My Conscience Is Captive To The Word

For In The True Nature Of Things, If We Rightly Consider, Every Green Tree Is Far More Glorious Than If It Were Made Of Gold And Silver.

I Cannot And Will Not Recant Anything, For To Go Against Conscience Is Neither Right Nor Safe. Here I Stand, I Can Do No Other, So Help Me God. Amen.

Whenever The True Message Of The Cross Is Abolished, The Anger Of Hypocrites And Heretics Ceases.. And All Things Are In Peace. This Is A Sure Token That The Devil Is Guarding The Entry To The House, And That The Pure Doctrine Of God's Word Has Been Taken Away. The Church Then, Is In The Best State When Satan Assaileth It On Every Sideboth With Subtle Sleights, And Outright Violence. And Likewise, It Is In The Worst State When It Is Most At Peace!

In Short, I Will Preach It [the Word], Teach It, Write It, But I Will Constrain No Man By Force, For Faith Must Come Freely Without Compulsion. Take Myself As An Example. I Opposed Indulgences And All The Papists, But Never With Force. I Simply Taught, Preached, And Wrote God's Word; Otherwise I Did Nothing. And While I Slept, Or Drank Wittenberg Beer With My Friends Philip And Amsdorf, The Word So Greatly Weakened The Papacy That No Prince Or Emperor Ever Inflicted Such Losses Upon It. I Did Nothing; The Word Did Everything.

The Quest For Glory Can Never Be Satisfied, It Must Be Extinguished.