Brief Excerpt from Chemnitz’s Homily for Sexagesima

This original text for this excerpt may be found in Chemnitz’s Postilla, Vol. I, pgs. 406–407.

“Here it belongs to the office of a true preacher and Seelsorger, that when he sees how the world perseveres so feebly in contempt of the Word and the Sacraments, he then ought to follow the example of the Lord Christ and remember that his office is that of a plowman of God, as St. Paul says [1 Corinthians 9:10?], who must plow the hard unfruitful field and root out thorns and thistles so that the seed can gain room to grow. As St. Peter also says in 2 Peter 3[:1–7], when he considers the scoffers, who laugh at everything that God’s Word says and ridicule it, and walk according to their own lusts, allowing themselves to think that all threats that happen in God’s Word have nothing to do with them, that they do not have to fear that another [life] will follow after this life, in which each must give an account of all their actions and omissions. Therefore, they do whatever they want, not asking what is said in the sermon (Predigt) from God’s Word: When he thinks of them, he places this serious and fatherly admonition and says, “You, therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also be led away with the error of the wicked; and fall out of your own fortress (Festung),” that is, out of the salvation that is otherwise made so firm and certain for you. [2 Peter 3:17]”