A manual of the book of Psalms · Martin Luther
TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE.
The assurance that the following production of the immortal and beloved reformer, Luther, would be acceptable and beneficial to every lover of divine and experimental truth, was the motive that led the Translator to present it, in an English version, to the British church of Christ. No commendatory remarks are needed: the work itself will at once speak its own worth. The translator would only observe, that in the following MANUAL COMMENTARY on the Book of Psalms, Luther has most divinely, experimentally, and beautifully opened up—the vanity and delusion of all forms (even a gospel “form”) of godliness, without the known and possessed “power” thereof;—the opposition and malicious persecution which the real disciples of Christ ever meet with from the wicked, and, above all, from hypocrites in religion;—the true and only grounds of a Christian man’s hope, peace, and salvation; which are, a trust and rest alone in the grace, righteousness, and atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ;—the blessedness of a nation where the pure word and worship of God guide, and are upheld by, its throne and government; and the sure destruction of a kingdom when its magistrates act against that word and worship;—and finally, the glory of all the creatures of God, the abounding goodness of God in them, and the infinite blessedness of their lawful use.
Luther takes occasion also, from numberless passages in the Psalms, to describe, point out, and distinguish the true church of God in the midst of the earth, and the signs by which she may be known from all other churches;—that she is that company of poor and afflicted people, who are burdened with sins, filled with fears, covered with infirmities, and despised by the world, and considered both by the wicked, and by formal professors of religion, to be the last people likely to be the church of God. He repeatedly shews, however, that such, notwithstanding their rejection by all, are the true people and church of God; and that it is unto such, and such only, that all the promises of grace and mercy in Christ, and of help, provision, and defence in this world, are made; ‘For (saith Luther) if you will look through the whole Bible, you will find, that God is not the God of the rich, the proud, the secure, &c. but of the poor, the fearful, the afflicted, and the helpless; who cannot do without his daily mercy and help, either in the things of this world, or of that which is to come.’ That the great and heavenly things thus opened by the admired Luther may be understood and enjoyed by every reader of the following manual, is the desire and prayer of, _Highbury Place, Islington, June 8, 1837._ _Other invaluable productions of Luther, which have never before been translated into ENGLISH, are in hand, and will duly appear: which, added to the four vols. of “Select Works,” the “Bondage of the Will,” and the work “on Popery,” just published by Messrs. Nisbet, will put the ENGLISH Church of Christ in possession of all the holy Reformer’s works which are the most calculated to be of divine benefit to her._
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.