【英文原著类】a treatise on good works(佳绩).pdf

A treatise on Good Works
A TREATISE ON GOOD
WORKS
by Dr. Martin Luther
1520 DEDICATION JESUS
1
A treatise on Good Works
INTRODUCTION
1.
The Occasion of the Work. -- Luther did not impose himself as
reformer upon the Church. In the course of a conscientious performance of
the duties of his office, to which he had been regularly and divinely called,
and without any urging on his part, he attained to this position by inward
necessity. In 1515 he received his appointment as the standing substitute
for the sickly city pastor, Simon Heinse, from the city council of
Wittenberg. Before this time he was obliged to preach only occasionally in
the convent, apart from his activity as teacher in the University and
convent. Through this appointment he was in duty bound, by divine and
human right, to lead and direct the congregation at Wittenberg on the true
way to life, and it would have been a denial of the knowledge of salvation
which God had led him to acquire, by way of ardent inner struggles, if he
had led the congregation on any other way than the one God had revealed
to him in His Word. He could not deny before the congregation which had
been intrusted to his care, what up to this time he had taught with ever
increasing clearness in his lectures at the University -- for in the lectures
on the Psalms, which he began to deliver in 1513, he declares his
conviction that faith alone justifies, as can be seen from plete
manuscript, published since 1885, and with still greater clearness from his
Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (1515-1516), which is
accessible since 1908; nor what he had urged as spiritual adviser of his
convent brethren when in deep distress -- compare the charming letter to
Spenlein, dated April 8, 1516.
Luther's first literary works to appear in print were also occasioned by
the work of his calling and of his office in the Wittenberg congregation.
He had no other object in view than to edify his congregation an