-and to do His will in its full extent as the heart has
perceived it. Though this thought may have been occasionally expressed
in the expositions of the Ten Commandments which appeared at the dawn
of the Reformation, still it had never before been so clearly
recognized as the only correct principle, much less had it been so
energetically carried out from beginning to end, as is done in this
treatise. Over against the deep-rooted view that the works of love must
bestow upon faith its form, its content and its worth before God, it
must have appeared as the dawn of a new era (Galatians 3:22-25) when
Luther in this treatise declared, and with victorious certainty carried
out the thought, that it is true faith which invests the works, even
the best and greatest of works, with their content and worth before God.

This proposition, which Luther here amplifies more clearly than ever
before, demanded nothing less than a breach with the whole of prevalent
religious views, and at that time must have been perceived as the
discovery of a new world, though it was no more than a return to the
clear teaching of the New Testament Scriptures concerning the way of
salvation. This, too, accounts for the fact that in this writing the
accusation is more impressively repelled than before, that the doctrine
of justification by faith alone resulted in moral laxity, and that, on
the other hand, the fundamental and radical importance of righteousness
by faith for the whole moral life is revealed in such a
heart-refreshing manner. Luther's appeal in this treatise to kings,
princes, the nobility, municipalities and communities, to declare
against the misuse of spiritual powers and to abolish various abuses in
civil life, marks this treatise as a forerunner of the great
Reformation writings, which appeared in the same year (1520), while, on
the other hand, his espousal of the rights of the "poor man"--to be met
with here for the first time--shows that the Monk of Witttenberg,
coming from the narrow limits of the convent, had an intimate and
sympathetic knowledge of the social needs of his time. Thus he proved
by his own example that to take a stand in the center of the Gospel
does not narrow the vision nor harden the heart, but rather produces
courage in the truth and sympathy for all manner of misery.

Luther's contemporaries at once recognized the great importance of the
Treatise, for within the period of seven months it passed through eight
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