin! With what fury of lust is the flesh inflamed! By means of sin therefore this divinely appointed union has lost all its beauty and glory as a work of God, and is defiled with pollutions, corruptions and sins innumerable. In like manner also we have a body; but how miserable, how variously deformed by sin. It no longer retains the dignity of nakedness, but requires careful and perpetual coverings of its shame. ”

“ But there was in Adam an illumined reason, a true knowledge of God, and a will the most upright to love both God and his neighbor. Hence Adam embraced his Eve, and immediately knew his own flesh. To all these endowments were added others of less excellency, but surpassingly excellent if compared with our present weakness. Adam had a perfect knowledge of all nature, of animals, of herbs, of trees, of fruits and of all other creatures. ”

“ But all these blessings were lost by the sin of the fall, and in their place are endured by the woman all those too well-known evils of pain and labor in carrying the child, bringing it forth and bringing it up. Wherefore just as a graceful maiden weaves a beautiful chaplet from the flowers of the garden and bears it on her head, not only without any molestation but with the greatest pleasure and the greatest pride; so, if Eve had not sinned, she would have borne her child in her womb not only free from distress or inconvenience, but with the utmost pleasure and pride. ”

“ For all this is not during the night, not under thunderings and lightnings as at the mount of Sinai, but in the bright light of "day" while a gentle breeze is breathing and the leaves of the trees softly rustling by its touch! There is nothing therefore more intolerable to endure, nothing filled with greater misery than a conscience alarmed by the law of God and by the sight of sins committed. ”

“ But as for that chastity which the Pope so highly lauds in his monks and nuns, and contemptible priests, it is in the first place polluted and contaminated by numberless horrible sins; and in addition to all this, celibacy is an institution of man without any warrant from the Word of God. O, what triumphs would the Papists celebrate could they but prove by the Word of God their celibacy to be a divine institution, as we can abundantly prove marriage to be. With what mighty weight of the Pope's authority would they compel all men to adopt their life of celibacy. ”

“ When human reasoners speak of original sin, they consider only its wretched and unclean lust or concupiscence. But original sin is in truth the entire fall of the whole human nature. The intellect is so darkened that we can no longer understand God and his will, nor perceive nor acknowledge the works of God. Moreover the will is so wonderfully depraved that we cannot trust in the mercy of God nor fear God, but living in security and unconcern, we disregard the Word of God and his will and follow the concupiscence and violent lusts of the flesh. ”