Yes,here we might be silent about the trifling individual thieves if we were to attack the great,powerful arch-thieves with whom lords and princes keep company,who daily plunder not only a city or two,but all Germany.Yea,where should we place the head and supreme protector of all thieves,the Holy Chair at Rome with all its retinue,which has grabbed by theft the wealth of all the world,and holds it to this day?
This is,in short,the course of the world:whoever can steal and rob openly goes free and secure,unmolested by any one,and even demands that he be honored.Meanwhile the little sneak-thieves,who have once trespassed,must bear the shame and punishment to render the former godly and honorable.But let them know that in the sight of God they are the greatest thieves,and that He will punish them as they are worthy and deserve.
Now,since this commandment is so far-reaching [and comprehensive],as just indicated,it is necessary to urge it well and to explain it to the common people,not to let them go on in their wantonness and security,but always to place before their eyes the wrath of God,and inculcate the same.For we have to preach this not to Christians,but chiefly to knaves and scoundrels,to whom it would be more fitting for judges,jailers,or Master Hannes [the executioner]to preach.
Therefore let every one know that it is his duty,at the risk of God's displeasure,not only to do no injury to his neighbor,nor to deprive him of gain,nor to perpetrate any act of unfaithfulness or malice in any bargain or trade,but faithfully to preserve his property for him,to secure and promote his advantage,especially when one accepts money,wages,and one's livelihood for such service.
He now who wantonly despises this may indeed pass along and escape the hangman,but he shall not escape the wrath and punishment of God;and when he has long practiced his defiance and arrogance,he shall yet remain a tramp and beggar,and,in addition,have all plagues and misfortune.Now you are going your way [wherever your heart's pleasure calls you]while you ought to preserve the property of your master and mistress,for which service you fill your crop and maw,take your wages like a thief,have people treat you as a nobleman;for there are many that are even insolent towards their masters and mistresses,and are unwilling to do them a favor or service by which to protect them from loss.
But reflect what you will gain when,having come into your own property and being set up in your home (to which God will help with all misfortunes),it [your perfidy]will bob up again and come home to you,and you will find that where you have cheated or done injury to the value of one mite,you will have to pay thirty again.
Such shall be the lot also of mechanics and day-laborers of whom we are now obliged to hear and suffer such intolerable maliciousness,as though they were noblemen in another's possessions,and every one were obliged to give them what they demand.Just let them continue practicing their exactions as long as they can;but God will not forget His commandment,and will reward them according as they have served,and will hang them,not upon a green gallows,but upon a dry one so that all their life they shall neither prosper nor accumulate anything.
And indeed,if there were a well-ordered government in the land,such wantonness might soon be checked and prevented,as was the custom in ancient times among the Romans,where such characters were promptly seized by the pate in a way that others took warning.
No more shall all the rest prosper who change the open free market into a carrion-pit of extortion and a den of robbery,where the poor are daily overcharged,new burdens and high prices are imposed,and every one uses the market according to his caprice,and is even defiant and brags as though it were his fair privilege and right to sell his goods for as high a price as he please,and no one had a right to say a word against it.We will indeed look on and let these people skin,pinch,and hoard,but we will trust in God --who will,however,do this of His own accord,--that,after you have been skinning and scraping for a long time,He will pronounce such a blessing on your gains that your grain in the garner,your beer in the cellar,your cattle in the stalls shall perish;yea,where you have cheated and overcharged any one to the amount of a florin,your entire pile shall be consumed with rust,so that you shall never enjoy it.
And indeed,we see and experience this being fulfilled daily before our eyes,that no stolen or dishonestly acquired possession thrives.How many there are who rake and scrape day and night,and yet grow not a farthing richer!And though they gather much,they must suffer so many plagues and misfortunes that they cannot relish it with cheerfulness nor transmit it to their children.But as no one minds it,and we go on as though it did not concern us,God must visit us in a different way and teach us manners by imposing one taxation after another,or billeting a troop of soldiers upon us,who in one hour empty our coffers and purses,and do not quit as long as we have a farthing left,and in addition,by way of thanks,burn and devastate house and home,and outrage and kill wife and children.
And,in short,if you steal much,depend upon it that again as much will be stolen from you;and he who robs and acquires with violence and wrong will submit to one who shall deal after the same fashion with him.For God is master of this art,that since every one robs and steals from the other,He punishes one thief by means of another.Else where should we find enough gallows and ropes?
