y from Christ, turning over to
Mary and the saints the honor due him alone, and teaching the people
to invoke these as mediators and intercessors having power to protect
us in the hour of death. This is substituting dumb idols for Christ.
No saint has ever taught such things; still less does the Word of God
enjoin them. Thus the monks really curse and insult Christ.

22. The Pope, throughout his whole administration, has been guilty of
such insult to Christ, notwithstanding his boast that his kingdom
represents the Christian Church, that he truly possesses the Holy
Spirit and that his decrees and ordinances must be respected. Nothing
can dissuade the Papists from their practice. They ever boast of
being led by the Spirit, yet their vaunting is mere malediction, not
only of Christ in person, but of his Word and his sacraments. For
they openly condemn, and denounce as heresy, the doctrine of the
Gospel, which Gospel assures us that to Christ alone we owe the
unmerited forgiveness of our sins; they condemn also the use of the
sacraments according to Christ's command and institution. And they
destroy the people who thus offend them.

The fact is, the Pope has in our doctrine nothing to curse but Jesus
Christ, its foundation and principle, expressed by his Word and
sacraments. The same is true of other factions--the Anabaptists and
similar sects. What else do they but slander baptism and the Lord's
Supper when they pretend that the external Word and outward
sacraments do not benefit the soul, that the Spirit alone can do
that? But in these matters you have Paul's sure word of judgment to
strengthen your faith. You may be assured that the factions of the
Pope and other sects are not, as they boast, the Church of Christ,
but accursed schisms of the devil. The true Church, the righteous
bride of Christ, certainly will not curse him nor persecute his Word.
Let no one be moved by hearing men loudly boast about Christ after
the manner of the false apostles who called themselves disciples of
the true apostles of Jesus, and claimed that certain of their number
had even seen Christ in person. The Saviour himself warns us against
this class when he says (Mt 24, 5-24), "Many shall come in my name
... and shall show wonders"; and (Mt 7, 21), "Not every one that
saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven."

HOLY SPIRIT ALONE GIVES ASSURANCE.

23. Paul has the same thought here when he says, "No man can say,