Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Without ANY distinction?

"men have begun to collect many books and great libraries outside and alongside of the Holy Scriptures, and especially have begun to scramble together without any distinction, all sorts of 'fathers,' 'councils,' and doctors.'  Not only has good time been wasted and the study of the Scriptures neglected, but the pure understanding of God's Word is lost. . . ."

     Martin Luther, Preface in vol. 1 of the Wittenberg edition of his German works (1539), as reproduced in Philip Jacob Spener, Pia desideria (1675) III.1, trans. and ed. Theodore G. Tappert (Philadelphia:  Fortress Press, 1964), 91.  =WA 50, 657, ll. 5-10.  =Works 34, 283.

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