This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1956 edition. Excerpt: …of legalism in Paul but of choice, even so far as the apostles and evangelists are concerned. Luther’s central teaching, salvation by faith and not works, was normative also here. In his approach to the subject Luther seeks to be scriptural. The freedom of the individual, faith, and conscience are vital considerations. While he held that the normal sex urge is imperious and cannot be escaped, he nevertheless pleaded the cause of self-control. He had an abhorrence of divorce. On the spiritual side Luther regarded marriage as an obedience of faith which lifts marriage above its gross naturalism. He wrote beautiful passages on marriage and his own home life has been made an ideal. Article XXIII of the Augsburg Confession says in part: For no man’s law, no vow, can annul the commandment and ordinance of God about marriage. For these reasons the priests teach that it is lawful for them to marry wives. It is also evident that in the ancient church priests were married men. For Paul says that a bishop should be the husband of one wife. In the section on abuses in the Augsburg Confession it is stated: .. . the precepts of God and the true service of God are obscured when men hear that only monks are in a state of perfection. For Christian perfection is to fear God from the heart, again to conceive great faith and to trust that, for Christ’s sake, we have a gracious God, to ask of God, and assuredly to expect his aid in all things that, according to our calling, ought to be borne; and meanwhile, to be diligent in outward good works, and to serve our calling. In these things consist the true perfection and the true service of God. It does not consist in the unmarried life, or in begging, or in vile apparel. But the people conceive many pernicious…
