Besides,it is an exceedingly effectual help against the devil,the world,and the flesh and all evil thoughts to be occupied with the Word of God,and to speak of it,and meditate upon it,so that the First Psalm declares those blessed who meditate upon the law of God day and night.Undoubtedly,you will not start a stronger incense or other fumigation against the devil than by being engaged upon God's commandments and words,and speaking,singing,or thinking of them.For this is indeed the true holy water and holy sign from which he flees,and by which he may be driven away.
Now,for this reason alone you ought gladly to read,speak,think and treat of these things if you had no other profit and fruit from them than that by doing so you can drive away the devil and evil thoughts.
For he cannot hear or endure God's Word;and God's Word is not like some other silly prattle,as that about Dietrich of Berne,etc.,but as St.Paul says,Rom.1,16,the power of God.Yea,indeed,the power of God which gives the devil burning pain,and strengthens,comforts,and helps us beyond measure.
And what need is there of many words ?If I were to recount all the profit and fruit which God's Word produces,whence would I get enough paper and time?The devil is called the master of a thousand arts.But what shall we call God's Word,which drives away and brings to naught this master of a thousand arts with all his arts and power?It must indeed be the master of more than a hundred thousand arts.And shall we frivolously despise such power,profit,strength,and fruit --we,especially,who claim to be pastors and preachers?If so,we should not only have nothing given us to eat,but be driven out,being baited with dogs,and pelted with dung,because we not only need all this every day as we need our daily bread but must also daily use it against the daily and unabated attacks and lurking of the devil,the master of a thousand arts.
And if this were not sufficient to admonish us to read the Catechism daily,yet we should feel sufficiently constrained by the command of God alone,who solemnly enjoins in Deut.6,6ff.that we should always meditate upon His precepts,sitting,walking,standing,Lying down,and rising,and have them before our eyes and in our hands as a constant mark and sign.Doubtless He did not so solemnly require and enjoin this without a purpose;but because He knows our danger and need,as well as the constant and furious assaults and temptations of devils,He wishes to warn,equip,and preserve us against them,as with a good armor against their fiery darts and with good medicine against their evil infection and suggestion.
Oh,what mad,senseless fools are we that,while we must ever live and dwell among such mighty enemies as the devils are,we nevertheless despise our weapons and defense,and are too lazy to look at or think of them!And what else are such supercilious,presumptuous saints,who are unwilling to read and study the Catechism daily,doing than esteeming themselves much more learned than God Himself with all His saints,angels [patriarchs],prophets,apostles,and all Christians For inasmuch as God Himself is not ashamed to teach these things daily,as knowing nothing better to teach,and always keeps teaching the same thing,and does not take up anything new or different,and all the saints know nothing better or different to learn,and cannot finish learning this,are we not the finest of all fellows to imagine,if we have once read or heard it,that we know it all,and have no further need to read and learn,but can finish learning in one hour what God Himself cannot finish teaching,although He is engaged in teaching it from the beginning to the end of the world,and all prophets,together with all saints,have been occupied with learning it and have ever remained pupils,and must continue to be such ?
For it needs must be that whoever knows the Ten Commandments perfectly must know all the Scriptures,so that,in all affairs and cases,he can advise,help,comfort,judge,and decide both spiritual and temporal matters and is qualified to sit in judgment upon all doctrines,estates,spirits,laws,and whatever else is in the world.And what,indeed,is the entire Psalter but thoughts and exercises upon the First Commandment?Now I know of a truth that such lazy paunches and presumptuous spirits do not understand a single psalm,much less the entire Holy Scriptures;and yet they pretend to know and despise the Catechism,which is a compend and brief summary of all the Holy Scriptures.
Therefore I again implore all Christians,especially pastors and preachers,not to be doctors too soon,and imagine that they know everything (for imagination and cloth unshrunk [and false weights]fall far short of the measure),but that they daily exercise themselves well in these studies and constantly treat them;moreover,that they guard with all care and diligence against the poisonous infection of such security and vain imagination,but steadily keep on reading,teaching,learning,pondering,and meditating,and do not cease until they have made a test and are sure that they have taught the devil to death and have become more learned than God Himself and all His saints.
If they manifest such diligence,then I will promise them,and they shall also perceive,what fruit they will obtain,and what excellent men God will make of them,so that in due time they themselves will acknowledge that the longer and the more they study the Catechism,the less they know of it,and the more they find yet to learn;and then only,as hungry and thirsty ones,will they truly relish that which now they cannot endure because of great abundance and satiety.To this end may God grant His grace!Amen.
