"Let us, if we must do it, trifle with ambiguities in other
things that are of no moment, as nuts, apples, pence, and other things which are the toys
of children and of fools: but in religion, and weighty matters of state, let us shun, with
all possible care, an ambiguity, as we would shun death or the devil!" -- Martin Luther
St. Augustine says, 'philosophers ought to speak freely on difficult points, fearing no
offence: but we (says he) must speak to a certain rule.' And therefore, he blames the use
of the term fortune, or fate, both in himself and others. For even though
the person may by fortune mean the divine mind, the agent of all things, from which nature
is known to be distinctly different, and thus may not think impiously, yet, says he, 'Let
him hold his sentiment, but correct his expression.
And even to suppose that Augustine did not say this, and never had any certain rule
according to which he expressed himself, yet nature will tell us, that every profession,
sacred as well as profane, uses certain terms of its own, and avoids all ambiguities. For
even common tradesmen, either reprove or condemn, or hold up to ridicule, the man who
speaks of his own trade in the technical terms (as they are called) peculiar to the trade
of another. With how much greater force will this apply to things sacred, where certain
salvation, or eternal perdition is the consequence, and where all must be taught in
certain and proper terms! Let us, if we must do it, trifle with ambiguities in other
things that are of no moment, as nuts, apples, pence, and other things which are the toys
of children and of fools: but in religion, and weighty matters of state, let us shun, with
all possible care, an ambiguity, as we would shun death or the devil!
Our king of ambiguity, however, sits upon his ambiguous throne in security, and
destroys us stupid Christians with a double destruction. First, it is his will, and it is
a great pleasure to him, to offend us by his ambiguous words: and indeed he would not like
it, if we stupid blocks were not offended. And next, when he sees that we are offended,
and have run against his insidious figures of speech, and begin to exclaim against him, he
then begins to triumph and rejoice that the desired prey has been caught in his snares.
For now, having found an opportunity of displaying his rhetoric, he rushes upon us with
all his powers and all his noise, tearing us, flogging us, crucifying us, and sending us
farther than hell itself; saying, that we have understood his words calumniously,
virulently, satanically; (using the worst terms he can find;) whereas, he never meant them
to be so understood.
In the exercise of this wonderful tyranny, (and who would think that this Madam
ambiguity could make so much ado, or who could suppose that any one would be so great a
madman as to have so much confidence in a vain figure of speech?) he not only compels us
to put up with his all-free prerogative of using ambiguities, but binds us down to the
necessity of keeping silence. He plainly designs all the while, and wishes us to be
offended, that he, and his herd of Epicureans with him, may have a laugh at us as fools:
but on the other hand, he does not like to hear that we are offended, lest it should
appear that we are true Christians. Thus must we suffer wounds without number, and yet,
not utter a groan or a sigh!
We Christians, however, who are to judge, not meats and drinks only, but angels and the
whole world, and who actually judge, even now, not only do not bear with this tyranny of
ambiguities, but on the contrary, oppose to it our liberty of pronouncing a two-fold
condemnation. The first is, as I have already observed, we condemn all the ambiguous
expressions of Erasmus, and interpret them against himself: as Christ saith, "Out of
thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant." Again, "By thine own
words shalt thou be condemned: for wherefore hast thou spoken against thine own
soul?" "Thy blood be upon thine own head." The second condemnation is, we
condemn and curse again and again his glosses and 'convenient interpretations,' by which,
he not only does not correct his ungodly expressions, but even defends them: that is, he
laughs at us twice as much in his after interpretations, as he does in his first
expressions.
The Bondage of the Will: Letter Concerning Erasmus of Rotterdam
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