VII.
The Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Commandments.

The Fifth Commandment.

Thou shalt not kill.

We have now completed both the spiritual and the temporal government,  that is, the divine and the paternal authority and obedience. But here now we go forth from our house among our neighbors to learn how we should live  with one another, every one himself toward his neighbor. Therefore God and  government are not included in this commandment nor is the power to kill, which they have taken away. For God has delegated His authority to punish  evil-doers to the government instead of parents, who aforetime (as we read in Moses) were required to bring their own children to judgment and sentence  them to death. Therefore, what is here forbidden is forbidden to the  individual in his relation to any one else, and not to the government.

Now this commandment is easy enough and has been often treated, because  we hear it annually in the Gospel of St. Matthew, 5, 21 ff., where Christ Himself explains and sums it up, namely, that we must not kill neither with hand, heart, mouth, signs, gestures, help, nor counsel. Therefore it is here  forbidden to every one to be angry, except those (as we said) who are in the place of God, that is, parents and the government. For it is proper for God  and for every one who is in a divine estate to be angry, to reprove and  punish, namely, on account of those very persons who transgress this and the  other commandments.

But the cause and need of this commandment is that God well knows that the world is evil, and that this life has much unhappiness; therefore He has  placed this and the other commandments between the good and the evil. Now, as there are many assaults upon all commandments, so it happens also in this commandment that we must live among many people who do us harm, so that we  have cause to be hostile to them.

As when your neighbor sees that you have a better house and home [a  larger family and more fertile fields], greater possessions and fortune from God than he, he is sulky, envies you, and speaks no good of you.

Thus by the devil's incitement you will get many enemies who cannot bear to see you have any good, either bodily or spiritual. When we see such people, our hearts, in turn, would rage and bleed and take vengeance. Then there arise cursing and blows, from which follow finally misery and murder. Here, now, God like a kind father steps in ahead of Us, interposes and wishes to have the quarrel settled, that no misfortune come of it, nor one destroy another. And briefly He would hereby protect, set free, and keep in peace every one against the crime and violence of every one else; and would  have this commandment placed as a wall, fortress, and refuge about our neighbor, that we do him no hurt nor harm in his body.

Thus this commandment aims at this, that no one offend his neighbor on account of any evil deed, even though he have fully deserved it. For where murder is forbidden, all cause also is forbidden whence murder may  originate. For many a one, although he does not kill, yet curses and utters  a wish, which would stop a person from running far if it were to strike him in the neck [makes imprecations, which if fulfilled with respect to any one, he would not live long]. Now since this inheres in every one by nature and it is a common practice that no one is willing to suffer at the hands of another, God wishes to remove the root and source by which the heart is embittered against our neighbor, and to accustom us ever to keep in view this commandment, always to contemplate ourselves in it as in a mirror, to regard the will of God, and with hearty confidence and invocation of His  name to commit to Him the wrong which we suffer. Thus we shall suffer our  enemies to rage and be angry, doing what they can, and we learn to calm our wrath, and to have a patient, gentle heart, especially toward those who give us cause to be angry, that is, our enemies.

Therefore the entire sum of what it means not to kill is to be impressed most explicitly upon the simple-minded. In the first place that we harm no  one, first, with our hand or by deed. Then, that we do not employ our tongue to instigate or counsel thereto. Further, that we neither use nor assent to  any kind of means or methods whereby any one may be injured. And finally, that the heart be not ill disposed toward any one, nor from anger and hatred wish him ill, so that body and soul may be innocent in regard to every one,  but especially those who wish you evil or inflict such upon you. For to do  evil to one who wishes and does you good is not human, but diabolical.

Secondly, under this commandment not only he is guilty who does evil to  his neighbor, but he also who can do him good, prevent, resist evil, defend and save him, so that no bodily harm or hurt happen to him and yet does not do it. If, therefore, you send away one that is naked when you could clothe  him, you have caused him to freeze to death; you see one suffer hunger and do not give him food, you have caused him to starve. So also, if you see any one innocently sentenced to death or in like distress, and do not save him,  although you know ways and means to do so, you have killed him. And it will  not avail you to make the pretext that you did not afford any help, counsel, or aid thereto for you have withheld your love from him and deprived him of  the benefit whereby his life would have been saved.

Therefore God also rightly calls all those murderers who do not afford counsel and help in distress and danger of body and life, and will pass a  most terrible sentence upon them in the last day, as Christ Himself has  announced when He shall say, Matt.25, 42f.: I was an hungered, and ye gave  Me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took Me not in; naked, and ye clothed Me not; sick and in prison and ye  visited Me not. That is: You would have suffered Me and Mine to die of hunger thirst, and cold, would have suffered the wild beasts to tear us to  pieces, or left us to rot in prison or perish in distress. What else is that  but to reproach them as murderers and bloodhounds? For although you have not actually done all this, you have nevertheless, so far as you were concerned, suffered him to pine and perish in misfortune.

It is just as if I saw some one navigating and laboring in deep water  [and struggling against adverse winds] or one fallen into fire, and could  extend to him the hand to pull him out and save him, and yet refused to do  it. What else would I appear, even in the eyes of the world, than as a  murderer and a criminal?

Therefore it is God's ultimate purpose that we suffer harm to befall no  man, but show him all good and love; and, as we have said it is specially  directed toward those who are our enemies. For to do good to our friends is  but an ordinary heathen virtue as Christ says Matt. 5, 46.

Here we have again the Word of God whereby He would encourage and urge us  to true noble and sublime works, as gentleness patience, and, in short, love and kindness to our enemies, and would ever remind us to reflect upon the First Commandment, that He is our God, that is, that He will help, assist, and protect us, in order that He may thus quench the desire of revenge in us.

This we ought to practice and inculcate and we would have our hands full doing good works. But this would not be preaching for monks; it would  greatly detract from the religious estate, and infringe upon the sanctity of  Carthusians, and would even be regarded as forbidding good works and  clearing the convents. For in this wise the ordinary state of Christians  would be considered just as worthy, and even worthier, and everybody would  see how they mock and delude the world with a false, hypocritical show of  holiness, because they have given this and other commandments to the winds, and have esteemed them unnecessary, as though they were not commandments but  mere counsels, and have at the same time shamelessly proclaimed and boasted their hypocritical estate and works as the most perfect life, in order that they might lead a pleasant, easy life, without the cross and without patience, for which reason, too, they have resorted to the cloisters, so that they might not be obliged to suffer any wrong from any one or to do him  any good. But know now that these are the true, holy, and godly works, in  which, with all the angels He rejoices, in comparison with which all human  holiness is but stench and filth, and besides, deserves nothing but wrath  and damnation.

The Sixth Commandment.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

These commandments now [that follow] are easily understood from [the explanation of] the preceding; for they are all to the effect that we [be  careful to] avoid doing any kind of injury to our neighbor. But they are  arranged in fine [elegant] order. In the first place, they treat of his own  person. Then they proceed to the person nearest him, or the closest possession next after his body namely, his wife, who is one flesh and blood  with him, so that we cannot inflict a higher injury upon him in any good that is his. Therefore it is explicitly forbidden here to bring any disgrace upon him in respect to his wife. And it really aims at adultery, because among the Jews it was ordained and commanded that every one must be married. Therefore also the young were early provided for [married], so that the  virgin state was held in small esteem, neither were public prostitution and lewdness tolerated (as now). Therefore adultery was the most common form of  unchastity among them.

But because among us there is such a shameful mess and the very dregs of all vice and lewdness, this commandment is directed also against all manner of unchastity, whatever it may be called; and not only is the external act  forbidden, but also every kind of cause, incitement, and means, so that the heart, the lips, and the whole body may be chaste and afford no opportunity, help, or persuasion to unchastity. And not only this, but that we also make resistance, afford protection and rescue wherever there is danger and need;  and again, that we give help and counsel, so as to maintain our neighbor's honor. For whenever you omit this when you could make resistance, or connive at it as if it did not concern you, you are as truly guilty as the one perpetrating the deed. Thus, to state it in the briefest manner, there is required this much, that every one both live chastely himself and help his neighbor do the same, so that God by this commandment wishes to hedge round  about and protect [as with a rampart] every spouse that no one trespass  against them.

But since this commandment is aimed directly at the state of matrimony and gives occasion to speak of the same, you must well understand and mark, first, how gloriously God honors and extols this estate, inasmuch as by His commandment He both sanctions and guards it. He has sanctioned it above in the Fourth Commandment: Honor thy father and thy mother; but here He has (as  we said ) hedged it about and protected it. Therefore He also wishes us to  honor it, and to maintain and conduct it as a divine and blessed estate; because, in the first place, He has instituted it before all others, and therefore created man and woman separately (as is evident), not for lewdness, but that they should [legitimately] live together, be fruitful,  beget children, and nourish and train them to the honor of God.

Therefore God has also most richly blessed this estate above all others, and, in addition, has bestowed on it and wrapped up in it everything in the  world, to the end that this estate might be well and richly provided for. Married life is therefore no jest or presumption; but it is an excellent  thing and a matter of divine seriousness. For it is of the highest  importance to Him that persons be raised who may serve the world and promote the knowledge of God, godly living, and all virtues, to fight against  wickedness and the devil.

Therefore I have always taught that this estate should not be despised nor held in disrepute, as is done by the blind world and our false  ecclesiastics, but that it be regarded according to God's Word, by which it  is adorned and sanctified, so that it is not only placed on an equality with other estates, but that it precedes and surpasses them all, whether they be  that of emperor, princes, bishops, or whoever they please. For both  ecclesiastical and civil estates must humble themselves and all be found in this estate as we shall hear. Therefore it is not a peculiar estate, but the most common and noblest estate, which pervades all Christendom, yea which  extends through all the world.

In the second place, you must know also that it is not only an honorable,  but also a necessary state, and it is solemnly commanded by God that, in  general, in all conditions, men and women, who were created for it, shall be found in this estate; yet with some exceptions (although few) whom God has  especially excepted, so that they are not fit for the married estate, or whom He has released by a high, supernatural gift that they can maintain chastity without this estate. For where nature has its course, as it is implanted by God, it is not possible to remain chaste without marriage. For  flesh and blood remain flesh and blood, and the natural inclination and  excitement have their course without let or hindrance, as everybody sees and feels. In order, therefore, that it may be the more easy in some degree to avoid unchastity, God has commanded the estate of matrimony, that every one  may have his proper portion and be satisfied therewith; although God's grace  besides is required in order that the heart also may be pure.

From this you see how this popish rabble, priests, monks, and nuns,  resist God's order and commandment, inasmuch as they despise and forbid matrimony, and presume and vow to maintain perpetual chastity, and, besides, deceive the simple-minded with lying words and appearances [impostures]. For  no one has so little love and inclination to chastity as just those who  because of great sanctity avoid marriage, and either indulge in open and  shameless prostitution, or secretly do even worse, so that one dare not  speak of it, as has, alas! been learned too fully. And, in short, even  though they abstain from the act, their hearts are so full of unchaste  thoughts and evil lusts that there is a continual burning and secret  suffering, which can be avoided in the married life. Therefore all vows of chastity out of the married state are condemned by this commandment, and free permission is granted, yea, even the command is given, to all poor ensnared consciences which have been deceived by their monastic vows to abandon the unchaste state and enter the married life, considering that even  if the monastic life were godly, it would nevertheless not be in their power  to maintain chastity, and if they remain in it, they must only sin more and more against this commandment.

Now, I speak of this in order that the young may be so guided that they  conceive a liking for the married estate, and know that it is a blessed  estate and pleasing to God. For in this way we might in the course of time bring it about that married life be restored to honor, and that there might  be less of the filthy, dissolute, disorderly doings which now run riot the  world over in open prostitution and other shameful vices arising from  disregard of married life. Therefore it is the duty of parents and the  government to see to it that our youth be brought up to discipline and respectability, and when they have come to years of maturity, to provide for  them [to have them married] in the fear of God and honorably; He would not  fail to add His blessing and grace, so that men would have joy and happiness from the same.

Let me now say in conclusion that this commandment demands not only that every one live chastely in thought, word, and deed in his condition, that is, especially in the estate of matrimony, but also that every one love and  esteem the spouse given him by God. For where conjugal chastity is to be maintained, man and wife must by all means live together in love and  harmony, that one may cherish the other from the heart and with entire  fidelity. For that is one of the principal points which enkindle love and desire of chastity, so that, where this is found, chastity will follow as a matter of course without any command. Therefore also St. Paul so diligently  exhorts husband and wife to love and honor one another. Here you have again a precious, yea, many and great good works, of which you can joyfully boast, against all ecclesiastical estates, chosen without God's Word and  commandment.

The Seventh Commandment.

Thou shalt not steal.

After your person and spouse temporal property comes next. That also God wishes to have protected, and He has commanded that no one shall subtract from, or curtail, his neighbor's possessions. For to steal is nothing else  than to get possession of another's property wrongfully, which briefly  comprehends all kinds of advantage in all sorts of trade to the disadvantage of our neighbor. Now, this is indeed quite a wide-spread and common vice,  but so little regarded and observed that it exceeds all measure, so that if  all who are thieves, and yet do not wish to be called such, were to be  hanged on gallows the world would soon be devastated and there would be a  lack both of executioners and gallows. For, as we have just said, to steal is to signify not only to empty our neighbor's coffer and pockets, but to be grasping in the market, in all stores, booths, wine- and beer-cellars, workshops, and, in short, wherever there is trading or taking and giving of  money for merchandise or labor.

As, for instance, to explain this somewhat grossly for the common people,  that it may be seen how godly we are: When a manservant or maid-servant does  not serve faithfully in the house, and does damage, or allows it to be done  when it could be prevented, or otherwise ruins and neglects the goods entrusted to him, from indolence idleness, or malice, to the spite and  vexation of master and mistress, and in whatever way this can be done purposely (for I do not speak of what happens from oversight and against  one's will), you can in a year abscond thirty, forty florins, which if  another had taken secretly or carried away, he would be hanged with the  rope. But here you [while conscious of such a great theft] may even bid defiance and become insolent, and no one dare call you a thief.

The same I say also of mechanics, workmen, and day-laborers, who all follow their wanton notions, and never know enough ways to overcharge  people, while they are lazy and unfaithful in their work. All these are far  worse than sneak-thieves, against whom we can guard with locks and bolts, or who, if apprehended, are treated in such a manner that they will not do the  same again. But against these no one can guard, no one dare even look awry  at them or accuse them of theft, so that one would ten times rather lose from his purse. For here are my neighbors, good friends, my own servants,  from whom I expect good [every faithful and diligent service], who defraud  me first of all.

Furthermore, in the market and in common trade likewise, this practice is  in full swing and force to the greatest extent, where one openly defrauds  another with bad merchandise, false measures, weights, coins, and by nimbleness and queer finances or dexterous tricks takes advantage of him;  likewise, when one overcharges a person in a trade and wantonly drives a  hard bargain, skins and distresses him. And who can recount or think of all  these things? To sum up, this is the commonest craft and the largest guild  on earth, and if we regard the world throughout all conditions of life, it  is nothing else than a vast, wide stall, full of great thieves.

Therefore they are also called swivel-chair robbers, land- and highway-robbers, not pick-locks and sneak-thieves who snatch away the ready cash, but who sit on the chair [at home] and are styled great noblemen, and honorable, pious citizens, and yet rob and steal under a good pretext.

Yes, here we might be silent about the trifling individual thieves if we were to attack the great, powerful arch-thieves with whom lords and princes keep company, who daily plunder not only a city or two, but all Germany. Yea, where should we place the head and supreme protector of all thieves,  the Holy Chair at Rome with all its retinue, which has grabbed by theft the  wealth of all the world, and holds it to this day?

This is, in short, the course of the world: whoever can steal and rob  openly goes free and secure, unmolested by any one, and even demands that he  be honored. Meanwhile the little sneak-thieves, who have once trespassed, must bear the shame and punishment to render the former godly and honorable.  But let them know that in the sight of God they are the greatest thieves,  and that He will punish them as they are worthy and deserve.

Now, since this commandment is so far-reaching [and comprehensive], as just indicated, it is necessary to urge it well and to explain it to the common people, not to let them go on in their wantonness and security, but always to place before their eyes the wrath of God, and inculcate the same.  For we have to preach this not to Christians, but chiefly to knaves and scoundrels, to whom it would be more fitting for judges, jailers, or Master  Hannes [the executioner] to preach. Therefore let every one know that it is  his duty, at the risk of God's displeasure, not only to do no injury to his neighbor, nor to deprive him of gain, nor to perpetrate any act of  unfaithfulness or malice in any bargain or trade, but faithfully to preserve his property for him, to secure and promote his advantage, especially when one accepts money, wages, and one's livelihood for such service.

He now who wantonly despises this may indeed pass along and escape the hangman, but he shall not escape the wrath and punishment of God; and when he has long practiced his defiance and arrogance, he shall yet remain a  tramp and beggar, and, in addition, have all plagues and misfortune. Now you  are going your way [wherever your heart's pleasure calls you] while you ought to preserve the property of your master and mistress, for which  service you fill your crop and maw, take your wages like a thief, have people treat you as a nobleman; for there are many that are even insolent  towards their masters and mistresses, and are unwilling to do them a favor or service by which to protect them from loss.

But reflect what you will gain when, having come into your own property  and being set up in your home (to which God will help with all misfortunes), it [your perfidy] will bob up again and come home to you, and you will find  that where you have cheated or done injury to the value of one mite, you will have to pay thirty again.

Such shall be the lot also of mechanics and day-laborers of whom we are  now obliged to hear and suffer such intolerable maliciousness, as though they were noblemen in another's possessions, and every one were obliged to give them what they demand. Just let them continue practicing their  exactions as long as they can; but God will not forget His commandment, and will reward them according as they have served, and will hang them, not upon a green gallows, but upon a dry one so that all their life they shall  neither prosper nor accumulate anything. And indeed, if there were a well-ordered government in the land, such wantonness might soon be checked and prevented, as was the custom in ancient times among the Romans, where  such characters were promptly seized by the pate in a way that others took  warning.

No more shall all the rest prosper who change the open free market into a  carrion-pit of extortion and a den of robbery, where the poor are daily overcharged, new burdens and high prices are imposed, and every one uses the market according to his caprice, and is even defiant and brags as though it were his fair privilege and right to sell his goods for as high a price as he please, and no one had a right to say a word against it. We will indeed look on and let these people skin, pinch, and hoard, but we will trust in  God -- who will, however, do this of His own accord, -- that, after you have  been skinning and scraping for a long time, He will pronounce such a  blessing on your gains that your grain in the garner, your beer in the  cellar, your cattle in the stalls shall perish; yea, where you have cheated  and overcharged any one to the amount of a florin, your entire pile shall be consumed with rust, so that you shall never enjoy it.

And indeed, we see and experience this being fulfilled daily before our  eyes, that no stolen or dishonestly acquired possession thrives. How many  there are who rake and scrape day and night, and yet grow not a farthing richer! And though they gather much, they must suffer so many plagues and misfortunes that they cannot relish it with cheerfulness nor transmit it to  their children. But as no one minds it, and we go on as though it did not  concern us, God must visit us in a different way and teach us manners by  imposing one taxation after another, or billeting a troop of soldiers upon us, who in one hour empty our coffers and purses, and do not quit as long as  we have a farthing left, and in addition, by way of thanks, burn and  devastate house and home, and outrage and kill wife and children.

And, in short, if you steal much, depend upon it that again as much will be stolen from you; and he who robs and acquires with violence and wrong will submit to one who shall deal after the same fashion with him. For God is master of this art, that since every one robs and steals from the other,  He punishes one thief by means of another. Else where should we find enough gallows and ropes?

Now, whoever is willing to be instructed let him know that this is the commandment of God, and that it must not be treated as a jest. For although  you despise us, defraud, steal, and rob, we will indeed manage to endure  your haughtiness, suffer, and, according to the Lord's Prayer, forgive and  show pity; for we know that the godly shall nevertheless have enough, and  you injure yourself more than another.

But beware of this: When the poor man comes to you (of whom there are so many now) who must buy with the penny of his daily wages and live upon it, and you are harsh to him, as though every one lived by your favor, and you  skin and scrape to the bone, and, besides, with pride and haughtiness turn  him off to whom you ought to give for nothing, he will go away wretched and  sorrowful, and since he can complain to no one he will cry and call to  heaven, -- then beware (I say again) as of the devil himself. For such groaning and calling will be no jest, but will have a weight that will prove  too heavy for you and all the world. For it will reach Him who takes care of the poor sorrowful hearts, and will not allow them to go unavenged. But if  you despise this and become defiant, see whom you have brought upon you: if  you succeed and prosper, you may before all the world call God and me a liar.

We have exhorted, warned, and protested enough; he who will not heed or  believe it may go on until he learns this by experience Yet it must be impressed upon the young that they may be careful not to follow the old lawless crowd, but keep their eyes fixed upon God's commandment, lest His  wrath and punishment come upon them too. It behooves us to do no more than  to instruct and reprove with God's Word; but to check such open wantonness  there is need of the princes and government, who themselves would have eyes  and the courage to establish and maintain order in all manner of trade and commerce, lest the poor be burdened and oppressed nor they themselves be loaded with other men's sins.

Let this suffice as an explanation of what stealing is, that it be not taken too narrowly but made to extend as far as we have to do with our  neighbors. And briefly, in a summary, as in the former commandments, it is herewith forbidden, in the first place, to do our neighbor any injury or  wrong (in whatever manner supposable, by curtailing, forestalling, and  withholding his possessions and property), or even to consent or allow such  a thing, but to interpose and prevent it. And, on the other hand, it is  commanded that we advance and improve his possessions, and in case he  suffers want, that we help, communicate, and lend both to friends and  foes.

Whoever now seeks and desires good works will find here more than enough such as are heartily acceptable and pleasing to God, and in addition are favored and crowned with excellent blessings, that we are to be richly  compensated for all that we do for our neighbor's good and from friendship;  as King Solomon also teaches Prov. 19, 17: He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will He pay him again. Here, then you have a rich Lord, who is certainly sufficient for you, and  who will not suffer you to come short in anything or to want; thus you can  with a joyful conscience enjoy a hundred times more than you could scrape together with unfaithfulness and wrong. Now, whoever does not desire the  blessing will find wrath and misfortune enough.