Note 1245 — Chapter XXXVIII · END OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. THE CHURCH-UNSEEN AND THE VISIBLE CHURCH-BY-LAW (continued 3)

Cp. what he says elsewhere: “The Church is an assembly of the people which is founded on the invisible. It is the ungodly who see in the Church nothing but misery, weakness, scandal and sin. The wise of this world take offence at her look because she is subject to scandals and divisions; they dream of a holy, pure and undefiled Church, the Divine Dove. It is true that, in God’s sight, the Church does so appear, but to the eyes of men she resembles her bridegroom Christ Who according to Isaias liii., seemed torn, bruised, spit upon, crucified, mocked at” (“Colloq.,” ed. Bindseil, 1, p. 14).—Luther was perfectly aware of the works of holiness by which the Catholic Church is distinguished, her penitential practices and life of prayer. Speaking of this he is fond of depreciating it as something external and declaring: “Hence we must speak differently of the matter and learn to know that the Christian Church is holy, not in herself nor in this life, but in Christ; a holiness by grace is indeed received here, but it is completed in the next world.” Weim. ed., 30, 3, p. 408 f.; Erl. ed., 63, p. 304 f. Preface to Crossner’s “Sermon von der Kirche,” 1531.