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The table talk or familiar discourse of Martin Luther, tr. by W. Hazlitt
The table talk or familiar discourse of Martin Luther tr by W Hazlitt Author:Martin Luther Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: OF GOD'S WORKS. LXIII. All the works of God are unsearchable and unspeakable; no human sense can find them out; faith only takes hold of them without human... more » power or aid. No mortal creature can comprehend God in his majesty, and therefore did he come before us in the simplest manner, and was made man, ay, sin, death, and weakness. In all things, in the least creatures, and in their members, God's almighty power and wonderful works clearly shine. For what man, how powerful, wise, and holy soever, can make out of one fig a fig-tree, or another fig? or, out of one cherry-stone, a cherry, or a cherry-tree? or what man can know how God creates and preserves all things, and makes them grow. Neither can we conceive how the eye sees, or how intelligible words are spoken plainly, when only the tongue moves and stirs in the mouth; all which are natural things, daily seen and acted. How then should we be able to comprehend or understand the secret counsels of God's majesty, or search them out with our human sense, reason, or understanding. Should we then admire our own wisdom? I, for my part, admit myself a fool, and yield myself captive. . ' LXIV. In the beginning, God made Adam out of a piece of clay, and Eve out of Adam's rib: he blessed them, and said: " Be fruitful and increase"—words that will stand and remain powerful to the world's end. Though many people die daily, yet others are ever being born, as David says in his psalm: " Thou sufferest men to die and go away like a shadow, and sayest, Come again ye children of men." These and other things which he daily creates, the ungodly blind world seenot, nor acknowledge for God's wonders, but think all is done by chance and haphazard, whereas, the godly, wheresoever they cast their eyes, beholding heaven and earth, the ai...« less