Eleventh volume.
Church-Postils. Gospel Part.
By the way, there is no doubt in the minds of all those who observe the signs of the times that the Lord will soon hear the daily supplications of His oppressed Church in these last times and will come again to gather them into His Father's house. It is therefore necessary to hurry (before night falls, since no one can work any longer) to put the light of our Reformer's writings, which have long been put under a bushel, back on the lampstand, so that it may shine on all who are in the house. But now Luther himself declares his Church Postils to be his best book. When [Martin] Bucer had not only published Luther's Church Postils behind Luther's back, as much of it as had already appeared at that time, but had also fitted the disgraceful Zwinglian doctrine into it, Luther wrote the following about it in his writing “That these words of Christ: ‘This is my body’ still stand firm” in 1527:
.jpg "Martin Bucer (Wikipedia)")
“Similarly, my very best book that I have ever made, the Postils, which the papists also like, he (Martin Bucer) has also condemned with forewords, interjections and objections in such a way that under my name this blasphemous, shameful doctrine is brought and led further than perhaps by all your (Zwinglian) books. What shall I do? How am I to advise on the matter? I must feel as if a dog had bitten me. I have punished it with prefaces, but what does it help? The devil saw that this book [Church Postils] penetrated everywhere; therefore he seized it, loaded it and smeared his filth on it. And so I, an innocent man, must be the devil's muckraker. … It is so easy for these people and their devil with their insanity, that they also spread it through other people's books, just as if there were not enough books, so that they now wanted to deceive the world. What should happen after my death? That is what they do to me during my life and leave me to sit here in Wittenberg and watch. … If he (Bucer) had found fault with my exposition, he would have known to use writings or little books of his own to find me, and would have been without need to desecrate my dearest book behind my back and to drive his poison into the hearts with it.” (XX, 1112 f. [W2 EN 889-890])
When Luther called his Church Postils not only his “most beloved” but also his “very best book that he had ever written,” he did not do this out of a vain desire for fame, but in gratitude and honor to God, who had given him such a glorious knowledge by grace, and for the benefit of poor, misguided Christianity.
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