Note 362 — Chapter XXIX · (continued 3)

Ib., p. 423=312.—The so-called “Sermon on Love” (above, p. 96 f.) seeks to demonstrate in the above words the value of love of our neighbour, and, that this necessarily resulted from true faith. It abounds in beautiful sayings concerning the advantage of this virtue. Cruciger had his reasons for publishing it, one being, as he says in the dedication, to stop the mouths of those who never cease to cry out against our people as though we neither taught nor practised anything concerning love and good works. (Erl. ed., 18², p. 305.) Köstlin-Kawerau remarks (2, p. 273): “The fundamental evil was that the new Church included amongst its members so many who were indifferent to such preaching; they had joined it not merely without any real interior conversion, but without any spiritual awakening or sympathy, purely by reason of outward circumstances.” It must be added that the Sermon, though intended as a remedy, suffers from the defect of being permeated through and through with a spirit of bitter hate against the Church Catholic; in the very first pages we find the speaker complaining, that the devil, “who cannot bear the Word,” “attacks us ... in order to murder us by means of his tyrants”; “we are, however, forced to have the devil for our guest,” who molests us “with his crew.” Weim. ed., 36, p. 417 f.; Erl. ed., 18², p. 306 f.