presume, without Scripture, to set himself against the Scripture,
and will exalt himself above the same.


Of Luther's Complaint of the Multitude of Books.

The multitude of books, said Luther, is much to be lamented; no
measure nor end is held in writing; every one will write books; some
out of ambition to purchase praise thereby, and to raise them names;
others for the sake of lucre and gain, and by that means further
much evil. Therefore the Bible, by so many comments and books, will
be buried and obscured, so that the Text will be nothing regarded.
I could wish that all my books were buried nine ells deep in the
ground, for evil example's sake, in that every one will imitate me
with writing many books, thereby to purchase praise. But Christ
died not for the sake of our ambition and vain-glory, but he died
only to the end that his name might be sanctified.


That God's Word will not be truly understood without Trials and
Temptations.

I, said Luther, did not learn my divinity at one only time, but I
was constrained to search deeper and deeper, to which my temptations
brought me; for no man, without trials and temptations, can attain
to the true understanding of the Holy Scriptures. St. Paul had a
devil that beat him with fists, and with temptations drove him
diligently to study the Holy Scripture. I, said Luther, had
cleaving and hanging on my neck the Pope, the Universities, all the
deep-learned, and with them the devil himself; these hunted me into